Hija Buzludja

Hija Buzludja

I am finally getting a moment to write about my great hike to the Hija and monument of Buzludja in the ‘Stara Planina’ (old mountains). We really lucked out with the weather.. It was 65-70 degrees for both days of the hike, and this was in the mountains, in November.

Another great surprise was seeing Daisy, an old Bulgarian friend from a nearby city, who I haven’t seen since the 4th of July. Yeah..I was waiting for the tourism group (as we were travelling by train to our hike), and out of nowhere comes Daisy. It turns out she’s taking the same train. She’s also an avid hiker, and decides to join our group for an upcoming hike. And you know how I like to say ‘everything happens for a reason’..well, I learned a lot about my hiking group through Daisy, as she speaks English fluently. I learned that a much anticipated hike date had been changed to Thanksgiving weekend..a weekend I am unavailable  We also talked about Mt. Olympus in Greece..a place I think I want to climb.

One of the best things about these hikes, other than the outdoors and the magnificent views is the people. Everyone hikes at their own pace..so, when I feel like pushing myself, I stay at the front of the pack with the leader Stancho (he ran a BG mountain race; 100km in 24 hours)..and when I feel like taking it easy, there’s always people to fall back with and chat with. They were all a little intrigued by my camelpack.

Mitko and I were talking..and he’s trying to tell me these jokes..but they didn’t quite sound like jokes. I heard ‘baby’, ‘baby carriage’, ‘thumbtacks’, and another time ‘teacher’, ‘students’, and thumbtacks’..you have to remember, I don’t always understand every word of Bulgarian..but I can usually figure out the context with key words..finally he sees my confused look and says ‘черно хумор’, black humor, and things start to make a little more sense.

So, the last 2 hours of the hike on our first day, our leader decides not to stop and wait for all the groups to catch up anymore..and there was a turn where I figured others might not be aware of..like me. So, Mitko and I wait for everyone to more or less catch up..and none of us are all that sure where the Hija is, which led to a very interesting hike with two others going down the side of the mountain. I asked him if he was sure if there was a path..because I didn’t see it..and eventually neither did he..after a couple tumbles down the mountain on all the leaves, we eventually did find a pretty neat path, and finally the hija as well.

It turned out to be Stella’s birthday as well..so that evening was very festive. After the DJ tired of dedicating songs to Stella, he decided to start in with dedications to me ‘the American’..every English speaking song was dedicated to ‘the American’..but, as always, I had fun.

There’s more information that I wrote on the pics about the hike. Follow the link at the bottom of the page labeled Tricia’s new pics – then Buzludja.