Halloween

It was a dark and stormy night.

Ok, it wasn't. It was dark and it kind of rained a little at the end, but the evening started out to be quite pleasant when we set off for a nearby monastery. The 6km trail began at the top of Turnovo, and a whole city spread out beneath us until we disappeared around the hill and moved towards the forest. I recalled Halloweens of my youth when we walked through "haunted" forests in the dark and thought it an appropriate day to be taking a dusk hike.

There was a distant sound of what we thought were gunshots, so we made up stories about the gunman in the woods as we continued to walk. It turned out to be a gunboy using a rifle longer than he was at a trapshooting range. We didn't know what was scarier - our gunman story or a child shooting a gun!

After passing the shooting range, we descended into nature, climbing up and down hills, crossing bubbly creeks, and walking over a carpet of yellow lime leaves. Every now and then, the path required a little work to traverse the rocks, but when we reached a peak and could see the city's fortress in the distance, we could catch our breaths and stare at the beautiful sight before us.

Dusk began to fall, putting everything into a cartoon-like state, and the forest came to life. This wasn't entirely pleasant for me, considering I am not a big fan of wild animal encounters and every rock and log was a potential lump of fur to my eyes. I walked with two nature loving guys, however, so that was some comfort.

When dark finally swallowed the last crumbs of the day, the forest became a very black place, though fallen leaves had opened a hole for some of the cloudy night sky to come through. We discussed Brothers Grimm and South American fairytales as if we expected elves and imps to appear on the trail in front of us.

At one point, we encountered a massive boulder perhaps ten feet high that had fallen from the hills above. Each of us immediately saw the same thing - a face in the rock. Not only that, but it was winking at us! Such is the way the eyes work in a darkened forest.

We arrived after 6pm at the monastery, which would have seemed isolated had it not been polluted with the roar of cars on the motorway in the valley below. As the monastery had closed for the day, we sat there a bit and stared at the lighted fortress in the distance before returning to the city by road. Rain began to fall slightly just as we entered the town, but it was still warm so it was not uncomfortable. We ended our Halloween adventure by going to a costume party at a bar filled with university students determined to bring the Halloween tradition to Bulgaria.