Bulgaria - once again

After a long month of separation we are back together in Sofia. Many friends we saw, many decided to visit. We are enjoying our stay here as always. Good food, nice company and perfect weather.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral - Bulgarians biggest church

We did a trip to Rila Monastery - the most famous Monastery in Bulgaria. (and if I only would have time to visit one place in Bulgaria it would be here)

Another view of the main yard

Frescoes in the entrance area of the Monasteries church.

More of the Frescoes...

Frescoes in the little church down at the cemetery, where most of the people never go.

... happy after a hard day of sight seeing :)

More Pics from Vlbg

Top of Diedamskopf

up to the Schreibere Sattel

Schreibere Sattel - 1526 m - my new Favorite around here

Widderstein... (not by bike :)

... over the top ...

Nomen est omen - a place called Roßstelle

Some more impressions form Vorarlberg

I did some really nice MTB trips, limited only by the weather which is very "humid" reading it is raining minimum once a day on some days for 24 h.

But there is a great alternative program - Culture!

I visited the Angelika Kaufmann Exibition in Schwarzenberg and the church she painted at the tender age of 16 with her father before she became a founding member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. She was also the chick who was on the old 100 Schilling note for those who dare to remember :)
More of Angelika can be found here.

The party level here unfortunately is directly comparable to northern Pakistan - must be the mountains :) - just that the thrill of AK74s is missing.

Schönenbach - only 8km form Bizau and a hub to the mountains..

The have great "Käspätzle" there only the price level in Vorarlberg is ruining the appetite.

The Angelika Kaufmann Museum in Schwarzenberg...

The church ins Schwarzenberg

Biking in the mountains...
and btw Google Earth also works offline:)

Vorarlberg - The Wild West

I promised some people to keep them updated on my solo adventures in the Wild West.
It is very idyllic here and although there is little to do the time is flying. I am finally reunified with my mountain-bike and I am using is on every possible occasion. The transportation of the bike and all the stuff I need was a bit tricky. That was the reason why I decided to bike the last 60 km through the beautiful Vorarlberg Alps and send whatever I could not carry. I admit there is a more developed route but distance and elevation difference would have been similar - so why not go for the beautiful one :)
The good thing is that distances were a lot further when I was a kid and nowadays even the trip from Langen am Arlberg to Bizau seamed like a short one.
I apologize for the bad picture quality - my phone is still my only camera.

From Langen am Arlberg up the Flexenpass

Finally up

Number two - and yes I was a lot lower in between...

Not really qualifying as a pass in this area it is still a long and steep way up.

Finally there - Bizau

Special thanks to Stefan :) for making this possible.

Vienna

For those who still don't know: we are back in Europe :)
MQ today

How to get from Bangkok to Sofia

We are back from where we started 4 and 1/2 months ago - in the sweltering heat of Bangkok and going through our last day in South East Asia with mixed feelings.
Was it worth it? Definitely!
Are we happy to go back to Europe? Looking greatly forward!
Will we do this again? Cannot wait for our next destination!
Although in the land of the Buddha, we did not find Nirvana and we again have far more questions than answers. What we did find though is warm and smiling people, great friends, free spirits and little acts of kindness. We met people that had lost their illusions, but had kept their faith in the small person. We saw poverty, sickness and pain and we saw happiness, faith and thousands of little children and how little it sometimes takes to make a difference. We saw annoyed shopkeepers tired of stingy backpackers asking for discount and we saw boatmen looking forward to the next season when all the tourists will come back, because it means he will be able to support his family. We saw again, one cannot change the world, but can change someone else's life and we are developing some ideas about that and will let you know soon so stay with us.

Well we are off to the airport but if you are ever in Bangkok on the weekend you DEFINITELY have to go to the big Weekend market at Jatujak :))))