We suggest that you Google “Koprivshtica” for cultural tourism suggestions. For gourmet tourism and extreme sports, catch up with what Violet Farah has to say.

If you go to Koprivshtitsa by train, it is essential that you get off at the right station. Something a group of friends and I were about to fail to achieve. Yet, bearing in mind that we got on the train in Sofia at 7am, our behavour was reasonably adequate.

Because Koprivshtitsa is in a mountainous area, a van takes train passengers to the town. The ride, lasting 15 to 20 minutes, can be quite an adventure because the driver seems to lack a sense of fear and insists on acting as a travel guide to boot.

Most people go to Koprivshtitsa as cultural tourists. The town is well-known for its museums and historic and cultural heritage.

But this was not a concept that interested us. We had all been on school trips to Koprivshtitsa, one of the must-dos for every elementary school in Bulgaria. Instead, we decided to take an alternative approach: culinary tourism. During our brief one-day stay, we visited every possible mehana (tavern) and continued our trip several kilograms heavier than when we set off. The consensus was that the local strained yoghurt with wild strawberry jam is among the best desserts we had ever tried.

Most mehanas feature live shows at nighttime. Though the singers in the mehana that we chose were not very talented, they managed to generate a lively ambience, despite several power cuts. At the end, the “enthusiastic young group from Sofia” got the chance to perform on stage and embarrass itself in front of quite a lovely group of Chinese tourists.

After a few-hour sleep, we had a final cup of yoghurt and jam for breakfast and left Koprivshtitsa, heading to our next destination ? Bounovo.

Bounovo is a village of 358 residents. It’s tiny, it’s almost entirely de-populated and it’s obscure. The only major landmark is the railroad bridge close to the village. Our second day plan envisioned jumping off the bridge. Alright, not exactly free-falling, we were bungee jumping or at least intending to do so.

Getting to Bounovo from Koprivshtitsa is relatively easy. The local information centre offers updated information on the bus schedule and the trip from Koprivshtitsa to the village takes less than an hour.

Jumping from the bridge is suitable for first-timers because of its relatively low height, slightly over 30m, and the cosy setting. It’s much easier to step into nothing seeing a river and grass below than if the site has asphalt highway and rocks surrounding it. Vertical World extreme club (http://www.verticalworld.net) offers jumps from Bounovo on a regular basis.

The only difficult part of the trip was getting back to Sofia. We waited nearly an hour for a bus that was supposed to come from a nearby town and travel to Sofia. But if all seats are taken, the bus does not go to Bounovo. Plan B is to wait a bit longer and get on the train. And option C, the most exciting one, is hitchhiking.

Well of course, there is an option D, going with your own car. But on the other hand, this would be much less fun.