This is Tom writing this one. It has been an interesting weekend. We are back home now in Plovdiv after attending a festival in Pernik and then a drive to the Rila Monestary. It was my first experience driving in Bulgaria and I must say that it was uneventful. The super highways are very nice - wide, smooth and services at convenient locations. The other roads were narrow, full of pot holes and partially covered in snow and ice. Some of the local drivers tend to be a little aggressive. They will pull around you to make a left hand turn if they don't think you are being pushy enough. All in all - not bad. We had a hotel in Bayana for the two nights. A Fulbright Graduate research student told us about the festival and rode with us. She is extremely bright, self-confident, and totally committed to getting the most of her Fulbright experience. She knows some Bulgarian and is quite tech savvy (software engineer for Apple in the summers) so she was a big help getting there. We all stopped at our hotel because it was on the way to the festival. After leaving the hotel, we were on a heavily traveled secondary road and the police waved me over. He barked something in Bulgarian and when I shrugged he reached in, turned my lights on for me and motioned me to move on by saying "OK Bye Bye."
I am sure that Carol will write more about Rila but I would just say that the driving was a challenge. Lots of snow and ice, large potholes, narrow roads and limited signage all contributed to the adventure. I got a Bulgarian sim card and Carol was navigating using my phone but we still managed a few wrong turns. It took us a little over two hours each way but all in all - well worth it.
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