Kellee's Birthday 2009

Chincoteague 2009

NYC

The poor bald guy had to get back to Panama to work, but I had an extra week to waste in New York. Karree, Shana and Brianne met me for the first half of the week. We did a lot of touring and shopping. The second half of the week, I caught up with Dean and Linda and lived vicariously through Linda for a few days, visiting the bookstores and farmer's markets that make me jealous every time I think of them.

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.