Autumn Sneaks In

The summer seems to have disappeared, and autumn has arrived to take its place. I am one of these people who can't decide which is my favourite season, but it is either spring or autumn. Once again preparations for winter are already underway, and living in a small village these little jobs seem to take on an added importance. Having been here for seven years now, we are coming up to face our eighth winter, and each one has been different. Hopefully we learn from each, and our preparations take on a different order of priorities. Now that Net is back from the UK, things are a lot easier with both of us doing things, and Net quite rightly is the foreman in charge.

While we still had the sunshine, it was a matter of getting the garden ready. The last of the winter vegetables have been picked and stored. Hazelnuts and Walnuts have been collected by the bag-fulls, and even my first ever home grown Sweet Chestnut has been harvested. So maybe the wind had knocked it off, and all I had to do was pick it up from the ground, but harvesting sounds so much better. The outside tap has been drained down, and isolated, but with the tap left in the open position just in case. Rubber grips have been fitted to outside door handles, and their inner counterparts. I have been sent up in the attic, and up on the roof, to find and repair any damaged roof tiles, and check for any other damage which could lead to leaks. That is one problem with the temperature extremes we have here, tiles do crack every so often, so it is always prudent to check them over when its dry. Not only that but, you do get some lovely views whilst stood up there. The transition between summer and autumn seemed to happen just overnight, one day it was shorts and t-shirt weather, and the next it was jeans and a sweatshirt.

The wardrobes have been swapped over again. The lighter summer clothes and footwear have been put away, and heavier clothes and boots have taken their place. Rugs are now back down on the floor, especially near the doors where the cats and dogs traipse mud and leaves in. Their winter beds are now out and aired, they definitely approve of this although they probably think that job should have been first on our list. Each time we go shopping extra pet food is bought and then stored, we can get most things at the village shop but pet food isn't one of them. The same is true for any tablets and medication which we might need, although some of the locals have worked this out and in an emergency (or what they call an emergency) they come round asking for cold and flu sachets.

The car has been checked for anti-freeze, winter screen-wash, snow shovel, blankets and other such bits and bobs. The winter tyres are fitted and with plenty of tread. We have checked that our telephone and internet packages are as good as we are going to get for over the winter months. I did pre-empt matters slightly by getting the extra sports channel on the TV from the start of the football season, my excuse being that I wanted to test it first. The good news is that it works. Travelling about you do notice the leaves changing colour, and taking on their autumn hues.

In some areas the leaves have already dropped, but in our village they are still steadfastly clinging onto their twigs and branches. Even in the next village, 5kms away, piles of leaves have been raked together and are then left to smoulder away. The smell of burning leaves in the autumn always reminds me of my Grandfather, and how, as children, we used to help him with bonfires in his garden. As the afternoon gets later the smell of smouldering leaves is replaced by wood smoke, as people light their fires for cooking and heating their houses. It's not too bad providing that there is no mist or fog, as that tends to hold the smoke at a low level. We have lit our gas fires a couple of times so far this autumn, but not the wood burners yet.

We do have a nice stack of cut and split wood left over from last year. That has spent it's time up under the barn, making sure that it is nice and dry for when we need to use it. I did have a bit of a fuss and palaver trying to get a fresh supply of wood for drying. Like normal I went to the Kmet's office and placed my requirement, and was told the price per cubic metre, and that it would be delivered the next day. It wasn't. Then I was told that delivery would be this week, either Monday or Tuesday. Not so much as a twig turned up. I thought that rather than waiting in the hope of a delivery, I might just as well go into town and pay the bills. You've guessed it, while I was out the wood turned up.

So as soon as I got home it was a quick change into work clothes, and start shifting it from the lane outside the house, in through the gates and start building a neat stack beside the driveway. Luckily before I had even moved a cubic metre, our neighbour got home from work. He didn't even stop for a coffee but started helping me shift these logs. Then his wife was out helping, then his son and then his daughter. Between the six of us we managed to get everything moved before it got too dark to see what we were doing. Thank heavens for neighbourliness out here in Bulgaria, back in the UK I know one neighbour would have pitched in and helped, but the others would probably have been too busy. So now we have a big stack of logs under plastic sheeting, even though Sirius seems to think it is there for his benefit. He climbs up on top of it so that he can look over walls and bark at anything that he sees.

So autumn is here, and our winter preparations are coming along nicely. We might well have what the locals call a 'Gypsy Summer' yet, if we do that will be an added bonus. If not, then we haven't lost any time, and we don't have to rush to get things finished. Our year long task of collecting books to read throughout the winter months is still ongoing, but having kindles does make things so much easier.

   

A Saturday To Savour

The weekend just gone is one which I always look forward to. The leaves on the trees are just starting to change colour, from their summer greens to their autumn tones. The evenings might be cooling, but the days are still hot, and often there are no clouds in the sky. Although these are good enough reasons in their own right, neither of them are the reason why I hold this weekend in such anticipation. The main reason being, that this weekend was the Rock Fest over in Mindya, and this year we had arranged to go with a couple of others from the village. Despite being eagerly anticipated, Sod's Law dictates that something along the way will try to throw a spanner in the works. This time it was Net waking up with a raging toothache.

So time was spent rummaging through the medicine cupboard looking for painkillers, and hoping that I still had antibiotics left over from having root canal treatment done. Painkillers were easy to find, but my antibiotics seemed to have disappeared off of the face of the earth. So it was a day on the couch down in the cellar for Net, even with painkillers if a drink was too hot it all flared up again, the same happened if the drink was cold. Tepid tea is not highly recommended, but it seemed to work. By the afternoon if Net jumped up and down I am sure that she would rattle. The good news is that by mid-afternoon things had started to ease, but perhaps the Rock Fest would be a bit much if things flared up again. I was told that I could still go, which meant that I didn't have to phone people up and cancel at short notice, so that was a bonus.


