Russe to Turnovo

The van Tonders arrived on Saturday and its been go go go since then! Hanneke was very brave as she is the one who has a valid drivers license and she tackled the drive from Sofia to Veliko Turnovo on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, in a car where she would sit as a passenger normally, with road signs she could not decipher either! Well done Hanneke!

Jean-Pierre studying cyrillic

same thing, just spelled differently!

same same just different!

herewith a peek!

I s'pose these can be found anywhere.... well, just so you know, they are here too

Jean-Pierre's turn to do the laundry

Varna - so pretty

Dobrich- so far an absolute NO NO. We were not impreseed with this city at all.

Varna holds the third oldest Roman Ruins in the world... and this is a genuine "Ruin".... go figga.

Dobrich - one block of blocks upon each other ...eek1

more eek!

Varna has a beautiful centre... We realy liked this city.

So slack so slack!!

I understand that I have been extremely lax in updating you on this site.... excuses could be many but then again they could be of no consequence either. I am in love with this country. I love the people... weather is still a little warm for my liking but the temperatures promise to plummet soon... YAY! no seriously, I enjoy cooler weather above the hot humid sticky stuff that seems to signify the continuance of summer. Today I sat in the middle of a park with multiple choices of wifi connection.... free and no password needed either. What a bllessing that was. Okay that means absolutley no excuse for not updating this blog.... sigh. No, it is not a slog, this is a little space of creativity for me in a busy world. Pictures will follow with next posting as I am sitting at a PC that won't accept my camera card.... so till a little while... stilll withing this day's clock.....

what an honour

 
Being in a 'strange' land, meeting different people, hearing odd languages... what an honour!

Coffee ~ not quite a cup full but enough to put hairs on one's chest!

We have travelled rather extensively and apart from China, I believe this is the next in line for labelling a "confusing place".

Some local clown decided that those who cannot read their language can get lost~literally!

 But I honestly would not want to trade it for anything else right now. Having the assurance that we are where we should be at this time brings an incredible amount of inner peace.

honey pots - for honey in yogurt!

I am so thrilled with the progress being made with learning the language that I can visibly see a very large hand at work. It has basically taken ten days to be able to read the language and write it to a satisfactory degree. This is a huge help while driving (we rented a car for a few days) and for finding appropriate busstops! In a nutshell - God is good!

boats in Nessebar Harbour

a pretty

more birds! oh yes and a windmill upon entry to Nessebar Town/Island

 

A wonderful sense of history even if it is not my own...

Boats is boats is boats

Old town of Nessebar

birds, peppers and caravans

On the menu today....

Okay... so Jean-Pierre and I went to a restaurant for lunch today. Up until now we have been buying breat cheese and sausage, supplimented by plums and figs, and generally eating on steps of wherever we find ourselves and from the trunk of the rented car (which we had for three days). Dragging our hot and perspiring bodies out of the sun and sitting down on a comfy couch under the shade of an umbrella this afternoon, was great till the lady brought us the menu. It was in Bulgarski.... no ANGLISKI!
 So... confidently Jean-Pierre instructs young lady to hand it to Yours Truly! Well it took me a while to figure that I had the BEVERAGE menu first... then when I opened the other one... I was able to find dishes that I recognised! That was a wonderful feeling!
 This is what Jean-Pierre saw :
Cалата 
Спагети
лазаня
пица

And well... Rita had no trouble, well sure it took longer than when reading English... But Rita saw
Salads
Spaghetti
Lasagna
Pizza... so easy!
One can even throw in a side order of Potato чипс!

 This is a sign on a construction sight - Prodava Apartments, shops, offices and garages.... see?

Though the food was good, we still enjoy the local fair. Either a пица slice or a Kebab! Great value for money. And finding a 'spot' makes it taste better!
 

Plovdiv, Smolyan, Smilyan and more

stunning views

Amazing..... fabulous people, dodgey carpets on floors , good mattresses, suspect pillows, precarious stretches of road, hair-raising corners,

life

 

optional traffic lights, scary alphabet , majestic mountains, old people - lots,

limited comprehension, much laughter, more guessing, some Mime, no make that much Mime,

something edible?

oh yeah! tasted great though not sure what they are/were

incredible sights, 

new friends and much much grace.

new reading material for some.....

Bulgaria here we come!

It feels as if this has been such a long time coming. The first thing I saw when awaking and looking from the train window was a field of sunflowers.

Which in itself was not so spectacular, as it is the end of their season, but the Bulgarian language book that we 'found' while in India two years ago has a picture of sunflowers on the front cover.

can you spot the Harry Potter book?

Reading here is proving extremely challenging but something I intend to conquer in the next couple of days. After that I will concentrate on the actual language! So far I have picked up that there are many recognisable 'English' words encased in a Bulgarian pronunciation, which is a huge help.

  I think I am falling in love!