Bulgaria

What a ponce.how are you supposed to build up a decent lick of speed if you keep turnng? Point the planks downwards.

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On EC colleague went to Bulgaria to learn to ski. She told us that they did a Bridget Jones style ski backwards down the slope ending up underneath a restaurant. They also ended up in 3 separate hospitals on the return to the UK with a dodgy bug.

Never order chicken in dark restaurants.

My Favourite Womble

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I went skiing in Bulgaria.

It was very cold.

Obviously it was about 1975 and so it was before Global Warming.

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You would have seen Uncle Bulgaria then -was on Top of the Pops most weeks … Not sure Noel Edmunds woudl feel that comfortable ‘cosying’ up to so many teenage girls today, given the more lurid revalations form this time…

Worse than that @areloa-grandee

I have actually seen The Wombles live.

THIS Century.

And what was the HUGE shock? They were fooking BRILLIANT.

One of the biggest crowds EVER at the Avalon Tent at Glasto about 3 years back. Mrs D_P got there, saw the cardboard Uncle Bulgaria faces everyone was wearing and the band coming on stage and nearly feinted in a barrage of WTF’s.

To this day she bursts into Remember You’re a Womble at the drop of a piece of litter

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OK

So anyone been on a weekend / short break to Sofia?

Was grunmbling about the cost of stuff down here while trying to plan at least something for my Birthday and Mrs D_P goes and books us a return on Wizz Air to Sofia for 4 nights

To put that into context, the flights cost LESS than it costs to select a seat in advance on Emirates on a flight to Europe…

So I have 4 days 3 full nights to do something different and I can’t bloody wait.

(And no they didn’t have the same special deal to Budapest/Prague/Poland) :slight_smile:

Ok 8 of us confirmed for the trip Wednesday 2 more probable & 1 still arguing with Ryanair. Good effort.

Got my big day sorted but thanks to Damascus Saint who bought "a suitcase on the package I can now bring back about 15kg of BULGARIAN WINE! about 9 litres between 3 of us allowance wise.

So what do I buy? €10 per bottle upwards in the town must be decent stuff.

Mavrud from Starsel has been mentioned

Any advice please?

Mavrud is Lush. For €10 per bottle I’d want shares in the vineyard.

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Why so bold?

It seems that if a YouTube URL is pasted in bold, @pap third-rate code turns it into an embedded video but everything else on the page from there on stays bold.

All for the want of a </strong>.

Fixed now - the bold YouTube link in the post, not papster’s third-rate code.

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I thought pap was big on computer business? as in genius level ?

As if the majority of us would notice the difference tbf

Think of Pap as the Pompey of web development.

He’s up and around the top half of the 3rd rate…

The Wine review

Birthday dinner at Moma’s nice ambience, local specialities and great vibe but they really lost the plot with the main courses & it took 4 hours when we only had 2.5 in our schedule.

Anyway, chose this lovely refreshing little Rose with the starters and it was a real hit - 15 quid so was upper range in their menu. Light, not notable fruity but lovely balance. A big hit.

Unfortunately the Mavrud was unavailable so chose this Mavrud Rubin mix. While it was noticably young that meant the flavours had not balanced out perfectly, so to our plates we had a wine with a myriad of different flavours breaking out across the tongue. Not as heavy as a Cab Sauv and yet stayed in that level of “sweetness” making it disappear really quickly. Found the same on sale at Casavino for about 6 quid.

Half of Casa Vino - this is mainly the choice of White & Rose on offer

The red Section!

These were my “bring home” wines. Buy 6 get a 10% discount was a great idea until I couldn’t get a taxi and had to walk 2 miles back across town to my hotel in 24C - was bloody hard work!

I was assured the Rose (Sarva) was from Varga region and makes the one we had for dinner seem like vinegar. The Monogram is the big Daddy of Mavrud/Rubin mixes, and being a 2013 will be much better balanced when it goes down. Aurelia was in the Top 10 and actually won a silver medal at this years’s Wine Festival beating the Vinica into 3rd place. I hold much hope for Aurelia - it is my Mavrud. If it’s shit I’ll set the the Soviet onto you.

The other two were again top 20 and recommended but so many beers have passed under the bridge since I got them I’m lucky I actally packed them!

