I got back from my weekend adventure in Southern Bulgaria a couple of hours ago.

[caption id="attachment_3657" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="S. and Me on the way to Yagodina "]<a rel="attachment wp-att-3657" href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2010/11/01/rhodopes-in-autumn/img_6184/"><img class="size-large wp-image-3657 " title="Me and S. on the way to Yagodina " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/IMG_6184-1024x682.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="409" /></a>[/caption]

I make it home with a jar of strawberry honey, some dried herbs for tea, and a stripped green and orange pumpkin. Good old Rhodopi mud coat my jeans and tennis shoes.  And I've got 300+ photos to sort through. This said, I had a great time.

Still, it's good to be home.<!--more-->

I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, to being able to roll over easily at night and to not having to wear my long underwear to bed (even though my sky blue LLBean long underwear is pretty great). More on this later.

[caption id="attachment_3658" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Lake on the way"]<a rel="attachment wp-att-3658" href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2010/11/01/rhodopes-in-autumn/img_6297/"><img class="size-large wp-image-3658 " title="Lake on the way to Yagodina " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/IMG_6297-1024x682.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="409" /></a>[/caption]

I hiked one mountain, climbed around two caves, hit up one church/museum, ate a lot of great (and new) food, spoke a lot of Bulgarian, spotted a whole crowd of children trick-or-treating, supervised the carving of one pumpkin and probably spent more than 12 hours in a car without shocks on some of the poorest roads I've seen in Bulgaria.

But, I had a hell of a time!

[caption id="attachment_3661" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="One of many cows on the road"]<a rel="attachment wp-att-3661" href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2010/11/01/rhodopes-in-autumn/img_6196/"><img class="size-large wp-image-3661 " title="One of many cows on the road" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/IMG_6196-1024x682.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="409" /></a>[/caption]

This weekend I was part of a group of teachers from school who decided we were leaving Sofia behind and going exploring. Seeing as it's not yet winter in the Rhodopes we decided it's now or never.  Over the course of the three day weekend we went to Velingrad, Batak, Yagodina, Trigrad and Devin. We stayed for one night in Velingrad and two nights in Yagodina--using Yagodina as a base for exploring Southern Bulgaria.

Generally speaking the roads in the Rhodopes tend to be narrow and in poor shape. Well aside from the stretch outside of Devin which is among the nicest of roads I've seen in Bulgaria. This is in contrast to a few places where the roads aren't wide enough for two cars to pass each other and are riddled with potholes and patches which are once again in need of replacement.  On a whole it makes for a slow bumpy and at times jarring ride.

But it's worth it.

[caption id="attachment_3662" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Some of the Rhodopes"]<a rel="attachment wp-att-3662" href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2010/11/01/rhodopes-in-autumn/img_6381/"><img class="size-large wp-image-3662 " title="Some of the Rhodopes " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/IMG_6381-1024x682.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="409" /></a>[/caption]

The Rhodopes are stunningly beautiful.

And I don't use a word like stunningly all that regularly.

It's a serious car ride to get to the tiny village of Yagodina. I think that made it that much better. Yagodina (which means strawberry in Bulgarian) is a town of no more than 500 people. The center of town has a fountain and a mosque. They still has a functioning school. But, the school is for 25 local children. There used to be a woolen blanket factory in town but it closed three years ago and moved to a bigger town.

Today, it seems people farm, chop wood and tend to livestock.

[caption id="attachment_3663" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Fence in Yagodina "]<a rel="attachment wp-att-3663" href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2010/11/01/rhodopes-in-autumn/img_6447/"><img class="size-large wp-image-3663 " title="Fence in Yagodina " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/IMG_6447-1024x682.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="409" /></a>[/caption]

We stayed in a small family hotel--but truthfully it was probably much more of a rustic bed and breakfast than a hotel. It was great. Everyone was incredibly nice to us, the rooms were clean and the food--both breakfast and dinner were outstanding.

The amazing part? I spent no more than 150 leva for the weekend including three nights away, meals, gas and a couple of tickets to various cultural sites.

(Don't worry, there's much more to come about this trip.)