Sofia and home Day 4 and 5

Today was a tourist day in Sofia before heading home tomorrow morning.
I chose to join the morning Communist tour, run by the same people who run the Balkan bites tour I went on yesterday, it included a look at and a ride in a Trabant, lots of good stories and a discussion about how history is portrayed. Then, after Balkan tripe soup at a soup and sandwich place, I wandered around among the crowds in the sunny afternoon visiting Cathedral Saint Alexandar Nevski, the National Art Museum and various shops and street markets, buying maps of the Rila and Pirin mountains for my next trip. I also managed to find a place to cash in my Serbian dinars.
Should be home tomorrow and then back in Bulgaria late August to tackle Mount Vitosha which starts as the suburbs of Sofia end. The mountain, the first of a line series, will be the beginning of the next section of my walk along the E4, starting sometime in August!

A Trabant

Inside of Cathedral Saint Alexandar Nevski

Vitosha, my next mountain, above Vitosha Boulevard

Bankya to Sofia on E4 Day 3

Dogs were a worry as I passed through the outer villages and suburbs, however the centre of Sofia was an attractive surprise.
I left Bankya, crossed some fields, walked through two villages and under the A6 motorway to reach Sofia's outer suburbs. Then heading towards an area of green fields down an unattractive track from one urban area, I came upon a large pack of big, loose barking dogs of various types but none looking friendly. I was tempted to back off and find a road route around them but as two men were walking through them I carried on. It was intimidating, dogs barking at me from all sides, two groups of them. It may not have helped that I had just bought a bread roll which had a sausage baked inside it, planning to eat it for my breakfast when I had reached a suitable spot. As it smelt good to me I am sure it also smelt good to the dogs. I thought I had managed to get through them when I heard one rushing at me from behind. By this time I had overtaken the two men. One shouted at the dog (or maybe me) it hesitated and then another dog attacked it. Finally I was through. Unfortunately then I passed some houses from which two big dogs rushed out snarling with bared teeth. They must have had some restraint as I survived but was glad to enter Zapaden park where the only dogs were on leads and there were a few men jogging, walking or cycling. Having survived the threat of a dog bite I was attacked by mosquitoes as I ate my breakfast. I had also bought some Boza to sample, which is a local drink. An interesting experience but will stick to the equally local yoghurt based drinks for breakfast next time.
After the park it was down a long and pleasant, tree lined boulevard to the centre of town stopping on the way to sample a moist cake with chocolate, hazelnuts and raisins in. I arrived at the Best Western hotel at 12:30. They did not allow me to check in but let me leave my luggage so that I could join the Balkan Bites tour at 2:00 pm. Bulgarian food seems pretty similar to Serbian food, some nice soft cheese, a roast paprika paste and various other bite sized samples were offered.
In the evening lots of people out on a Saturday night walking the streets, drinking and eating. Places were full but I did manage a good meal before bed, albeit expensive based on recent experience.

17.2 kilometres walked today. A gpx file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com or downloaded from ViewRanger as johnpon0033.

Zapaden park

Outskirts of Sofia

Statue of Sofia

Dragoman to Bankya on E4 Day 2

A long 43.6 kilometre walk across farmland to the sound of birdsong.
I had originally intended to stop at Slivnica today but the accomodation all disappeared from booking.com before I was ready to book. In addition, as Slivnica is only 16 kilometres from Dragoman it would have been rather a short day. The next available accommodation on route was at Bankya some distance beyond.
Knowing I had a long trek I was on the road by 6:00 am to cover as much distance as possible before the sun started to cook me. A lovely time of day to walk across the fields on a quiet farm track, the skylarks singing their hearts out, the occasional cuckoo, the sun rising, the mountain of Vitosha ahead of me a faint gray. After the first village of Izvor it was along a quiet single track road to Aldomirovci, then a busier two lane road to Slivnica arriving at 9:15 am for breakfast: a tiny paper cup of coffee at one stall and a drinking yoghurt and a bready concoction with ham inside at a stall opposite.
I walked down a long straight road as the sun began to heat up followed by various villages, roads and farm tracks. On one occasion, the route took me along the rough ground separating two very large, fields, but in general the surfaces allowed a good walking pace. Thankfully I was able to follow the route, downloaded from the Sultans trail website, without coming across any obstacles, although the GPS file had straightened out some sections. In Izvor there were a rash of Sultans trail stickers, after this village the stickers appeared only erratically. Nice to give a bit of confidence but too few to follow.
Inevitably there were plenty of barking dogs to announce my passage through each village, of more concern was a pack of loose, white and distinctly unfriendly dogs which threatened me on a corner at one point. Fortunately, they were scattered by a passing car and I was able to slip passed. Some stork nests complete with storks were a more attractive form of wildlife, with little birds flitting about the nests.
Hotel Megas Bankya tonight and a take away to save any more walking. The options of chicken hearts, tripe or brains did not sound so good so I played safe with a pizza, although the Red Label Whisky I tried afterwards with coffee had never been close to Scotland...

