Nate and Kara Buchanan finally hit 101 countries with a spontaneous trip to Bulgaria. They drew it randomly in Paris, booked within 24 hours, explored Sofia, and hiked to seven alpine lakes near Rila Monastery.
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If you're new here, we spent the first four years of this channel documenting our journey to 100 countries. In December of 2019, we stepped foot in our hundredth country of Fiji.
Welcome to Fiji.
And just a few short months later, the world shut down. COVID 19, traveling by plane, has become synonymous with one word. Canceled. And that brought us back to the US where we spent the next two years living full time out of our converted sprinter van. It's leaking. After visiting an average of 25 new countries per year, it's now been two and a half years since we've stepped foot in a new country. But that's about to change. Tomorrow, we are traveling to our 101st country. The only catch is we don't know what country that's going to be yet.
All right, I picked one.
I actually can't believe I pulled this one.
Bye.
Bonjour. From Paris. This is not our 101st country. We were actually here back in 2017. We were just little travel babies. We're currently on our way to meet our friend Nathaniel, who is going to help us choose our 101st petcheck.
Bonjour. I'm in the right apartment.
Hello.
Hi.
Nathaniel kind of briefly explained what this is.
Yeah. What is this?
This is my home.
So what we're gonna do, there are 10 countries that we have not been to in Europe. Monaco, Albania, Kosovo, Moldova, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ser. Belarus, and Andorra. We're gonna put those 10 countries on sheets of paper into something that you have laying around this apartment, and you are gonna reach your hand in and choose our 101st country.
It would be my honor.
I do the double poll so there's no cheating.
Yeah.
You think I'm gonna cheat?
I don't know.
Nathaniel, we've only known you for, like, a week.
Pull your own country. Is there a country right now that you particularly feel like going to based off of, I don't know, photos you've seen or anything that you've come across?
Honestly, I know so little about.
Which one do you know the most about?
Bulgaria is where my friend Raya's family is from, so I really want to go there.
I think that's longboard for the one.
I want to go to hang out with her family.
My heart's pounding right now.
Zane. Eight. 19.
I'm so nervous.
You face that way. Okay. Yeah, yeah.
Blindfold. Is that why I'm. What if we use this?
A nasty piece of cloth.
Perfect.
Perfect. A true test. Okay.
Oh, dang.
Are we turning around for this?
Yeah. You guys, face away.
Okay. I wanna hold your hand. I wanna. Oh, Spiderman. Name. Oh, Nathaniel's hand too.
All right, I picked one. I picked one. Okay, wait, I'm gonna put the bucket. Don't look yet.
Okay.
Hold on.
I need my glasses.
Where is it?
That is the country. I actually can't believe I pulled this one. How do we do this?
I don't know. This is a big moment.
Okay, stand right there.
Okay, wait.
This is so chaotic. 3, 2, 1. Bulgaria.
Is your 101st country.
This feels staged.
I know. Sophia is the capital, right?
Yeah.
That's where I should be looking at flights too. Oh, this is perfect. Air France tomorrow at 4:00pm Amazing. And it's direct.
Oh, we have, like, 24 hours.
Hey, nice choice.
Correct flight.
It looks like we're leaving tomorrow at.
4Pm Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it.
Are you coming?
Well, the thought did definitely cross my mind, if that's cool with you guys. I think so.
Nate. Really?
I don't know. Yeah.
Yay.
Is this cool with you guys?
Yeah, I think we're doing it. Let's do it. Why not?
We met a few days ago.
I now have two Nates in my life.
Kara's been referring to us as Carrot and Nate Square.
Okay, I gotta go. I have to go.
Okay, I'll see you guys later.
Bye. He's literally running.
All right, I'm hustling right now. This is my last chance to get film rolls before we go.
Oh, let me zoom this out. There we go. All right. We're literally trying to figure this out right now. We're like, okay, now what? Now we're going. What are we gonna do there?
What are you doing? Learning Bulgarian.
That means hello, and it's not gonna be easy to read. It's.
There's a number from the time we figured out we were going to the time that we're leaving tomorrow. We have 24 hours to plan this trip.
Cafe Molia Coffee, please.
Oh, my God.
So we're going to Bulgaria tomorrow.
Bulgaria.
See you in the morning.
Yeah. I'm saying. I can't even talk.
We're going to Bulgaria tomorrow.
Really crazy.
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Thank you.
Number 101. Here we go.
I think I have to squeeze here.
Oh, there's no Frenchy terminal.
He asked me what terminal in French and the answer is which is 2e.
