7-28-09 Woah Bulgaria is done with and now onto EGYPT

Sorry it has taken me a few days to get this blog up but we were up in the mountains in Bulgaria, and let me tell you how amazing of a time that all was. On 7-24 I traveled to Romania and as you may know I was planning on traveling to transelvania only thing is that we never made it there only due to the fact that it was like 8 hours away and I had to be back on the ship by 4:30am for my trip to Sophia, Bulgaria. We took a taxi from the ship to a bus station and from the bus station Will Bill, Arial, and myself took a taxi to the Bulgarian-Romanian border. Our little group on the way noticed much agricultural land and wind farms and we even found prostitute road in Bulgaria before making it to the Romanian border. Our time in Romania was interesting and we were glad to make it back on the ship. But so anyway I got on the ship at 3am and packed my bags and went and slept in the Union (the U) because that was the meeting place for the 3 day hiking trip to Sophia. I awoke to a bunch of people in the U and they all asked hey Cameron sleep good? I thought it was soo funny but I grab some breakfest and we left for the airport at about 5am and made out way to Sophia on Bulgarian Air. Which happened to be the shantiest plane I had been on thus far, the turbulence from take off was so intense it like would shake and rattle the plane so much I thought I had just purchased the worlds worst back massage chair. Most of the other students in this group feel asleep shortly after take off including myself. But so we land at Sophia, which happens to be a Domestic airport and we find our buses waiting outside and we all pack onto the motor-coaches. The drive from the airport to our destination which is located in the Rila Mountain range in Sophia is around 2 hours, but before making our descent into the mountains we are going for a continental breakfest at a local hotel. Luckily this breakfest happens to be quite enjoyable and we all stuff our faces for the ride which is a good amount of time for rest. Our group loads onto the bus and soon after everyone falls asleep and I am the sleep paparazzi and start taking pictures of pretty much everyone who was sleeping and I was just trying so hard not to laugh. Then me and K-slice start playing cards and play about 2 games and then more people are waking up so we make up a new card game and start playing that; I call it Cameron's Cards. Basically the game is you pull a card and each card represents something goofy that you have to do; for example if you were to attain a queen you would have to walk up and down the isles and shout I am the Queen I am the Queen. This game turned out to be quite the fun game to play on a bus and we ended up just having a blast playing it. So we finally get to our first location and it is beautiful just mountains and trees and beautiful flowers and wow just such an awesome place, and so we hike up this trail and the troop leader tells us that sometimes there are Vipers and that freaks the hell out of me, cause these snakes if they bite you can kill you in a matter of minutes and so my friend Annelise decides to keeps saying ohh cameron watch out for that viper, and she was just being crazy. On this hike though we got to see some of Bulgaria's awesome nature scene. The group gets the the location we were trying to get to and it was called the Rila Monasery which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it was this place where you could write down prayers and wishes that Saint John would grant you. You also had to go through this little cave and climb out the top; but it was said that if you were free of your sins you could pass through this tiny tiny exit without any problems however if you were to not be free from your sins you were not able to pass. Of course I was able to pass but the exit was extremely tiny. After everyone got out from the tiny exit we went to the place where you place where you put your wishes, and I wanted to kind of get mine in an unique place and I decide to start rock climbing. The mountain happened to be a little more mossy than I anticipated and at about 20 feet on a ledge I lost my grip and I almost feel, it pretty much scared the shit out of me and so I decide to come down. Turns out it scared more than me, it got my group leader a little mad at me and he pulled me aside and said I was being unsafe. After that close encounter we got back onto the bus and go to our hotel and check in and stay the night, I was fortunate to get Justin as my roommate he is a Marine who is super cool. So me and Justin stay up a while just talking about life and military service and stuff and then crash out. On my sisters birthday I get the chance to hike the Rila Mountain and observe the Rila Lakes, and by the way Happy Belated Birthday Candice. In the morning we take a vote to hike the trail up instead of taking a chair lift. The hike up was amazing; from the start we got to see a beautiful waterfall and just trudge through the terrain. Then further up the mountain we encounter horses and all of the local flowers and just amazing views, this is before we even get to the spot where we were stopping for lunch. But so we get to the location for lunch and it is just beautiful and the ground is so warm and it just feels amazing, I am in shorts and just a shirt and did not bring anything else besides my camera. Well it starts to get a little cold and I start to get chilly. It was a good thing that we were able to go to the top of the mountain shortly after I started to get cold. But after a short break for lunch hiking is so much harder, because we were resting and then started to hike again and not only that but at that point of elevation the air starts to get thinner so breathing is a bit different. But I am no quitter and I hike all the way to the top only to see one of the most amazing views that I think that you could possibly attain from Bulgaria. Just overlooking a vast amount of open space and a view of all of the lakes on the mountain. Making things even more memorable there was this rock sculpture thing on the top where everyone who gets to the top can add a rock to it. Dont worry I will have some pictures up on facebook soon. As a group on the hike down to the lift we decide not to hike all the way down and do the chair lift. On the chair lift me and Justin had an awesome conversation and he is totally the coolest guy well him and Cameron and WIll bIll have been awesome. We get back to the hotel and shower and rest for about 20 or 30 minutes and then walk a short distance to our Bulrgarian BBQ, where we learned some traditional folk dancing with 60 and 70 year old ladies who liked to bump butts with me, and traditional Bulgarian cooking and then had a rock band that played American songs that they did not know the exact words to. Ohh man was it great. Then some of us would like do this like circle dance where you held hands with everyone and you basically spun around in a circle. After the dancing was over, I knew we had to play a game so I just go up to someone and say tag your it and then go ALEX YOUR IT really loud and then we start a rampid game of tag it was so excellent and the Bulgarian people are just looking at us like we are absolutely crazy. Then right after about an hour or so of tag we decide to paly a huge game of duck duck goose varsity style. It was the greatest night, I hadnt played duck duck goose in such a long time. On the way home we were mentioning scary movies and how it was scary walking home in this group in the total darkness and so I speed ahead and duck down in the bushes and hide, and sit and wait stalking my prey. I hear the first steps of people and I let a little bit of the group pass and then about 10-15 seconds later i pop out and scare the poop out of everyone, ohh man it was hysterical. So we got back to the hotel and went star watching and then there is this howling in the distance and a dog barking, and then the dog goes quite and were all a little concerned and so me and justin go to make sure that the gate on this basketball court we were sitting on was closed when we realized there was no fence on the one side and we all book it for back to the hotel. Anyway that was possibly the coolest trip that I had been on. And so yeah now it is Tuesday and I just got done with class and now I am going to take a little rest before starting on reading and I have a big evening of voyage book, homework, and talking to the global studies teacher about my paper.