Bulgaria - Day 3

We were being picked up by Traventuria to go on our 7 day hiking trip at 2.30pm today. Fortunately the apartment owner kindly let us check out late, so we first went for a final walk into the centre of Sofia.

We watched the changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace, which happens hourly.

We then went to the TZUM department store, which was apparently the main attraction of the city back in communist days. It's a bit past its best now, with a lot of empty units.

We took bread, cheese and tomato back to the apartment for lunch, then packed up. At about 2.15 we were picked up by our guide Eduard driving the Traventuria mini bus.

We then went round the city picking up the rest of our group - Roko and Barb from Melbourne, Australia, Mike and Maggie from Cheltenham and Margaret from Shotts in Scotland.

We drove to out first accommodation, the Hotel Grami in the ski resort town of Bansko, about 2 hours away. Our room is nice and we can see the Pirin mountains from our balcony.

After unpacking, we went out for a stroll, stopping at a cafe for a beer.

Dinner was a buffet, with dishes of pork and other meats and salads. Later we walked into the town square for a drink.