"Dear Ladies and Gentlemen..."

This is the way our wonderful tour guide Julia greets us when we get on the bus, or when she wants to get our attention. She's so funny, and incredibly knowledgable about her country. Has any one ever seen the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"? This lady looks like she was in that movie. Every time we talk about the history of the world or culture, the way she talks about it sounds like "You give me any part of history, and I show for you how it originate from Bulgaria"...just like the guy from "Big Fat Greek Wedding" says, "You give me any word, and I show you how that word come from Greek". It's hilarious. I want to tell you later about the people of Bulgaria. They have an extreme sense of national pride that's very touching.

So we went to the town north of Varna called Balchik to see the old Queen of Romania's summer palace called "Quiet Nest". Oh it was so beautiful. The palace itself is nothing special per--say, but the gardens she created around it are beautiful and so spiritual feeling. She built a little church for herself in the garden, and made her navy bring her crosses from Romanian graves and grave markers from muslim burrial sights. Yes, she may have defaced some graves, but it's beautiful to walk through these gardens in full bloom with waterfalls and decorated crosses.

There are also some great stories attached with this place. The queen really disliked her husband and she built this palace for herself, and filled it with anything she wanted (she was very eclectic). She was a fantastic mother though and always liked for her kids to be with her. Her two sons ended up falling in love with the same married woman, and they decided to duel over her. The queen found out at the last second, and she ran out and pushed the two apart. One of them had already fired, and the bullet killed her right on the steps of her church.  It sounds like something out of a movie doesn't it? It's a factual story, the only part that is unknown is which brother's shot actually killed her because the royal family kept it very secret. They believe it was the oldest brother, and that they were trying to protect his image by hiding this information because he was next in line to be king of Romania.

This whole country is beautiful, and so incredibly scenic. The highway we use while going up and down the coast is directly parallel to the Black Sea, so you can usually see the water as you drive. Everywhere we've been to, there are plains surrounded by mountains, and you can see the mountains from the beach. Also the whole country is 70% forest land, so there are beautiful green trees everywhere. The Golden Sands resort we stay at actually is located in what they call the Bulgarian Jungle, which is actually a national park area... Again, greenery everywhere adding to the truly fantastic view everywhere you go.

I finally went swimming for the first time in the Black Sea yesterday. So I'll have to update everyone on that, the wine tour we went on, and the opera performance of The Magic Flute I'm in tomorrow night!!!!

Wish me luck! More to come...