But basically the 6 wines cost me 60 quid - which is the price of a bottle of mass produced Spanish Plonk out in the desert here. I’ll give the full I just drank xxx bottle.

Somehow I’m now going to have to drink a bottle of this every match day - this was our Saturday Lunch wine. It was more of a Blush than a Rose which made andaluciansaint happy as he could show off by putting ice in it. I found it a bit flat compared to the Black Sea Gold., but with that tag line we HAD to buy it (back side view of bottle below:) It cost 12 quid in the cafe.

On Saturday afternoon, before the game, I’d done the packing in bubble wrap and guesstimate weighing and worked out I could get one more bottle in the suitcase. Was fvcked if I was going to walk across town again, but we had to buy some stuff for sandwiches on the plane home and there was a Lidl very close to the hotel.

I felt I was light on Mavrud’s so picked this one up for 8 quid (yes there were about 5 other types all cheaper but I hope being Lildl, the good stuff is decent.

To be honest, I ain’t going to want to go anywhere NEAR a bottle of wine - hell, any alcohol at all for at least a month :lou_smiley: we’re totally broken! but will let you know if any are worth searching for to buy on t’internet before Brexit

The Sofia Review

Fucking loved it.

The End.

:lou_sunglasses:

Actually the joy of the city is that it has NOT been globalised. Saw Lidl and a Lilly (Dutch) chain but most everything else was little local Mom & Pop (or Souvenir) stores. Vitosha Boulevard in the sunshine is just heaven - yes it is tourist trap stuff but still cheap.

We were suppoed to do the New Sofia Pub Crawl on my birthday but the meal fvcked that so we went Friday - lots of hanging around in a park - seemed to be WAY too many people - that kicked in some negative waves from our crew which worsened when we walked about 10 metres to a wooden shed in the park that we could not even fit into, had only one loo and took them about 15 minutes to get the (included in tour) bottle of beer to us. The tour then took off without telling us (and many others) to a much larger “Modern Warehouse” style bar playing RnB/Hip Hop stuff - here we got a free shot of some orange thing.

And the night started to go tits up. I went to one end of the bar and bought a round of beers while andaluciansaint did the same at the other end - so now we have 2 beers each - a non-descript but refreshing local lager and THIS

It was really nice - but more like a Sam Adams than a Hobgoblin if I’m honest. We actually liked the place despite the music. Then off to a dark alley down some steps into a Cellar with about 5 rooms and the shots were flying in, the Irish kept singing about Shane Long, more local lager and everyone got to mingle and chat and it WAS fun.

Final stop was a small club just off the main street that was playing anything BUT RnB & Hip Hop and things just went to rat shit. I staggered out about 1:30, Damascus Saint fell asleep and was carried home at 4am. The tour went on to one more club but that was very “young” & Hip Hop so most people came back to our club. Bottles of Prosecco for 10 quid, Sambucca shots, beers 2 quid - now we were in Sofia proper.

The tour opened our eyes and meant we now noticed all the little places off the main streets - we found an English Pub and Alehouse which made their own beers and we had Schweinhaxe & lots of beers during the WBA game for 10 quid a head - pour your own at the table was a BIG hit - like a fuel pump basically and you paid by the Litre.

The city is quirky - it is not 5 Star that is for sure, we had burnt Omlettes, forgotten side dishes, Starters served after mains but everything (apart for one dish) was tasty and edible.

Already planning our next trip - and for 20 quid return from Luton on Wizz Air (motto: We aren’t Ryanair) it is a great short break.

And OMG the weather was STUNNING - 24C during the day - Mrs D_P even got sunburnt! Lolz

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LOL. Restaurant service in BG is hit and miss at best! We used to bet on whether the main courses would come out before the starters.

For those who don’t read BG too good, the top Rosé is a Cabernet Sauvignon :lou_wink_2:

Glad you had a good time Phil.

Oh and £2 per beer is not the real BG. I’ve bought 6 big bottles of Zagorka for that in a local bar :lou_lol:

That was NIGHTCLUB price!

:slight_smile:

And seems that after I went home the girls stayed on. No problem with that they were having fun dancing and stuff, but now seems there was a snapper in the club & their night out has gone “viral” ie splattered all over the clubs’ FB page - Oh I am so scoring points with that today!