I'm afraid I don't have the time to really say as much as I'd like to about the place...
As you can see, I got around the country some and deep into the interior. And you are seeing some of my better shots of the things I liked the most, mainly art and architecture. I also got to experience things no tourist would ever stumble upon. I'm thinking in particular about the few days I spent in the village with my girl's grandmother. The first night we got in we sat around a card table for dinner, eating a tomato and cucumber salad from her garden, out of a communal plate, drinking Rokia that old woman had made a few years prior, so it was properly aged. We then ate soup, where I was surprised to find the foot of the chicken she killed for us at the bottom of my bowl, which she gave to me as a special treat. They use EVERYTHING.
Speaking of that, we brought her a bucket of strawberries we picked in another village at an aunts house, which she jarred immediately upon arrival, on a fire outside. Once the jars were boiled, I saw her take the last little piece of burning wood out of the dwindling fire and put it out with some water so it could be used later, and not wasted. She lives off about $150 a month. Needless to say the microwave was a big hit, even if she was a bit confused by it.
However, the next day though, I totally endeared myself to her when she had 2.5 tons of wood delivered and I was able to show off my mad ax skills, which I think impressed and surprised everyone, as I split wood for 4 hours straight in 90F heat, stopping only once to down a jar full of well water. Of course, the old woman was stacking wood as fast as I could split it with the gigantic ancient battle ax they had, along with my girl and her father. Between us, we got her set up with enough to get her through the winter. That was actually a pivotal event, in her eyes, transforming me from a stupid american into a productive member of the family. No one really said anything, but I knew I passed the test - when it came to ball busting hard work, I could hold my own, and that is a valued trait when you live on a farm. Last year she did it all by herself.
Afterward, she built a fire in something that looked like a still so that I could take a hot shower. Since it didn't hold that much water, she wanted me and my girl to shower together, which I thought was embarrassing enough, until we got into the 'bath room' totally naked and realized neither one of us could figure out how to work the thing, and the old woman had to come in to show us how to do it. I don't know about you, but standing in mud walled basement room wearing little rubber women's shoes with a hand towel wrapped 3/4 around my waist, with your naked girlfriend, while a 4 foot nothing grandmother gives you lessons on how not to scald yourself or put out the fire, in Bulgarian... well, I doubt you'll ever get that experience if you take the tour bus:)
