Home of the Gods

Thanks to the infinite kindness of the Bulgarian government, we had a four-day weekend after the first week of school. Betsy and I chose to spend it in Greece, along with another ACS couple, Jeff and Shannon. We drove to Mt. Olympus on Friday night, and then went in search of the gods on Saturday. Unfortunately, Zeus had other things in mind, and decided to shroud the deities in cloud, and then for good measure, dump a little rain on us. Since you can't get to the top in foul weather (it involves scrambling over steep wet rock, which we were advised against by everyone we talked to), we decided to head down early. When it wasn't raining, the floating and swirling mists made for dramatic scenery as they obscured and revealed various parts of our surroundings.

Jeff, Shannon, and Betsy at the beginning of our hike, when we were still optimistic

And then the mists came

A moment of relative clarity

On the way back, we ran into a massive goat crossing. They seemed to stick to one side of the road, though Jeff had to get out and chase a few stragglers away so the car could get through.

"I despise the paparazzi."

I love Raspberry Season

Parting Scenes from Maliovitsa

Maliovitsa Hike

The hike to Maliovitsa Peak involved a series of grassy terraces, the last one of which contained the lake in the entry below. After this gentle start, the climb began in earnest, with a steep ascent to gain the ridge. Once on the ridge, we were exposed to some pretty fierce winds, and each one of us used all of our layers to stay warm. Annie the dog was especially brave. Despite the conditions, the ridge walk was by far the most spectacular part of the hike, as we could see Lake Iskur to the east, Vitosha far to the north, and the angled walls of Rila Monastery deep in the valley below. Bare ridgeways splayed around us, and miles of walking trails revealed themselves, leading to, among other places, the Seven Lakes, where we hiked a year ago this weekend (if you find September of '08 in the sidebar, you can look at those pictures as well). This sense of being above it all, yet perfectly in it, is one of the things I love most about hiking.

About an hour after starting, we passed by the Hija (hut). The peak in the background on the right is where we're heading. We approached from behind it, so it wasn't nearly as steep as it looks.

On the way from Terrace 1 to Terrace 2. On the left is Sam, our friend from the Embassy. Then John Cowley, the U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria, and Alex, who also works at the Embassy and was our master guide for the day.

A stream on the second terrace

Sam and Super Annie

Finally on the ridge line. The poles are used as trail markers during the winter, when snow obscures the marks on rocks (and the otherwise obvious trail).

Looking back on the ridge line from the peak, you can barely see the poles that mark the way.

Behind me, you can see the lake and the valley we walked .

At the peak

A Different Kind of High

As Brett conquered the Rila mountains today, I worked on an altogether different challenge: making homemade pita bread, one of my favorite foods. In California, we bought pita every week at the farmer's market. In Vermont over the summer, I generally bought Otter Creek bakery out of homemade pita every time I stopped in. In Bulgaria, the only place to buy pita bread is at Annette's Moroccan restaurant downtown. And while I'm glad to have that option, I decided to give the recipe in my new Moosewood cookbook a try, to see if I could get a bread balloon with a bit more verve. The results, as you can see, rival the Rila mountains in height and grandeur (scroll down to Brett's post for the comparison photos). 

High

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Highest

Higherest

Maliovitsa Lake

Yesterday I had to regretfully cancel a weekend hiking trip because I had too much work to do. Twenty minutes after canceling, I got an email from a friend at the Embassy, Sam, who asked if I wanted to go for a day hike to Maliovitsa in the Rila Mountains. It was the perfect antidote to my conundrum, allowing me some needed outside time, but also letting me get work done tomorrow. It turned out to be a most spectacular ridge walk, reaffirming the impression that Bulgaria is home to some mighty impressive mountains. Pine forests down low, then open meadows with streams and cascades, then high rocky areas, and finally the ridge, a wind-swept expanse overlooking Rila Monastery to one side, and a chain of lakes to the other. Below you see the main lake as we met it and then climbed above it. More posts to follow with other pictures of the hike.

High

Higher

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Higherest

Last Call at the Fjord Port

Glimpses of Norway

Before we leave Norway behind and welcome students back to ACS, I thought I'd post one last look of some iconic images:

This building is in the restored village of Otternes, and a colorful example of the sodden roofs we saw.

On our final day, when we were beginning to think that rainbows avoided the fickle fjord weather, we saw this while taking the train back to Oslo.

Betsy on our ferry tour of Naeroyfjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Houses in Myrdal, at the top of the valley leading into the fjord.

Sometimes the weather made for some striking contrasts. This was not taken with black and white film.

The tiny town of Undredal is famous for two things, its stave church (above right), which is the smallest functioning church in Norway, and its cheese.

A last glimpse of the Borgund Stave Church

5 and 5

Year two is beginning, and with it the usual frenzy of documents for the Bulgarian ministry of education, reckless annihilation of tape rolls as I decorate my classroom, and general lot of welcome-back everyone party baking. So I'd like to take this quiet moment, on a rainy Sunday evening, to look back on some of the places we went last year, and consider some places I hope to see this year. Last year, living abroad was just as hard as I thought, with just as many rewards as we imagined. This year, so far, the transition to Bulgaria has been smoother, but I hope and think there will still be many interesting experiences couched in a little less drama. So here is my list of 5 and 5 - kind of a "Glad to Have Done" and "Hope to Do" set of lists. 

5 Places I Loved Last Year: 

Marrakech and the Atlantic Coast, Morocco

Santorini, Greece

Barcelona, Spain

Istanbul, Turkey

Vienna, Austria

5 Places I'd like to Love this Year:

Zagreb, Croatia

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Cairo, Egypt

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Tirana, Albania (should be our next trip, in two weeks! I can't wait to see what mayor Edi Rama has done with the place)

Images in the second set of five all taken from : Trek Earth, an incredible site to see anywhere in the world...