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Some twenty minutes beyond Dragalevtsi, bus #66 arrives at ALEKO , an expanding winter sports centre with three hotels (the Prostor, Moreni and Shtastlivetsa ), and a range of pistes to suit all grades of skiers. During the summer, the area is packed with weekending Sofiantsi enjoying picnics or taking advantage of the numerous hiking possibilities that radiate outwards from the Shtastlivetsa Hotel , the area's central point of reference. The resort takes its name from nineteenth-century writer Aleko Konstantinov: in 1895, back in the days when hill-walking was an expression of patriotic love for the country rather than mere recreation, Konstantinov led a party of three hundred idealistic Bulgarians (Ivan Vazov was an enthusiastic participant) in an assault on Vitosha's highest point, Cherni Vrah - a climb that marked the beginning of alpine pursuits in Bulgaria. The chair lift from Aleko to Stenata, the crag which overlooks Aleko, usually works on summer weekends. If not, it's quite easy to scramble up there in 15-20 minutes. From here, you can see the 2290m Cherni Vrah ("black peak") straight ahead, a clump of rocks surround by a grassy plateau - an easy 15-minute hike.
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