Mount Vitosha

OSI-Bulgaria (Dupnitsa)

25 July 2004

To break up their long summer holiday, we took seven of our eldest Dupnitza children on an excursion to Mount Vitosha. Mount Vitosha is a peak that rises just to the south of capital Sofia. In the hot summertime, it's a wonderful place to escape the heat and to spend a day hiking around the splendid landscape.

Our Day

We left Dupnitza at 9:30 in the morning, traveled 2 hours by bus to Sofia, and then another 20 minutes by taxi to Dragalevtsi village at the base of Mount Vitosha. At Dragalevtsi there is a 30-minute chair-lift that goes part-way up the mountain. We took this lift, and then a 30-minute hike on the mountainside to Aleko lodge. From Aleko, we took another 20-minute chair-lift to the top of the mountain. There, we ate a picnic lunch and spent a couple hours wandering around the mountain top, climbing rocks, and enjoying the cool air. At 3:00 we took the lift back to Aleko, where we had a coffee/snack break. From Aleko we took a 30-minute cabin-lift back down to the base of the mountain. We arrived back in Dupnitza at 7:30pm. The kids were quite tired, but had a GREAT day, and it was a great distraction for them from their boring summer days at the orphanage.