60.32 Bulgaria: Pamporovo: A morning of reclimbing walls, rocks and cliff-edges in an autumn setting of splendid color. Miracles continue despite...

  Against a backdrop of our nation under attack (what's new, unfortunately?), we have part of our minds and a lot of our hearts elsewhere. Nevertheless, it helps not and feeling someone else's pain may be empathetic, but it certainly doesn't assist them much, if at all. That has us thinking and we hope we can develop a useful personal strategy. So, as we all have to do, we carry on living, a great alternative. We are fortunate that our activities on most days are so incredible that we feel blessed and enjoy a number of other advantages through them. We hope it continues and peace descends upon Israel and all decent people. 

  We continue to see sights and enjoy hikes that are fantastic. I use superlatives often as a reader has probably noticed but it's because that's how I feel most of the time in the wilderness. In the towns and cities, especially the latter, less. In fact, after a few weeks of soaking in the beauty, challenges and satisfaction Bulgaria has showered upon us, I mentioned to Jenni, not for the first time, that this is my favorite country to visit, live for extended periods and explore the wilderness. Of course, she as good as said, 'Here we go again, every place you visit is your favorite'. I did not dare to look but I'm certain her eyes were rolling. Sure, I have a lot of favorites but there's something about Bulgaria, or rather the regions around the Pirin and Rhodope Mountain Ranges, that I literally love. 

  There's much about the country that is problematic, of course, but then again even Switzerland isn't what it once was. Fortunately, the Swiss (and Bulgarians) are refined and won't throw bombs or try to destroy me. Danke! Blagodarya. Because this blog has an enormous quantity of pictures, we'll complete the text at a later occasion. 

Hmm! (Heck, that was such an easy caption).
A triangle backyard (foreground right)...one less corner to negotiate. The neighborhood behind the triangular garden impressive...maybe?
Jen goes climbing rocks and walls with background.
Via Ferrata, one way to make the day blood-pumping and hence, exciting.
After some rock climbing, Jen reaches a top.
Discover some unique sights and colors along a cliff edge.
Are these colors genuine?
'Reach for the sky, Pardner', exclaims Jen as she positions herself across the way on a great rock. Each photograph costs me $10, her way of discouraging this 'foolish' behavior.
Jen heads into the forest to scale a wall that will take her to a path toward the car.
A favorite of the many.
No where else to grow...you take what you can get plus the rent is quite low on the wall. We believe this is the ultimate wallflower.
Having a whale of a time...sounds better than a wall of a t...Also, completely safe...from whales and sharks.
Shades of green, still.
The quick way down to Smolyan, a city with prospects.
'Downtown' originally Petula Clark now Smolyan.
'I am a rock' and a glorious one, too.
Jen arrives at a cliff edge. (See below next picture for relevance).
3-days later, we hike down to the lake (above photo) from just below the peak and return.
Without kidding (per 'Joe'), some of these places are as close to heaven as I am likely to ever get.
Yet another view of Snezhanke, our beacon in the province, inter alia.
This is the original Hotel California, beautiful and free to leave, too.
The chains do not extend to the cliff top at the extreme left. However, they sure go high enough on the right side.
Depth, color, positioning. As a famous literary giant was heard to exclaim when he saw this: "Man! Oh My."
Can't believe this. And Jen thinks I'm a show-off.
A pond and a pound of green.
By next week, the colors will be superior. Is that even possible?
Cheers, 

Jenni and Jeffrey 

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