Sunday night dinner until Tuesday lunch time

To continue on from the last entry, Sunday evening we had dinner with our host Vesi and her family as well as the Peace Corps volunteers Caran and Mike. It was a traditional dinner of a cold bean salad (a tomato sauce base), Shopska salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and white cheese - we can't get this in the states), green salad with cucumbers, cabbage rolls (minced meat and rice inside), potato salad (much like we have for picnics at home), some type of stuffed pepper, and baked mushrooms with a chunk of cheese in them. This, of course, was accompanied by the local home brew of Rakia...aka, the Bulgarian variety of moonshine. Talk about the burn going down. The alcohol content varies from 100-150 proof. Luckily, as a nursing mama, I just took a no thank you sip and was done. Abers got to dip his finger in it and wanted more. We finally poured a little water into the last few drops of the shot glass to Abers felt like he was having some, and WHOA!!! He coughed and sputtered. We were all cracking up. It is quite a sweet drink, made out of apricots.



The archeological museum.
Stephanie and Abraham hanging out in their flat. Abers loved her and ate an entire bowl of macaroni and cheese when she fed him.
Dinner and really fun blue plates!
Beans are in the lower left bowl. Shopska salad is the white topped bowl. Green salad and then potato salad.

Stuffed mushrooms in the middle and cabbage leaves in the top left corner.

I'm not sure why these pictures are lined up the way they are, so here is the description of them. Some of the funnier graffiti we've seen in town. Too good to pass up a picture of. The next one is of Caran and Mike, the volunteers. They are from Florida, about to finish their first year. We enjoyed an AWESOME home cooked meal with them on Monday. Unfortunately, we forgot to take any pictures to show what a different flat looks like. Caran has been nice enough to hold Solomon for me!! The last picture is of a pair of shoes that had my name on them. They are made right here in Southern Bulgaria by the people of that town. Every time we would walk by the shop, I heard them saying, "You need me. I will look so good on your feet!!" Women here ALWAYS wear heels. I figured I should try and fit in! There is no way I would wear them here though as the sidewalks are all uneven. With my luck, and grace, I would be on the ground in no time flat!!