Mysterious mountain next to Bulgarian Capital. #VITOSHA

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Bulgaria is somewhat forgotten country in Europe. It has slightly sketchy reputation due to its mafia-linked government and regions highly affected by poverty.

However its capital Sofia is a different story. It is a booming town full of energy. Although the architecture here didn't really got into the right hands yet, the city offers its visitors everything one can wish for.

What is very rare situation here is the proximity to the mountain and skiing in winter. This is actually an amazing feature not to be found easily anywhere around Europe.

From the last metro station one jumps on the bus that goes almost all the way to the peak. Or at least to a place with chairlifts, restaurants and prepared pistes.

This time I didn't come all the way up here for skiing. I came to test my newly bought snowshoes. Boy they worked like magic. Only in sketchy places full of pine bush I was slightly sinking into the snowy cover.

I came more or less to test my camera which I have bought in Summer and it did a great job in early Autumn light settings.

This time though it was time to test it for its winter skills. I am still a newbie to RAW format - more workable version of JPEG. It has always been a bit annoying to me to have to render every single picture through a program even if the colors and lighting seems perfect.

Well, I have decided to give it a try this time. Mostly using the automatic enhance option, depending on the shot, the program seemed to give quite interesting results...

However not every time I was satisfied with the results and I proceed with more modifications such as adjusting shadows or saturation.

The Vitosha mountain is a special beast. It has wind safe pockets and totally exposed areas where hardly any snow sticks. This creates a real wild appearance and dangerous feeling. Signs of avalanche danger are present there and it helps boost the adrenaline levels.

I have been to Vitosha many times over this winter and I am always keen on visiting again. The weather is quite unpredictable and experiencing such a blue bird like on this day was absolutely awesome.

It is really known to be a windy place and many people practice snowkiting up there. On my other visit up there I have had the opportunity to meet up with the locals and they showed me around.

Here is a little video report for those interested in extreme sports:

The very name Vitosha might have something to do with wind, but I am no linguist so don't take me for granted. That is just one of the possible theories.

In any case Bulgaria has many more mountains which are much more famous, but I must day I do believe Vitosha is standing strong and proud on the list.

With this I am sending warm greetings to all the travel bloggers still around screaming and kicking on Hive!

It will be my pleasure to give you some more reports while still in Bulgaria.

Have a great day.

Global Local.

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