Random Photo: Anti-Fun Bulgarian Town

This Bulgarian town near the Black Sea is pretty much against all fun. Or at least adults, children, balls, homes and means of transport. I guess video games are cool?

The best value holiday destinations in 2011

Again with David, this time for one of the most internationals guest post of all. Tagged with no more and no less than eight different countries from four different continents :)

Turkey - The popularity of Turkey as a holiday destination has rocketed over the years and one of the reasons for this is the value for money if offers. Whilst the prices in shops, bars and restaurants have risen as the numbers of tourists have increased, you can still get a fantastic deal on all inclusive holidays in Turkey which will no doubt prove to be a popular option for many planning their summer holiday in 2011.


Spain - Whilst it hadn’t exactly fallen of the radar, the poor exchange rates had meant that some people were abandoning Spain in preference for other destinations with more favorable exchange rates. Times have certainly changed now though and the weak Euro will likely see tourists flooding back to visit Spain, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands. Now offering great value for money, with hotels, shops, bars and restaurants fighting for business, there’s no doubt that normal service will be resumed and Spain will once again be one of the best value holiday destinations in 2011.


Egypt - Undoubtedly one of the most popular holiday destinations in 2010, the trend of Brits heading abroad to Egypt on holiday looks set to continue into 2011, despite the negative press coverage the country received due to the shark attacks at the end of last year. The year round sunny weather is an obvious reason why Egypt appeals to so many people but there’s much more to the country than that. The beautiful beaches, numerous things to see and do and the amazing all-inclusive hotels mean that Egypt only looks like getting more and more popular with tourists going forward.


Thailand - Whilst the inclusion of Thailand in this list may surprise some, anyone hoping to travel slightly further afield on a budget this year should place Thailand high on their list of potential destinations. In past years, a common consensus has been that it is expensive to get to Thailand but cheap once you get there. This is still true to a certain extent but with the number of flights leaving airports from all around the UK and not just London increasing all the time, getting to Thailand is becoming easier and cheaper all the time. With so much to see and do once you get there, you should be sure to consider Thailand as a holiday destination this year.


America - Another country which perhaps isn’t the most obvious value holiday destination is the USA. Always a favorite with tourists around the world, Florida and Las Vegas are particularly popular with tourists. America’s greatest appeal is that there is so much to see and do there. No matter whether you’re a solo traveler, a couple, a group of friends or a family, the US has something for everyone. Renowned for its theme parks, the US is also a favorite with shopaholics as it’s possible to save significant amounts of money when the exchange rate is favorable. Whilst the exchange rate isn’t as good as it was a couple of years ago, it is still fairly stable and you can still pick up some good deals. With more and more flights leaving to America every day from the UK and many hotels and theme parks offering discounted rates because of the slow US holiday market, 2011 may see plenty of tourists heading across the pond to the US on holiday.


The Algarve, Portugal - A destination that relies heavily on British visitors, the competition to attract guests in 2011 has seen prices at hotels, restaurants, shops and bars slashed in an effort to tempt UK visitors back. This price cutting is likely to serve its purpose as Brits will flood back to The Algarve this year thanks to the low cost holidays on offer. The great beaches and Mediterranean climate along with the fairly short flight times and costs will be sure to appeal to many in 2011.


Iceland - Despite not being one of the most renowned tourist destinations around, Iceland is a great budget holiday destination and a favorite with adventure seekers. As a result of its weak economy, accommodation and food costs have been slashed in an attempt to reignite the tourism industry, something that plenty of Brits will be happy to take advantage of. With more flights leaving the UK, it is fairly inexpensive to get to Iceland and the stunning scenery on offer combined with the low cost of traveling and staying in Iceland will make it a winner with tourists in 2011.


Bulgaria - Another destination that has seen a boom in visitor numbers, Bulgaria is still one of the best value tourist destinations around despite its spurt in popularity over the past few years. Whilst it may be slightly more expensive that it was, it is still very cheap compared to other holiday destinations around the world. For those in search of beach holidays, there’s Sunny Beach which is a popular resort with, as you would expect, a nice sunny beach. There are also a number of beach front bars, restaurants and clubs that make it a popular destination for people looking to unwind. On the opposite end of the scale, there is Bansko which is a popular ski destination between December and May each year. Whether its sand or snow you’re after, Bulgaria may be the perfect destination for you.


