My family visits! (No "Ernest goes to..." joke here.)

My family came a few days before my year anniversary when I first arrived in Bulgaria and history was made. It was strange having them step into my life here and having to translate for them while also resisting the urge to throw Bulgarian words at them. There is so much I want to tell people but you can never really know what it is like somewhere until you see it with your own eyes (<wink wink> I always welcome guests).

Summarizing two weeks of travel would take up too much of my time, and would bore you to tears - i.e.: "and then this guy tried to sell my dad some coins it was so funny, you had to be there!" - so I'll do bullet points.

Places we went:
-Varna on the Black Sea
-Veliko Turnovo, a beautiful town with traditional Bulgarian houses and an ancient fortress.
-Istanbul
-Razgrad, the so-called Bulgarian city of flowers (I'm not sure that is official)
-Pobit kamak, the so-called village with the cleanest air (yeah, I don't think that's official)
-the Thracian tombs in Sveshtari

 

Ok, I go to Varna from time to time so I don't take pictures. But here is one I managed to snap.

 

The fortress Tsaravets in Veliko Turnovo.

 

Me in Veliko Turnovo.

If you are going on a quick trip to Istanbul then here are the key places to go:
-Blue Mosque
-Hagia Sofia
-Topkapı Palace
-Basilica Cistern
-Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar
-the Old Town
-boat trip on the Bosphorus (sit on the side of the boat against the coast or get a private tour)

 

The entrance to the Grand Bazaar

 

 

The spice bazaar- one of my favorite places.

 

The Blue Mosque

 

Interior of the Blue Mosque

 

Interior of the Hagia Sofia

 

Me and my brother!

 

The Basilica Cistern

 

A medusa head in the Basilica Cistern (purposely placed on its side)

 

A view of the Bosphorus from the Topkapı Palace.

 

The only girls I saw fishing on the Bosphorus.

We crossed the bridge and took a five minute tour of Asia and then returned to the familiar land of Europe.

 

A preserved Thracian tomb. The Thracians built the tomb and then covered them with mounds of mud and dirt. They date from the 3rd century BCE.

Along the way we met many interesting people:
-Our taxi driver from Rousse, Bulgaria who was a fan of 80s love ballads.
-The popcorn vendor who looked confused when my mom ordered a small box of salted popcorn when he obviously was sitting in front of an empty vendor's cart.
-The elderly horo group encouraging everyone to dance in the park in Varna.
-The tiny Roma boy in the Veliko Turnovo train station who was energetic, talkative and constantly saying, "Opa!" Everyone stared at my brother, me and the little boy as we sat on the floor of the train station and played a card game in which the rules were random and only known by the boy.
-The rug salesman in Istanbul who was, well, a typical Middle Eastern rug salesman ("Sir, my friend, can I tell you that you have a beautiful wife?").
-The opinionated taxi driver from Veliko Turnovo: "Barack Obama he is smart and a good speaker." "Bureaucracy, that's Bulgaria." "It was better in Communist times!" "If you have money you can get away with anything, <shakes head> That is Bulgaria." "There are no street signs, <shakes head> Bulgaria." "The roads are terrible! <shakes head> That is Bulgaria."
-The baba in my village who grows broccoli but hates it ("Come back tomorrow and I will give you tons of broccoli to take to America.") And who set out lots of fruit and when we didn't finish every last piece thought that we "hated it".
-The shopkeeper in my village who pointed at my mom and asked, "Who is that girl?" -"Umm, that is my mom." Everyone said that she looks "so young!" One baba said, "That's your mom? I thought she was just a friend." And of course the creepy man in the village who smiled at my mom and said to me, "Ooo, she is beautiful."
-My counterpart who described most people's reactions when she introduces me, "She is so young! Where are her parents? She lives alone!!"

Baseball in Bulgaria

*Another old post dating from BC- before computer.

Baseball in northeast Bulgaria is unlike anywhere else. It involves two teams playing in the middle of a soccer field somewhere. No parents on the sidelines, no little league approved uniforms. When we play here, the goats are eating long grass from the soccer stands in ruins, a shepherd leans on his stick and occasionally returns lost balls, a horse in the outfield is hit by a pop fly, teenagers kick a soccer ball in left field, players yell at each other in Bulgarian and Turkish, Roma girls walk their children across the field to the mahala, some teenagers park in the field blasting kyuchek until we yell at them to move or a ball will be coming their way. Not quite the bubblegum baseball of my youth.

