The friendly watermelon man who gave me a free watermelon :)
Homemade jams anyone?
Showing posts with label Bulgaria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bulgaria. Show all posts
Monday, June 14
Revisiting Bulgaria
The friendly watermelon man who gave me a free watermelon :)
Homemade jams anyone?
Thursday, June 3
May came and went
It was a very busy month - I found myself not blogging as always about my whereabouts. I hope my blogger friends, family and friends from all over who frequent this blog have not abandoned me- yet :) I am still here - just getting a bit lazy and neglecting my blog sometimes.
So with the month of May coming and going and me failing to document some of it- I could let you know about some of our future plans and escapades for the months or weeks ahead.
The V. will have his birthday the coming weekend :) we have not actually made plans yet but would probably enjoy a nice day - hopefully the weather will turn out well. Lately the weather here in Germnay is so unpredictable.. rain and shine and that means literally!
Work will be over this month of June - hurra for me! But then it would not be spent lazing out in the sun - I will have my big written exam for my ongoing Montessori Diploma which means I need to go back to London to do a 2 day exam. Suddenly the city of London only brings me stress. Then back to work again mid August.
However in the mid of my exam preparation The V. and I will go to Bulgaria to celebrate his mom's 70th birthday - we would be staying there for a week so we are looking forward to that!
Good news indeed - my boss finally gave me a pay increase, it's not really much, it's 10% increase of what I am earning at the moment (which is really, really peanuts) but still it is an increase and like The V. said I should just be thankful. According to my boss - the rest will just get 3% but with their 3% and my 10 - they still have more.. hahaha.. oh well! She did gave me a special bonus last time and still pays half of my tuition.
The V. is doing well with his new job, he is happy with it and so far he is not so much on business trips like in his previous, previous work.
So far those are the things that would keep us busy. I still have a lot of work to do before school year ends - and I hope to finish them all in time.
So with the month of May coming and going and me failing to document some of it- I could let you know about some of our future plans and escapades for the months or weeks ahead.
The V. will have his birthday the coming weekend :) we have not actually made plans yet but would probably enjoy a nice day - hopefully the weather will turn out well. Lately the weather here in Germnay is so unpredictable.. rain and shine and that means literally!
Work will be over this month of June - hurra for me! But then it would not be spent lazing out in the sun - I will have my big written exam for my ongoing Montessori Diploma which means I need to go back to London to do a 2 day exam. Suddenly the city of London only brings me stress. Then back to work again mid August.
However in the mid of my exam preparation The V. and I will go to Bulgaria to celebrate his mom's 70th birthday - we would be staying there for a week so we are looking forward to that!
Good news indeed - my boss finally gave me a pay increase, it's not really much, it's 10% increase of what I am earning at the moment (which is really, really peanuts) but still it is an increase and like The V. said I should just be thankful. According to my boss - the rest will just get 3% but with their 3% and my 10 - they still have more.. hahaha.. oh well! She did gave me a special bonus last time and still pays half of my tuition.
The V. is doing well with his new job, he is happy with it and so far he is not so much on business trips like in his previous, previous work.
So far those are the things that would keep us busy. I still have a lot of work to do before school year ends - and I hope to finish them all in time.
Wednesday, October 10
Friday, October 5
More about Bulgaria
We weren't really able to do a lot of sightseeing this time. Our trip was just actually 10 days and it involved the celebration of my Father in law's 70th birthday, preparing for it and meeting relatives. However this trip was a bit more stressful than usual. I got sick probably because of too much stress with the custom's control.
Background - Before coming to Bulgaria we checked with the embassy here in Germany about necessary visas and all. In my past trips to Bulgaria I have always had a visa. Well maybe times have changed. True enough it did, because of Bulgaria's entry into the European Union, wives/husbands of its citizens won't need any visa irregardless of their own nationality. So that means I would save about €65 plus for visa fee. That's a good deal for me.
Upon check in, the attendant didn't say anything about Visas. She didn't even check my passport. The V just showed our marriage certificate and all went smoothly.
Upon boarding: we needed to hand in boarding tickets and passports
Clerk: (hardly looks at Vlado's passport, mine however is scrutiningly controlled, every page, every sort of word) Where's her visa? (doesn't talk or even look at me -hello I'm here)
The V: Consulate said we don't need that for her.
Clerk: What!!?That can't be. (calls someone on the phone. apparently nobody on the other line.Clerk tries to look at her papers, she might have the solution to this puzzle.)
