Kralev Dvor Bansko

... hauptsaechlich Bulgaren.

Das Kloster wurde 927 gegruendet und durch seine Lage tief in den Bergen half es die bulgarische Kultur in den 500 Jahren in denen Bulgarien zum ottomanischen Reich gehoert zu erhalten.

In den bulgarischen Kirchen, die wie alle orthodoxen Kirchen reich verziert sind, darf man leider nicht fotografieren.

Gruss
Ralf

A lot of Americans celebrated and had fun on this day but not me. I went to the central bus station on time to catch an early bus but somehow the cashier sold me a wrong ticket so I missed the bus, and then she refused to give me the refund. The first really unpleasant experience for this trip. And the day didn't get much better after this. I ended up catching a later bus to Bansko, but because of that I ...

... with some rooms always available for travellers. The Church is stunning with 1200 magnificent murals, inside and out, and also holds Tsar Boris III's tomb; it's believed he was poisoned by the Nazis. We spent the afternoon around the Monastery, and then walked to the nearby village restaurant/pub for dinner. Looking forward to a lovely peaceful evening.

... though as we wended our way up to the Monastery on the narrow twisty winding roads, as again they have no snow plows in evidence here, so they we just driving on hard packed snow and ice - thankfully I didn't realize this until after the first half of the journey was over. The Monastery though was spectacular and well worth the visit! It was a huge circular structure 4 stories high and because we were in the mountains ...

... cup of tea from their cafe. It's funny here, everyone in Bulgaria thinks that tea should always be flavoured, not normal flavour, and that it should be drunk black. I ask for milk and they don't seem to understand. When I finally get my message accross, (Bulgarian is very similar to Russian) they give me my milk but still proceed to put lemon in my tea. Yuck, they obviously don't know what happens when you mix lemon and milk together.

... they stepped on a hot spot of the dirt or ground. Some of the bears were standing in the same spot for minutes on end just shifting feet and taking one step forward and then one step back. The rangers who worked there explained this was either due to the hot spots on the ground or too many years of horrible mental torture. Such a sad place, but definitely an eye opener and worth the visit ...

... Two more hours on the bus and we were in Bansko. Got ready and then we went out for a big group dinner. The restaurant was a traditional place and had a gypsy band playing some music. Had some cured ham type of meat and then and amazing (!!!) rice, sauerkraut and shredded pork dish. Blew the one earlier out of the water! On the way back a couple of us grabbed some 2L bottles of beer (for $1.50!) and sat on the balcony for a couple of hours having some drinks.

... get new clothes and look nice. my counterpart was planning what she would wear for weeks. and i broke out my strappy heels for the first time since i've been here. another fun thing about 15th september is that the kids come with flowers and give a bouquet to their favourite teachers - only to the women. i got flowers from 4 kids and i haven't taught an official class yet, so i thot that was pretty awesome.

... Part of the problem is that Spaz wasn't originally interested in being the resource teacher (as I said, he doesn't live here and doesn't care,) but later when he found out Galia was getting paid a little bit by the Peace Corps he became jealous. This may contribute to his lack of attention to us, he may figure he's not the one getting paid so why should he bother. The final straw in their relationship came when Keith decided to drop out of the Peace Corps, and ...

... the mountains, cutting straight thru the forest, I wondered what we would do if another car came the other way but that didn't happen. So we've already jumped in with our training. The first night all we did was eat and sleep, I was so tired I was dizzy, but the next morning we started a full day at 9 am. We heard from directors of the Sofia office and of PST (pre service training,) and admin people on all kinds of stuff. Then we had 2 hours of ...