and I think to myself...what a wonderful world...

You lucky people...getting two blog posts in one day! I have to catch up since I didn't get to write yesterday. A lot of adventures happened between today and yesterday!

This morning we went to Euxinograd Palace, which is hidden off of the highway. It was originally built in the 1800s for the Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand, and the construction was completed by their next monarch Boris I believe. It was this beautiful light red brick, oversized mansion. It wasn't really a "huge" palace, but that was part of the attractiveness of it. The inside had huge windows, a pastel interior color palate, and it was a manageable size. It provided an R&R feel. The best part were it's English and French gardens that lead straight to the Black Sea. You would walk down the path and end up at a pool that overlooked the private beach. I was hoping someone might mistake me for Bulgarian royalty so I could go swim in that pool! It really was a lot of fun to walk around and see...they had their own working winery and greenhouses too!

After that we grabbed a quick lunch and then went to rehearse The Magic Flute with the Varna Opera House orchestra. I wish you all could be here to hear them because they sounded beautiful, and the conductor is absolutely WONDERFUL to work with (and he's not to bad on the eyes either!) Our cast and the orchestra all sounded great together, and in my opinion there is no feeling in the world than singing your heart out with a full orchestra backing you up. I had a great time today because I had the chance to sing the Queen of the Night's aria "Der Holle Rache", (which if you all don't recognize the name I promise if you youtube it, you will recognize the tune). Anyway, I had a blast singing with the beautiful orchestra, and there were a few "bravas" from them afterward. They were just being nice, but the Bulgarians sure can make a girl feel special! (Our tour guide Galina told me I almost made her cry "beh-cauz it vas beautiful"... She's precious, and I'll talk more about her later!) 

After rehearsal we went to eat at a restaurant where we could see the beach and all of the nightlife. We had really yummy mediteranean food. Then someone in our group noticed there was something starting to cover the moon. We asked our waiter if there was supposed to be an eclipse tonight, and he told us that there was in fact a lunar eclipse occurring tonight. He said that the "full" eclipse was occurring in Lebanon, and that's not very far away from Bulgaria at all. So we watched the moon turn bright red, and when I just went to look out there I almost couldn't find it because it was essentially a total eclipse even from Bulgaria! 

So palaces, orchestra rehearsals, and lunar eclipses! Quite an adventurous day!!!