89.

Happy New Year!

 

 

I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday season, we certainly did. Mum and Dad were here from Christmas Eve eve until New Years day and we spent the entire time eating, drinking, chatting, playing games, watching films and walking - it couldn't have been better. There is not much to write about really so I am just going to post some photos (more for my own memories really!)

 

The weather has been up and down with a spattering of snow at the end of last week. Since Monday it has been beautifully sunny again but, having said that, we've just been to Chirpan today to stock up on food as over half a metre of snow is forecast tomorrow, so we're ready to batten down the hatches for the weekend.

 

Onwards with the photos anyway...

 

Xmas Eve and Xmas Day

 

Walk to the shop on Xmas Eve!

Monopoly and mulled wine

Xmas Eve feast, Bulgarian style

9 vegetarian dishes, traditional here in BG.

Smoked salmon and eggs, Xmas day brekkie

Opening prezzies - Lucy loved her pack of sausages!

A few cards :-) 

Xmas day walk before dinner

Sunset out the window

 

Amazing Xmas dinner!

Pete absolutely nailed the Christmas dinner by the way, it was delicious - complete with homemade gammon and pigs in blankets. Plus it was so huge that we were able to have five more meals made out of the left overs! I had also made hats and written jokes out so we could pretend we'd had crackers. :-) For pudding we had apple crumble with Amaretto cream, although no one had much room for it. We also spoke to a lot of other family members on Skype, played Pictionary and just generally had a great day!

 

Day trip

 

We spent one day out and about visiting Assen's fortress and Bachkovo Monastery. Both these beautiful places are just in the foothills of the Rhodope Mountains. It was a lovely day out and really nice to show Mum and Dad a bit more of Bulgaria.  

 

Assens fortress...

 

 

Bachkovo Monastery...

 

 

Lunch on the river...

 

 

Walks

 

We'd planned to do some other day trips, but because of the snow we decided not to do them in the end as we didn't know what road conditions would be like. Instead we walked more around our village, drank more mulled wine, ate more food and played more games! Oh well!

 

Sunny walk in the village

 

Walk to the burnt woods...

 

The bark has all been nibbled! Also it looks like the trees are still alive, which is good.

 

Walk to Rupkite Lake...

 

We drove to a nearby village to do a walk to a small lake, which we hadn't done before. The walk was lovely but we arrived at the lake at the same time as two hunters with their huge dogs, who thought it was okay to shoot their guns in our general direction! Luckily we didn't get shot, although some poor bird did. We asked the men if they were going to eat the bird but sadly they replied 'no - only for a photo.' :-(

 

Rupkite lake

 

Playing with the reeds

 

Walk up to the pines...

Our village

Moving clouds

Rain on the horizon

Adventurous walk in the snow...

Our village

Family!

We climbed a very steep hill and got very hot, even in the snow

Lovely views from the top, we could even see Plovdiv!

Off piste-ing down the other side

Other

 

A few more pictures from the week...

 

Silly dog!

Silly cat!

Dinner out at the local hotel

 

The first snow fall. Although it put off some of our plans it was nice for Mum and Dad to see some snow!

White garden

Warming ourselves with a fry-up

View from the road

Bilko stealing the dog bed

Relaxing by the fire

Bread and butter pudding - the best left over dessert!

NYE

For New Years we'd booked a hotel and restaurant for the night in Sofia. We drove up to Sofia in the morning (all in the hire car) and spent a couple of hours in the afternoon exploring the sights. The restaurant we'd booked was traditional Bulgarian style and it was fantastic! There was loads of food (it was a set menu), a live Bulgarian band and even dancing. At midnight everyone went into the street to set off fireworks and dance together!

 

Mum and Dad were leaving on New Years day so we all got up early to have a bit of brekkie in the hotel before we said goodbye and waved them off to the airport. Me and Pete then got the train home.   

Snowy roads out of the village

Fancy hotel in Sofia

View from the hotel

Ancient and modern Sofia

 

This was the STARTER!

Amazingly decorated with old Bulgarian objects

Live band

Dancing!

Midnight celebrations

Gorgeous sunset back in Chirpan



January

 

We've been taking it easy for the last couple of days... tidying the house, watching films and going out for more walks. Here are a few last photos, if you're not too photo-ed out!

 

Sunny walk in the snow

The park in Chirpan

Playing with the cat

Happy January everyone! :-) xx