Written by the team at travelsupermarket.com, a travel price comparison site which specializes in finding cheap holidays, hotels, flights, airport parking and everything else relating to travel.

Feature: '72 Moskvitch Roadtrip in Bulgaria

We all have dreams. I lived one of mine, buying and driving an old Soviet baby-blue car up/down the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. I wrote about it for the January edition of Lonely Planet magazine (here's the link to the story).

I'll post more photos soon.

Talking 2011 on ABC News Now

Yesterday I appeared on ABC News Now to discuss some of the lists made in Lonely Planet's new Best in Travel 2011. Talked about Albania's Ottoman-era houses, Japan's $40 guesthouses, the notion of 'communism travel' and re-enactments from the upcoming 150th anniversary of the Civil War (here's my video on how they decide who dies first). Yes, I squeezed out a Will Ferrell movie idea and (not unrelated) Teutonic Knights.

Of the Power of Travel Writing

Three American 'hikers' were detained in Iran after, apparently, straying across the Iraq-Iran border into a country that's surely paying attention to their writing records (one has reported from rebel-held territories in Sudan) as well as the pains the US went to to free journos in North Korea. The subject came up Thursday on NPR's On the Point, and I was feeling a fancy boots to be part of a huddle that included a State Department official and a former CIA guy. The latter, Robert Baer, guessed that the 'Berkeley bloggers' had to know what they're doing, saying he'd been 'in the area' and you have to 'cross on purpose.'

Not so, according to Joe of Joe's Trippin' blog, whom I found a couple hours earlier on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree. He had been recently to the same hills outside Halabja, Iraq, and posted that 'it's impossible to know where Iraq ends and Iran begins.' I wrote him off-line to ask about it, and he told me: 'There used to be an open border just outside the city, but it has been closed for some time and there are no plans to open it. I was invited to celebrate with some locals in the hills, at which point they indicated (by pointing) there's Iran.'

That's not something noted in any articles of the event so far. And it's the place where travel journalists and travelers can fit into the news -- helping complete a picture that can all too often be skewed toward easily formed outside perceptions. Sometimes if you're only chasing news stories, you miss the story. Like the fact that Iraqi Kurdistan ('the Other Iraq') isn't what most would expect: it's a safe, booming place, with stylish cities with bowling alleys, whiskey bars and many locals who love Americans. Travel writing cannot replace traditional media, but (when not limited to crafting Top 10 lists) it can add to it.

Writers often strive to 'go further' than each other. Something that's been happening since way before 1890 when Anton Chekhov became the first 'Gulag tourist' by living in a penal colony on Sakhalin Island AND Joseph Conrad drifted up the heart-darkening Congo River. Often that leads travel writers to riskier, tougher places too, like Iraq. It can be a useful chest-beat, if the writer shows the broad, fair reality for those energized by the dreams dangled before them.

In a May article in the Guardian, for example, Kevin Rushby follows a fellow traveler who didn't 'give a flying f*ck' about the Foreign Office warnings against travel to Yemen. It's a fine article, and one that rightly dwells on the security issue of visiting, but I'm guessing that traveler, at least, felt differently a month later when nine tourists were slain there.

Sometimes a lot less is at stake in travel writing and experience. I've traveled across Bulgaria several times to write Lonely Planet's Eastern Europe guide. When a funny South African stoner I met at a Sofia hostel told me he was looking to buy property ('in the hills, with a garden and not many people around'), I knew where to point him: the eastern stretch of the Rodopi mountains, something not even in guidebooks yet. I forgot about it until last year, when I returned to Kardzhali in those same hills, and a local mentioned a nearby 'crazy South African guy.' We went to find him, driving one one-lane roads pastTurkish goat herders. And there he was, the same guy, now with a big home converted from an abandoned school in the hills, with a garden -- and his bong.

Bulgarian real estate agents focus on the beach or ski resorts. That tip came from being out there, traveling.

47 or so Dumb Things I've Done Traveling

Twenty years ago, I was a quarter way through my first Eurail check-the-country-off-the-list trip across Europe -- London to Rome in 20 days. I don't regret it, but sometimes I think twice about how I spent that July 14 -- the 200th anniversary of Paris' Bastille Day. I was time-killing a day a few hours north in Bruges, leisurely walking by canals, sitting in quaint parks, getting ice cream in waffle cones from heart-melting blondes with long eyelashes and no apparent knee-jerk distaste for Americans, then boarding a train for Amsterdam, shrugging off Paris for future trips.

