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.

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. 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 (hijacabin/camp/chalet)