According to my calculations this blog should have reached Sunday roundabout now. We even remembered that the clocks changed during the night, so ended up with an hour's less sleep. For those that can't remember which way the clocks alter in Spring and Autumn, just try to think Spring forward, fall back. Sunday brought with it the first carboot sale of the season at the VTcamping ground, and the chance to meet up with some of those who we hadn't seen since the onset of winter, and also to meet some that we only know through Facebook and various other forums. It was a little bit cooler than the previous two days, but the rain held off. We took Pete and Claire along, so it meant an early start for them as they had to first get to us from their village. Not only would they be able to put some faces to names, but they could also enjoy rummaging with the rest of us, and who knew I might even find the elusive bell. The sausage and bacon butties were well worth the trip on their own, but we also managed to get onion gravy granules, ginger nut biscuits and ginger beer. I would have quite happily bought all of the ginger nuts and ginger beer, but Net did say that I had to leave some for other people, so contented myself with two of each. As I have previously said it was good catching up with people, even though the internet is a lifeline during the winter it is still nice to catch up in person. Apologies to those that we missed, but there did seem to be rather a lot of people there. Even when we parked up and walked to the camp site it was right hand drive after right hand drive, but there were also Bulgarians there, so the idea seems to be taking off across all walks of life.
Once the breeze started to pick up a bit more a few drops of rain were felt, so we decided to call it a day from carbooting. As the day was still early I headed off towards Mindya, just so that we could show Claire and Pete where they have the rock festival each year. We also noticed just how close to Elena we were so headed off towards there. We were able to park at the square and have a coffee just over the road, we did have a bit of a nose round but it seemed as though it was mainly souvenier shops and museums that were open. Last time we went to Elena we also went to Tryavna, so we decided that it might be worth another look.
We set out following what looked like the directions to Tryavna on a signpost, my excuse was that I was sleep deprived due to the clocks changing. It was when we started getting further and further from civilization that the penny dropped, and I took a closer look at a signpost. It was somewhere else that started with a 'Trya', but definitely not where we intended going. So in the middle of nowhere I stopped and dug out the SatNav, you've guessed it back to the centre of Elena and a bit of here there and everywhere before the SatNav agreed that it was now on a road. So once again it was off into the wilds, and me being told to follow the 'bloody thing' from the backseat. I had to abort the mission to Tryavna as bladders were taking charge, it wouldn't be too bad for Pete or myself, but neither of the girls fancied going behind a sparcely vegetated bush. I saw a familiar name on a signpost and knew that there were loos there, ones that would meet the required standard and not a 'Pharaohs Head'. So we ended up at Dryanovo monastery and a headlong rush for the loos. No one was really hungry but we did have hot white chocolate, for those with a sweet tooth they are highly recommended. Whilst we were going round the gift shop bits, of all things I found a bronze bell when I hadn't really been looking for one there.
Back into the car, and it was just a quick drive down the road and we were back in VT. Now we decided that we were hungry, so we parked up near the ETAR coach stop and went for something to eat in the City Pub. I was quite happy and considered it a good day, not only had we caught up with people, I had ginger biscuits, ginger beer and my bell, and there was also football on the telly.
But the moral of this weekend's tale is that maps lie, and so do SatNavs :)
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