A gpx file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com or downloaded from ViewRanger as johnpon0033.

Early morning walk along farm tracks, the mountain of Vitosha in the distance

Sultans trail stickers

Lilac beside the roadside

Bulgaria on E4 Long Distance European Trail: Serbian border to Dragoman Day 1

Today I entered Bulgaria, the ninth country on my walk along the E4 Long Distance European Trail (more details are on Traildino.com). My passport got a good airing.
I left Dmitrovgrad ending my walk through Serbia, by a quiet track beside the main road, passing a small refugee holding centre. I had progressed for a couple of kilometres when the border police stopped and asked to see my passport. After a ticking off for not having the "Confirmation of Registration of Residence of the Foreigner" document from the Happy Hotel where I stayed last night they let me continue. As the border was really designed for cars, buses and lorries I had a little trouble finding where to go. A helpful lady at completely the wrong barrier told me to follow the cars on the main road, then when a border guard saw me queuing behind a German motor-home he told me to go to the front of the queue. A quick processing of my passport and I was welcomed to no-mans land by a barking dog. Then the Bulgarian border guard checked my passport after waiting in a second queue of cars I was into a new country.
As the E4 has not been defined between the Bulgarian border at Gradina with Serbia and Sofia I was following the "Sultans trail" which has a route for this section (I used the file "4.9 dimitrovgrad-sofia", I notice the Sultans trail website now also has an alternative 7A route). The GPS track of this route immediately took me to some locked gates. I worked around this obstruction by taking the track beyond the Shell petrol station. On entering the border village of Kalotina at a crossroads I was asked by the border police for my passport. I thought it might look a bit suspicious if I took the road indicated by the Sultans Trail as it could appear that I was heading back to the border, so I went straight on planning to take the next turning right to join the right road. This lead me to another policeman. Although satisfied with my passport after again reviewing it he was doubtful of me taking the turn I planned, suggesting I went by the "Autobahn" instead. Eventually he relented after I showed him the route on my GPS, so I was permitted to climb up to a tarmac road which went up the side of the valley. The valley sides were steep and wooded, the trees green with their newly acquired leaves, there were a few houses. I followed the road for some distance, nervous as no vehicles at all were passing me. Would the road lead me inadvertently to a secret military base and result in my imprisonment? Fortunately not, the road climbed through trees to more open grassland from which distant mountains could be seen (maybe including Vitosha, the mountain behind Sofia which still had snow on it). The route took a shortcut across grassland and scrub to reach the village of Dragoil, a collection of houses and dogs, where I gained a wave from an elderly lady with a headscarf. It was then along tarmac towards the town of Dragoman. There was a slight detour onto a track around a hill just before the town for variety.
Dragoman does not strike me as a pretty town, it has definitely seen better days before the grass started growing through the pavements. Yet the Hotel Dragoman is fine, and the receptionist helped, explaining in English where the Bankomat was located and where I duly collected a stack of Lev with my debit card. The adjacent bank would not however change my Serbian dinars.
Next to the hotel is a restaurant which has filled my belly well although the resident dog was disappointed he got no scraps from me despite patiently sitting next to me trying to look into my eyes...

20.4 kilometres walked today. A gpx file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com or downloaded from ViewRanger as johnpon0033.

My earlier walk through Serbia can be found on johnpone4serbia.blogspot.com.

Walk along empty road from border to Dragoil

Bulgarian countryside near border with Serbia