More Pictures Online

Here is the link to more pictures from Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Romania. Hope you enjoy! http://s1196.photobucket.com/profile/mikeandalla/index

Bye Bye Balkans

Hello all! Glad you're here! Here's what we've been up to since the last post. We've showered!! And have had a warm bed since family got a hold of us. We spent a day in Macedonia...not the night though. It looked a little fishy. Mike didn't like the people. We didn't really blend in very well like we do everywhere else in the southern countries. (We won't have such an advantage in the rest of Europe) the people were darker but maybe we weren't dark enough. Mike blamed my bright colored clothing...but I think it was just because it was a small town and everyone knew each other. We saw the city of Ohrid. In which was Lake Ohrid. That reminded us of Tahoe too. Just because of mountains surrounding the lake. It was beautiful. I've heard that Macedonian and Bulgarian could be the same language, they're so similar...it's true. We didn't talk to people but people talked to each other. They had t-mobile there. They were our wifi provider. We hadn't seen it in any country before Macedonia or since then. Kind of interesting. We drove up to Skopje but never really made it to the center of the city. Got a little lost and so we explored the outskirts by car. After being in Ohrid and driving around Skopje we kind of got a feel for the country and we didn't like it too much. Mike thought it best not to spend the night there. We found out later that there are friends of a friend that could have taken us in and showed us around. Would have been nice but from the research we did on Skopje there wasn't too many things that interested us so it's ok. Drove to Nis, Serbia for the night. 

In Nis we spent a lot of time looking for skull tower! It took way too long. Google maps was off. Had us wandering through neighborhoods looking for skulls. With the help of multiple people we found it. Only to find that they didn't take credit cards...or Euros. So we went to find a bank. When we finally had everything in order we were the only ones visiting! The man unlocked the place for us and waited for us to finish to lock up. It was a little bit awkward. This tower is built of the skulls of Serbian heroes that fought against the Turks; In remembrance of them. It looked a bit like Halloween. There were 4000 skulls used. Not that many remain intact. Serbian I also understood. With the Russian and Bulgarian I know it really helped make sense of it. Speaking and understanding are on two totally different levels though. So directions were given in Serbian and policemen spoke to us in Serbian. I was proud of me. 

We continued on to Belgrade. There we just wandered. Hung out in a really busy park and saw some of the sights. Didn't do too many touristy things here but that's just fine with me. We had some really good pizza baked in front of us in a brick oven and hung out with some coffee while we people watched. We saw this one billboard very many times. I commented on how it was Serbia's favorite...then mike says "that guy looks like an old Vlade Divac" turns out it was Vlade Divac! Some billboard for the foundations he's started back in his homeland. He's a star there! After that I'd smile every time I saw that billboard. 

Grandpa with my brothers

From there we drove to Temerin to stay with family. There was a family there and another a half hour away in Becej. We stayed with each for a couple days. Mostly what was talked about was family. It was very interesting for mike. I barely understood what the plan was much less what was being discussed. Mike was really cute...I loved seeing him so excited about something. He loved learning about his family's history and meeting some of them. He has family trees from both his grandma and grandpas side of the family. One of which goes back 5 generations. I was so inspired! I've always been interested in genealogy and I've always wished we had something for our family. So one of the nights as mike discussed family I started my own family tree! It only goes as far as grandparents...and I only know a few of one grandpa's siblings. Not nearly as much as I should know. I don't even know my cousins from my dad's side...or aunts and uncles. The ones that didn't migrate to the states I don't know...it's a sad sad thing. I know a ton about mike's family though!:) Mike discovered that he's got painters and authors and sculptors and musicians in his family. We got to see some of the works of these artists. It was really special. Looking through old photographs and making comparisons in appearance...who inherited whose looks, hearing the stories of what they did and how they lived and died; From what was translated it was a really touching experience. I can't imagine how much more so for Mike. Being in the land of his grandfathers gives you a sense of who you really are. We are so grateful for the opportunity to do this!

