I went hiking with my Bulgarian tutor I. and some of her friends this weekend. It was, of course, great fun. We did a lot of hiking, there was a ton of rapid fire Bulgarian being spoken and when we weren't hiking there was lots of eating and drinking to be done.

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This is the second time I've gone hiking with this group of friends. The first time was in <a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2011/02/21/teteven-kind-of/" target="_blank">February for my tutor's birthday</a>. That time it was a bigger group and the conversations were much harder to follow along with. This time the group was smaller and I found conversations easier to follow along. Funny how that works. And/or four months later, I actually know more Bulgarian making it that much easier to follow along.  Granted I didn't understand everything but I didn't feel totally lost either.

Little things like this give me hope.

Anyhow, back to the hiking. We parked outside of this little town in the foot hills of the Rila Mountains (whose name I cannot remember now that I am typing this post. For this I am deeply sorry and I do realize how totally lame it is that I've forgotten. Maybe my tutor I. will read this and fill in the gaps in the comments section below. She's good like that.) We walked for about an hour or maybe slightly more up the mountain to a mountain hut (hija/cabin/camp/chalet/lodge) in the shadow of the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musala" target="_blank"> tallest peak in the Balkan Mountain Range--Musala</a>.<!--more-->

[caption id="attachment_5087" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="A big mountain "]<a rel="attachment wp-att-5087" href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/?attachment_id=5087"><img class="size-large wp-image-5087 " title="A big mountain " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/DSC02631-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a>[/caption]

Given that the hike up to Musala was four hours each way, we didn't have enough time to climb the mountain from where we were but that didn't make it any less beautiful.

The weather was on the cold side--but I was prepared for this. Thanks to I. and Andreytcho who both warned me to bring plenty of warm weather gear with me. It's kind of like they were my moms.

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We met up with some of I.'s friends to hike up to the mountain cabin we were staying in. One of her friend's parents run the cabin and we walked up with the friend and her mother. After a round of introductions, her mother looked not at me but at I. and asked her if I'd also brought along long pants. I said yes. I. looked at the mom and confirmed my long pants. The mom shakes her head and I. says: she's American. That seemed to clear the whole thing up. I couldn't help wondering if it was part clarification and part apology but really it doesn't matter.

This said, I was glad that I had my jeans. It was much colder at the cabin and when the sun went down I was very happy to have my sweatshirt, fleece jacket and windbreaker as well.

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The cabins/huts don't have electricity or source of heat so when I saw stacks of blankets on the foot of my bed I was worried that it was going to be a cold night. I layered on the blankets doubling some of them up and crawled into bed in my yoga pants, t-shirt, sweatshirt and fleece. I'd rather be warm than cold. Luckily, I was too warm and ended up stripping off my fleece jacket in the middle of the night and let me tell you that's not easy under four thick, think wool blankets. I mean, I was basically pinned to the bed under a mound of blankets but really, I can't complain about that.

The water at the hut was delicious, very cold and fresh tasting. It was the kind of water that I wish I could drink all of the time but that you can really only get in the mountains.

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I am really a nature writer--so I'll keep this part of the post short. On the first day we climbed the ridge to check out the view. At the top we spent an hour or so lolling around in the grass on top of the ridge warming ourselves in the sun, talking, taking in the view and getting sunburns. Granted we weren't <em>trying</em> to get sunburns. Funny how I can remember to bring sunscreen to the beach but when I am packing for the mountains and worrying about taking enough warm clothes I forget to throw in sunscreen.

It was at the top of this ridge that my camera died. I guess that if you want to take pictures you should probably remember to charge the battery. Again, funny how that works.

The next day we decided to skirt around the lake in front of the cabins. It seemed like an easy enough plan and I am pretty sure we were told that it wouldn't take more than an hour. Well, t his turned out not to be the case. But we had a grand adventure where we scrambled over rocks, got a little lost, picked our way through scraggly tree-bushes, hopped and skipped over streams, spotted a number of brown frogs, picked some wildflowers, got our feet a little wet (or at least I did), threw some pine cones into the lake and finally made it back to our starting place.

[caption id="attachment_5091" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="Me and the view! "]<a rel="attachment wp-att-5091" href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/?attachment_id=5091"><img class="size-large wp-image-5091 " title="Me and the view! " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/DSC02648-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="614" height="461" /></a>[/caption]

Then we took our time walking back down the mountain to the car. No one was in a rush to get back to Sofia after a short weekend jaunt in the mountains. But really that's the way it's supposed to be. It makes you look forward to the next trip that much more.