In Pakistan, we have a saying that you spend the whole year the way you meet it. So I wanted to start new year by hiking, traveling and some adventure in January. I decided to fly to Sofia in my running shoes. What I didn’t know that how this small adventure of mine will evolve into something awesome in coming months.
I found cheap tickets to Sofia for the weekend but I didn’t go there for hiking but for some personal reason. I had a free day on Sunday so I made plans for hiking with my friend Rado who I met on my flight back to Eindhoven from Sofia in November.
Only probIem was, I was in my running shoes and they were getting wet the moment I would step out of my apartment let alone hiking in snow in mountains. Following pictures show you how Sofia city looked like
Anyway, I decided to go to hike anyway. I met him in city, and he was there was with his friend Velislava. Just like all the Bulgarians I met so far, she was super friendly. We got into the bus to the start of trail. We stopped at a mountain hut and had breakfast near start of trail.
My shoes were wet already from city but once we started the hike, they became completely wet in first 5 minutes. I hiked for 3 hours in waist and knee-deep snow. The view was amazing like a wonderland and it was complete white. Due to cold, we only saw a few people on trail and most of the time it was just three of us.
After an hour of hike, I started to lose feeling in my feet because they were so cold. I would get the feeling back if my feet goes into water. I had to keep walking because when I was stopping I was loosing feeling in my feet again. I couldn’t stop but I was walking slow. We had to cut our hike short as I my feet were in bad position. We ended the hike and I was too afraid to take of my shoes, I was expecting blue feet. Anyway, it wasn’t so bad. Rado gave me his socks and we got into bus and after another hour we were in Sofia. I took the hot shower and let hot water run through my feet for 15 minutes and I got feelings back.
Following are some pictures from the hike
And here is a picture of me after hike, exhausted, tired and excited to go back to my place
When I posted the picture on facebook of my back pack, I captioned it “May the 2016 be the year of adventures and travels”. It turned out to be like that! Not only I traveled and hiked in different parts of Europe, but something very special happened to me and for that I can’t be more thankful!
Abby On Travel 