The bigger city near Temerin is Novi Sad. We explored that for a day. It was fun. There is this huge music festival held here every summer. Exit festival is what it's called. It lasts a few days and we looked at previous artists and were impressed. Arcade Fire, M.I.A, Mika, LCD Soundsystem, Arctic Monkeys. Were among some of the ones that popped out to me. They say it's the biggest music festival in Europe...or maybe it was just southeast Europe.:) either way...we really wanna go!!! It's only half hour from where the family is so we'd have a place to stay. The coolest part...it's held inside a fortress!! I think we'll make it happen. 

We left for Arad, Romania on the 7th of march. The route that Google maps gave us told us to cross a border that has been closed for over 10 yrs. We aren't liking Google much these days. We arrived to a house full of people...and that was just like 4 of them! Mikes dad's brother and his mom's niece got married and had 13 children! So the families are double related. I'm loving it so much here! I feel right at home. Not just because of how wonderful and welcoming the family is but also because it reminds me of my family. The way things work in big families is the same. The bonds between the kids is similar. The way the parents are. How much fun they have when they're together. I can't explain it well...I've tried explaining it in my journal and I just can't. There is just something about all of them...I almost feel like they're my brothers and sisters and I can't quite pinpoint why that is. By the end of day 2 I was able to name all of them and almost in order!:) 2 weeks here and I still haven't met everyone. We've been having fun with the kids. There are a few younger couples that like to hang out so we've been doing all kinds of things with them. Went to a nearby cave which was really neat. Mike's been doing all sorts of boy things...hunting and other sports, exploring the forest by night. I've been spending a lot of time at the mall and various coffee places. 

Its kind of slowing down now...people have to get back to their lives. We're looking into day-trips we can take from here. Still waiting on the citizenship paperwork to arrive. We don't have a plan as of right now. Hoping to figure it out soon because we don't want to overstay our welcome...hope we haven't already done that!

Well that's all folks! -Bugs Bunny

Hello Hellas!

Early morning on the 17th of February we left Bulgaria. It was all so very sudden. Our plans for how it was going to happen didn't really pan out. We were getting really close to our 90 days in the country. With some research and a couple visits to the police station we decided it best to leave Bulgaria with a few days as back up for when we need to return for mike's paperwork. So we had 1.5 days of packing franticly, moving out of the apartment, deciding where it is we would go, tying up loose ends such as bills and rental agreements and things of the sort. It was very straining on the nerves for me. Mike seemed excited more than anything. Excited for the adventure of the unknown! Once we had a semi plan I was excited too.

We called my aunt in Athens and she arranged for us to stay with her! She doesn't have her own place, lives where she is employed so it was a little complicated. This aunt is my dad's youngest brothers wife. My uncle died about 30 yrs ago leaving her with a 1.5 yr old and a really big baby inside. She delivered the day after she buried her husband! Her story is a very hard one. I am soo happy that I got to know her/meet her. Haven't seen her since I was 5. I just knew her from what my parents would tell me. She is an amazing woman. You would not believe the running around she did for us! We have never and will never again be waited on like that! And we will never forget all that she did for us. Our time in Athens was so special to me because of her. I was so happy to come home in the evenings and just talk to her. She is usually so lonely. Alone in the country...supporting her kids back home in Moldova. She has no one to talk to and was so happy to have company! I was honored to be that company. And was a little ashamed of how she was treating us...like we were royalty or something. I felt uncomfortable. I really came to love this woman. We were able to stay in Athens for a long time because we didn't have to buy a single food item or pay for stay.

We stopped in Thessaloniki and Meteora on our way to Athens. Thessaloniki was nice but we weren't too impressed. Meteora was amazing. There are these monasteries built on top of mountains that look like fingers of rock are coming out of the earth. You have to look at the pictures, it's unlike anything we've ever seen. 

In the 9 days we were in Athens we did a lot of sightseeing. We did the usual of course such as the acropolis and all the city's historical sites. It was interesting to see a place with so much history! The ancient world. There were bits of ruins everywhere you looked. Their building of the subway station took a long time because as they dug they kept bumping into ancient artifacts that were 2.5 thousand yrs old! (for example) There were many modern buildings that had fenced off pieces of old houses or something right next to it. Or just walking through the city in between the regular buildings will be a tower or something from 2000 yrs ago. We went to the Olympic stadium they built for 2004 and ran into a ton of the fenced off pieces of the ancient world. It was neat. 

