London

Our friend Anjana was kind enough to host us in London for a few days. We were kind of vacationed out by that time, so we took it easy. We wandered a lot, and sat in a lot of pubs. It was great.

Rose Festival at Kazanluk

We visited one of Derick's fellow vounteers, Anita, at her site in Kazanluk, Bulgaria. Our visit coincided with the annual Rose Festival, in which townspeople dress up in traditional clothing and re-enact a time in which they picked rose petals and manufactured them into all variety of creams, lotions and oils. On the way out to the rose fields for the reenactment festival, we were treated to the sight of the Roma people who actually do this work today. I guess they weren't invited to the festival, or maybe they couldn't miss work? We also saw the crowning of the Rose Queen and got drenched in the cold rain. Drick wasn't quite prepared, as you can see.

Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria

Derick took us to Veliko Tarnovo, a great old walled city which was the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire. VT has a nicely restored castle.

Eating and dancing in Telish

We were an interesting one-day diversion for the citizens of Telish. Everyone in town knows Derick, and we met about half of the town as we wandered around with him. He took us to the community center where the old folks hang out, and they played the accordion and sang for us and showed us some traditional dances. Later that night, after attending a rehearsal for a community play, Derick's coworkers and their spouses put on a nice dinner for us. We had some great food and tried the local booze, rakia. We brought them some Panamanian swill but nobody liked it much. The evening also ended with dancing. A great time was had by all, except the husband of Derick's coworkers, who would rather have been watching a soccer game.

Food in Bulgaria

We generally liked the food in Bulgaria. They use a lot of fresh, homemade yogurt, which we loved and inspired us to make our own yogurt at home (it is easy). They also pile a ton of simple white cheese on everything, and who doesn't like that? Bulgarian food is largely meat, potatoes and tomato sauce, with the aforementioned white cheese, so really good.

The real purpose of this trip was visiting Derick's Peace Corps site in Telish, Bulgaria.

Here are pictured: Derick's apartment building, the train station at Telish (about an hour from Zagreb by train), Derick in his apartment, the Deker at his desk in the chtilista (a community center-type place, not sure how to spell it), and Derick with his coworker and friend Svetla at work.

Meeting the Mayor

We had a long talk, through Derick and his friend Plamen, with Telish's Mayor. Here she is with Derick in front of a picture of a founding father of Bulgaria, whose name escapes me.