Bulgaria day 5

Wow. It feels like a really long way from home for me to be just taking the boys for a walk and to play at the park every day, but then I realize I'm doing this in EUROPE!!! We walk along the Danube every day. Talk about a FAST flowing river. There is no way David or I would paddle this thing with kids. The water is very swift. It is also a working river. We have seen a number of barges heading down the river with tons of cargo. There are fisherman out there daily bringing in fish with super huge poles and nets. Last night, we ate at this beautiful restaurant on the river. The woman spoke no English and we speak no Bulgarian, so she pretty much ordered and brought us what she wanted. It was a great choice! She also brought out pictures of the fish we ate. One of them is a type of bottom dweller...catfish type fish...that she had pictures of. The ones in the picture weighed at least 95-115 kilos!!! HUGE, and very ugly, but yummy.

We had to figure out how to do our laundry, so I took a paper with translated questions on it. The ladies were very confused and quickly found a translator. They were trying to get us to dry clean everything, but then they mentioned the laundry we were wanting was only for sheets. After much talking back and forth, they agreed to wash our laundry this way, with no ironing. It is all very modern here, with everybody on cell phones, iPhones, on computers, etc...but at times, there is a throwback to the regimen. Communism ended in 1989. I think it is safe to say that while we would never have imagined we would come to Bulgaria, let alone the small city in the middle of nowhere - Silistra - we are LOVING it!!! David is already planning an ECS here.

View from the fortress at the top of the city. Across the river along the top of the picture is Romania. I didn't get to do the hike since the boys were sleeping.
David met this Bulgarian at the top who was claiming that DB is his lost lost Jewish son. They boy have roots in the same countries with similar stories. He is having us over to his house on Tuesday to give us a blessed symbol for our house.
One handsome little man getting ready to head out for a walk.
War statue.
Don't shoot the ducks (roughly tranlated.)

Little monkey man playing at his favorite park!
Ship wreck.
Eating at the awesome fish restaurant. Abers refused to have his picture taken.
Coke shack in the middle of the park. The restaurant was next to a customs and immigration building, so maybe this is for when ferries come in...open in the summer?
Ancient ruins, the city of Durastar.