We also traveled out of Athens quite a bit. We did 3 day trips. One was to the city of Marathon where there was once a battle and an Athenian man ran back to Athens to bring the news that they had won. It's a little over 20 miles from Athens. That is where we get the word marathon, from the battle of marathon:). Greek history is full of stories like that which is what made this trip so fun, I've never liked history this much. 

Two was Delphi, Itea, and Arahova. Delphi was a town that a famous fortune teller from the ancient times lived. She was well known for her predictions. Many kings would travel to see her before war, for example, to see how they should proceed. There is a scene in the movie 300 where king leonidus travelled there to seek her advice. Itea was a little beach town and Arahova was a little mountain town. Reminded us of South Lake Tahoe, only without the lake and built on the edge of a mountain. I really liked the feel of the place. Relaxed and so so pretty. Loved walking the streets and peeking into shops. I think the reason I liked it so much was because it was different than the ruins we've been looking at for a week. 

Trip three was Corinth, Mykines, and Nafplio. Ancient Corinth was built around 500BC. We went and saw the old city and the stage from which apostle Paul spoke to the Corinthians. That was most interesting to me. Mykines is where historians believe the  first civilization of main land Greece began. There was an old castle there that was built 1300BC. A lot of the modern governments and language are attributed to the Mykinians. It's crazy to see how old some of these sites were and to think that this tribe was around even 400 years before king David and Solomon ruled in Jerusalem is amazing. Nafplio was the first capital of modern Greece and it also had a massive medieval castle on top of a mountain. We explored the castle for a few hours, the views from there were amazing. 

Monday afternoon our time with T. Anya (aunt) had come to an end. Leaving was a little hard. A lot harder than I thought it'd be. To think only 9 days prior I hardly knew the woman but leaving was just as hard as it was to leave family at home. We drove back to Corinth for just the night and early morning we started heading to Olympia. Olympia was pretty cool, a bunch of ruins in my eyes but with a ton of history. The history of the Olympics. We saw the exact place that the Olympic torch is lit for the Olympics. I may just not pay attention to things of the sort but I was so amazed at the fact that they light the torch here every four years and fly the flame to wherever the Olympics are that year. I thought that very interesting. Mike and I had our own little Olympic race in the original Olympic stadium! We had to do it!:) and it was so fun! From there we drove towards the Ionian Sea and stayed in Patras for a couple days. It is the 3rd largest city in population. We explored a bit and found wifi at a coffee place. My favorite though was hanging out in the back of our car on a huge pile of pillows/blankets and watching the sunset. Had an awesome view of the Rio Antirro bridge (the largest suspension bridge in the world with a toll fee of 13.20 Euros..."scammers" mike says). We left the Patras area early Thursday morning and started heading up north. Today we stopped in a couple random little towns. We found another little coffee shop and used their wifi in exchange for the purchase of 2 cappuccinos. We liked the sunset setup so much that we did it again today!:) today's was better. We didn't see a soul in the 3+ hours we were there. Mike read, I wrote, we ate, mike skipped rocks, I watched, we took pictures. It was absolutely amazing!! My favorite of all the moments we had in Greece!

We're leaving the country very pleased! I loved how nice everyone was. We read that the Greek are a hospitable people but we didn't expect so much! One family gave us (complete strangers) a free place to stay and for a week!! Another family was so awesome in spending time with us, showing us the sights. The dad of this family was in the restaurant business for many years...the cooking he did for us was so so amazing! I was just in awe! They were so sweet! I mentioned that I'd like to learn to make tzatziki...the next time we saw them what did we do? We made tzatziki! I love that old man! 

We're living in our car. Everyone we tell feels sorry for us or something...but  I think it's great!! It's like a very cozy, very little home. The only complaint is the not so warm nights. But we've figured it out. With each night we get better at it. We have a pretty complex system of cold air blockage and cushioning and other means of comfort. We fit very well. We have a wagon, a ford mondeo, maroon. Slept in the car a total of 4 nights combined. This trip it's been 3. The further north we go the colder the nights will get though. We'll have to sightsee fast or get more creative.:) The plan is to stay in the car unless it's super cold or we're in dire need of a shower. We're gonna make our money last!:) Been 3 days, it's getting close. Baby wipes won't cut it for too much longer. We are slowly making our way up to Romania to see mike's family. The plan goes like this: Macedonia-1 day, maybe 2. Serbia-same. Maybe longer, depending on how many families we visit. Mike's got family there too.