A regret? Or just plain dumb?*

Here are a few more that just might qualify for my list of things I might have done differently given a second chance:

1. Not accepting the invitation from the Hungarian film crew to camp at a gulag eight hours north of Magadan, Russia.
2. Living a year-and-a-half in London and taking all my trips (on budget airlines) to Germany and Italy, never seeing things like my namesake's birthplace, Scotland.
3. In 1989, skipping Berlin. 'Two cities in one? Big deal.' A few months later the wall came tumbling down like a John Cougar Mellencamp song.**
4. After James Brown died, there was a huge celebration of JB's life outside the Apollo Theater in Harlem, a 30-minute subway ride away. I watched it on TV.
5. Worn out in Bulgaria, I spent the airline's $200 change fee to fly back one day early. Really?
6. I trusted the 'where you from?' from a grisly guy with a huge fake smile in a Guadalajara bus station. While I answered cheerfully, his pal took a backpack from under my feet behind me. They didn't get much: just my camera, $200 and my passport.
7. Putting my passport in a backpack in Guadalajara.
8. Five years of living in San Francisco = not once going onto the bay. Not Alcatraz, not a ferry to Sausalito, where Chevy Chase lived in the immortal film Foul Play.***



9. On a study trip to Russia in 1992, yelling at the lady tour guide on a night St Petersburg bus tour to 'put the Stones tape in' after my unsuccessful debut with vodka. (I was successful getting the Stones tape in though.) Sorry Natasha!
10. Speaking of St Petersburg, I spent six weeks there. Time spent in the Hermitage? About 45 minutes.
11. In other museum underachievements, after 11 years or so living in New York City, total time in the Met? About 80 minutes.
12. Never going to Laos.
13. Or Cuba.
14. After driving purposely way out of my way to see Manitoba, spending only four wakeful hours in Winnipeg. (Though managing to see Louis Riel's grave -- and eat some bad Italian food.)
15. Not getting a photo with the Detroit Red Wings staying in the same hotel in Pittsburgh (while competing for the Stanley Cup) in June 2009.
16. Not spending longer than 10 minutes at a sprawling gypsy horse fair outside Odorheiu Secuiesc, Romania.
17. Spending a week in Punjab, India, and visited the Sikh's Golden Palace in Armitsar -- a short bus ride from Lahore, but never even considering going crossing into Pakistan. May not have that chance again.
18. Not going up the CN Tower in Toronto because it IS too expensive (from C$22). (See it apparently get hit by a rebuking lightning a couple times, following.)

19. Eating one too many street barbecue beef skewers on a stick in Yangon, and spending two days vomiting.
20. Turning down the offer to stay a night on a floating house outside Chau Doc, Vietnam.
21. Driving into a thunderstorm during a tornado warning because I really didn't want to wait another day for my first glimpse of Nebraska. Had plenty of time to mull that one over, parked under a dentist's car park down-wind, while watching half the town pouring into a Wal Mart to huddle in sales sections away from windows.
22. Letting the film development shop in Tulsa throw away my photos from a trip to Rome after I complained (rightfully) that they didn't do a good job.
23. Turning down an invitation to hang with Civil War re-enactors camping by a basketball court at a forgotten battle event in southeastern Iowa. (See photo at top of post of completely different re-enactment.)
24. Skipping Mesa Verde during a five-day trip to Durango, Colorado.
25. Going whale-watching on an August trip to touristy Bar Harbor, Maine. Didn't see a minnow.
26. Going to Bar Harbor, Maine -- at least in August.
27. Obeying my parents who wouldn't let me, at age 16, to drive on a school night nine hours to Memphis with a free backstage pass for a REM show. (On the Fables tour!)
28. Not traveling more in Eastern Europe from 1989 to 1992, especially.
29. Only driving through Albuquerque. (At least AC/DC's 'TNT' was on the radio.)
30. Summer 1991: Too much time in Vienna, not enough time in Czechoslovakia.
31. Having laundry done in places like Khabarovsk, Russia, where dry-cleaning-prices-plus cost more than buying new clothes.
32. Driving across Western Kansas and skipping Mt Sunflower. Children, don't do what I've done!


