After an interesting few days in Sofia, the next stop on our Bulgarian itinerary was the Guesthouse Peychevi in the small village of Govedartsi, a ski resort in the pre-park area of the Rila Mountains at 1268m.
On arrival, we were met by the lady of the house who had enlisted the support of her adult son to check us in, as she only spoke German and Russian.
The small alpine-looking three-star guesthouse was beautiful with colourful plants in window boxes and the surrounding paved area. The eight rooms were located over two floors, and we were shown up two flights of stairs to room 203. Sadly, there was no lift, and although some rooms appeared to have a balcony, ours didn’t.
The good-sized room had a double bed, with individual duvets. But it was a little low and we both woke up with a stiff back, possibly because we only had one pillow each, although there were blankets in the wardrobe. There was also a third bed with a purple quilt. In fact, purple was the theme of the room with the walls painted purple and purple flowers on the net curtains. We both had bedside tables with lights and charging points and there was a chest of drawers, with an old fashioned portable TV on top. There were also two dining chairs, but no fripperies such as water, tea and coffee making facilities, air conditioning or safe.
The reasonable-sized bathroom had a shower cubicle, box hairdryer which was for all intents and purposes useless, although it was near the mirror, and once again was a vision in purple with floral competing with purple and white striped tiles. The water was hot but the pressure so good that the water leaked from the cubicle, flooded the floor, and had to mopped down with the handtowels as there was no bathmat.
Whilst there was WiFi downstairs, there appeared to be a problem, and the router didn’t extend to the top of the house. Bearing in mind all the other rooms appeared to be empty, as the keys were in the door, we were not sure why we were on the top floor – perhaps it was their best room.
The ground-floor dining room had a small bar and a fridge with beers and soft drinks, and having arranged dinner for 7pm, we went down beforehand for a drink. The restaurant had eight tables laid with colourful tartan cloths and on arrival, there was only one other solo male diner. Unfortunately the son had been called away and so all our conversations were via Google Translate or good old fashioned pointing or miming. However, we successfully ordered two G&Ts and were shown both a large and small measure and opted for large. Having chosen a table, which was set with condiments, a large jug of water and cutlery, we were served huge individual bowls of salad (tomato, cucumber and green peppers covered with Bulgarian cheese) along with four slices of bread which we could have easily shared. Our main course was a similarly huge, a delcious slab of moussaka which we kept nibbling away at until a respectable amount was left. Fortunately dessert was a plate of sliced watermelon, with a second round of G&T.
Our pre-arranged 7.30am breakfast table was already laid with two just-warm hard-boiled eggs, a bowl of sliced tomatoes and cucumber, a platter with sliced meat and two types of cheese, butter, strawberry jam and sliced bread. Then came jugs of black coffee, hot water for tea bags, and hot milk. Altogether it was simple, but good and we tried a bit of everything.
Govedartsi was a small village and after hiking in the Rila Mountain National Park, we used Google maps to explore the village. We found a small shop, with a side awning and two huge long tables and benches with men drinking. We went inside and asked if we could sit outside if we bought beers, but as the lady spoke no English, she used her mobile to phone her daughter to interpret. Our large tins of Heineken cost 2.40 Lev each (around £1) and we sat in the sun as the guys played cards and cooked on a small BBQ.
It all felt quite a bizarre and surreal experience.
