Author: jpcwetzel

A quick weekend trip to Milan for the Christmas Markets

And landed back home in Sofia for a stroll around my town.

For Thanksgiving break, I headed to Dorset, England to stay with some family friends who live next to Corfe Castle. I was able to enjoy time with friends, a tasty Thanksgiving meal, and lots of time roaming the English countryside.

I then headed in to the London area for some Harry Potter film location hunting.

And had to make a stop through WB Studios:

During fall break, I was in seven different countries: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Slovenia, Italy, Austria, and Serbia. After my trip to Cyprus visiting family, I headed to Lake Bled, Slovenia. With the rental car, I was able to get to some incredible spots in Triglav National Park.

First was an early evening hike up a viewpoint of Lake Bled, a short walk from my hotel.

First full day, I found a couple amazing hikes. First was hands down my favorite fall hike ever: Gozd Martuljek.

Lake Jasna:

Podkoren

To get to the other side of the National Park, I crossed the border into Italy. This was also just a short distance from the border with Austria.

Laghi di Fusine, Italy

Back into Slovenia for a cliff-edge hike up Boka Waterfall

Drove along down the Soča River

At night, I got back in time for a night shot of Lake Bled.

Woke up the next morning to an amazing view of the lake out my hotel’s dining room window:

Went for a hike up to the viewpoint again. It was a rain forecasted day, and I was tired from the hiking the day before, so I kept it pretty relaxed around Lake Bled and then an afternoon at the hotel pool and spa.

Since the boat rentals weren’t panning out for me, I headed towards Vintgar Gorge. But the parking lot was closed, and I found out they were closing early for the day too, due to the impending weather. So I decided to drive somewhere else. On the way, I passed by my fourth boat rental place and noticed they were operating! I stopped, parked, and took the row boat out to the island to explore before the rain began to fall. I made it to the top of the bell tower at exactly noon, so that was cool to watch.

Since the rain was falling, I headed into Bled Castle to explore the grounds.

A last day morning run around Lake Bled before heading off to Vintgar Gorge.

And on the trek to the visitor’s center, I was treated to a beautiful view of the valley. (Disregard the chainsaw in the background)

I flew back towards Bulgaria in the afternoon, but not without a one night stopover in Belgrade, Serbia. I had a kind AirBnB host who gave me some great recs of places to see in the city. His place was just around the corner from the Main street in town, near yes, another castle. 🙂

Definitely worth the stopover.

For Fall Break, I headed down to Cyprus to meet up with my sister, her husband, and their little one. They were great hosts in Limassol where we stayed at my brother-in-law’s dad’s apartment. Their whole family was extremely welcoming, hosting us for meals, coffee, and just to chat.

We took a day trip to Nicosia, the world’s only divided capital: between Greek Cyprus and Turkish, Northern Cyprus.

My sister and I took a hike up in the Troodos region of central Cyprus. This was the “Moutti tis Choras” trail.

Spent time at the beach

Trip towards Pafos. Stopped by the “birthplace of Aphrodite,” Aphrodite’s Rock.

Walked around the Valley of the Kings

Then spent time walking around Pafos archaeological sites with some preserved floor mosaics.

Sofia, Belogradchik, & Skopje, North Macedonia

Things are coming along here in Sofia, Bulgaria. I’m including some shots from recent events.

A couple weeks ago, I ran in front of the Aleksander Nevsky cathedral and noticed a stage had been put up. I didn’t know who was going to be performing. The next night, I was sitting on my couch around 8:30 in the evening and remembered to look it up. I was disappointed to see that I had missed the Sofia Symphony playing alongside two of the surviving “Three Tenors:” Plácido Domingo and Jose Carreras. After turning on a show to watch for the evening, I realized that I had the date wrong and the concert was that evening! So I hopped up, threw the shoes on, and walked the five blocks down to the cathedral where I found standing room only space to the side of the cathedral. Caught the end of the first act and all of the second! Amazing what you can stumble upon in this city.

The next night was a “Rivers of Sofia” festival at South Park. I went with a few friends here to see art exhibitions, lights in the woods, live music, and food trucks. A fun time for sure!

This past weekend was the Unification Day holiday in Bulgaria. Since the holiday landed on a Saturday, people have the following work day off. So on the three day weekend, I took advantage and went to Belogradchik Fortress on a trip put together by Traventuria, a local tour operator.

The tour also included a trip to the nearby Venetsa Caves, also in the northwest region of the country near the Serbian border.

The next day, I joined some teacher friends on a tour to North Macedonia. It’s a 3 hour drive by van and there were three other guys that went with us. Our driver gave us lots of Bulgarian traveling advice. Here’s a random building in Sofia on the way out of town. Lots of murals in town.

Upon arrival to Skopje, the capital city, we got a local tour guide who walked us around the main parts of the city. Most of the city was destroyed in an earthquake in the 1950’s, and in 2011, the government spent a lot of money to rebuild the city how it once was. So they’re modern, older style buildings.

Skopje is also known for being the birth place of Mother Teresa, and there is a museum located where she was baptized as a baby.

There’s an old castle on the hill in the city, which of course, I had to go check out.

The rest of the day consisted of a walk around the bazaar, lunch, and then the drive back.

With Monday off, I joined a friend for a 20k run (yes, I’m trying to convert to metric units now). As one of the coaches for the High School Cross Country team, I’ve got to keep in good running shape. I found a route from my apartment through the city and up into the mountains. It was a beautiful jog through the woods.

After coming out of the woods, we scouted Boyana Church. Known for being one of the most notable sites in all the country. It’s an 11-13th century church. Unfortunately, we didn’t have tickets to go inside.

And just a couple of random photos.

Thanksgiving Break trip to Morocco. Started in Marrakesh, then film studios in Quarzazate, and two nights of desert camping in the Sahara around Mhamid at the border of Algeria.

Then a night layover in Frankfurt, Germany. Walked through the Christmas market.

Cuzco to Ollantaytambo for the ancient Inca Trail for Thanksgiving break.