So, here we are, finally in Bulgaria.  I've included a picture out the hotel window so you can see the view.  Not terribly inspiring--you can see the vestiges of those old Communist apartment buildings.  But it's pretty in a way--perhaps simply by the fact that it doesn't look American. 
  And there are mountains in the background.

We get a complementary breakfast buffet and it was really good.  I was eager to try the yogurt (since Bulgarians invented yogurt, at least they say so) and it was quite tasty.  But we also got the usual eggs and bacon, fresh fruit and strong, strong coffee.

After breakfast, we got out our guidebooks and maps and started exploring, as we had a few hours before we were scheduled to meet our bike trip guide.  We saw the Alexander Nevski church and a mosque (the only one left since the end of Ottoman rule) and the Russian Orthodox church and the St. Sophya church.  We visited an indoor market and saw one of the few really old churches left, an ancient Roman church and some walls.  Very cool.  Pictures to come.  One very important stop--we bought clean underwear. It was the most expensive underwear I've ever bought, and I realize now the shopkeeper must have taken advantage of me because I was so obviously American, because nothing else I bought was expensive.

We returned to the hotel to check out, and still no luggage.  In the lobby we met Anna, friend of Rob's sister Amelia, who was the only non-family person on the trip.  After checking out, we ran around the corner to a cute little courtyard restaurant we found, thinking we could get a "quick" lunch.  There is no such thing in Bulgaria.  We ended up getting our food at the last minute and wolfing only a bit of it down (I had risotto and veggies, very tasty) so we could return to the hotel in time to meet our guide.

Our guide is Krum (pronounced to rhyme with "broom").  He is a handsome young man who speaks very good English.  We loaded up into his van and drove to the airport, where we FOUND OUR LUGGAGE!  We rendezvoused with the other participants in our tour: Amelia, Rob's sister, who planned this whole thing; Zach, their 13-year-old nephew; Max, their cousin, also 13; and Penny, their British stepmother.  Penny is amazing.  She is in her mid- to late-sixties, but she is more fit and has more energy than the rest of us combined.

Here we have Max and Zach in the van.  You can see bikes and luggage in the back.

This is our van:

And here is Rob, doing a few martial arts maneuvers with his water bottle, at a roadside snackbar with a beautiful view.

Finally we were all together, and Krum drove us out of the city and to our first destination, the St. Nicolai Monestary, where we have accommodations for the night.  We are cycling in central Bulgaria through the foothills of the Balkans, and the scenery was breathtaking--lush farmlands, mountains, forests.  Our cell in the monestary is a bit spartan (what did we expect?) but that's okay.  After settling in, we walked into the town of Arbanassi for a lovely dinner under the trees.  This is when we discovered how slow Bulgarian restaurants are.  This one had probably only one cook, and they bring out each dish as it's ready.  But the food was delicious--I tried a shopska salad (mostly tomatoes and cucumbers with white cheese on top) and that cold yogurt soup.  The boys were pretty happy they could get french fries everywhere we went.  Then it was home to bed.  Our room is the size of two twin beds, with about two inches clearance on three sides.

More later,

Kara

I didn't sleep too well last night.  Woke up with night sweats even though it wasn't that hot.

It took a lot of complex maneuvers to get the show on the road this morning, and we were really fretting about it.  Rob and I both had visions of arising at 7 a.m., grabbing a quick breakfast, and being on the road by 7:30 to ride during the coolest part of the day.  Yeah, right.  That wasn't going to happen.  We didn't even get up until around 8.

First, we had to tour the St. Nikolai Monastery's church, which is of course the main reason we're here--to see monasteries.  It really was beautiful and it's a shame you can't take pictures of the frescos and all the old, carved wood and gold-leaf and mosaics.  In every church you can buy an offertory candle for a few cents.  Krum, our guide, did this at every church we visited.  I did it a few times, too.  The Orthodox religion is very similar in many ways to the Roman Catholic religion of my youth, and so some things were familiar and comforting to me--the saints, the smell of incense, etc.