The V. meanwhile shows the marriage certificate to her
Clerk: Grunts and kept on looking at her stack of papers "I hate this when I have to do all this work and the check in people don't do their work!!! (Finally, Clerk founds something in her papers.) Ok, she can go (still not addressing me directly) but she's allowed only in the airport for 5 days.
Me: Super puzzled look, what?
The V shoves me to go in and at this moment I was thinking about Tom Hank's movie in the Terminal where he actually played a bulgarian (although not mentioned in the movie, his language was bulgarian mostly) who can't leave the airport. This time I would be in Bulgarian soil but would be like Tom Hanks, how ironic.
Me: (talking to Vlado) What, did you hear that? !!!????!!!Q§$%"%
The V: No, I didn't hear anything, forget that stupid cow (dumme Kuh - in german the cows are a bit stupid, I really wonder why, I don't think their stupid, more like lazy and relaxed)
Me: Ok ( meanwhile imagining a 5 day vacation in the airport)
Next Scene, Custom's, Sofia Airport
All people have to go through here so you can imagine the long lines and the anxious faces of the people wanting to get rid of this bureaucracy and meet either their tour operators and families at the other side.
Border Police: (Barely looks at Vlado's passport, scrutinizing mine every page, every word) Talks to Vlado in Bulgarian.. blah, blah, blah....
The V: Blah, blah, blah, and shows the marriage contract
Border Police: Blah blah. (calls another police)
Me: (getting dagger looks from the people behind the line)
Another Police: Blah, blah, blah
The V.: Blah, blah while showing the marriage contract again.
Me: (oh my, smiling the whole time, so as not to look like a fugitive, meanwhile still getting dagger looks from the line of people)
Border Police 1 to boarder Police 2: blah, blah, blah
The V: blah, blah
Me: (already melting from the dirty looks)
Finally the Police blah blahs Vlado again and I was released from that supposed to be 5 day vacation in Sofia Airport.
If you think this story is finish, tune in again for my next post. There is indeed a Part 2.
Anyway, here are some more things I would like to share with you about Bulgaria. Bulgaria has really nice, colorful pottery. They have all kinds of shape and sizes. Cups, plates, pitchers. Name it you can have it. The only problem is bringing them home. They can be quite bulky.
Bulgaria's religion is Orthodox Catholic. Theirs is based on Greek Orthodox actually, although it is called Bulgarian Orthodox. Here are some of the souvenirs that has something to do with the icons. If you take a closer look at the paintings, they are really wonderful and beautiful, irregardless of the religious motif.
I love this Puppeteer, he is actually doing a folk show. The puppets are wearing traditional costumes and dancing to the folk songs.
Bulgarians love Paprikas. September is a month for Paprika, during our walks in the city and neighborhood, we can always smell Paprikas being baked. They are so aromatic and so flavorful. The Bulgarians eat them for salads, appetizers, main meals, for their breads, for spices. Actually just about for everything. They also eat them in all its form, whole, powdered, paste, baked, fried, cooked, etc. etc. I'm sure there's more than 1001 ways to eat Paprikas. They also come in so many forms but the best ones for me are the red ones. Just like this picture.
I will be posting more about the Baked Paprikas. It is indeed a very exciting experience for me when I first baked my own Churski
in one of the famous Bulgarian ways of preparing it. (The V should correct me on this one in case I mispelled it:)
Watermelons galore! They are so sweet and so good although in this picture, they may not look so beautiful. They're the sweetest, especially after getting one for free :) Buy 1, Take 1. Being asian is still very special in this land. The people are very friendly and amazed with my different looks.
Bulgaria has lots of cats. They are everywhere just like in Tuscany, they either belong to the locals or just on their own. What strikes me though with the cats here are that they are mostly in groups. Cats are known to be independent and more on their own.
Another interesting thing I have seen in this country is the way they annouce the death/anniversary/ birthday of their dead loves ones. They don't do it in newspapers (according to The V. my source) But rather this way. You walk in the neighborhood, shopping streets, etc. and you see such announcemnts. It's probably the places where this particular person used to live or spend her days. 
Well that would be all for now. I think my post is quite long this time. You can also take a look at my fellow Cybercruiser's Blog, Renny about his last trip to Bulgaria. Check Renny's entry here and more about his adventure with the bulgarian food here. Thanks again Renny for sharing that with me.