We are having the greatest experience ever! It is so great to just be free. No plan really, no time frame, no obligations. If we want to detour and see something along the way we're free to do that. If we like a city and want to stay an extra day we can. I've always wanted to live like this! It's so fun! 

"In Venice you're lost in 5 mins, with a map you're lost in 10"

Our most recent and most wonderful of all adventures was Venice Italy. I think I've decided that the way to travel is to take breaks in between. Maybe it was just because Venice was so wonderful but it seems that I enjoyed it a whole lot more than when we were on the cruise and had so much to see and do in so little time. It was just so fast that I didn't even have time to reflect on the things I saw and experienced and we were onto the next one. I guess I just had a chance to appreciate this trip. The anticipation, research, down time while you're there to take it in, and time to reflect afterwards...all of that makes a trip memorable.

Italians are loud. Italians are a very pretty people. Italians know how to dress themselves...and especially their children. So many times I thought..."I need to find that for when we have kids!!". I didn't find anything. I loved the people, I loved the language, I loved the architecture, I loved the coffee...and it was all on water! People buon giorno-ing back and forth out of their windows; out of their beyond beautiful windows that were on a one of a kind vicolo(if I'm not mistaken that is what they call their narrow streets) only they aren't really streets at all...they are canals! And sometimes a sidewalk. Women suspended outside their windows hanging their laundry on the clothesline. Talking loudly all the while, of course. Gondola men exchanging a few words as they row down a very narrow canal.They had to duck their heads on some of the smaller bridges. Every shop window held something of interest on the other side. Every alley (or vicolo) was worthy of a second glance. Every door and window even were valuable enough for a picture....ok maybe not a picture but at least a moment of admiration. Just beautiful...exactly like the movies portray it to be. I was so happy to simply be walking the streets. The views, the sounds; there was so much going on. There were quite a bit of squares in the city. Just a large open area with fountains and benches and outdoor restaurant seating usually. This is where the locals hung out it seemed. In the squares is where the mommies came and let their kids run free. Away from the water...makes sense. They sip on their cappuccinos as their boys kick soccer balls around and the girls...they would carry bags of confetti and toss it up in the air for fun. It was so interesting to me. I was wondering why all the squares were covered in confetti. I thought "it can't be from new years, it's almost Feb.". Coffee shops? There were a plenty; which were lively during the day. The same goes for wine bars at night.

When looking up things to see/do in Venice "getting lost" was on every list. Well we crossed that one off our list within 10 mins of getting off our bus. It was a bit frustrating at the moment, trying to find our hotel with our bags and to add to the fun...we hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was 10ish pm. Looking back...it was nice.:) when I asked our hotel man for a better map than what we had he said "in Venice you're lost in 5 mins, with a map you're lost in 10". Very truly spoken hotel man. We spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out where we were. The streets...so small. The canals...look the same. And bridges....just one of 450!

We really enjoyed our 4 days of enchantment. Did a lot of walking and saw pretty much every site possible. We went to a few museums and we went to a theatre production! We learned all sorts of things about Venice at the show like the famous venetian masks all began when people would wear masks to protect themselves from the black plague! Interesting right? Learned all about the city's promiscuity and Casanova. He wasn't alone he had a buddy lord Byron, who claimed to have 200 different women in 200 nights. I guess it was a common thing to do.

Our weekend passed too quickly, we enjoyed it greatly! I especially liked having a couple coffees a day. Interesting little fact: Drinking coffee at the counter was half the price compared to if you were to sit at a table! And the premade food in the windows...about 1 euro cheaper.That's what they do for the locals I take it...but we knew their tricks. I will miss those Italians and their exchanges of the ciaos and arrivedercis from a few shops away. I would definitely visit again. We were just a few days shy of when they have their annual carnival. When they have a huge citywide party and people all wear masks! Lasts about 2 weeks I think. How fun would that be? Next time we're in Venice it'll be during carnival.

