The House of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Buzludza

I spotted this place on a list of the best abandoned places in the world online. When I told Eva about it she said it was not far from her Bulgarian home town, so on our summer trip we decided to go and do some urban exploring.

It sits on top of Buzludza mountain looking like a UFO landed from space

There is a way of getting inside, and from researching on other websites it seems its meant to be a secret so i'm not going to reveal how its done. I couldn't get in myself as i'm to tall and didn't have the strength in my arms to pull myself in due to once braking my arms. But Eva could get in and this is what she saw....

I am not entirely sure what the place was used for but I am guessing they had meetings there and people conducted speeches in the middle of the arena. I do know it was built on a spot where a person of importance was killed in a battle. There are no plans to restore the place because of the cost involved and there is no love from some people for the communist history of the country.

I took a piece home with me, a corner of a letter which had fallen from the wall on the outside. I wanted to take the whole letter but it was way so heavy I could not move it, and wouldn't of fitted in my suitcase. Here it is in our kitchen in Essex....

Two Holy Days at the Rila Monastery

During my second ever trip to Bulgaria this summer we visited the Rila Monastery with which is built in the Mountains about an hour or so drive from Sofia. It is thought it was built by or for for St John Rila and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We stayed in a nearby hotel but it is apparently possible to stay in the Monastery itself.

This is the rock above the cave where St John of Rila lived as a hermit in the nearby mountains and prayed for 17 years, he most probably would of sat there looking out over the trees. By the end of it all he could perform miracles and animals would approach him as his friend.

To get to the rock you have to crawl through a hole out of the cave and if you can do it you apparently have no sins. I found it pretty tough having to crawl up bending my long legs, I must of done something nearly wrong to find it such a struggle.

This is a picture of inside a little church next to the cave where St John Rilla was at one time buried. No Photos Allowed !!!! Lucky I went up through the hole before I took the picture, or i could be still stuck in there!

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is on the site where the London 2012 Olympics took place and is a good afternoon out if you know where to go. I also wanted to see if I could prove I would of won a medal in the Long Jump.

Its a vast area with lots of concrete open space and giant walks between what were the Olympic venues, and i'm talking about half an hour walks. Its really frustrating as well when you walk all the way along a path to find it blocked due to works taking place. The best place to go is at the front of the park where the orbit tower and aquatics center is as its where the water fountains and play parks are and we can act like kids

In the fountains

On a swing

 It was a shame we couldn't find a place called the view tube where you can hire bikes, it was probably 45 mins walk across some giant concrete space. Anyway here is my attempt for Long Jump gold.....

Bluebells in Norsey Woods

Eva's Decorated Eggs for Easter

Spring Morning Bicycle Commute

Hopped off my bike on the ride to the train station to take a few pictures.

                                       

Bright early morning spring sun in Canary Wharf, London

Day Two in Paris, Notre Damme Coucher du Soleil

First breakfast when staying in Paris just has to be croissants from a bakery just around the corner from where we were staying..

Then it was off to the musee d'orsay, now that is what I call an art museum. In a great setting in a converted old train station..

If your pushed for time don't wast it trying to decipher the useless map (all french maps are awful) go to the top floor to see what must be millions of pounds worth of famous paintings.

Next visit was the Notre Dame where Eva made hundreds of new friends, but only learnt one's name which was Francois because I named him.

By the time we left the Notre Dame the sun was setting and the Paris sky was great for taking pictures...

Fools Gold in Paris

Standing on the bank of the Seine admiring the brownness of the flowing water, we were about to walk away a man approached and said whilst holding a gold ring "Is this yours, did you drop it?"

I've never worn a ring but I said yes in the heat of the moment and took it as a potential nice little earner. The man asked for 3 euros for a coffee, fair enough I thought and paid him. Walking further along the river in front of me what did I spot? A man crouching on the floor behind two men and then grabbing their attention and holding a gold ring.  That was the point I realised I'd been had, the men must have been locals because they completely ignored him.  Who was worse, me for taking the ring I knew didn't belong to me, or the man for setting up the scam in the first place? I would like to think if it turned out to be real gold I would of sent it back to the French authorities, but probably not.

