Bulgaria - November 2012

Vratsa, Bulgaria

Sofia is a big city and our goal was to find the climbing shop but go read directions in a round about when its all written in cyrillic! You end up going around and around and around and just pick any exit and hope its the right way..

We found the climbing shop held by really nice people, the woman speaks french so she was helping us out and showing us all the topos online and telling us about all the nice areas: Vratsa, Lakatnik, Karlokovo and more.. www.climbingguidebg.com

We decided to go to Vratsa which is an hour North West of Sofia and found easy parking at the alpine house where people were setting up tents and it seemed to be the right place to be.

We are 5 min walk to the sport climbing routes and our morning view let us wonder which multi pitch to choose from. 

We will end up staying in this place for one whole month exploring as much as we can of this area.

Our first multipitch was on the Down Central Wall, the route is called Ivan Vazov a 110meter , 3 pitches, 7-. I was leading the 1st and 3rd pitch, it was exposed and scary but a nice feeling to have pushed myself!

We went for another multipitch, a short and easy one to climb on trad, was bushy, dirty and not easy to find the way,and scary... we definitely need more practice on trad!

We went to explore the area with our bikes and found a cave with sport climbing 10minutes up the road with overhang routes and big holds! yesss!

I found a project in this cave, my first 7a+ called "baby face", this route was appearently bolted for a local woman by her husband as a training route after their first baby, the route is very technical and balancy but also demands powerful moves... really nice route to start my way into the 7th grade!

Raffi found himself a 7b+ overhang which is his anti style, worked on it a little, and did it... In Style! :)
 

We found a really cool downhill trail,  above the cave that takes some time to access the top of but takes us down through the woods on some rocky trail onto a smooth dirt and steep trail down into the town of Vratsa.. We did this trail many times and though the approach is long and tiring, its so worth it for the downhill!

We were invited by a local couple to have dinner at their house; Valerie was walking his dog every day by our van parked at the Alpine House and he spoke german so him and Raffi would always exchange a few words and he told us about his son Valentino who studies in Sofia and who is climbing and whom we should meet.

So we got picked up one evening by Valerie and got driven to his house and there was a feast prepared for us; fresh vegetables from her garden, some rabbit, home-made bred, home-made wine, and home-made snaps!What a night!

We had alot of nice days but normally Bulgaria in November can be cold and wet, and it was! Our solution this weather to avoid freezing in the bus or spending the day in bed was : the sauna! We found a hotel with a sauna in the center of Vratsa where it cost only 10lev/5euro and we would spend the whole day there using the sauna, the pool, the wifi, and sipping on beer for less than 1euro.... Hotel Hemus became our fief for bad weather days.... :)

We rigged a highline that Raffi called "Fogbound" I need not to explain why.... It is 23meter long..

We have been waiting for the weather to get better but at this point winter is making itself more and more present and we've decided its time to head to Turkey. 

We made a stop in Lakatnik because it was on the way and one of the major climbing spots in that area and is for sure a place to come back to....

Graz, Austria to Maribor, Slovenia - October 2012

Graz, Austria    -     Maribor, Slovenia

Next stop is Graz for some fun citizen duty of filling out paperwork, meeting with offices, bla bla bla.

Though our pit stop was suppose to take 2 days max, I got sick and made our stay turn out to a week dragging Raf into my misery of headache, stuffy nose, and cough. A good time to get better with some private “aufguss” at the sauna.

We set off to Maribor, Slovenia, free of fever, but still blowing our noses as if they were trumpets. We were off to the popular bike park known for its world cup downhill trail. We arrived to a mountain full of snow and closed lifts, but being used to this weather and not very keen on dates, we were hardly surprised and we rode our bikes up the mountain to earn our ride down. Big birms, big jumps, and a destroyed trail full of muddy, slippery parts, but impressive enough to want to come back with some skills to ride this!

We got our bikes checked by the local mechanic specialised in DH bikes and he was so relaxed since the busy season was over, he took all his time to show us how to make our bikes perfect.

Off to Kotecnik for a short day climbing but lucky because sunny.

On our way to Bulgaria, crossing the first boarder: Croatia, and our first check which seems to stress out Raf so much as if we were some sort of wine smugglers or something ;)

Odometer shows 4000km since the start of our trip!

Zillertal - October 15-20 2012 -

Zillertal

We arrived at the Ginsling sector at night to a clear sky full of stars... we went to check out the boulders and got excited for the next day but when we woke up everything was covered in snow and pretty wet!
Turned out to be a quite productive hat making day inside the bus....
When the weather cleared up and the sun came out we decided to go check out Sundergrund, in the next valley, an open meadow with the river flowing with boulders all around, really nice area... open for return....

We had heard of a new downhill trail in Mayrhofen in Zillerarena that we wanted to go check out. The lift was closed so we pushed our bikes up the
 trail (its a good way to check the trail out and get a full work out!) and though it was covered with snow in some parts and was note so clean we still enjoyed some cool northshores and some nice birms. This trail has been made to suit all levels, its a really nice smooth trail, we both really liked, I recommend it if you go to that area..

To finish off our days in Zillertal we got to see JAMARAM play live in a small bar in Mayrhofen, it was quite the party inside there and we felt the heat of both the band and the crowd around us while the music rocked the place... that was a good party!

Home sweet home for Raffi... October 2012

BGL Berchtesgardener Land

After going on tour around my area in France, we were off to Bavaria, Germany, for Raffi to see his brother who was back home for a couple of weeks, perfect time for a little family reunion.

It seems to be a tradition to go shop in IKEA and I have never been so off for some shopping!

Raffi's dad has a little workshop which was perfect for us to make the changes we needed on the bus:

• new bed
• new shelf
• a box/ bench
• shelves in the kitchen area

We were working around 3 days parked outside of the workshop on a big parking at the back of the train station. On the last day, a car passed by slowly driven by an old couple staring at our bus with a judging look, they groaned, “aah gypsies” and drove off. If they were referring to the definition of itinerant people, then yes, with a big black barrel and a red box on the roof full of stuff and a full bus, then we totally fit to the description, so we will take this as a compliment, Thank You!

I couldn't leave Bavaria without a proper Bavarian Breakfast, so we got the supplies and had the traditional “Weißwurst Früstück”:

• Weißbier
• Brezeln
• Weißwurstsenf

Guten Appetit!