Our first tournament of the year was in Razgrad. BTV came and interviewed three of our players. When the interviewer asked our captain Aigun what he like about baseball, he looked at the man like he was crazy and said, "Everything."

I walked a long way to see my team play and got to see them compete in the last game against Razgrad's team. It had all the elements of a Disney movie. Our team, the hero of the film, is from a small town and consists of a ragtag group of young kids. We played against the older, well-clad, cigarette smoking, cursing ruffians from Razgrad. I may have slightly exaggerated but post-game cool-down doesn't involve caprisun and fruit roll-ups for these kids. They're more likely to celebrate with a beer and a smoke.

Top of the second inning we were up 3 to 2. We made 6 runs in the second, ending it 9 to 2. We showed team Razgrad that girls can play just as well when one of our best players, Chrissy, hit a line drive out to right field, making it to third and bringing in three RBIs. But our team was tired. This was our third game of the day and some of our kids had been helping out the team from Turgovishte that was short four players. Our star pitcher, Adnon, was walking everyone who came to bat. Also, we had switched umps during this time to a Bulgarian who made some bad calls. Basically, the point I am trying to make is that Razgrad made a lot of runs in the third. We eventually switched umps again and afterwards they only made a couple of runs. I don't remember the score at the end but it was something like 12 to 24. Seriously, that ump. Despite all of that, little 5th grade Mehmet struck out three hitters in the last inning. In the end we got second place. Not too shabby for my ragtag group of kids.

 

A Razgrad runner on third with Softi nearby.

 

Mehmet takes the mound.

 

Worried looks after the 3rd.

 

 

 

Joe giving the team a pep talk.

 

See how small our team is compared to the uniformed Razgrad team.

 

Nurai and Ahmed's Wedding

***So my computer wasn't working for two months. I'm gonna catch up on my posts.

A week before the wedding I met Nurai, the bride, on the street and she invited me to her wedding. Her husband, Ahmed, is the counterpart of a volunteer in a town near mine. The wedding was a three-day event. On Friday they went to the mosque and had their religious ceremony with family. On Saturday we went to Ahmed's family's house where everyone was meeting. They put the Americans to work, having us blow up balloons for the cars. We all got in cars and drove around the villages in a long train, honking as we passed people. Everyone stopped their work to watch us and the children jumped and waved as we passed.

 

We went to different houses, picking up family members. At each place they had a little ritual they did such as reading something or exchanging banitsa. A band played in the streets and we danced. Others walked around handing out a lot of sweets and cookies.

 

 

 

Then a few of us went back to the house to have dinner. The bride and groom are ethnically Turkish so we had a traditional Turkish dinner. We sat on a carpet on the floor of the barn with a small table in front of us. A hen walked around, a Turkish baba sat watching us and a donkey brayed nearby. We each had silverware and we ate from a communal bowl. When each course was finished the baba would grab the empty plate and put out a new one.

 

Then we all walked to the center of a village where a band had set up. They played and we watched as every baba in the village came, carrying a small stool with them. They sat in a large circle around the village square, watching us dance and celebrate. The whole village came out to watch, standing behind the babas and admiring the wedding party.

 

I can't take good pictures at night (or indoors with my camera) but this is the best I could do of us out in the square.

On Sunday morning we watched as Nurai and Ahmed walked to the civic center with a small band announcing their arrival.

This was the civil ceremony in the mayor's office. There were many traditions: breaking bread, drinking wine, cutting the string tying together the wedding rings and giving the parts to the single people in the room and one of the many "first dances".

 

The trippy ceiling of the room.

 

The father, mother, uncles and sister of the groom.

 

Next we walked to the reception hall across the street. It was filled with about 300 or more people. We were lucky enough to sit in front with the wedding party. They brought out food, gave us drinks, the band played and we danced.

 

Arrival at the reception.

 

Many people came (even all the way from Turkey).

 

When the man plays the sax in your ear you have to do your special dance move.

 

At the end of the ceremony people came up to give money or maybe a gift to the bride and groom. People stood in a line and a man with a mic announced from who the gift came and the amount. They received leva, dollars, euros and Turkish lira. If you gave a significant amount then the band played a short song and you had to dance with the bride and groom. When Joe and I walked up and gave our gift they decided to play a swing dance song and we had to impress everyone with our American dance moves.