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!!"