We took a ton of pictures that are up on our photobucket...take a looksie. The link is in a few of our previous posts.

A couple more things of interest:
Floating farmers market was a hoot.
Garbage day was very amusing.
Fed ex guys had it way tough.
Construction was waayyy more complex than on land.
And I'm pretty sure we found Gepetto's shop. And he was inside! What a treat!:)

Commencement of 2012

This post should have been written a month ago! Due to the fact that we havent posted in a while…this post will, once again, be super long! And once again I apologize.

Our Bulgarian New Years. We met the new year up in the mountains, Vitosha Mountain, with a group of very wonderful people. We really enjoyed our time. It was very cold and there was so much snow!!! It was sort of a retreat for all the youth in the church's association. So half of the people were new to us. They were so friendly and accepting of new people though. We're really happy to have met new people and made new friends. Even though we will most likely only see each other on facebook. The weekend was filled with speakers and games and playing in the snow. AND very many fireworks, some of which we couldn’t see because they went off higher than the fog so it just lit up the sky in different colors. Still cool. Mike was very excited about the fireworks, particularly ones that are illegal in the states.

The last few weeks we did quite a bit of resting. Its been really cold and the church's missions have kind of slowed down a little. The orphanage trips were on hold due to the holidays, and there havent been any random projects assigned to us like in December. So we have been sleeping in.:) We hang out on the internet…I look up recipes and experiment in the kitchen, read up on health and nutrition, find new exercises for us to do on those days when we're indoors all day. (mike refuses to do pilates with me) Mike does a lot of reading; History, theology, news, sports. He's been playing with some video editing software he downloaded.  Just trying to keep busy. We should have used all that time to study Bulgarian. We did some of that but not enough. Its been really great to have so much time to just read and talk to each other. We spend every single minute of the day together…J that of course comes with its difficulties. Its really good for us though. Last week we had our first Bulgarian lesson. A lady from the church will give us weekly lessons. Sweet sweet lady! I plan to study really hard and make Mike do the same!

We have a personal tour guide, Yavor! He's taken us on a tour of the city and to a few museums. We did a historical tour of Sofia and also a modern one. I liked both but the modern one was a little more fun. There are very many interesting places here. Like this place called "the apartment". Its an apartment converted into a really neat hang out. Every room is decorated differently and in a very unique style. Kind of equivalent to what a hipster coffee shop would be but its not so focused on coffee. They have food and smoothies and sweets. They show movies every week or so. And the best part…all the workers I've met speak very good english! Anyway, that is my favorite but there were a lot that Yavor showed us. Vegan restaurants and cool looking music venues were among them. There is a lot to do you just have to know where to go. These unique places arent  very well advertized and I think its on purpose. But luckily for us Yavor knows!!

We've also been trying to deal with Mike's Hungarian citizenship stuff. Now that he's been officially accepted he needs to go do the swearing in. He got an appointment date to do the swear in…it was for a few days ago…in LA! He couldn’t really be there so he's been talking to all these different consulate offices and trying to figure out the best/cheapest/easiest/fastest option. He had to send a written request to LA to change the location. LA office will send his file to the Hungarian embassy in Sofia and he will swear in here if all goes well.  We don’t know what the deal is with me yet though. I need some sort of documentation that will let me stay here as well. What we were told when Mike started the process is that I get membership the EU. Well we discovered that is not the case. It looks like I'll need to apply for a spousal visa. I may have to apply for different visas for different countries which would require me to have documents that are back home. Its all very complicated and confusing. I hope we can figure it out soon so that I can stop worrying. Our allotted 90 days in Bulgaria is coming up really soon and we were hoping to have all the paperwork that allowed us to stay in order. I'm sure it'll be ok though. J

We were in Venice this past weekend!!! But I will post about that another day. 

More pictures added

Follow this link and look in the Sofia folder and the sub folder in it to see all the new pictures.

http://s1196.photobucket.com/profile/mikeandalla/index

The two weeks

The last two weeks were extremely busy for us and as a result we did not get a chance to write another post until now. In our last post we gave a quick description of what we would be doing and for the most part it came about just as we expected.

