More Bulgarian fun

Things are still going quite well…We all worked on building a bee box today (well, actually Lisa and I sat and watched Ewen and Carter work on building it until we got a bit bored and went to plant some seeds instead). Last week Lisa went to a seminar/workshop thing about natural beekeeping in Sofia, so they are setting up their hive based on those principles. It seems pretty neat, and I think we would consider having bees ourselves one day.

We had decided to use one of our days off to travel to the big city of Popovo…not really huge, but much bigger than Osikovo. Unfortunately, Evan woke up that morning throwing up, so I ended up having to stay home with the kids. Carter headed in to town because we did need to use the computer (there’s a café with free wifi there), and we wanted to get a few things from the shops there.  He didn’t have a great day either, and wasn’t able to really get much done. Then the next day (our other day off), Elliot woke up at 4:00am throwing up as well.  Our hosts were having guests over for “elevensies”  and had invited us as well. I was also sick, so Carter had to go tell them that we couldn’t make it (can’t pick up the phone when you don’t have one, right?).  Everyone seems to be doing better today though, so hopefully we’re all over with that bug.

I milked the goats last week! Of course I had to get up a bit earlier than usual to make the walk to their house and get there around 6:00am, but I didn’t really mind. It was a nice walk – still cool outside and on my way, I saw a fox scamper across the road.  The milking went okay. It wasn’t too difficult…well, for one of the goats anyway. The other one doesn’t even really like her kids drinking her milk, much less us trying to take it. I’ve also been taking the goats for water and putting the kids up in the stable in the afternoons by myself. I was actually starting to feel like I was doing a pretty good job of it until today, when I only managed to get one out of the 5 kids shut up the first time. That left me having to catch the other 4 one by one to get them all in. Luckily they didn’t run to far off from their mums, and I had them all in after a few hectic minutes.

I am starting to get the hang of cooking on the wood stoves…so far I’ve made (with a good amount of success): biscuits, pancakes, cookies, and pizza. We had the pizzas last night while we watched Bambi for our “family movie night”. Carter and I both agreed that they were probably the best ones I’ve made…the crusts were just right.  I think our hosts enjoyed the biscuits since they asked me to make them again today. We had a couple of discussions on what the difference is between a biscuit and a scone, but we haven’t come to a definitive answer as of yet.

The kids have found some playmates here as well. There is a family that lives next door to us that has 3 children. The oldest has stopped by the last few days to play with Evan and Elliot and yesterday, all three came over for a while and played.  The only English any of them know is “hello”, “goodbye”, and they can count to 20. But it doesn’t matter…they have a great time playing together.

Bulgaria

We’ve been here for a week now, so we’re starting to get settled. The land is lovely, the people are kind, and we’re pretty happy. We are staying in a little 2 room guest house that belongs to a friend of our hosts.  Evan and Elliot have taken to the place quickly and are doing quite well. Elliot has been spending his days half naked (still working on the potty thing).  Our hosts, Ewen and Lisa, have a house that they are renovating, 2 horses, 2 goats with 5 kids, 2 cats and a dog. Their house has no electricity for now (they are working on a bit of solar powered system) and ours has just 2 outlets and one light bulb. So all the cooking is done on wood-burning stoves (I’m getting better). I even made my first attempt at cookies yesterday, with a pretty decent result (considering I had no butter and no recipe).

Carter has been doing some work with Ewen laying hedges (we’ll have to post pics soon because it looks really nice). I’ve been doing a bit of this and that (mended the trampoline and put it up, harvested some mint leaves and hung them to dry, a good bit of raking to clear up where the hedges have been laid, and today I helped a bit with the goats).

Both of our hosts have been great with the kids and Lisa is wonderful about finding little “jobs” for Evan to do to make her feel special. She even decided today that she wanted to start reading a chapter from Winne the Pooh to Evan each day. While we were walking home this evening (we live about a 15 minute walk from their house), Evan told me that she likes them (Lisa and Ewen) the best from all the places we’ve been so far.  

I think there’s a lot for us to learn here, and we’re definitely having a great time.  Unfortunately, internet is not readily available, which is why it took so long for me to get this posted. We have to travel to the library in the next village in order to get online. So don’t expect to see another post for a week or so, but hopefully I’ll have one ready then with some pics of what we’ve been doing.

It takes a long time to get to Bulgaria

When looking at a map, it doesn’t seem that Bulgaria is really that far from France, but it ended up taking us 5 days to get there.  So we left Montaut on the 17^th and took a train to Toulouse then another train to Montpellier. We had already set up a place through Couchsurfing to stay the night there before having to catch our flight to Frankfurt, Germany the next night. We stayed with a very friendly couple (Golshanak and Adrien). He is from France and she was from Iran. She showed us around the store where she works which is this huge incredible toy store with loads of rooms and tons of all different kinds of toys. Unfortunately while we were there, it was too difficult watching after the kids to have a chance to take pictures.

