This morning, a small group of young runners joined us and ran with us to the outskirts of the city and so, we said goodbye to Montana.

Actually, some of the inhabitants did not want to let us go.

In the early afternoon, we arrived at an enchanting place, Belogradchik. First, we had to cross a pine forest where enormous red rocks appear at every corner.

The feeling that this valley gave us cannot be put into words.

The head of the Ecology department, Mr Georgi Gruev and Mr Ljuben Djuninsky, chief of youth centre received the torch and were very receptive to the values that we try to spread.

They showed us a very special place, which is also the symbol of the city - the Belogradchik fortress. An old Roman castle, it is ideally situated on top of the fabulous Belogradchik Rocks.

The route was very hilly and young runners from a local orphanage were very brave climbing uphill.

Suddenly, after deep breaths, we opened our eyes to an amazing landscape...

Heavy hail surprised us on the top of the castle, so we had no choice but to run away towards Vidin.

A traditional form of hospitality that we experienced in Bulgaria, is to be welcomed with bread and salt. Hmmm... Jaromir (holding the torch) was tempted to try a piece too.

First of all, we had a nice ceremony at a local kindergarten. We had to adapt the program to the age of our audience, but Maria knew exactly how to conquer all the little hearts.

City Hall gave us the opportunity to plant a harmony tree in the main square, to commemorate our passage.

The mayor, Mr Ivan Tsenov together with Mr Oleg Planchev, head of the sports department invited us for a speech inside the city hall. They were both very enthusiastic and the mayor even ran a few symbolic steps with us.

Vidin also has some historical treasures that we took the time to visit, like the old fortress Baba Vida.

We kept on running for a few kilometres to the small village of Antimovo, where Peter, our local coordinator is from.

But just before arriving, extremely heavy rain gave us a complete bath. Strangely, this storm was as intense as it was brief. Once we were at the town hall, the sun appeared and the whole village gathered around us.

Really, every being came.

And even if we felt a little bit like sponges, the shared joy of Peter and people from his village made us forget everything else.

Peter's parents are great supporters; they followed us the whole day and invited us to stay at their house for the night. Many, many thanks for your hospitality and kindness.

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Team Members:
Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Pierre Lantuas Monfouga (France), Valentine Bebik (Ukraine), Janos Derekas (Hungary), Jaromir Horejsi (Czech Republic), Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Rosta Vagner (Czech Republic), Maria Latinova (Bulgaria).

Harmonemail:
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Gallery: See more images!

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