Wet.
Well said, obviously.
Okay, bye. Bye.
We're going to Bulgaria today. I just can't believe it. I said it like 50 times. We're going to Bulgaria.
She has said that like 800 times.
Oh, your bag is so heavy.
Next stop, terminal 2E. Gate L. Hello.
In this latest episode of Karen and Nate travel the world. We have to figure out what we're doing, what the plans are. We have no nothing booked for tonight.
You're so good at this. I'm just not to talk and you.
Can just narrate the trip for me.
Beautiful snacks, calls.
Any can look at this.
Chicken chips.
I think at this stage right now we're in the transition phase between are we going to Bulgaria to. Okay, we're going to Bulgaria. I am feeling road trip vibes.
How do you feel about hiking?
This is what I'm working with. White shoes are not meant to stay white, so.
Oh, no.
Basically last night I looked at all the cool stuff there was to do in Bulgaria and now we just have to pare it down to a realistic 72 hour period.
So I booked this.
Let's do it.
We spent 30 seconds looking at it. There you go. And confirm and pay.
We have somewhere to sleep today.
I wasn't worried. I wasn't too worried.
One thing I've been thinking about this morning is just how grateful I am that we're able to do this. Choose a country and then show up there within 24 hours without having to worry about testing or restrictions or it's just a beautiful place that the world is in these days and something that I definitely took for granted. Our first four years of travel.
Trying to learn some Bulgarian phrases so we can be well accepted when we get there. That's what I read on the Internet.
So what do we think? Hello.
Is Stravi. Stravi.
Nathaniel knows, like, 40 languages.
No.
Or something like that. He learns them in, like, a day, and then he's fluent.
It's always worth it to learn a few words or phrases. I mean, you're really good at this. People perk up when you use even one word in their language. It's a sign of respect.
Straw.
So say straw. It costs us nothing. It's a beautiful word, and I'm sure people will be like, cool.
This is the last time I am waiting in line at the gate. As a person who's been to 100.
Countries, this is such a funny way of putting it.
Still practicing my Bulgarian. Dovarden. Dovarden.
That's.
Hello, Dovarden. Oh, this is a good one. Ejo.
Yo.
Hey. Ho. Doberton.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Sofia.
This feels a bit surreal, stepping into a new country. This used to be just a part of our everyday life.
This is our 40th country we are.
Flying to our 95th. 96. 99 country number 100.
All right. It needs to be really meaningful. This is a moment.
This was our life for four years, and I realized we couldn't do it. Finally be here is a really big deal. I can't believe I'm not crying, honestly.
We got our bags, and now we're getting our rental car.
Well, that's really fun. 101st country is kind of cool, but. But this is my 41st, and that's cooler.
What should we eat tonight in Sofia.
And what should we eat there?
This is just a salad. This is a typical Bulgarian meat here. This is a typical Bulgarian drink.
Thank you for the recommendations.
Who am I now when I don't know where I'm going?
This is what the Internet really wants to know, though, what it's like to travel with us. What was that?
This is your very fast walking. Like, I can never keep up with you. I'm always, like, trailing with. I'm like, where did Nate go?
I don't know if they know. I've been, like, training for this for years. Like, I had to learn, literally, day one, that at the airport, we walk quickly, really, all the time, especially at the airport.
Oh, really?
All the time. All the time. All right.
Get used to it. Welcome to my new life.
Chasing Nate.
To our gate.
Every single time be four.
Which one? Oh, the noble steed. Is this an SUV though? This is like a car with a slightly higher roof.
This is an SUV in Europe.
Great rental.
This is so much fun. We're in Bulgaria. Woohoo. Where's the excitement, people?
Hold on.
We're in the street, guys. This works in my neighborhood. It doesn't work here.
I think you're actually right.
We're lost. Third time walking up this street.
This looks so inviting.
If you cut something with knife, please do it with only the wooden boards in the kitchen.
What are the instructions for getting inside?
Those are the instructions. It's all in code.
Hi, darling.
Oh, my goodness. That just made my night. Clue number two.
Found a lockbox. It's like a block down the street from the door.
What's the code? The code is.
Step number three complete.
Feels like being in a horror movie.
Wow. Oh, my gosh. The contrast of the outside of this building in this room, it's amazing. Okay, so in here we have karenized room.
Oh, and here's where Ned squared sleeps.
The dining room. Nathaniel's room.
Look at this table. I love all of it. I would live in this apartment.
After getting some food in our bellies, we went on a little bit of a scavenger hunt to find a speakeasy we had been told was at the end of a dark alleyway. You think I should pull this door?