There was a lot of traveling, puppets, and gifts which proved to be a lot of fun for the children and the puppeteers. If there were leftover gifts the van got to share some the goodies inside. Alla was one of the main characters in the puppet show and I was camera man and sound guy. We all helped set up the puppet theater and tear it all down but since all i can say to the kids is "ne Bulgarski" which means no Bulgarian, I figured its better for me to take pictures than interact with all the children. All the groups varied in size and character depending on what part of the country we were in. Closer to Turkey there were a lot of Muslims. Our largest group of kids was at an elementary school which we estimated had 250 kids. Once they all knew they would get presents after the show it was madness! We also had a few groups that were much smaller in size especially in the orphanages. The typical size there was probably 20-30 children which seemed a lot more manageable than 250 little animals. We spent more time with the orphans, typically opening the presents with them and getting the opportunity to see a child stuff his face with a large chocolate bar. The second week was similar but we spent most of the time in Sofia and retirement homes. I also got a chance to play one of the puppet roles which was fun.

Overall the puppet shows were a success and we pray that some of these children will take something from them that will lead them down a different path than many of the present day Bulgarians. It would probably be helpful if we explained what the puppet shows are about. For that I will hand it over.... popcorn, Alla.

Hello all!!!:) Well....the main character, a little boy, is on the hunt for true happiness after his grandpa tells him that the Bible he always reads is just that. The boy then comes across people and asks their opinion. One guy tells him its in money and then a pretty girl says its in beauty. Another character says its in strength and yet another tells him its in wisdom. Then, the character i played comes along and tells him about Jesus...in which he can find strength and wisdom and beauty. Its really quite cute. I enjoyed being a part of this wonderful program they put on. It was interesting that they let us come to their schools and day cares and orphanages and openly speak of Jesus. I guess if you bring presents they don't really care. I would always watch the faces of the teachers to see if I could tell by that if they were unhappy or something. I didn't really see anything crazy. There were a few ladies with attitudes but, surprisingly to me, it went really well.

We got to see a lot of the countryside and some mountainy areas of Bulgaria as we were driving around to do the shows. It really is a very beautiful country. Its nature is amazing!! We drove down almost to Greece and almost up to Romania. We didn't go as far east as i would have liked to see but im sure we'll get a chance in these next 4 mos or so. It'll be better to go to the black sea when its warmer anyway.

I got to see my favorite little girl again...i helped her open her present! She's still just as amazing as i remembered her to be. The orphanages were definitely more enjoyable, for me anyway. I just didnt like handing the gifts out to the kids as they were walking out the door. Doesnt really leave time for me to take it all in and connect in any way. Or even to see how the kids differ from kids in other cities. The gypsy kids were interesting to see too. I'll have Mike put up pics on photobucket, you'll be able to tell which ones are the gypsies.



Christmas has come and gone. It was kinda a weird one. Even though it was good, its just not the same without family. We have a tree but didnt do gifts for one another. There was just no time, and mike has all the money and we're together all the time. It wouldnt have worked well even if we tried. We spent christmas eve at Sasha and Oksana's with 2 other couples. It was time well spent. Christmas day we went to church and to a church-wide lunch afterwards. Hung out with our new best friends: Ira, Sveta, and Marina...our fellow Kostinbrodians. (the little city 10km outside of Sofia in which we live) And then we went to church again. For New Years the plan is to head up to Vitosha Mountain (if im not mistaken) for their youth retreat. That should be lots of fun. We have a lot of fun with the youth, even though Mike doesnt know whats going on. I can follow conversation but its hard to follow jokes and after a while my mind gets tired from all the paying close attention and translating in my head and i just zone out. With most of them we have no problem communicating! I feel like we'll never learn Bulgarian because everyone speaks English or Russian when speaking to us. We leave for the cabins on friday of this week.

Thursday is the last day that the puppet show will be played. Emmanuel (pastor) is taking us with him to one last school for the show and gifts. It'll only be us 3. That will definitely be a challenge...it takes 7 people to do the puppet show. Ive played 2 roles but this will be a little much. I'm sure it will be fine, but kind of chaotic. I cant wait!:)

So one more day of rest for us and then we're back on the move. I always try to be brief and it doesnt work, sorry for the ramblings. Love you all! Miss you all! Thanks for reading!