Never one for a relaxing holiday, Pete decided for his birthday weekend he wanted to fly to Bulgaria to hunt down the crumbling communist headquarters of the past Bulgarian government. The incredible, alien like building sits perched on top of Mount Buzludzha, about 20 mins drive up a road full of hairpin bends from the town of Shipka.
Most people have forgotten about Buzludzha (which would affectionately become known to us as buz) these days, and apart from the odd adventurous tourist that makes the trek up there, it sits lonely and decaying while the Bulgarian government debate what to do with it. As the current government doesn’t seem to have the resources or drive to spend on its restoration, old Buz will probably sit crumbling for a while longer.
To get there, we flew to the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia on the friday night after work, and had a brief look around the city the next morning before heading off on the 3 hour drive to Shipka. Our brief wanderings around Sofia really only gave us time to head to the beautiful Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the center of the main town square. The cathedral is one of the few I’ve seen where there is actually an abundance of space around it, and you can really step back to appreciate in the beautiful architecture.
Our drive to Shipka wasn’t what you would call the smoothest . Roads in Bulgaria range from dual lane freeways where you can sit on the speed limit of 140km/h and still have the locals zooming past you, to a neglected networks of back roads full of pot holes and crumbling asphalt. As we took the sonic route on the way there, our drive was full of the latter.
We arrived at Shipka around 3, with plenty of time to make it up to Mount Buzludzha for sunset. The drive up the winding road allowed us our first sightings of buz, while the snow along the sides of the road gradually became thicker. The weather was actually very kind to us, and considering Buz sits atop a very exposed mountain, when we arrived in the afternoon it was actually quite warm. The hike up to Buz through snow and very icy rocks really didn’t seem like much of a trial…. until the sun went down and the wind decided to pick up, and all of a sudden we seemed very underprepared with the clothing we equipped ourselves with!
Most people have forgotten about Buzludzha (which would affectionately become known to us as buz) these days, and apart from the odd adventurous tourist that makes the trek up there, it sits lonely and decaying while the Bulgarian government debate what to do with it. As the current government doesn’t seem to have the resources or drive to spend on its restoration, old Buz will probably sit crumbling for a while longer.
To get there, we flew to the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia on the friday night after work, and had a brief look around the city the next morning before heading off on the 3 hour drive to Shipka. Our brief wanderings around Sofia really only gave us time to head to the beautiful Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the center of the main town square. The cathedral is one of the few I’ve seen where there is actually an abundance of space around it, and you can really step back to appreciate in the beautiful architecture.
Our drive to Shipka wasn’t what you would call the smoothest . Roads in Bulgaria range from dual lane freeways where you can sit on the speed limit of 140km/h and still have the locals zooming past you, to a neglected networks of back roads full of pot holes and crumbling asphalt. As we took the sonic route on the way there, our drive was full of the latter.
We arrived at Shipka around 3, with plenty of time to make it up to Mount Buzludzha for sunset. The drive up the winding road allowed us our first sightings of buz, while the snow along the sides of the road gradually became thicker. The weather was actually very kind to us, and considering Buz sits atop a very exposed mountain, when we arrived in the afternoon it was actually quite warm. The hike up to Buz through snow and very icy rocks really didn’t seem like much of a trial…. until the sun went down and the wind decided to pick up, and all of a sudden we seemed very underprepared with the clothing we equipped ourselves with!
Not too many people visit Buz at the moment, its been completely locked up by the current owners, the Bulgarian Socialist party. Locked up, of course, doesn’t mean not getting inside. A scramble and a climb over some ice and through a broken window soon had us inside, and when our eyes adjusted to the contrasting light, we were stunned with a pretty amazing sight. Snow and ice covered the interior of the building, and the sound if it melting and dripping filled the space. The original copper roof has been pillaged years before, and the remaining framework of the roof created an intricate pattern through which light streamed and old bits of tin flapped around in the wind. We spent about half an hour exploring before the sun started to go down, and decided we should probably head down too, as we would be back before it came up again in the morning.
Sunrise was a pretty chilling event, with the wind picking up in the night to gale conditions. Added to the unfortunate event of me locking my gloves in the hotel, we were both frozen to the bone, fingers and toes completely numb, but still somehow managing to operate our cameras. Until, that is, the wind blew mind over on the tripod, and I was left camera-less for the rest of the trip (almost camera-less….you can never really be quite so travelling with Pete!) So, from the adventures of Buzludzha, hope you enjoy the pics.