33. Russia 1991 study trip: throwing vegetables at trams from our hotel window, tossing penny soccer games out of skyscrapers. Mostly it was Pete the minor league baseball player's fault.
34. Not keeping much of a journal while living 18 months in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in the mid '90s.
35. Not spending the night, or more time, much much more time, in Kavarna, Bulgaria - the heavy metal capital of the world.
36. Another Bulgaria burp (there are many): Not climbing through the smashed ground-level windows of this building to see the towering commie mosaics inside:

Admittedly the place, with its front steps smeared in a LOT of cow dung, freaked me out.

37. Not going to Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, when I had a chance in 1991, a few months before the war broke out.
38. Never going to Spain or Ireland, particularly when they were cheap.
39. After my trip, only once calling the lovely Grewals, the Sikh family who hosted a week-long stay in Chandigargh, India in 1997. Then losing their contact info.
40. Leaving my passport in my $8 room in Valladolid, Mexico, having to get off the bus on the highway, hitch-hike back to retrieve it.
41. Losing my photograph with Chris Jagger -- brother of Mick -- who wore a Tibetan hat after a regrettably bad cajun gig. (Watching live cajun/zydeco music by unfamous British brothers of famous British rock stars is another huge regret of mine. I can't seem to help myself.)
42. Losing my photographs of a great great day riding on the back of a local's bike and getting an airbrushed sign made in Batambang, Cambodia.
43. Staying with a Mexico City family in 1990, I bought some fake feces at Chapultepec and played a trick on kids way too young for the humor (maybe two years old?). Lesson: Save the fake feces for pranks back home.
44. A few hours to spare in touristy Deadwood, South Dakota with my dad, talked about dressing up as 19th-century gold prospectors for a hokey photo, but not doing it. This is easily outweighed by having my only just-dad-and-me trip and hearing his unguarded 'oh!' at first glimpse of Mt Rushmore, less than a year before he died. But I do have a photo with him at the taco truck outside Lonely Planet's Oakland offices:

45. On a two-date 'Indiana tour' (both in Greencastle) while playing guitar for the 'parted hair hardcore' band Tall Tales in college, we couldn't convince Mitch to call in sick and stop in at Six Flags Mid America in St Louis. Big-time regret, here.
46. Wetting my pants at my debut visit of Tulsa's legendary Woodland Hills Mall. Not sure if it was excitement or just plain nerves. Either way, my baseball uniform? Soaked from the waist down.
47. Not sending more post cards.

--> Feel free to share your dumb moments here, or at a new Lonely Planet 'Dumb Travel Moments' group I just started up.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* Actually I think skipping a huge event like that isn't always a bad idea. Missing a walled-up Berlin is another matter.
** Please make the time to rewatch the John Cougar Mellencamp video to help me answer two key questions: At 2:32 mark is that really him sliding down tall ladder? And, at 2:48 mark, is that Mellencamper doing the moonwalk?
*** Anyone remember when Chevy Chase was funny? Vacation is to blame for the decline. It's good, but didn't play to his strengths. In Vacation, Chevy was clumsy and dumb. He's at his best, particularly in Fletch, when he's clumsy and smart. Probably his agent's fault.

44 Little Travel Rules No One Tells You

I've gone a few miles over the years. And here are 44 little things about travel I picked up on the way.

1. Wash your hands before you sleep, unless you don't mind it if cute rats lick your fingers clean.
2. When kindness comes from strangers, accept it. If you don't know if they expect a tip, you can offer one -- but don't insist when/if they refuse.

