Day 1: Varna

After the incredibly long 2 days of flying we had to be up and at 'em at 7:30 this morning...it was not a pretty sight. However, the breakfast was amazing. Actually, all of the food here is delicious. Every one kept asking me what kind of food they eat in Bulgaria, and I really didn't have an answer. I mean, I looked in multiple travel books and internet sites for infor on Bulgaria, and there just simply isn't that much out there. Which is a shame because this place is great!

For breakfast they have cheeses, cold meats, fried pastry things (my favorite one being banitsa...I'm not sure that's how you actually spell it, but it's this flaky crust with cheese inside). We ate out on the terrace at the hotel. Let me just tell you the sun was up and seriously bright at 7:30, and they were still playing Lady Gaga party music from the night before. The weather here is GORGEOUS...all the time. Sunny and bright, but with no humidity, a light breeze, always in the 80s. At night it hits 60s, but it's still fantastic.

Then we loaded up and went on a tour of the town of Varna, the 3rd largest city in the country. It houses about 1 million people. The buildings here are interesting becuase some of them are beautiful and look like what you see in pictures of Greece; however, those are up against some very unfortunate looking drab buildings left over from their Communist regime that was in power duing the height of the Communist movement. The juxtoposition is a really interesting sight. It's also one of the greenest places in eastern Europe. They've apparently won awards for their green efforts, they keep their beaches incredibly clean, and the air here smell beautiful (I know that sounds a little weird, but it's true).

We went to the Archeological museam today and saw THE oldest collection of gold in the world. That's right even older than old school Egypitan gold. The gold we saw today was about 8,000 years old. It's actually part of the evidence for the oldest civilization ever discovered. The gold in this civilization seperated the "haves" from the "have nots", and that's apparently the staple for calling something a civilization.

Then we had another incredible yet traditional Bulgarian meal. We started off with a salad of cucumber, tomatoes, and cheese, followed by vegetable soup, then continued with some kind of spiced pork and potatoes, with Bakleva for dessert. Not to worry I chronicaled this adventure with photos to be added later.

We had rehearsal after that in the Varna Opera House, which by the way is beautiful and very old. Again I'll have pictures to add later, but it's very cool: red velvet chairs, balcony, chandeliers. Really beautiful.

After rehearsal (this is my favorite part), we went to the beach because I was just about to have a fit if I didn't get to put my feet in the Black Sea. On the walk down there as we passed vendors and shops, people would hear us talking and literally stop us to ask where we were from. Here are the nationalities that people thought we were: Finnish, English, Scandanavian, and German. One guy even tried to fight us on it becuase he thought we were lying...No good sir, I PROMISE you we are American. It's the most interesting, but slightly warm and fuzzy feeling for people to be so excited to meet Americans. Because don't get me wrong, these people loved that we were American, stopped us, wanted to hear us speak, and asked why we were in Bulgaria. I don't think some of these people have ever met an American before. The obvious reason being...it takes a while to get over here. It's just so funny! We walked down to the beach, and on the way back up one of the restaurant hosts starts making up a melody and singing "AMEEEERICAN GIIIRLS" to us. His name was George. Most people speak relatively good English here, but they just can't place our accent.

Anyway, today was a blast, and we'll still be here for 2 more weeks :) I'm looking forward to it. I'll tell you about the beach later because that's a whole 'nother animal!

To Be Continued...