Yeah, pull the door.
I think it's fine.
We try to open this door quietly.
No, there's no way that's. Get out of here.
According to google maps, it's here.
Is this what traveling with you guys is? Because it's taking.
It's almost midnight and care's just going around pulling on random doors.
I thought you weren't leading me astray.
I was one alleyway off.
I have no clue what we've ordered, but it's what the guy that rented us the car recommended. Also, this bar that we've come to is like a speakeasy. That's why we were having so much trouble finding it. And it's only lit by candlelight.
There you go.
Whoa.
Oh, my goodness. I just got kinked in the box. Oh, this one.
Good morning. We only have 72 hours here in Bulgaria because in just a few days, we have to fly to Finland for this very unique event called the wife carrying world championship. We're winning. Since we're only here for a short amount of time, the goal is to squeeze in as much as possible. So let me share the game plan with you. Time to tell you guys the game plan. We watched all of Ryan Trahan's videos. So this morning we are going to explore the city of Sofia. And then later today we're going to drive south into the mountains in hopes of sleeping at a monastery tonight. And then the next morning we'll wake up, hop in the car, drive all the way across the country to the Black Sea and spend as much time on the coast as possible before having to drive back here to return the rental car and then fly to Finland.
Oh, my gosh.
She's got one piece.
No, Kara.
Very excited about one of these things. So apparently a traditional breakfast in Bulgaria consists of banita. It's layers of fila dough with egg yogurt and feta cheese. And in the.
And in the mornings, they drink this fermented drink of some sort that we're about to taste for the first time.
I hate the cheese. It's called bozo, I believe it's like a creamy cold drink. I'll let you guess which one I'm excited about.
Oh, my gosh.
It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. If we're being honest. It tastes like creamed corn. Moving on. Look at this flaky dough.
We ordered three without knowing that they were this big, but I'm not sad about it.
It looks like that's for three people.
Oh, my gosh, it's so good. The feta cheese is perfection.
I wonder what Sophia's coffee is like.
It's official. Bulgaria's coffee is cara. Approach.
So we've come to this big park in the middle of Sofia, and I'm struggling to put it into words, but in a way, I feel like it almost tells a story. On one side of the park you have this old communist era building, and then on the other side of the park you have billboards for McDonald's, Coca Cola, and KFC. It's just a very interesting contrast.
I'm falling more in love with Sophia every single second. Everyone's just out and about on a Monday afternoon. I'm just so happy. I don't know if I would be this happy anywhere. We are because it's a new country, but I do feel like some Sophia is special and I don't want to leave.
It's amazing how much history you can see just from this one spot. I'm currently walking through the remains of an old Roman city that they found underneath the streets of Sofia. There's also a mosque, another building from the Communist era, and then the statue of Sophia herself. I know very little about the city, but you can tell there's such a diverse history here.
It concerns me when there are 12 different cuisines on the same menu. We have fried rice, spring rolls, Greek fried chicken, seafood burgers, fish ribs, and sushi.
So the guy at the rental car place last night told us to eat at this restaurant. This is the most people I've seen in a single restaurant the whole time we've been in Sofia. It's packed.
W.
Are we rolling?
Yeah.
Oh, we've heard a lot about this salad. It's called shastka. It has tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, and shredded cheese on top. I don't know if it's because I'm just so hungry, but this really is.
The best salad ever. Nathaniel. One out of ten.
I'd give this like, an eight and a half, which is a great score.
We're balancing out our salad with a little fried cheese.
Wow.
I'm having a movie. Okay, one more dish real quick.
Oh, yeah. Soup time, baby.
This is called Ch.
Choke.
Choke Baba tarot.
This is the dish that Maggie from the park recommended.
It is somewhere in Bulgaria, and here the best dish is called tarot. It's cucumber soup with Bulgarian yogurt and cucumbers.
You work on that, and I'll keep working on this cheese.
Quick fun fact. I don't know if this is a controversial subject. Apparently there was a scientist in 1905 who was Bulgarian who discovered the bacteria in milk that makes it go bad and turn into yogurt for the first time, and they named it after Bulgarian. So instead of Greek yogurt being, you know, what everybody's heard of, it should be Bulgarian yogurt. So I don't know. It's just what I read.
This is like an entire Bulgarian food tour all at one table.
Keep coming. You're good. Keep on coming.
You got this nice, stressful exit.
I thought it went pretty well.
Wow. So far, driving in Bulgaria has been a breeze, except for the very sketchy intersection that we had to go through leaving Sophia. Go in.
