A white Christmas

Carl, Gav and Suzie wanted another snowboarding trip. After a while searching the deals we booked Bansko for Christmas week 22nd - 29th December.

We had an evening flight this time which meant we arrived in Bansko quite late. On check in we were given some sandwiches and basically went to our rooms and chilled/slept.

We had half board and the next morning we got up early for breakfast. I didn't like some of the offerings and a lot of the hot was cold so this is the only morning I went. After that I went off with them to pick up their boards

They went off boarding whilst I went for a stroll around the town. Bansko is completely different to Pas. Pas was built specifically as a ski resort so everything is new. Bansko is an old town which the ski resort was built around. As it was Sunday I also checked out their local market.

I also picked up some groceries - breakfasts and snacks

I also had another important task...

I spent a lot of this trip watching old crime programmes on one of the few English channels - the main one was the Father Dowling mysteries.

Most evenings we chilled in the hotel bar paying cards

The next day was Xmas Eve They went off boarding whilst i enjoyed a lie in and watched Santa Claus the move on the laptop.

I then went for a long walk around the town before meeting Carl for lunch

Lucky for natures fridge... our mulled wine was heated in a kettle then served in flimsy plastic cups, WAY to hot to touch!

He went back to the slopes for the afternoon. That evening Gav and Suze treated us to a meal out at a traditional restaurant

After we went to the Penguin Bar where they had some live music who were playing some Christmas songs and requests and we virtually had the place to ourselves. We stayed here and saw in xmas day. Feeling festive we headed back to the hotel about 1am at which point I had an important tradition to keep - I have to watch a muppets Christmas Carol before bed on Xmas Eve!

Xmas day

I had bought a few pressies over. and a couple bottles of Asti and gave one to G&S for some morning fizz

They went off boarding and I caught the Gondola up to meet them for lunch

I then spent a few hours in the hotel bar using the wifi to start organising some things for our next trip

When they got back C and I both skyped our parents to wish them a merry Christmas then in was onto a traditional Bulgarian Christmas dinner with entertainment in our hotel

The following day C only spent the morning boarding then spent the afternoon with me wandering around the town where we saw the colourful church. Then stocked up on some incredibly cheap drinks to take home

27th was much the same

we had also booked onto the Pizza and quiz night. We came a respectable 2nd, not bad considering the winners had a much much larger team spanning a large age range

I don;t know exactly what's happening in that second picture but I can 100% guarantee Carl and Gav were messing around!

The final day I had a mission to walk up to the top gondola station to meet them. 10.27km just under 2.5hrs all up a hard hill

Hard work but worth it. I took the Gondola back down.

I have pieced this all together 7 yrs later from the FB photos I have. I haven't shared them all but this paints a picture of our trip.