Bulgaria! This morning we left Romania and headed to Bulgaria.  It’s about an hour and a half drive to the Bulgarian border from Bucharest. But then we drove another hour and a half to get to our destination–two cute little towns called something I need to look up (I’m pretty sure the name is written on the magnet I bought) and then to Aranassi.

The first town has a cool old fortress. We didn’t go inside.  We just stood in front of the entrance and took pictures.  I really wish I had some facts to drop here, but as I am sure you can guess I was too busy taking pictures to listen to anything the guide was saying.  I can tell you that she was wearing some amazing silver sneakers with clear soles that are made in Bulgaria. They were beautiful, and if I come across them they will be mine!

Anyways after taking pictures of the fortress, we walked through the Old Town and the souvenir shops! I was rushed, but did pickup several pairs of copper earrings for $3.50 to $5. New earrings make thetwinsontour happy! We also picked up some Rose flavored hand lotion that is probably too odorific to wear, but its a great Bulgarian souvenir.  Bulgaria’s top export is Rose Oil (like for perfumes).  They are very proud of the Rose oil.  That’s actually what all the tshirts said. I didn’t notice any that just said Bulgaria, I only saw ones that said Bulgarian Rose which seems a little goofy to me.  Anyways the lotion was only $2 a tube, so it was a great deal.  We passed on the decorative bar soap, face cream, shampoo, liquid soap, actual Rose oil, and I don’t know what else.  Like I said, we were rushed or I’m sure we would have found more things to buy.  Thetwinsontour are good at that–buying things. 

After lunch in the neighboring town of Aranassi, we went to a church for a special choral concert.  The choir consisted of just 4 old men, but it sounded like 20.  The acoustics in Orthodox Churches is apparently amazing because of the cupola (the one required to be painted with either Jesus or the Holy Trinity).  Speaking of paintings, the church interior is also covered with really old frescoes.  The old part was built & painted in the 17th Century and the newer part was painted in the 18th Century.  Luckily they have all been cleaned and restored so that we can see them clearly.  Four hundred years of candle smoke isn’t good for frescoes. 

Now the walls of Orthodox Churches are usually lined with a row of benches for the elderly who aren’t able to stand for 3 hours of church.  But what I have discovered, while sitting to enjoy the musical entertainment, is that these benches are not conducive to sitting.  Not at all.  What I can’t figure out is if Eastern Europeans have significantly smaller butts than me, or if they are just designed that way to trick the entire congregation into standing.  I mean it’s not easy to stay sitting in those benches very long. And by long, I mean longer than 23 seconds. 

So when this church was built, Bulgaria was under Turkish rule.  They allowed Christians to build churches with the caveat that the church couldn’t be any higher than the mosque.  Also the stone walls around their homes/properties couldn’t be any taller than a Turk on horseback. To make the short churches tall enough to walk in, they had to dig down into the ground, so they are partially submerged. Under Turkish rule, even though they were allowed to build short, submerged churches, they weren’t allowed to look like churches– they are plain ugly buildings.

Our guide told us some of the differences between Orthodox and Roman Catholic, but, well, I am not sure what all he said. Orthodox has a Patriarch, not a Pope. All the Patriarchs are exactly equal. There was some big split back in like 1096– pretty sure that is when Charlemagne was the Holy Roman Emporer. And, Orthodox use the Julian Calendar and not the Gregorian Calendar, so they are convinced Christmas is January 7th. (I bet that really messes with all the Christmas movies on the Hallmark Chanel.) Orthodox doesn’t worship statues, they prefer icons and frescoes. There are no statues anywhere in an Orthodox Church. I have no idea where I am going with this comparative study, so I will just stop now.

We did get 3 gas station potty breaks today. We tried to control ourselves in the snack department, but it is oh so hard. thetwinsontour love gas station snacks. We might have stock piled Lion Bars like a squirrel gathering acorns before a blizzard. But, hey– We had Romanian money to burn!

I really think that is probably enough jibberish and nonsense for one day.

Good night from Bulgaria!

thetwinsontour