Our hosts in Montpellier

So our flight to Frankfurt got in late in the evening on the 18^th, so we were at the airport for the night since our next flight was leaving early the next morning. The kids (especially Evan) did okay sleeping on the floor of the airport, but Carter and I were pretty tired the next day. 

Passed out on the airport floor

The flights went okay and we landed in Plovdiv, Bulgaria around mid-morning on the 19^th. We had found another  Couchsurfing family to stay with there, so we could get a little rest before the long train ride. From reading his profile, we knew this guy was going to be pretty interesting, but wow, was he a character. Nasko (as he asked us to call him..it’s a combination of his first and last names) showed up with another Couchsurfer at the airport to pick us up, and then we were immediately on our way to meet some Israeli tourists that Nasko was taking to go jump off a mountain. We’re driving down the road, and Carter and I are both trying to figure out if the street is one lane or two lane as Nasko is weaving in and out of the traffic. Half the time he is turned around talking to us, but he assures us with “Don’t worry, I was a fighter pilot…I see everything” and “I know there are children in the car, so I’m being extra careful”. I can’t imagine what he drives like when it’s just him in the car.

So we were left sitting outside the bar where he met the tourists as he takes them up the mountain one at a time (they had a 2 year old girl with them so one of them stayed down with us while the other went to jump). They seemed like a nice couple and Elliot and they’re daughter played a bit. Eventually, they were both done, and it was time for us to go. We weren’t really clear on the housing arrangements, but he ended up dropping us off at his guest house which is actually in another village than where he and his family live. It was nice and cozy, but then we didn’t hear anything from him until the next afternoon, when his wife, Naska, showed up with their daughter to say hello. She apologized for not getting over there sooner, and said we could come over to their house the following day. We had planned on only staying the night, but we decided we could spare another day.

The next day, they came and picked us up and showed us around their village. Our girls had fun playing together and we all cooked some potatoes in onions in a fire pit in their backyard. Nasko runs a business called Extreme Bulgaria, catering to the extreme seeking tourists. He takes them skydiving, paragliding, atving, horseback riding, etc… Evan got to enjoy her first time on an ATV riding around with him in their village. We had some lovely chats about “life, the universe, and everything” , but we knew we needed to be getting on to our destination. When we told Evan it was time to leave, she was pretty upset. Every time we’ve left somewhere, she’s always said she wanted to stay because she liked it there. This was the first time, however, that she actually cried. Carter and I think it was because of Nasko’s daughter. She was probably the sweetest child that Evan has had to play with so far on this trip, and she didn’t want to leave her.

So the next morning we hopped on the bus back into Plovdiv (after Carter helped a drunk guy get his cart and donkey back on the road), so that we could catch our train to Popovo. We were lucky in that another passenger on the bus was kind enough to show us the way to the train station, but then we had to figure out where we needed to be to catch the train. We had just spent 2 months in a country where we didn’t speak the language, but I don’t think either of us realized how much harder it would be if the place we went used a different alphabet. It definitely makes things difficult. We finally got to the platform where we thought we were supposed to be and waited for our train to arrive. We waited and waited and then, Carter had the idea to go ask someone if we were in the right place…we weren’t and our train was supposed to leave in 5 minutes and the platform was no where close to us. So once again, here we were running, 2 kids in tow, trying to get there before they left without us.

We made it, but with no time to spare. We ended up sitting next to this very sweet elderly woman who just so happened to be going to Popovo as well! We had been worried that we wouldn’t be able to figure out where to get off, but now we had someone to tell us. It seems that God has been watching out for us all along our journey. She helped to entertain Evan and Elliot along the way and even offered them part of her lunch. The train took forever…6 and a half hours! But we did finally arrive in Popovo just before9:00pm. It was dark, so if it hadn’t been for the lady with us, we would never have been able to read the sign to know where to get off. The station was pretty deserted except for the 2 people working there.  The lady working in the office there was extremely nice as well…she called a taxi for us and even gave the little ones some bread and chutney to eat.

So finally, after 3 trains, 2 flights, 2 buses, 1 taxi, and 5 days, we arrived safe and sound in Osikovo, Bulgaria.  Our hosts were waiting for us on the side of the road (The Road, as in the only road through the village)when we got into town with a big pot of soup.  They showed us our house, served up our soup, and we all slept very well after the long journey.