Family Visit

(On the Black Sea with my Mom)

I haven't added a new post in a while because I was busy showing my family the treasures of Bulgaria. My mom, dad, brother and my brothers girlfriend (strike girlfriend. Make it finance. No, strike fiance. Make it my caca. I'll explain later) came for a visit.

I took them to three na gosti's (dinner parties) to show off Bulgarian hospitality. They got to sip homemade rakiya, eat guveche, banitsa and other traditional Bulgarian dishes. And I got to do a whole lot of translating. I realize that my Bulgarian lessons are paying off now. My family was surprised when I was able to translate the word "billiard" from a sign on the street. "You know the word for billiard", they said. What they didn't know is that the word is the same in Bulgarian. I just needed to be able to read the Bulgarian alphabet. Ha ha!

Since they were here for only a short amount of time, I gave them the quick tour of the country. After staying in my village for a few days we went to Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria, where my brother, his fiance, and I tasted the night life. One of the clubs we went to had a live rock band that sang only in English. Ironically the singer didn't speak much English.

We traveled to the black sea where we stayed at Musala Palace, probably the nicest hotel any of us has ever stayed. The six course breakfast even included dessert. After that it was off to Veliko Turnovo to explore Tsaravets castle and party and Pepys bar.

One day we stopped in a little town called Ihitiman so my dad and brother could play golf. At lunch my brother purposed to his girlfriend. Of course mom started bauling. Ha ha! Later at one of our na gosti's we found out that the word for big sister in Bulgarian is caca. So LeAnne, my brothers fiance, will become my caca. I'm sure she will be a very good caca.

The last night we stayed in an apartment in Sofia, and my family left before six in the morning to catch their flight back home. I watched a little CNN on the TV, but was out the door by seven, headed back home too, in Bratsigovo.

The time went by so fast. Even if they stayed for a month, I know it would have went by fast. I wish we could have walked through Bratsigovo and the mountains. I wish they could have danced the horo and eat skembe. I wish we could have made it to a discoteka so they could hear the kind of music people listen to and how they dance. Well like my friends here have been telling me, "next time."