Easter Eggs and Guests

In amongst everything else that I was doing, I decided to take a little time and make my own Easter eggs this year.

I had dyed them with Hristina’s help on previous occasions so I headed into Yambol to buy the dyes so I could see what I could create.  Well, I got a little carried away and went slightly past just dying the eggs. I found packets of stick on pretty things as well as the dye and so to work I went…

Don’t they look terrific ! I had guests arriving on the Easter Sunday so decided to have traditional eggs for them as well as the bog standard chocolate ones

Only little ones, as you can see.  So far Bulgaria doesn’t seem to have become obsessed with eggs as big as houses so I could only find packets of small ones in the supermarket…which is good.  The longer this country can hold off against the destruction of their traditions the better, I reckon.

I had the house looking pretty damned good, even if I say so myself and on Easter Sunday I met up with my friend Dimitor (of the taxi) and headed down to Burgas to pick up my incoming guests. The bus duly arrived and usually Burgas is the termination of that bus run from Istanbul to Bulgaria.  No one seemed to be getting off at all though and I suddenly felt a little concerned about the whereabouts of three Aussies on their first trip to BG.

As the bus looked like it was going to disappear I decided I’d best take action and got on board and just yelled out ‘are there any Australians on this bus?’.

And sure enough, a face I hadn’t seen since around the mid 1960s and a face that hasn’t changed one little bit since then, suddenly came into view. This woman, Anne, had contacted me early this year about coming to see Bulgaria.  She ended up coming with two friends as well and when I saw the other woman, Yvonne, I realised I knew her as well, so it was more like a re-acquainting rather than a ‘getting to know’ visit.

Anyway, I retrieved them from the bus, which was a good thing because I found out that the Nisikli bus service has now extended to go on to Romania.  I think they would have got a little surprise if they’d got off the bus there !!

Dimitor loaded them into his taxi and off we went to Miladinovtsi. I spent a couple of days showing them around but my time was restricted as I had this man coming…again

My old mate Peter Watson on his second visit to my home.

It was great to see him and also to see his son Justin, who was just a boy the last time I saw him, a boy who has grown into a really nice and very handsome young man. And also his partner, Dianne who I’d only met briefly in Australia when I was back there and whom it was very nice to get to know a little better.

I’m very fond of Watto and it was lovely to be able to spend a little time with him, albeit just a few days.

While he was here my other guests hired a car and headed off to Veliko Turnovo for a few nights, which was really good of them as it gave me the chance to spend some relaxing and quality time with Watto and Di.

Unfortunately, on his last night here, my Gina took a nasty turn.  We came home and she was looking dreadful and panting. When she refused food and a walk I knew all was not well. I watched her for a couple of hours and could see her deteriorating so I rang Yanko.  He told me to bring her in and it’s a good thing I did.  Pete came with me, which was very kind of him considering he had to be up at the crack of dawn to catch a bus. Anyway, the old girl was running a temperature of 40.2 degrees, dangerously high, and was looking more and more hang dog. The other vet, Marin, took some blood samples and she is showing an enzyme that’s not too good. We decided to treat the infection first and see how she progressed. She had anti fever drugs, antibiotics and pain killers, as she was clearly in pain.

By the next morning there was a vast improvement but I returned to the vet as they had requested, so they could have another look.  She seems to be fine now and is eating and enjoying her walks so I just have to watch her and see if she remains happy and healthy…  I know her years of brutal treatment can’t have been good for her body and maybe it will shorten her life, but the thought of losing her is almost more than I can bear.  I am trying not to think about that possibility, at least in the near future

All too soon I was putting Watto and Di on the bus and my other guests returned for their last few nights with me.

I took them down to Sozopol for a day and we were lucky enough to get some good weather though the wind was very cold….not quite summer yet.  We were walking around the village and came across an archeological dig.  It was fascinating and I had enough Bulgarian to ask what it was…a medieval church and they were finding plenty, including a full skeleton which had been cleaned back but not removed from the soil yet !!   And where was my camera ? Miladinovtsi !!  I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten it.  Anyway, there it was…a full skeleton with what looked like a bashed in skull.  Murder perhaps ???  It really was amazing to see it and to wonder just how long it had been there and who it might belong too. I’ve tried to find out more on the internet but haven’t been able to find anything in English…damn my bad Bulgarian !!

And so we returned to the house and had a relaxing evening in while the guests planned their next move, which was heading to Sofia and spending some time there.  I squeezed them into a taxi early Sunday morning and confess to returning to my bed until about 11am. The weather was miserable and I just felt like a BIG sleep, so I did…loved it.

It was my last rest before the hard labour started in the garden and boy, have I achieved a lot, but that’s for another day as the weather is nice again so I’m heading back into the yard…things to do, plants to plant, holes to dig, weeds to pull and paths to find…