pushing through or climbing elbrus

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  After climbing Kilimanjaro in 2014, the supposedly easiest of the 7 summits, I started thinking about potentially tackling some of the remaining ones. This is a daunting (not to mention costly!) task and I’m not quite sure whether I’ve completely settled on it, but I figured it’s worth trying out Elbrus, which ranks as …

hidden istanbul

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  I’m saddened by the recent political developments in Turkey. Istanbul has always been one of my favorite cities to visit and now I find myself avoiding going through it like I normally would on my way east, as I’m sure many others do. It remains one of the most interesting and vibrant mixes of …

kovachevitsa

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  I realize now I must have pressed “Publish” before completing my post 🙂 Note to self not to write when super tired late in the evening. What I wanted to say is that one way or another each summer I somehow find myself in the Rhodope mountains and often in Kovachevitsa — a small …

never forget your past

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  One of communist Bulgaria’s most famous remnants is the Buzludzha monument, sitting atop the historical namesake peak. The UFO shaped building, opened in 1981, is little more than a ruin nowadays, but it still attracts thousands of people with its unusual architecture, unique location, and the symbol it’s become to how we handle our …

all is well in the rhodope

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  The Rhodope mountains have always had a certain magnetic appeal to me. Unlike other mountains in Bulgaria that are known for their high peaks, rocky climbs or great winter sports opportunities (so much that we’ve even had people very likely set fires on purpose to clear out forests for future ski runs…), the Rhodope …

antarctica, land of eternal snow

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  Astronauts have said that the most distinctive feature of Earth as seen from space is Antarctica, which “radiates light like a great white lantern across the bottom of the world”. Its ice sheet is over 2km thick on average, contains more that 90% of the world’s ice and snow, and has an area greater …

for all that it’s worth, you were worth it

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  Sometimes the weather’s just not on your side and goes against your grand plans of making a great weekend getaway. But every cloud has a silver lining as they say, almost literally this time 😉 We were in Strandzha, a small-ish mountain in southeastern Bulgaria, but weren’t getting what we had hoped to be …