Banderitsa Bansko

Hallo zusammen,<br><br>wie im vorigen Eintrag erwaehnt bin ich zum Rila Kloster gefahren, dem Jerusalem Bulgariens, UNESCO Weltkulturerbe und in 1000m Hoehe in den Pirin Bergen gelegen. <br><br>Von Sofia bin ich zunaechst mit dem Bus nach Dupnitsa gefahren, 60km im Sueden, 2,50 Euro fuer die Fahrt. Dupnitsa ist tiefste Provinz, englisch spricht hier niemand (und ...

... late and missed the gondola ride that would take me up to the mountain, so I was stuck in a city where half of it was empty (its major industry is skiing in the winter), having nothing to do. I walked the streets, used the hotel&#8217;s wifi to go to internets and relaxed. I ate a simple dinner and tried their "draft wine", I guess it means homemade wine without filtering, and it was cheap and nice.

8th June<br><br>Sofia to Rila Monastery<br><br>Sunny am 27 degrees Late storm<br><br>After breakfast we left our lovely hotel room in Sofia to drive to Rila Monastery. We made one detour to see some sign-posted rock formations where we drove up a goat track for a while, then climbed a hill and got to see a nice view but with no sign of the rock formations ...

... good few feet deep in snow - ya! The central church was awash with brightly coloured, intricately detailed murals, which were fantastic to look at but honestly you could spend ages and still not take everything in them in! We walked arond checking the place out and wondering what it would be like to live there. Through one of the entrance gates we found some little shops and got to buy some lovely locally made pottery which ...

Man, we ALMOST did not get the private bus to Rila Monastery because it was a hefty, additional expense. However, we are so glad we did pay the extra money to see this beautiful complex and its surroundings. Rila Monastery is a very well known Bulgarian site that is set in the Rila mountains. The setting is just great. We spent about an hour at the monastery and walked down to the cemetery which was cool too. We will let the pictures do the talking here. The only piece ...

... everyone else early in the afternoon and we set out on the 2hr bus ride to the Dancing Bear Rescue Park in Belitsa. The road there was so rough that even I couldn't sleep, I think my bottom might be bruised from flying of the seat so much. I know my head hurts pretty bad from bouncing off the window the one time I did try to sleep! The Dancing Bears Park in Belista was founded in 2000 and it ...

Had a lazy morning since we weren't leaving Sophia until 2. Got moving just before noon and then went in search of food. Quick piece of pizza, of course covered in Ketchup. I'm actually starting to get used to the ketchup on pizza slices! Then I tried to do some travelers errands. Browsed some stores and bought a bracelet for my mama while I waited for my pictures to be burnt to a CD. Made friends with the girls at the picture shop and then went to find more ...

... about it. First the good news: Most of my students are making progress. They're remembering what they learned at the beginning and building on it. Everyone's talking in complete sentences. I started from zero with most of my groups, so that's definitely something. I'm especially happy with my adult groups (I have four,) they are retaining what I'm teaching them and are becoming more confident, willing to speak English in class and be less ...

The last major step in PST, pre-service training, is to design and implement a community project. (Have you gotten the point... we do lots of training.) It went really well. Most importantly we were supposed to learn from it, and i think that definitely happened. We met with the director of the community center 3 different times before we settled on a project, which really showed me how things work differently in Bulgaria. It took a lot of informal ...

... too with her whole family. They live a couple hours away in another small village. It's really fun and different here, always being with extended family. Apparently this baba is an expert in making rakia (homemade Bulgarian whiskey) and wants to teach me. The family joked about how I study everything: Bulgarian language, making banitsa, and now making rakia. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened at some point in the next couple of weeks.