This guy goes. Go.
I mean, I've just been up here enjoying my coffee.
Now that we've gotten out of the city, it is so beautiful and green and mountainous. So I was sad to leave Sofia because I was really enjoying it, but I'm really excited to get to see more of the country. We are currently driving two hours south to the Ryla Monastery, where we've heard you can spend the night. But the problem is you have to call the brotherhood in order to book it, but they only speak Bulgarian, so we're gonna go with the strategy of showing up and hoping for the best.
All right, well, I think we found it. Everyone.
Are we here?
This looks like it.
Wow, look at that mountain.
Your knees and your shoulders have to be covered to go into the monastery. And Nathaniel came to Bulgaria with only shorts.
He's saving my butt right now.
I gave him a dirty pair of sweatpants.
How do they look?
I feel good. I feel good. I feel more respectful.
So do they sink?
I didn't sniff, but I'm taking your word for the fact that they're clean. Man, I hope I'm not wearing dirty pants right now.
This place is absolutely stunning. Even if we don't get to stay the night here, it was totally worth the drive. We haven't even been in the monastery yet, but just the mountains surrounding this place are absolutely incredible.
Do you have any rooms available tonight? Yes.
So asking to stay here felt like a very normal request. And based on the amount of keys that were hanging on the wall, I think there were plenty of rooms available. So we have one room for $10 per night per person. And this very friendly security guard is showing us to our room. Perfect.
Is anyone else a little nervous?
I have no idea what to expect.
No, I'm. No, I mean, I'm in heaven right now. I love the energy of this place. So peaceful, so quiet. A brilliant change, I feel like, from a big city.
Yeah.
We have our own bathroom.
What?
Oh, this is. We're taking our relationship to the next level.
This is awesome.
I love these old windows.
There's a river running right by the monastery, and it just echoes off of all the mountains that are surrounding us and just creates this beautiful, beautiful white noise. It's so peaceful here.
Quick bathroom tour is a wet bath, which means the shower floor is the same as the rest of the bathroom floor. But it looks like there's hot water, toilet, toilet paper, sink. It's just all about expectations. We thought we were going to have a shared bathroom because that's what we read online. So, in fact, we have our own little private bathroom right next to our room Is great.
Another thing that's really special about getting to stay here and is that you can't go up on any of the top floors if you're just visiting. As a tourist, the only way to get up here is if you're staying here and there's just nobody else up here. In a way, this place kind of feels like a Castle or a fortress that's completely encircled by these huge rock walls. And the whole complex centers around this one beautiful church in the middle.
It.
Something for the rings. Do you have wine? White and red.
Red.
Red.
Good choice.
Can we get fried potatoes with white cheese?
Okay. Monastery bread looks okay.
Okay, okay. If you like. I sell it everything here. Are you working here?
The best choice. This one is this one.
This is turning into my favorite thing we've done in Bulgaria.
Really?
So we've come to the only restaurant that's behind the monastery. They said it closed at 9. It was a little after 8. And we walked up and saw a man, woman, and a rabbi sitting at a table with a bunch of beers.
It sounds like a joke. Start of a joke.
What did the rabbi say to the woman? Not funny. And so we just kind of stood there for a minute, like gathering our thoughts. I mean, okay, where are we going to go? I have no idea what's going on neither. We can go somewhere else.
We can look for another restaurant. There's no problem. Yes.
Okay, my friend.
I get uncomfortable in situations like that.
So Nathaniel's uncomfortable. Comfortable. I'm hungry and I'm just like wondering if there was a miscommunication maybe.
Are you hungry? Yes. Yes.
How many views? Are you serious?
Yes.
I've been trying to say thank you. And he's like, don't thank me yet. Oh, no. We got this yummy cheese dip and fries with cheese.
Whoa, baby.
What did you order there?
Oh, killer bread.
Whoa. Thank you.
Wow.
Don't forget, don't forget.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Oh, what a funny dinner. That might be the most memorable part of this entire monastery experience.
Thank you.
So we discussed the game plan. The game plan over breakfast this morning. And we decided to change things up. We realized it was going to be a six hour drive from here to the coast. So we decided instead of going all the way across the country to the Black Sea for less than a day at the beach, we just head further into the mountains.
You just filming yourself?
I just don't even know just the.
Drama of the moment. She's gathering her thoughts. I want. I want everyone to know that right now Kara's gathering her thoughts. Give her a moment.
Okay.
Give me a moment.
The beauty is just too much.
