Those who are regular followers of our Facebook page may have noticed that our posts came to an abrupt slow down in mid-July 2025. This is because I, Mandy, the writer of this blog, had been on yet another “chronic pain discovery journey,” and was utterly immersed in trying to heal the hip pain that had been overtaking my body,…
From Sliven, we decided to take a half day trip up to the “architecturally significant” village of Kotel, (our personally branded “cute” towns), which is folded into yet another of Bulgaria’s mountain ranges…the Eastern Balkans. Kotel is one of the many villages the red hiking trail meanders which offers the opportunity to traverse Bulgaria’s entire length, offering clean mountain air,…
The Far Southwest: Greek and North Macedonian Border Villages Our first day trip from Sandanski took us around an hour southwest of the city where we would collide with Greece and North Macedonia, weave in and out of more than a dozen modest villages, bear witness to dazzling carpets of ruby red poppies, and climb to a significant medieval stronghold…
The Extraordinary Village of Melnik To celebrate Greg’s 47th birthday, we chose to have an overnight escape to the seductive teacup-of-a-town called Melnik, which we first visited on a whirlwind hour-long dash and drink in 2019, thanks to the inconvenient buses we had to catch from Blagoevgrad. This time, catching a direct bus from Sandanski, we were thrilled to spend more…
Day One: Kovachevitsa, Leshten, Gotse Delchev & Ognyanovo It didn't take long to realize that Sandanski may be slightly more challenging when it comes to public transportation than other parts of Bulgaria, so in order to get to the other side of the Pirin Mountains and continue to have our freedom, we rented a second car for another overnight SW…
From Sandanski, it was time to head 9 hours northeast to our next one month perch in Plovdiv, which we’d be splitting between a private apartment and a housesit. Now, one might look at this nine-hour chunk of time and think…that’s absurd in a country the size of Iowa. It kind of is, considering we weren’t even crossing half of it.…
Bulgaria's "Little Jerusalem" Gem of Asenovgrad Only 25 minutes by train southeast of Plovdiv, settled at the foot of the Rhodope Mountains one can find a small city of 50,000 known as “Little Jerusalem,” due to its more than 100 religious sites in and around the town. What was originally a Thracian settlement, it was named after Tsar Ivan Asen…
Day One: Plovdiv to Smolyan (Including: Bachkovo, Orehovo, Mogilitsa, Gordo Canyon, & Ustovo) From Plovdiv, we settled on a plan to take an exploratory trip south to tackle some of the sights and villages in the gorgeous Rhodope Mountains, which we can now say, is arguably the most fetching and varied of Bulgaria’s four major mountain chains. The day began by…
