When I first heard about the Pi Int Bulgaria trip, all I could picture was what I’d seen on shitty English TV – big sunny beaches packed with British tourists wearing wife beaters, drinking WKD’s, catching STD’s and beating each other up!
You can imagine my disappointment when I arrived in a beautifully unspoiled country, full of amazing skate spots and equally as amazing people to push wood with!
The madness started in the capital Sofia, where I met with the crew that I was soon to be shoved into a sweat box and carted off around the country with for the next ten days.
This rag-tag bunch of weirdos consisted of myself, Petar, Teodor, Valio, Mi Ro and Smith plus a few other people along the way.
Being the transition slut I am, the highlight of Sofia for me was being taken to an old rust box of a mini/vert ramp shoved next to an old soviet monument. That thing was screaming hepatitis which just added to the fun!
The ramp took no prisoners and served up an unhealthy concussion to a local girl that had been riding it…I called it a day after that!
From there we headed to a small town in the middle of nowhere called Botevgrad and spent the day chilling in the sun and riding one of the many old monument ledges that was on offer…not the easiest thing to skate but slapping on plenty of wax seemed to do the trick.
The following day we ended up in a zoo in Pazardzik riding a metal mini that felt like it was shaped by the animals, followed by a long drive to D-grad avoiding torrential downpours and motorway hookers to find a DIY pool hidden in some woods….one of the best spots of the whole trip!
Next stop was Stara Zagora for a quick evening session in an old ditch, filled with friendly glass and rubble to cushion the fall…before moving on to Sliven where we managed to get the keys to spend the night in a private skate park.
Eventually we ended up in Varna for a few days chilling at a skate park just a few minutes from the sea…bliss!
All in all the trip that lasted a week and covered 9 cities was a cheap beer and gin fuelled one. Going from spot to spot, skateboarding for a solid 6-8 hours a day; sleeping in some questionable accommodations, on mattresses with some unquestionable stains, and I even got a nights kip on a mini ramp!
Bulgaria was never short of entertainment, whether it was getting wasted and skating in a bar called the ’Grindhouse’, or giving the local drunk a skateboard to play on, whilst he explained to us about his “wife” (which I fear may have been one of the local stray cats).
The whole trip was an amazing experience with plenty of crazy moments thrown in. Everywhere we went, the locals seemed welcoming and happy enough to have us skating their spots, which is surprising considering at one point I didn’t wash for three days!…
Then again I couldn’t understand what they were saying half the time…but hey, ignorance is a bliss!
Big thanks to Pi Int and everyone else I met along the way for making the trip what it was, I wouldn’t have changed a thing (except maybe my socks a little more often!)
Text by Tom Mitchell
Photos by Teodor Peevski
