Bulgaria!

So, this weekend I went to Bulgaria. It borders Romania, Turkey, and Greece...pretty much as far east as you can go in Europe without hitting Russia! (See it in the lower right corner of the map? It's teal...but not in real life.)

Bulgaria is very mountainous. We spent lots of time in a bus on windy roads, driving through the Balkan mountains. This is me on top of the "Wonder Bridges".

When we weren't driving, we were eating. Bulgaria has some delicious cuisine-lots of feta cheese and tomatoes and meat. We also took loads of silly pictures. You know when you call out a scenario right before you take the picture, and the people in the picture have to respond at the last second? Yup, we liked that game. The caption to this one is (if I remember correctly) something about someone stealing your dinner before you even had a bite. I will spare you the other 35 pictures from this photo shoot...



We explored a few caves. This one is called "Devil's Throat", because apparently whatever goes in does NOT come out.


But don't worry Mom, we made it! It was completely safe!

This is Maria. She was born and raised in Bulgaria. She now lives in London and works as our International Coordinator, which means she plans our trips and keeps us safe and helps us learn how to live in another country. We spent the weekend visiting her home country, hanging out with her family, and learning about Bulgaria's history. She is hip and smart and walks 80 miles an hour. Some of the boys in our group refer to her as the "Bulgarian Bullet"!!

This is Maria's dad and a man I don't know playing the accordian and the Bulgarian bagpipe for us at dinner. SO COOL!

We tried Turkish Delight for the first time at a small market. I thought it tasted like rubber. Bleh. What was Edward thinking in The Chronicles of Narnia?? But at least it made for a cute picture, right?

We hiked up 1000 steps to the Shipka Tower.

(Actually, Zach and I counted-there were 1,066 steps, for the record.)

Did I already mention the food?? So GOOD!


Team Reading, getting their cheese on. In Bulgaria, you say "Zele!" before taking a photo.

This was yet another monument in the mountains. The surrounding area reminded me of Jurassic Park. I kept waiting for a Velossa Raptor to appear out of the fog and attack us...luckily, we avoided all such creatures.

There is so much more to say, but I will end there for now. If anyone is planning their next vacation, don't write Bulgaria out so quickly...it is a marvelous place!!