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Sunday, June 12, 2011

Bulgaria travelogue concluded

My wife looked at the first installment of my travelogue this morning and told me that I used to drive the same way I said our chauffeur drove, which is a real shame, given that, for rhetorical effect, I was exaggerating the way our chauffeur drove (we never actually got close enough for me to literally touch the vehicle we were passing; the vehicle would have had to slow down suddenly before we swerved to pass it in order for me to have had that opportunity).
    My wife told me that I used to drive that way in town, then, on the freeway, where the speed limit was of course much higher, I'd slow down.
    Well, you can never quite believe what a wife says about her husband's driving.

But she was right when she said that we'd told our son about our trip months before he started his Bulgaria blog. I was taking some license for the sake of the joke I was trying to concoct. In fact, our son is an extremely busy musician. What's amazing, actually, is that he was able to blog as much there for a few weeks as he did. We both hope that he'll soon find the time to continue.
    In fact, if he does, I'm sure that we'll find many more items to inspire us to visit Bulgaria again. As it is, we'll probably go back in 2014.

Anyway, here are the rest of the photographs of our trip that I plan to publish here, continuing with our stop in Nessebar on our drive from Balchik to Plovdiv on Friday, progressing to our visit to another botanical garden on Monday in Sofia, and concluding with our visit in Rila and Blagoevgrad on Tuesday.
    Of the places I've mentioned, either in the text or in captions, only Balchik, German, Nessebar, and Rila are so small that you may not be able to find them on the map I provided with the first installment. Balchik is on the coast north of Varna; German is a southern suburb of Sofia; Nessebar is a coastal island, or isthmus, south of Varna; and Rila is between Sofia and Blagoevgrad, a few miles north of the latter.

Thanks for their handy map
to whatever restaurant provided the flier

Nessebar's picturesque little harbor

I'm embarrassed not to be able to tell you what ancient ruin
this was (from quite a few hundred years ago),
on perhaps Nessebar's highest ground

A street in Nessebar, but not the one where the shop
was located from which my wife bought me a cap
(see later photo)

You know what a WC is; Nessebar was the best place we
visited for telling us where we could find one, except
that the local merchants seemed to use them as a decoy
to get you to walk by their store so they could accost you

A sign on the gate at the
University of Sofia Botanical Garden

More Tulips, not so brilliant as at Balchik,
but it was overcast in Sofia

We saw lots of wisteria in Bulgaria, none
finer than what was growing in the
University of Sofia Botanical Garden

Alexander Nevski Cathedral from the botanical garden
(see aerial photo below, though I didn't take it)

The University of Sofia Botanical Garden (upper left),
Alexander Nevski Cathedral (lower right)

A private garden in Rila; more Tulips!

A sheep herd in Rila
(i.e., sheep literally being herded along)

A goat herd in Rila

From the balcony of the suite we stayed in in Rila,
in a sort of private hotel belonging to a clothing designer
and manufacturer (and patron of the arts)

To the left of the photo above; the wooden structure
is a platform hanging over the river that runs
alongside the clothing factory and private hotel

My son photographed me standing on the platform;
I'm wearing the cap my wife bought me in Nessebar

My traveling companions to Rila and Blagoevgrad

To the right of the first photo of the garden below
our suite; we were too low, and the garden was too big
to capture in a single photograph


The side of the private hotel
and part of the garden from the ground
(possibly from the platform over the river; I can't remember)

The American University in Bulgaria, in Blagoevgrad;
 our son and daughter-in-law founded and sustain its
arts program; she plays solo harp for its commencements,
as she did most recently on May 15

The American University in Bulgaria, another view of
its main building, which belonged to the Communist Party
prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union
(the dog is asleep, not dead)

I would like to have taken many more photographs of our grandson, but I failed to plan ahead and carry along another battery for my wife's camera. I got one fairly good photo of him during our first visit, but the camera was being recharged each time after that.
    We were sorry to have to leave Bulgaria and return home so soon. What a lovely country, what striking contrasts of modern and ancient!

9 comments:

  1. Nice commentary and photos for someone that doesn't like doing it. Is the dog in the last photo taking a nap? Did you see many dogs roaming around?

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  2. Steve, Thanks! Yeah, despite reluctance, I fairly well rose to the occasion....
        Yes, the dog was napping. I took a photo of two napping dogs in Balchik (at the botanical garden).
        I was told that stray dogs in Blagoevgrad had been targeted for poisoning at one point; they were so numerous as to pose a significant danger to public health (or comfort).
        Saw lots of dogs, but most were on a leash. The woman who owned the garden in Rila had a dog too, and I took a photo of him. The women who owned the garden in German had several cats, but I don't think I took any photos of them.

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  3. As for the herd sheep. You can also call it a flock or mob. I prefer mob, it makes them sound tougher.

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  4. The dog was "dead to the outside world," but alive to its dreams.
        Right, it's more usual to say "flock of sheep." Mob is good.

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  5. The hat purchase in Nessebar was made from a street vendor, not a shop. And those hawkers on the way to the WC were trying to get customers for the WC--there was a charge to use the facility. Since I was the one in need, I was paying attention. I declined the offer because the enticement reminded me too much of our '93 trip and I remembered what those facilities ended up being like, and with an additional charge for TP no less.

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  6. Carolyn, are you sure it was a "street vendor"? I remember her going back into her "shop" to bring out more merchandise.
        Ah, so the accosting was not incidental to the use of the WC, but essential to it. Hell of a job, trying to sell the use of a wet, stinky toilet!
        You may have been the one in need of the WC associated with that particular sign, but I think it was more often I in such need.
        I never had to pay anywhere on the trip, and most of the WCs were clean and hospitable, most of which were for use by both genders as I remember.
        I did get a fright, though, in the very nice one in Turnovo whose lights went off on the timer. I believe that I reported to you and Geoff that the thought flashed through my mind that I was about to be mugged or groped?

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  7. The WC experiences are funny. Thanks for sharing (grin).

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  8. Ah, music to this blogger's ears: something he wrote was funny! Thank you, Steve. You're a treasured follower.
        I just remembered another WC experience, or several actually: the several times I did go into a WC (usually at a gas station) and find it not only exceedingly wet but also equipped only with a place to put one's feet in order to squat....Each time I found one of this type of WC, my response was "no, thanks!"
        I have used a squatter, but it was when I was not so wobbly on my feet as I've become in my 69th year.

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  9. I have found lots of foot pad toilets in Italy. Even a few in nicer places to eat. Kind of comical, but you are correct. One needs to be a steady individual to use them.

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