Day One in Paris, Déception Musée du Louvre

This is part one of the story of our trip to Paris, the start of which was nearly disrupted by the tube strike that thankfully got cancelled at the last minute. I still created our own battle to get to the early Eurostar train from St Pancras though by forgetting to tap in my Oyster card and then getting off to correct it and getting back on a wrong train. Still managed to get there in time and whilst posing in front of the Eurostar train which I had been waiting a long time to have a go on, a man in a smart uniform approached us and asked if we wanted him to take a picture of both of us. We agreed and then afterwards he got into the drivers seat, if we knew he was the one taking us there I would of got him to pose with us.

Once arriving and dropping our stuff off where we were staying we went traveled by Metro to the Louvre museum. Nice glass pyramid out the front and was impressive in its architecture but not so much the content inside.

I'm not turned off by a bit of art which will be proved on a later post by how impressed I was by another museum we went to, the Louvre though was just full of historical religious paintings.You could quite easily get in free by flashing an old ticket or a bit of white card with a black strip on it as no one properly checked them. Its the most visited museum in the world probably because of the Mona Lisa which if you ask me is not even very good, and the Venus di Milo which didn't do much to distract me from my cheese and onion sandwich....

After the museum we walked up the Champs Elysees which is the Regent Street of Paris but with the Arc de Triomphe at the end instead of Leicester Square. Its a long walk from the Museum when its cold so recommend getting the metro halfway to miss the gap between Jardin des Tuieries which are the gardens outside the Louvre and the Champs Elysees itself. 

Only a short half day but much more was to come......

Painted by Eva's Mum on the wall of her old room

Tiptree Jam Tea Room and Factory

Another tea room review and this time one inside a jam factory, not just any old jam factory but one that has the honor of putting the Queens standard on its jar. First off would you not expect its tea room to have many jam based offerings on its menu? well no there wasn't. A couple of scones or something were on offer but not to promote their own jam. I don't want them to take it to far and do Tiptree Jam and Chips but I would expect a Tiptree Jam Victoria Sponge, they really are missing a trick. Anyway it was a bit loud in there, bit expensive again and I got very confused with what the difference was between a lemon drizzle cake and lemon tangy, which I meant I ended up with a slither rather than a wedge. Still nice though and the museum made it a bit interesting....

mixing up da jam old skool

There was loads of old machinery and some stuff about the Queen coming to visit, plus a film about the history of the place. From which we created a new game called Polish Or Bulgarian Fruit Picker? Where you have to guess if the fruit picker on the film is Bulgarian or Polish. The game does exactly what it says on the tin, or in this case jar. 

Luckily on the way home we didn't get caught in a ......

Small Talk Tea Room Review

Surely there is no one who likes the living hell of Christmas Shopping? When we finished our session in Chelmsford town center we escaped from the chav shopping zombies to the Small Talk Tea Room just off the high street. This I am hoping is the first in a series of reviews of Tea Rooms in Essex.

The Small Talk Tearoom is situated near by to a Weatherspoons and a Yates, which is one of the areas in Chelmsford where the less desirable's blow chunks (be sick) in the evenings. It's certainly in a place you wouldn't expect but provides a welcome bit of Ye Olde Britishness to a modern utopia. Oh get me, I've been in a tea shop and now I'm writing like Charles Dickens!

I must say the tea was exemplary and in the quaint English surroundings I felt compelled to stick my little pinkie out. The food was tip top too, I went for a Sausage Toasted Sandwich followed by a Caramel Fudge Cake. Eva picked out a Toasted Cheese and Tomato Sandwich followed by a Chocolate Fudge Cake. I ate the food so fast there was no time to take a pic....

You could of easily imagined yourself being in the countryside if it wasn't for the view of Argos outside the window, and for some reason a man zooming past in a complete panic with a trolley full of milk. I'm really not sure what sort of emergency would need so much milk to resolve, a giant human eating cat on the loose perhaps? The guess who turned up walking past... Our mate Kevin Willis I used to work with armed with Skiing equipment who invited himself in, just like in the summer when he invited himself to my summer bbq which just happened to have some Bulgarian beauties in attendance. Nice one Kev.

The bill came to £17 something, Its the first tea shop I've been to but I am pretty sure that could be a bit on the expensive side. They done very well on the food, interior and location, we will see where they stand if I get my wish of visiting some more shops, anyway must dash!! Tally Ho.

Purple Pete can read Bulgarian...

It only turns out that Purple Pete can read Bulgarian !!! Being a bear he cant talk or write without fingers and thumbs so we only found this out when I caught him reading one of Eva's books when I came home one night. Amazing that a bear found by a Bulgarian in a charity shop in England knows her language. Does anyone out there know his life story? Have you seen Pete before?