3. Animals will probably attack you if you try to give a Snickers to them.
4. It's wise to remember your passport. And don't pack it in a checked-in suitcase like Louisianan Trey Williams did going to that study-abroad program to St Petersburg during that 'first summer of Russia' (1992).
5. Try to accept all invitations -- you really should have time for that cup of tea the silver-haired couple offer you from the balcony in their summer home in Zakopane, or go camping with that Hungarian film crew at a Russian gulag.
6. Car passengers see less than bikers, bikers see less than walkers, walkers see less than stoppers -- ie those who stop and watch.
7. It's OK to have a Coke without ice.
8. It's OK to have beer with ice.
9. It's OK to use your hands to eat.
10. You don't HAVE to eat the larvae or crickets though.
11. Don't use middle finger to beckon locals, or indicate they're tops.
12. Ownership of stuff varies where you go. So when the Indian guy on the overnight bus from Udaipur to Delhi borrows your iPod without really asking, don't get mad, because when you're shivering later on he'll instinctively lend you half his blanket.
13. People without much education abroad often seem to be better educated than a lot of people back home.
14. Always shop for locally made stationary, and buy it when you see it -- it's rarer to find these days.
15. Pack quick-drying, if ugly, clothes but at least one sorda nice shirt so you can see the Budapest opera like I didn't.
16. It's OK to just want a damn hamburger or watch Pretty Woman on channel 31.
17. It's OK to get frustrated or mad sometimes, just try to keep it to yourself as much as you can.
18. No, you don't have to take a group tour, or have advance reservations. But it doesn't automatically make you a bad traveler if you do.
19. Too much hassle where you are? Look around. If you are in the majority -- as foreign traveler -- walk two blocks to another part of town, and get out of that tourist ghetto you're probably in.
20. It's OK to have an opinion of a place, but don't think you 'know' a place after spending two/15/306 days there.
21. Try a couple days without the camera or email.
22. Museums can be great, but are overrated as day-filler attractions.
23. Seeing movies and sports in foreign countries are underrated day-filler attractions. Like the time topless Guatemalan guys hugged me at a Mother's Day b-league soccer game in Xela as they tossed fireworks through the chain fence to police decked up like Storm Troopers.
24. It's OK to be uncomfortable, just be honest if something isn't right for you.
25. Italy is the Citizen Kane of the travel world. It gets all the accolades, and deserves them.
26. You can get as much out of a trip to Western Kansas as Laos. If you try.
27. Always go to visitors centers. Sometimes they give free cookies or popcorn, and the flirty staff sometimes invite you to go out and get drunk (nothing more), as they do in Bogotá.
28. Socks-with-sandals is underrated.
29. Buy a hat. Always buy a locally made hat.
30. Don't put all your expenses in one place -- hotel, hotel restaurant, hotel tours, hotel souvenirs etc -- try to spread out your money for maximum positive effect.
31. Agree on a price before you close the door with any taxi -- that is, if they have a door.
32. Russians look mean, but down deep they're softies that will shame you with their warmth, feed your with their home-grown tomatoes, then intoxicate you with their suddenly produced frosted bottle of vodka.
33. Language-learning vacations -- with homestays and eating beans for supper, particularly in secondary towns off the tourist radar -- is one of the best things you can do abroad.



34. Write a post card. Or am I the only one who feels sorry for post card lobbyists in these digital days? [See the best post card of all time, above.]
35. At small, out-of-the-way museums, ask if the curator will show you around. Sometimes they are and are thrilled to show off the dinosaur bones they personally dug up.
36. Seek out the passionate. Those who love what they do -- making belts, writing poems, pumping gas -- can make you appreciate things you didn't think you were interested in.
37. Take public transit -- a tram (I LOVE trams), subway, ox cart -- at least once, even if you don't need to get where it's going. So few Americans EVER take one, it's sad.
38. Try to take pictures of things that might change: street signs, people's shoes, homemade sandwich ads, key-maker tools, overly bright fashion, heavy metal haircuts, grandmothers selling a single toothbrush outside a Moscow subway station after the USSR fell. Old churches and statues rarely change much, some of that other stuff maybe gone tomorrow.
39. Tip appropriate to local custom.
40. Returns trips to a place are OK, but try not to limit yourself to your next three trips to Las Vegas 12, 13 and 14.
41. Squat toilets are better than sit-down toilets. But it really is still best keeping toilets and showers segregated.
42. Always give one day to a trip to an 'up for grabs' experience -- a rented car to get from A to B, with random stops at unplanned places. You will likely remember it longer than the Met.
43. The tacos might be better back home but please don't say it for all to hear in Cancún.
44. Travelling alone is something everyone should do at least once.

Top 57 Things in Bulgaria

Bulgaria -- in legend, if not tourism -- sometimes gets lost amidst its neighbors: Greece, Turkey, Romania. I've gone four times on research trips and it's kinda my favorite country. I like it more every time I go.

