Vitosha
One of the many things
I love about Sofia is how Vitosha mountain looms beside it. Even in the middle
of the city, in Vitosha Boulevard, there is this ruddy great mountain squatting
at the end
No, we did not take the
cable car (cabinov lift as it is
called in Bulgarian) from Simeonovo, which is basically behind IKEA on the ring
road. According to Claire, it is wise to call ahead and check whether the cable
car is running before you set off (the same goes for the chair lift at Dragalevtsi,
apparently). The working days are, shall we say, a bit sporadic. In theory, it
is meant to work at the weekends. But, you know, sometimes maybe not. According
to Claire, the cabins are dinky – about the size of a large ferris wheel cabin
– so you will have one to yourselves. There are actually quite small and we saw
a couple of them, as we drove to the top of the mountain. There small size will
no doubt be handy, considering the ride is pretty long (it takes you all the
way up to Aleko hut, about 1800 metres up the mountain). Obviously, having a
car to yourself will save you the bother of avoiding eye contact with
strangers, like on the Tube in London, or, even worse, having to make awkward
conversation for fifteen minutes.
Yanna kindly drove us
up to the top, in her sweet little red VW. Alice, her naughty little King
Charles spaniel, did not come with us, but an equally naughty Jack Russell
terrier did indeed accompany us.
What of the mountain
itself? Well, we expected it to be really peaceful, but there were LOADS of
people up there: families with toboggans, people skiing and snowboarding,
children having group ski lessons, babas out for a walk, you name it. We had no
idea Vitosha would be so busy on a February day. Even though the snow was decidedly
mushy and melting, the place was crammed with people keen to enjoy their escape
from Sofia.
No, we did not see the
cloud of brown yuck that is supposed to cover Sofia. The day before had been
quite windy, so most of the pollution had been blown away. We were, however, very excited to see some snodrops at the monastery. Spring is not too far away.
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