Sofia and a night in a Neolithic hut

31/07/2019

Hi, it’s Higgy again. Today we spent the morning in Sofia, which was amazing, I loved all the different architecture and the gardens were incredible. I thought the cathedral (the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral) was absolutely stunning! The paintings within the cathedral were extraordinary, although we weren’t allowed to take any photographs inside. In my opinion it is some of the best work I’ve seen on the trip.

We had some fun around the fountain outside the National Theatre too, which consisted of me, Elenor and Ellie imitating the stature in the centre. We later returned to the hostel to collect our bags for the night ahead: camping in a Neolithic hut which I wasn’t too excited for if I’m being completely honest (although it was agreed between all of us as they definitely completed the challenge to sleep in an unusual place). We were travelling to Chavdar by train, another mode of transport to add to our ever-increasing list - we are definitely past the four modes set out in our challenge from region!

We arrived in Chavdar and were collected by the host of the huts (Grigor) who drove us to the Neolithic village. Once we got into the huts the heat was stifling (definitely no AC in a neolithic hut!), I felt like I was about to melt. We got settled in and then went to the high ropes course next door. We went into this giant net thing with different layers and had to climb to the top. Some of us then went into the low ropes and we weren’t allowed on the high ropes as they had a minimum height of 170cm and a minimum age of 18 - the only two people tall enough (Gaby and Eleanor) were too young. I wasn’t complaining, however, cause I’m scared of heights. 

Later on, Alice had us try painting the scenery around us, which was the cause of great hilarity. We later went for dinner at the barbecue restaurant next to the neolithic complex. Here we got our first taste of rural Bulgaria - no one spoke English and ordering was going to be very difficult. However a nice customer who thankfully spoke some English came and helped us translate the menu - otherwise we would have had absolutely no idea what we were ordering.

After dinner, we completed the second half of Alice’s painting challenge, which was even funnier than the first round. The paintings will be judged tomorrow and we’ll have two winners, one for the first round and one for the second. We then played some card games in the leader’s hut and went to bed. Sleeping was rather interesting... before we could even try to sleep, we had to conquer getting up the ladder!