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I wake up early, take my bags, and I disappear into the streets of Велнко Търново [Veliko Tarnovo], walking past the gorgeous gorge of river Yantra. One thing I forgot to mention when i arrived here two days ago, is that this is narrowly beating the Southernmost point of this trip, which was holding since Narbonne, on Day 1!

The first train goes through the mountains towards the South, getting me, after nearly three hours, to the city of Стара Загора [Stara Zagora]. I went for a restaurant a bit further from the station, but there is not much to see in that city to be honest, so I came back in the big park in front of the station.

The second train, taking over three hours, took me West to Септември [Septemvri]. I only had 13 min to make the connection to Банско [Bansko], and already the train arrived 6 min late. Well, at worst I have a plan B, which would be to simply go to Пловдив [Polvdiv] for the night, and take the train to Баиско tomorrow, which would still allow me to take the bus I already booked for tomorrow.

But no worries, we arrived two minutes ahead of time. Plenty of time to make the transfert to the narrow gauge railway. Yes! Today I am taking one of the last public use narrow gauge. Those kind of railways are generally built for the mountains, as they can make tighter curves. As such, they provide scenic views, and this one didn’t disappoint. Especially as night was falling, I got a little preview of the high snowy peaks of Pirin NP.

I arrived after 21 at the hostel, the new Southernmost point of the trip. Turns out, I’m the only guest tonight! The reason being that Баиско is a ski resort town, and ski season just ended. The hostel is in a lovely cobbled street in the old town, and I got to speak with the owner for a bit, a lovely chap from the United Kingdom, who happened to have lived in Toulouse too. So if you’re there, Le Rétro Hostel: strongly recommended!

Ah, I love Bulgaria!