Day 3 - Aching Legs and more Snow

Today my alarm went off at 07:30am and I hit snooze a few times before finally turning the thing off. I was up late last night watching a film and I couldn't face an early start on the slopes when it came to it. I woke up to find I could hardly lift my head off the pillow thanks to aching neck muscles. I guess this must be something to do with my fall yesterday. My calf muscles were also in particularly bad shape. Thankfully my head is no longer hurting and my cold is getting better.

Fast forward a few hours and we finally made it to the gondola at around midday. The queue was just a big as yesterday but seemed to move more quickly. There had been a lot of snow over night and it was still falling so the walk was a little more tricky today. On to the slope we took the chair lift straight away planning to take the blue run from top of the mountain all the way down. That is run number 10 on the map below.

Unfortunately when we got to the end of the first chair lift we found the next one was shut. That meant we had no choice but to take a red run to reach the bottom. What a start to he day that was! My legs were in agony so I had to stop and rest after few turns. Also the heavy snow had resulted in a bumpy landscape. Mario thought this was great fun but it made the run much more tiring. We weren't the only ones to fall foul of the lift closure. The slope was full of people falling over as they cautiously navigated their way down out of their depth.

I'm not sure why several lifts were shut today when they were open yesterday. I think it might be like back in the UK when the trains stop working because of leaves on the line. Too much snow perhaps? Anyway we decided to cut the day short after a couple of runs so that my legs could have chance to recover. Mario would like me to point out here that I was complaining all day. I don't think he understands just how much pain I was in! I'm hoping that with a good rest I'll be back on form tomorrow.

We took the blue run (number 1) back to base. This is a really great end to the day. It has some sections where you can pick up speed but it is not very demanding after a hard day on the slopes. At the end I took this photo of Mario.

I then popped to the ski hire shop to change my boots for a size bigger. I think that maybe they were too small and that was one reason why my feet were hurting so much. The guy in the shop greeted us with "Hey! Super Mario!" I found that quite amusing but apparently it is not so funny when you have had it your whole life.

For the rest of the evening we went for a walk around the town and you can see some of the snaps below.

	This is me outside the apartments on the way to the gondola.
Mario in front of The Lions Pub where we sampled a glass of hot wine with honey and apple. The place is always full of English people watching the football.
	This is the town square. Very pretty.
And finally a picture that amused me. Imagine parking you car whilst you popped into town for a spot of shopping and coming back to this...

Tomorrow is my birthday so we are going out in search of a nice meal. Hopefully I won't pick up any injuries beforehand. I'm also hoping the snow eases off a little. My goggles are useless in the bad weather and I'm finding I can't see a thing as I hurtle down the mountain.

I found a really useful blog by Lance Nelson who gives great tips for visitors to Bansko along with regular updates on local conditions. I recommend checking out his blog at banskoaccommodation.blogspot.com if you are planning a visit to the resort.