Bulgaria 29/12
Got up, had breakfast, went down and kicked the car in the guts….and it worked…Hooray !!! Mobile again………
Piled Jillian AND all the rubbish and empty bottles into the car and headed for the Post Office first to pay my electricity and water bills. When we got to the town square, there was quite a gathering in situ, some very loud Bulgarian music and a large cask of something (Rakai?) sitting on a table, that everyone was getting wee snifters from. Dimitar, the Mayor was there, so Jillian has now been introduced to him. He made the comment ‘druga sestra ? (another sister?). I told him I have three, and he seemed pleased that he’d already met two…I guess I need to get the third, Marie, over here so he can meet them all. And then there’s all the brothers…..
He did offer us a drink, but I declined as I had a car full of rubbish AND I had to drive.
We then headed off to the dump. As you know, there’s been a few slaughterings going on around the place, and not just in Miladinovtsi, and obviously the Rosa dump is where a lot of the ‘bits’ (those that aren’t edible or usable) have ended up, and Holy Mother of God, the smell was like nothing I’ve ever smelt before….imagine the worst piggery in the world and multiply that by about one hundred. It’s all been under snow, but that’s now thawed and it was about 15 degrees today…..the smell was so strong, you could taste it.
And, of course, I had to walk through this to dump the rubbish. When I got back into the car, I could hardly bear to be with myself…..my shoes were covered in the most disgusting smelling muck you could ever imagine.
We were heading over the Martins for a cup of tea so I figured I could wash my boots and the car mats down there…..chance would be a fine thing…he had no water !!!
At least in this country you don’t wear your shoes inside, so my boots had a reasonable period of time sitting outside in the sunshine. I cleaned as much of the gunk off as I could and the trip home was just a wee bit less nauseating….
And the boots are still banned from the house…they’re languishing out on the front step and they can stay outside until they smell a little more civilised….
Ah, the joys of rural living 🙂
When we got back to Miladinovtsi, we grabbed some wine and chocolate and headed up to Marias place…and what a grand afternoon we’ve just had.
Maria and her husband were plucking chickens when we arrived……did we get the wrong day ?? who knows !!…but they invited us in and proceeded to ply us with large plates of poached turkey, lashing of eggs (straight from the chooks bum & hard boiled) and far more wine (homemade) than I can handle in the middle of the day. And just in case I thought I’d get away without trying the husbands Rakia, he produced a bottle…
WOW !!! this stuff would warm the cockles of the hardest heart…and he was very proud of the fact that it was 50% proof…..Am I just a tad pissed as I write this?? Bet your life I am 🙂
In fact, I’m about to retire to the sofa for a wee nappette and I’ll be back later to tell you more ……….
Later: Ah, that’s better…nothing like a half hour nap to restore ones sobriety 🙂
So, back to my afternoon with the neighbours. There were questions about what we were doing for New Year and they kept talking about singing at the local café. Jill & I thought they were talking about New Years Eve….but no, it’s tomorrow night and Maria, her husband and many other villagers will be singing traditional songs and, if I got it right, something to do with folklore….so that’s where we will be heading .. Should be interesting……and I’m really looking forward to it. A chance to see the Miladinovtsi locals at play 🙂
That’s it for today….
Dovishdane
mercer
Sue Mercer
Bulgaria 2005
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