Background - Before coming to Bulgaria we checked with the embassy here in Germany about necessary visas and all. In my past trips to Bulgaria I have always had a visa. Well maybe times have changed. True enough it did, because of Bulgaria's entry into the European Union, wives/husbands of its citizens won't need any visa irregardless of their own nationality. So that means I would save about €65 plus for visa fee. That's a good deal for me.
Upon check in, the attendant didn't say anything about Visas. She didn't even check my passport. The V just showed our marriage certificate and all went smoothly.
Upon boarding: we needed to hand in boarding tickets and passports
Clerk: (hardly looks at Vlado's passport, mine however is scrutiningly controlled, every page, every sort of word) Where's her visa? (doesn't talk or even look at me -hello I'm here)
The V: Consulate said we don't need that for her.
Clerk: What!!?That can't be. (calls someone on the phone. apparently nobody on the other line.Clerk tries to look at her papers, she might have the solution to this puzzle.)
The V. meanwhile shows the marriage certificate to her
Clerk: Grunts and kept on looking at her stack of papers "I hate this when I have to do all this work and the check in people don't do their work!!! (Finally, Clerk founds something in her papers.) Ok, she can go (still not addressing me directly) but she's allowed only in the airport for 5 days.
Me: Super puzzled look, what?
The V shoves me to go in and at this moment I was thinking about Tom Hank's movie in the Terminal where he actually played a bulgarian (although not mentioned in the movie, his language was bulgarian mostly) who can't leave the airport. This time I would be in Bulgarian soil but would be like Tom Hanks, how ironic.
Me: (talking to Vlado) What, did you hear that? !!!????!!!Q§$%"%
The V: No, I didn't hear anything, forget that stupid cow (dumme Kuh - in german the cows are a bit stupid, I really wonder why, I don't think their stupid, more like lazy and relaxed)
Me: Ok ( meanwhile imagining a 5 day vacation in the airport)
Next Scene, Custom's, Sofia Airport
All people have to go through here so you can imagine the long lines and the anxious faces of the people wanting to get rid of this bureaucracy and meet either their tour operators and families at the other side.
Border Police: (Barely looks at Vlado's passport, scrutinizing mine every page, every word) Talks to Vlado in Bulgarian.. blah, blah, blah....
The V: Blah, blah, blah, and shows the marriage contract
Border Police: Blah blah. (calls another police)
Me: (getting dagger looks from the people behind the line)
Another Police: Blah, blah, blah
The V.: Blah, blah while showing the marriage contract again.
Me: (oh my, smiling the whole time, so as not to look like a fugitive, meanwhile still getting dagger looks from the line of people)
Border Police 1 to boarder Police 2: blah, blah, blah
The V: blah, blah
Me: (already melting from the dirty looks)
Finally the Police blah blahs Vlado again and I was released from that supposed to be 5 day vacation in Sofia Airport.
If you think this story is finish, tune in again for my next post. There is indeed a Part 2.
Anyway, here are some more things I would like to share with you about Bulgaria. Bulgaria has really nice, colorful pottery. They have all kinds of shape and sizes. Cups, plates, pitchers. Name it you can have it. The only problem is bringing them home. They can be quite bulky.
Bulgaria's religion is Orthodox Catholic. Theirs is based on Greek Orthodox actually, although it is called Bulgarian Orthodox. Here are some of the souvenirs that has something to do with the icons. If you take a closer look at the paintings, they are really wonderful and beautiful, irregardless of the religious motif. 
I love this Puppeteer, he is actually doing a folk show. The puppets are wearing traditional costumes and dancing to the folk songs.
Bulgarians love Paprikas. September is a month for Paprika, during our walks in the city and neighborhood, we can always smell Paprikas being baked. They are so aromatic and so flavorful. The Bulgarians eat them for salads, appetizers, main meals, for their breads, for spices. Actually just about for everything. They also eat them in all its form, whole, powdered, paste, baked, fried, cooked, etc. etc. I'm sure there's more than 1001 ways to eat Paprikas. They also come in so many forms but the best ones for me are the red ones. Just like this picture.I will be posting more about the Baked Paprikas. It is indeed a very exciting experience for me when I first baked my own Churski in one of the famous Bulgarian ways of preparing it. (The V should correct me on this one in case I mispelled it:) Watermelons galore! They are so sweet and so good although in this picture, they may not look so beautiful. They're the sweetest, especially after getting one for free :) Buy 1, Take 1. Being asian is still very special in this land. The people are very friendly and amazed with my different looks. Bulgaria has lots of cats. They are everywhere just like in Tuscany, they either belong to the locals or just on their own. What strikes me though with the cats here are that they are mostly in groups. Cats are known to be independent and more on their own.
