Hotel Ezeretz Blagoevgrad

... kann ich natuerlich ich auch kaum, die Bulgaren haben kyrillisch erfunden). Habe aber den Bus nach Rila in die Berge gefunden und war dort dann am Spaetnachmittag (erneut 60km fuer 2,50 Euro). Habe mich im Kloster einquartiert (10 Euro fuer die Nacht, Duschen gibt es keine), wenn die Tagestouristen weg sind ist es ganz nett. Touristen gibt es naemlich sehr viele ...

... 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’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.

... back and continued on to Rila Monastery. We arrived early afternoon and found that a room was available so decided to stay overnight at the Monastery. The Monastery is in a forested valley and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was first built in 927 and has 300 monk's cells in buildings surrounding the Nativity Church. It continues to be a working ...

... nime. Klaasist oli näha nii Anne enda kui Risto lipikud, aga natuke kohatu tundus neid lipikuid ise välja loosida. Jalutasime külas ringi ja ostsime 2 mütsi - ühe Kõkule ja ühe Annele. Marek ja Rauni haarasid ka ühe kohaliku napus - raki - tee peale kaasa ja hakkasimegi tagasi kulgema. Jälle tund ja natuke peale sõitu ja jõudsime tagasi linna. Korjasime tee pealt peale Kõku ja asusime otsima söögikohta, mille tahtsime vana ...

... cobs. So much for grape vines needing temperate climes though - they were all doing fine here. One thing that did keep Kel and I amused was actually trying to see the scenery at some points as the bus had no heating so we were literally scraping the frost off with our fingernails for much of it to be able to see out! And Kel wondered why I never took my ski ********** for the entire trip! We were impressed with our driver's ...

... in Bansko, I went for dinner with two of the others. Tried the cold yogurt and cucumber soup that is on every menu, it wasn't bad but wasn't near as good as the cold soup that was in Latvia! Also had a shish or shish kebab to the rest of us, yummy stuff. Came back to the hotel and chilled on the patio for a couple beers again before heading in for an early night before the dreaded 6am start tomorrow.

... since supper was a long way away! Found a cafeteria style place and had some pork and sauerkraut stew, thumbs up! Wandered around Sophia a bit more and then went back to catch the bus. On our way to Bansko, we stopped at the Rila Monastery, the largest Eastern Orthodox Monastery in Bulgaria. It was an amazing place. Got the weirdest feeling when I was there, not good or bad, just weird. I bought a wooden painted Icon, love it but I will need to cut back on ...

... letters to a group of English students in Romania, whose teacher is also a Peace Corps volunteer. The kids write letters about their towns and their families and send pictures and little presents. Because we started right after Baba Marta my kids sent martanitzas. The kids love sending and recieving letters, and their English ability jumps 2 levels when they're writing to other kids rather than turning in an essay for class. On March 3rd there was a ...

... t all be together again until IST, in service training, in November. On Friday morning we all took a bus up to Sofia, about 1 ½ hours away to the Peace Corps office for swearing in. It was a nice short ceremony on the lawn of the peace corps office. The Ambassador swore us in - we say the same thing that foreign service officers say - and gave a short speech. Also a woman from the ministry of education spoke (with a translator.) She herself had worked ...

... we want to travel on the weekends we have to be with our families. Fortunately I am really close with my family so I don't mind. Like lots of volunteers go into the closest town or city with eachother, to go shopping or whatever, but I do that kind of stuff with my family. So I was thinking that these rules were mainly designed to have us integrate into the community, which makes total sense to me as I learned from my study ...