This travel writing piece participated in the 2018 Travel Writing Competition which was done in collaboration with Travel Garage, Egypt‘s must-go to online store for purchasing adventure and travel goodies. Upon landing in a new country, what strikes an Egyptian the most, other than perpetually being surprised that women out of the Middle East happen to show skin, is perhaps the lushness and vegetation that spreads across a foreign (non-desert) country. It could happen, at times, that this lushness is the exact same reason one ends up going to a specific country. In longing for hearing a different tongue, savoring a taste of the Balkans and indulging in fresh mountain air, my eyes scanned the travel books shelf for a country I knew and heard the least about. It was decided. Bulgaria’s Rila Mountains would be my refuge for the summer. Often, tourists flock to this country in order to observe how it has gathered a mesh of Ottoman, Slavic and Greek history and they do so particularly during the summer. Preferring the mountains, my ex-partner and I took to hiking and camping in the mountains for seven days. This writing is…
