White Christmas in Bulgaria

by Miguel Gluton
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Merry Christmas from Veliko Tarnovo in the middle of Bulgaria!

Last week with temperatures in Belgrade sitting well above 10 degrees we started preparing the kids for the likelihood that they wouldn’t have that long promised white christmas. They were so disappointed, long faces everywhere.

Then we caught an overnight train to Sofia in Bulgaria where temperatures were colder and the nearby mountain that looms over the city was peaked with snow. Maybe … just maybe we’d at least be able to visit a mountain on Christmas day and see snow.

And then we woke one morning in Sofia to this …

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Overnight 15-20cm of snow had fallen. It kept falling all throughout the day. How quickly the city had changed. Just the day before I’d been wandering the city with my camera taking photos of buildings against a bright blue sky. Now everything was white.

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Noah as it turns out is more like his father than we realised. I think he could happily live in snow for the rest of his life. The secret to getting him away from the iPad and indoors … a backyard full of snow! We’ve barely seen him for the last few days. We may now be planning an entire season at a ski resort … one day, some how.

Hayley … well she loves the snow so long as it doesn’t get her new mittens dirty.

We’re spending our long awaited white christmas in Veliko Tarnovo, the old capital of Bulgaria. It’s amazingly beautiful and covered in 45cm of snow. Being the crazy Australian’s that head to Europe over winter while everyone else runs for the tropics has paid off. It’s hard to believe this time last year we were in Australia swimming with family. We’re missing our family but hopefully lunch out at a restaurant overlooking the spectular snowy covered views of the houses leaning over gorges of Veliko Tarnovo and skype calls to home will make it just as fantastic.

And maybe by the end of Christmas our snowman building skills will improve!

 

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