Another interesting thing I have seen in this country is the way they annouce the death/anniversary/ birthday of their dead loves ones. They don't do it in newspapers (according to The V. my source) But rather this way. You walk in the neighborhood, shopping streets, etc. and you see such announcemnts. It's probably the places where this particular person used to live or spend her days. Well that would be all for now. I think my post is quite long this time. You can also take a look at my fellow Cybercruiser's Blog, Renny about his last trip to Bulgaria. Check Renny's entry here and more about his adventure with the bulgarian food here. Thanks again Renny for sharing that with me.
Postcards from Bulgaria
I'm sorry it took a long time to finally show you what we have done in Bulgaria. Well there were just a lot of things to do and so late it may seem, here it comes.
This is downtown Plovdiv, the place to be for most of the people in the area. It's where you can meet friends, have coffee, do some shopping or just walk pleasantly along the streets and enjoy the many many fountains.
First of all a bit background about Bulgaria: The Bulgarian nation was formed in in the seventh and eighth centuries when the Bulgars, warlike Nomads from central Asia, assumed the leadership of Slav tribes in the lower Danube basin and took them on a spree of conquest in southeastern Europe. The resulting First Bulgarian Kingdom accepted the Orthodox Christianity as the state religion but fell to the Byzantine Empire in the eleventh century. Later came recovery in the shape of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom after being freed from Constantinople but fell again to the rise of the Ottoman power in the 14th century which ushered in the 500 year long period of Tursko robstvo or Turkish bondage. Bulgaria's liberation finally came in 1878 achieved with the help of the Russians. Since then there are many things that happened in Bulgaria's history, the Balkan Wars, World War I & II, The People's Republic of Bulgaria (communist Bulgaria), The Republic of Bulgaria and recently its enty into the European Union. If you want to know more about it, click here. This brings you to Wikipedia where you can read more about the country. Otherwise read on.
The V. proudly comes from Plovdiv, the second largest city after Sofia, the capital. Below you can see some pictures of the old town. The houses here are really beautiful and has a distinctive architecture.
This is downtown Plovdiv, the place to be for most of the people in the area. It's where you can meet friends, have coffee, do some shopping or just walk pleasantly along the streets and enjoy the many many fountains.
Wednesday, September 26
We're back
We're back-
Baghira is also happy of course and we are happy too that we are back home and he is well despite the bills we needed to pay at the cat pension's owned and managed by a veterinarian. We would never do that again! It seemed they wanted to make money out of him in the end. Oh well charge it to experience.
We've had a very pleasant trip - had a great time with the whole family including the extended family and a dear neighbor, enjoyed the good weather (except for 2 days where it rained a lot!!), ate a lot of bulgarian food, drank good bulgarian wine and raki (similar to italian grappa) , found good bargains!!!, did something really tradational and a bit of sightseeing - a bit only because of encountering some problems on the way, including dealing with the local police chief and seeing a bulgarian doctor because that virus trying to catch me in Germany finally caught me there on my holiday!
I would post the pictures and relate to you the stories but first it's great to be back in the Blogosphere. We didn't have any internet connection there so I really didn't have time to read my mails and check any other blogs at all. See you all later!
Baghira is also happy of course and we are happy too that we are back home and he is well despite the bills we needed to pay at the cat pension's owned and managed by a veterinarian. We would never do that again! It seemed they wanted to make money out of him in the end. Oh well charge it to experience.We've had a very pleasant trip - had a great time with the whole family including the extended family and a dear neighbor, enjoyed the good weather (except for 2 days where it rained a lot!!), ate a lot of bulgarian food, drank good bulgarian wine and raki (similar to italian grappa) , found good bargains!!!, did something really tradational and a bit of sightseeing - a bit only because of encountering some problems on the way, including dealing with the local police chief and seeing a bulgarian doctor because that virus trying to catch me in Germany finally caught me there on my holiday!
I would post the pictures and relate to you the stories but first it's great to be back in the Blogosphere. We didn't have any internet connection there so I really didn't have time to read my mails and check any other blogs at all. See you all later!
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