I could probably say why with ten highlights, but why stop there when 57 feels so good?

In no order:

1. Locals shake head yes, nod head no.
2. The love of yogurt.
3. Ketchup on pizza!
4. Hitchhiking is OK.
5. That Plovdiv is littered, really, with Roman ruins.
6. Going on NDK roof deck, without permission, in Sofia.
7. The little Sofia ice cream stands on Vitosha Boulevard.
8. That Veliko Tarnovo has the same birthday as me, and William Shatner (March 22).
9. The northernmost point of Bulgaria -- near Vrav -- is marked by an insane asylum on the Danube.
10. Wine's great. Really great.

11. Shumen's kinda ugly mountain-top '1300 years monument' of Cubist Don Quixote sculptures (above).
12. Renting cars CAN be very cheap -- try Veliko Tarnovo.
13. The Black Sea isn't at all black.
14. Revival architecture, cute Hansel & Gretel type villages.


15. Sofia's Studentski Grad -- commie dorms turned into nightclubs. I wrote about it for The New York Times.
16. Varna AWAY from the beach.
17. Thracian ruins, like Perperikon near Kardzhali.
18. Mountain roads.

19. Beaches with no one on them (or maybe two people), like the pictured shot near Sinemorets.
20. Sofia has a yellow brick road center.
21. Cute village of Shiroka Luka in the Rodopis has a clickety clackety name and dung heaps.
22. The vistor's information center in Smolyan (the one not in the center) is run by a woman that looks like Joe Perry of Aerosmith.
23. The bus station lady in Shumen likes talking about her grandkids.
24. You stumble upon old Roman roads everywhere, like the cliff hike above Bachkovo Monastery (where I lose my sunglasses -- you see them?)
25. Crafts. People do them, like in villages such as Tryavna.
26. Rakiya brandy.
27. Walking along the river and up to ancient forts in Rumenski Lom National Park, near Ruse at the Romanian border.
28. Belogradchik looks like a lost Lords of the Rings setting, fort walls surrounding animated rock formations (pictured at top of post).
29. Kotel has bad hotels, but a really nice B&B.
30. Views of Kazanlak from Shipka Pass.



31. The heavy metal town of Kavarma (above), which has murals of Uriah Heep and William Idol on commie-era housing blocks.


32. The land's end fortress at Kaliakra Cape (above).



33. The northwestern corner of Bulgaria -- the 'pinkie' -- and its overlooked Danube town Vidin.
34. Stopping at village homes and having them slaughter a 'baby lamb' for you.
35. Banitsa -- pastry with white cheese -- for breakfast.
36. A statue of a man with a very large moustache in Ruse.
37. Soviet soldier statues.

38. That you're supposed to stop for buffalo yogurt when you drive up Shipka Pass (above).
39. The purple-haired woman in Dobrich who insisted on interviewing me for Dobrich TV for no apparent reason.
40. Hostel Mostel in Veliko Tarnovo and Sofia.


41. People make you dance.
42. You can buy very good quality 30-year-old Soviet cameras for $10 outside Sofia's Nevski Cathedral.
43. Rila Monastery.
44. Mountain hikes in the Rodopi, Rila or Pirin mountains and overnights in hizha (huts).
45. That its Tsar refused to hand over Bulgarian Jews to the Nazis, and died for it.
46. It's the birthplace of the Cyrillic alphabet -- not Russia.
47. The hike to ruined churches on the hill south of the wine town Melnik.
48. Watching the Citadel light show in Veliko Tarnovo for free when the tour groups shell out a couple hundred dollars for it.
49. Getting invited to wilderness birthday parties with emptied Coke bottles filled with wine.
50. Getting drunk with truckers who tearfully lament Freddie Mercury's death.
51. Trying to like chalga, the much maligned trashy Balkan disco.
52. Serious off-the-train-now, passport-checking interrogations entering Bulgaria at Ruse, at the same time taxi drivers offer rides, and goofy security guards ask about California.
53. Shumenskoe beer. Better than Zagorka.
54. Plovdiv's cobble Old Town.
55. The very cozy, very personal Rodopi Smile Hostel in Kazanlak.
56. Getting mineral water, like the locals, at one of many wells around the country.

57. The unreal, scary 'UFO' building -- gutted, and surrounded by cow dung -- near Shipka Pass.