I'm speechless. So all of a sudden we've driven, I don't know, 30 minutes away from the monastery, kind of in this shaded road. And we came out from the trees and it exposed this gigantic, beautiful mountain. Mountains on all sides. It's Just so green and majestic. So we had to stop and get the drone out. Cue drone montage.
How cool does our little car look on this road right now? Best drone shot ever.
I don't know about the best drone.
Shot ever, but we're just really putting Nathaniel to use this trip. All right. We stopped for a quick lunch on the way into the mountains. We just went a tiny bit off the main road and I think we found ourselves at the most local restaurant we've been to the whole time.
Thank you, Pagodaria. We also learned that we've been saying thank you wrong the whole time. So maybe that's why nobody has really cared. It's just tried to say it.
I mean, usually people are very reactive to this kind of thing. So either we're saying it wrong or I don't know what's going on, but they just are not reacting to us saying thank you in their language.
Anyway, the prices at this restaurant, I think are also very local. This huge glass of Bulgarian wine, which is fabulous, by the way, $1. This bowl of traditional Bulgarian bean soup. $1. And this gigantic Shopska salad is 225. We also have a huge basket of bread.
Wow.
The broth is like thick and hearty.
I'm not like the biggest bean soup fan out there, but this is.
This is good.
That entire meal for three people was 27 Bulgarian lips.
Three wines, three coffees, three waters, three soups and three salads. And you got a dessert and we got bread. In all of our travels, I think that is the cheapest meal we've ever eaten.
What has happened?
Oh, this one's been left.
That was interesting. Our next plan was to drive further into the mountains because we had read about this chairlift that takes you to a beautiful hiking trail around the seven mountain lakes. However, pretty sure we're lost. Oh, gosh. Ow. So I just put like seven lakes chairlift in my maps and it's taking us on this like one lane mountain road that is very.
It's falling apart.
Yeah. I'm just not sure if, like this really touristy thing would include this drive. Do we even figure out a deer park? Bears in Bulgaria?
I think for sure.
Yeah.
We still have 9 minutes, 4.1 km.
According to the map.
Oh, that looks like an off road jeep road. Does it want us to go straight here? Because we're not doing that.
Yeah, it does. Everything was going so smoothly today. How do you say oh in Bulgarian?
All set.
Let's hit the road. We may get to go on this.
High capital Half a mile, turn right.
Oh. So we just came up this super sketchy road for no reason. At least this wasn't as bad as the detour that it took us on in Mexico. What in the world?
There's no way. Right.
And we're off. Thank you.
It's different. They were very serious about their job getting us on this chair safely.
All right.
Literally squeezing me so hard, I thought.
I was going to have a bruise. Up the mountain we go.
Nathaniel, have you ever ridden on a ski lift?
No.
I have a fear of heights.
Oh, no.
Did you know he had a fear of heights?
Yeah, we watched one of his videos where he got talked into jumping off a cliff with yes theory.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
You're doing great.
How you feeling, Nathaniel?
Not good. I think I'm just gonna close my eyes.
I think he's distracted.
This is called distraction.
Yeah.
Hello.
Don't burden. This is so funny. Usually on a chairlift, we're skiing and nobody's coming down. And so you don't have this awkward, like, long, slow pass by someone. But it's actually pretty cute because a bunch of young people are coming down and they're practicing, practicing their English, and we're practicing our Bulgarian.
Hello. Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
Dobardin.
That worked.
It worked. Go by then.
Nope.
Maybe they're not Bulgarian. Hi. Oh, this is so nice.
Wow. Look at that.
I feel like we're in a painting right now. Like, this does not look real.
Okay.
Open. Open left here. Left.
Nice. You did it.
Here. Get out of the way of the chair. Get out of the way of the chair.
Are you okay.
Daniel?
We've made light of this, but he just conquered a real fear.
He really did.
I always forget how much I love the ground when I leave it.
Good work, though. For real? For real.
Worth it. Worth it. I think this will be really cool.
Wow, it is so beautiful up here. The chairlift has brought us up to the top of this mountain range. And there are seven alpine lakes up here. And there's a five hour trail that should take us to all seven of them. And there's four and a half hours until the sun sets, so we'll probably be hiking down in the dark and the. The cold. I think we've made a poor choice of. Of clothing, but Nathaniel only brought shorts, so I thought I would join him in his misery.
I even brought a hat. The views from up here are absolutely incredible. I'm sure the beach would have been amazing, but I'm kind of glad we ended up.
Yeah.
And I'm third wheeling this whole trip. So this is me shooting the shot.
