Stara Zagora
The heavy rain stopped during the night and the sun broke through the clouds. The weather was definitely improving.
Today was going to be a traveling day, no sightseeing. My goal was to get from Stara Zagora to Blagoevgrad via the shortest route, i.e. without going to Sofia. I was in Sofia before, I will be in it again shortly and I did not want to travel the same roads. My research showed that I could make a connection in Plovdiv, but I was not sure how much I could trust the bus schedule that I found online.
I left Stara Zagora at 9 am and in 2.5 hours was in Plovdiv. Yes, there was a bus going to Blagoevgrad at 13 pm. The online schedule was correct. Having been in Plovdiv 2 years ago, I was familiar with the city and knew which way to go from the bus station. There was enough time between the buses to stretch my legs and to have lunch.
The bus to Blagoevgrad was comfortable and the mountain road was more scenic than via Sofia. The Rila Mountains are low, but pretty in their own way and I enjoyed the views.
When we got higher all of the sudden there was snow everywhere. That was probably yesterday’s rain that turned into snow in the mountains. The bus windows were tinted and I could not take a good photo of the snow to post it here. It was astonishing to see snow and so much of it when the trees were still green. I thought this only happens in Colorado where we can experience all four seasons in one day. We only rode through the patch of snow for a few minutes. At the lower elevation, it was early fall again.
The bus reached Blagoevgrad at about 5.30 pm. I did not make a hotel reservation in advance since there was no guarantee I would get here today. I walked towards the city center until I found a place to stay. Nothing interesting can be said about Blagoevgrad itself. For me, it was just a convenient base for the trip on the following day that was going be a sightseeing day.