After the tour, we loaded up our bags and drove to the next overnight monastery (Merdansky Monastery), which was very close by.  Then we drove into the town of Arbanassi and bought our breakfast at a little store--bread, yogurt, fruit.  We arranged to sit at an outdoor restaurant and buy our coffee their (yummy, strong coffee--I love Bulgarian coffee!).

Finally, we are able to unload the bikes, fill our water bottles from a fountain, and get on the road.  It was probably close to 10 a.m. by now and already hot--Bulgaria was experiencing an unusual hot spell throughout all of our journey.  Our first hill came very quickly, and I didn't have a prayer of riding to the top.  I am SO OUT OF SHAPE.  I really wish I'd had time to do more training, but as anyone who has been reading my blog knows, I was pressed for time with deadlines the last few weeks.  I was lucky to get that last book turned in right before the trip!  So I pushed my bike a good part of the way.

Once we all got adjusted and figured out our bikes, things went pretty smoothly and we rode to our first stop of the day, the Apostles Peter & Pavel Monastery.  Another beautiful church, incredible frescos, and an even more incredible view of Bulgaria's old capital city, Velika Turnova.
 After this stop, we rode a bit more and got on this busy highway--yikes!  We were only supposed to ride a short way.  Krum said he would drive ahead and park at the road where we were supposed to turn.  For unknown reasons I was leading the charge at that point--I guess because most of it was downhill toward the city.  (I'm a slow climber but a fast descender.)  So I'm charging down the highway, looking for the van, and I never see it and keep riding, over a bridge, getting into busier and busier traffic, huge trucks almost running me off the road.  When I finally stopped for a light, Krum pulls the van up ahead of me and turns on a side street and starts screaming for me to stop.  I missed the turn two miles back.

Well, it wasn't my fault!  Krum had been trying to find a place to turn the van around and was actually not in sight when I passed the turn-off.  So he drove me and my bike back up the hill to the correct place.  We all set out again.  Another short distance and we stopped at a University for a drink break.  This was where Krum went to school, so he was proud of it.  Then we rode the rest of the way into town and loaded the bikes into the van. 

We walked down the main thoroughfare of Velika Turnova a long way--it's a busy city but very charming.  We ate lunch (late, but that is another fact we would have to get used to--lunch never comes before two p.m.) at a very cute restaurant.  I walked with Zach and Max to get ice cream and we got separated from the others because they thought we were coming back and I thought they were joining us in a bit.  But eventually we met up again.  We walked around some more, saw a beautiful copper-domed church (I've forgotten the name) and a medieval fortress, and I paid 2.50 lev for a bottle of water and to use the bathroom (highway robbery!  They didn't even have any toilet paper and no light in the bathroom!).

After returning to the van, Krum drove us to another starting point and we did some more riding.  This time Penny led out, and we did not get lost.  We rode for quite a distance, up and down rolling hills, past several horse carts loaded with hay and farmers harvesting with wooden pitchforks--feels like stepping back in time.  At the next monastery we encountered a wonderful old nun, permanently bent at a right angle from spending her life in a garden.  She spoke no English and our Bulgarian sucks, so communication was pretty hopeless, but it was incredibly beautiful and peaceful there.  Lots of cats and mongrel dogs.  One word about Bulgarian dogs--they don't chase bikes.  Though we saw many, many dogs on our trip, not once did we get chased.  Amazing.

We were bushed by now so Krum drove us back to our monestary where we got cleaned up and went to town for dinner.    Here we are, waiting rather impatiently for our food.

They have beautiful barn swallows here with yellow breasts.  They may be the same kind as in the States, but I don't see them where I live.  Krum left to visit his grandparents who live nearby, and we all retired, exhausted.

I am getting ready to add some pictures to yesterday's post, so check back a day if you're interested.

