Spring Break for Adi and Daddy
Well, what to do when one of your kids is off for an entire week and your wife still has to work? Well drive to Bulgaria to go skiing of course??
Actually this was an impromptu decision on my part only booking a hotel 2 nights before we left for a 3 night 4 day mid-week trip to catch the very end of a short and warm European winter. With a 5.5 hour drive we ended up in the ever so UK popular Bulgaria ski resort town of Bandsko. End of season skiing has its trade-offs. On the one hand, it is empty with very cheap hotel rooms (30euro/night for 1 bedroom apt) and no worry to get a meal out with no reservations and very short/no cues at the lifts. (we loved the place we found the first night so returned the next (3rd was making mac n cheese in the apt.)
On the flip-side, there are no people (we were 1 of 3 rooms at our hotel so never saw anyone else at breakfast, pool, etc.), the snow is very icy in the morning and melts quickly to slush for the afternoon limiting good skiing to maybe 2 hours, ski school has less instructors so Adi got lost in the shuffle for half day and the other times he got very little attention (but still advanced to be a solid intermediate skier already).
Funny enough English was almost the first language there with so many Brits you could have sworn we were in the UK (direct flights and VERY cheap ski holiday). It was nice to actually catch all the side conversations around on the lifts, in the lines, at the ski lodge and restaurants. Bulgarians are not know for their hospitality, especially end of season but we found them to be great and welcoming. It was also the first time father and so had this much time alone and for the most part was awesome. He did great in both car rides and was so much fun to catch-up with on the mountain at lunch break from ski school before daddy went off on his own to do the black runs from the top (2600m). We played chess each night in the room and I treated him to an indoor water park the final day when we got off the mountain. The final remarkable feature of this town is it is actually 2 mountain ranges away from the resort but they built a gondola lift so everyone can just walk with gear from their hotels with no need to drive. We look forward to our next season but at least got in 9 days this year
