Happy Birthday to Me

After Melnik we decided to get mountainous again and headed to a town called Bansko which is a ski village during winter (obviously) . We had planned to stay only one night but due to erratic public transport where three busses a day means one at 6:30, one at 7:00 and one at 7:30 we stayed two. This was just as well as the next day, Eva's birthday, was much nicer and left a better impression of the town. We had great views of the mountains above us and exploring the cobbled streets with babushkas clambering over them was loads of fun. A phone call with Mum and Dad T and Chris in the morning was great, although strange to hear everyone's voices after quite a few weeks.
At lunch time we were in for a rude shock when we went to order a birthday beer and the waiter explained in broken English 'No beer, Bulgaria problem, no beer tomorrow' This we took to mean as there was a national sobriety day or some such thing and as we looked around in horror ('Not on my birthday, nooooooo' cries Eva) we realized that in fact no one was drinking at any of the outdoor cafes or bars. We then recalled that the previous night on the news they were showing footage of bottleshops etc. and had assumed it was something about a drinking problem-turns out we were right.
We recovered from our shock fairly quickly and reflected that out of the countries we have so far visited Ukraine would probably benefit greatly from a similar campaign and if anything a smoke free day was what Bulgaria needed. To add to the strangeness of the afternoon the belltower of the central church rang every 15 seconds for over an hour - interesting for the first minute, irritating for the next 59.
After we tuned out the bell and some more wandering and relaxing we decided that a brilliant dinner was what we needed to celebrate and as we were looking around for a cosy mehana (traditional tavern) we noticed that people were once again having drinks in the cafes, perhaps the tolling broke the curse? We will never know.
We could now enjoy our brilliant dinner with a couple of beers and to finish a drink of Rakia (the local grape brandy). Have we mentioned how good the food is in this country - Wow!! We are definitely doing an entry on food at the end of this trip, it has all been so different but we have certainly finished up in the tastiest country. A phone call from the other side of the world (guess who) was a great surprise and all up we both had a great day.
Photos: Another cobbled street (watch your ankles), Mountains behind Bansko.