More tomorrow,

Kara

P.S. In real time, yesterday was the 4th of July and my sisters and brother-in-law came over for hamburgers and hotdogs.  It stormed, so we cooked on the covered front porch.  Then the lights went out, so we sat outside in the dark and talked.  It was really rather nice.

I slept better last night and felt better this morning.  We toured the monastery where we were staying.  They had some very old icons--16th Century, I think.  Most of these monasteries were established in the 12th - 14th centuries, but the Turks kept burning them down, so anything really old and of a religious nature is unusual.  I bought an offertory candle and asked that we all travel safely.  (Although I am no longer a practicing Catholic, I have never stopped praying to the saints. The habit is so ingrained, I couldn't stop if I wanted to.)

We went to breakfast back in Arbanassi, same deal as yesterday--fruit, yogurt, bread, strong coffee.  Then we drove to where we left off the day before at the other monastery and we rode ... I dunno.  A long way.  I was pitiful--had to walk my bike up several hills.  I also charged off in the wrong direction again and Krum had to come get me again.  We rode a long way uphill today, but we had some nice long downhills, too.

Highlight of the day:  We stopped at a swimming hole that's a draw for local young men.  It was surrounded by limestone cliffs on two sides and fed by a waterfall.  All these virile young men were cliff diving and otherwise showing off for each other (no women around, strangely enough).  Krum and the two boys decided to give it a try.  After much deliberation and chickening out, both boys finally jumped (from an intermediate level, not from way up high).  I think it made their day--getting to pal around with locals and prove their manliness.  Here is a picture of the swimming hole:

  Zach and Max jumped from where those two boys on the right are standing, but the real daredevils were about twice as high as that one guy at the top of the frame is sitting.  Pictures just don't do this place justice.

It was 4 p.m. by the time we found a place for lunch, a poolside restaurant at a hotel.  Amelia scammed some wild plums (this woman is an accomplished fruit gatherer.  If fruit is growing, she will find it).  We also saw a "hummingbird moth"--cool-looking bug, looks just like a hummingbird until you look closely and see that it has antennae.  We ate like kings.  One of the dishes we like here is called "mish-mash"--well, it's spelled differently in Bulgarian but that is what it sounds like, and that is where we get our word.  It is scrambled eggs mixed up with all kinds of stuff, with a sauce.  We also liked these baked casserole-type dishes with cheese.  I can't tell you now what those are called, either (sirene po shopski?).  Also something Krum called "pumpkin" but which was really a squash similar to zucchini, fried and served with a yogurt sauce.  Omelets, french fries, and ice cream are all good fallback choices.

Here are a couple of pretty views of Velika Turnova, the old capital city (I think I might have taken these the day before, actually):

 After more riding, we stopped at our monastery for the night and were given the cheery news that we would have no hot water.  At that point we didn't care.  We were tired and wanted to get settled, and the elderly nun dealing with us seemed very kind.  Krum, Amelia and I drove to a nearby village to a grocery store to buy stuff for dinner--bread, cheese, sausage, tons of fruit, wine, beer, juice, and yogurt for breakfast.  The nuns provided us with some tin plates, glasses, and silverware, and we ate outside under an ancient grape arbor.  It was a lovely picnic, though a herd of cats that live there were all very bold in trying to steal our dinners.  I finally ate with one sitting in my lap, just to keep her off the table.  The nun laughed when she saw this and apologized; she said the cats were very spoiled.  Here is a little kitten that looked much like my Chloe must have looked once:

  She was hunting bugs.

These were probably the worst accommodations of the trip.  Although we had bathrooms, the water was icy.  (We all confessed later that none of us was brave enough to actually stand under the shower spray--we just splashed vital body parts.)  There was no toilet paper, no soap, no towels (we were supposed to bring our own but most of us didn't).  The beds were a nightmare--Rob was sagging so much in his he almost hit the ground.  To top it off, our room was full of mosquitoes.  I slept completely under a sheet.

More tomorrow,

Kara