louiseinlimbo

My first trip outside of the Bulgarian capital was a four-hour bus ride to the north-western small town of Belogradchik, known for its rock formations and old fortress.  I climbed up the fortress itself, and the nearby lookout rocks, but also did a 10km walk on small paths through the surrounding trees - with occasional views of some of the rock formations, and I really enjoyed just being in nature, with jays flitting about, lizards running off in a panic, and the cool air circulating around the trees. The only thing that might have improved this trip was to have delayed it by a couple of weeks, as they were setting up a stage for a festival of opera, ballet and musicals to be held in the grounds of the fortress.  Difficult to have full information on all such things when you are travelling though. When I checked in to the guest house in Belogradchik, the owner was very keen to tell me about something or somewhere he called 'Venetsa'.  Google translate didn't really help,...

Why Bulgaria?? Not because it was top of my wishlist of places to visit, but for the more practical reason that I have an organised tour already booked and paid for in Lebanon in August, so it made sense to start out somewhere not too far from there.  Istanbul-Beirut flights were reasonable value, so I purchased one of those, but having already been to Turkey three times, and foreseeing a month there between trips later this year, I decided to start off in Bulgaria: a new country for me, cheap, and an easy bus ride from Istanbul, so why not? A London-Sofia bus would have been the cheapest way to get there, but Covid requirements in some European countries still posed a risk for me, as my Senegalese vaccination certificate is not universally recognised, so I flew.  Nervously, with all that is going on at European airports, but thankfully without incident as both myself and my luggage arrived together, as scheduled.  Then my first trip on the Sofia metro, to get the hostel ...

So my new life begins.  Work has finished, and I don't intend to take up any offers of further contracts (although you can never say never), so I suppose that means I am retired.  But after 16 years of being an expat, I could not imagine myself settled back in London - especially as a quick trip back showed it to be cold, and expensive.  Plus I have tenants in my flat, paying me rent - and my personal possessions apparently haven't even left Senegal yet - so everything seemed to be pushing me away from a resettlement in London at this point. Thankfully, I love travelling, and still have a very long 'wish list' of places to visit.  But I've always previously travelled from a base ... packed a suitcase or rucksack with what I need for a three week trip ... and then travelled home again.  Travelling without that home base is a whole new approach! So I have a lot of learning to do. At a fundamental level, I really don't know how much I can afford to spend on a month...