Another added bonus to this weekend was the football on the television, for once Crystal Palace were being shown live. Possibly because we were facing the defending champions. Even though Chelsea have not had the best of starts this season, all of the pundits were predicting that Palace would face the backlash as Chelsea tried to get their season back on track. I watched the first half, and it was highly entertaining, and ended up as 0-0. At that point I started to believe that we could come away from their ground with a point, as they were not getting things all of their own way. I couldn't watch all of the 2nd half due to being picked up for Mindya. So after a final check up on Net, and a final check on the scoreline, we headed off for Mindya.

This year was the 7th Rock Fest to be held at Mindya, and after this weekend I have been to 5 of them. The 1st one we were not even in the country, and one of the others times we had to take some people back to the airport in Sofia, so our attendance isn't too bad. Each year there are more and more people attending. It says something that a Bulgarian village can constantly hold a music festival year after year, and in all of my visits there I have never seen any trouble. I can safely say that Mindya makes the bands and the attendees feel most welcome. There has to be an awful lot of organisation which goes on behind the scenes, possibly as one festival finishes preparations are starting to be made for the following year. Most surprisingly it is all still free to attend, how long that will last is difficult to say. If you are in the area next year, and have never been before, I can highly recommend it. I knew that it was going to be busy on Saturday as soon as we arrived in Mindya, as we had to park a lot further away.

It was still light when we arrived, and the first group were already on stage. We found somewhere where we could all find each other should we go off for a wander, especially for doing those important beer or food runs. The bands might not be household names to you or I, but they love what they do and do it with enthusiasm. It might not be Rock'n'Roll but there was even a chap playing the Gaida, that would be the Bulgarian version of the Bagpipes. Very haunting music as the moon rose higher up into the sky, even if it did seem oddly out of place.

Many might wonder what I considered to be the highlight of the evening. There was a good cover version of Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love', but for me the highlight had to be a group called 'Tortilla Flat'. They were enthusiastic, they played well, and they interacted well with the crowd. So much so that one young lady, who might have had too much fizzy pop (or sun), joined them on the stage until security managed to usher her off.

Two minutes later she was back in front of the stage with beer in hand. So no-one wanted to spoil anyone's enjoyment of the evening. We didn't have as much trouble with mosquitoes as we have in previous years, maybe the smoke from a nearby food stall helped. Perhaps that was why the bands periodically disappeared behind a cloud erupting from the smoke generator on stage. Soon it came time for us to wend our way home, unfortunately we did suffer a collision with a bat as we got to the other side of Gorna. It can't have had its radar switched on, or it was too busy chasing insects attracted by the headlights. I am already looking forward to this time next year, and hopefully toothache will not spoil things.

It was after 1 by the time I got back indoors, and curiosity did get the better of me. Had we managed to earn a point by keeping the match at 0-0? To my pleasure we had managed to win 1-2, little old unfashionable Crystal Palace had managed to spoil another celebration. Even though only 4 matches have been played so far that has put us into 2nd place, who would have thought that before the season began? Even though I was trying to be quiet, happy dogs have no such consideration, and a now awake Net told me that her toothache just disappeared 3 hours previously. That just capped off an wonderful Saturday. Good music, good company, an excellent football result and a pain free Net.

Of course music festivals attract all sorts of odd characters, some more photogenic than others. I'll let you guess which one is me.



 

100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria (Part 2)

Now that my eyes have uncrossed I shall carry on with the next part of this tourist guide. I am hoping that some of the information will be useful, and maybe it will encourage at least someone to explore maybe a little bit more than their immediate area. All I have to do is remember where I got up to on the list, and then I can restart the second part. So if you are all sitting comfortably, then I shall begin.

District of Plovdiv
41. Plovdiv (Пловдив) - Roman Amphitheatre, Old Plovdiv architecture reserve, Ethnography Museum, Museum of History, St's Constantin & Helena Church
42. Perushtitsa (Перущица) - Museum of History
43. Sopot (Сопот) - The Nunnery, House of Ivan Vazov
44. Karlovo (Карлово) - Vasil Levski National Museum
45. Kalofer (Калофер) - Hristo Botev National Museum
46. Botev Peak (Връх Ботев)
47. Asenovgrad (Асеновград) - Bachkovo Monastery, Asen's Fortress

District of Razgrad
48. Razgrad (Разград) - Abrittus Archaeological Reserve
49. Isperih (Исперих) - Museum of History, Sboryanovo Museum of History and Archaeology, Thracian tomb of Sveshtari, Thracian town of Chelis, Demir Baba Tekke

District of Ruse
50. Ruse (Русе) - House of Zahari Stoyanov, Pantheon of National Revival Heroes

District of Silistra
51. Silistra (Силистра) - Museum of History, Medcidi Tabi Fortress
52. Srebarna Nature Reserve (Биосферен резерват Сребърна)
53. Tutrakan (Тутракан) - Military Tomb Memorial Complex, Museum of Danube Fishing and Boat-Making

District of Sliven
54. Sliven (Сливен) - House of Hadzhi Dimitar, National Textile Museum
55. Blue Stones Nature Park, Karandila Hut (Природен парк Сините камъни и хижа Карандила)
56. Kotel (Котел) - Georgi Sava Rakovski's Panteon and the Museum of Famous People of the Bulgarian Revival Age, Natural Sciences Museum
57. Zheravna village (Жеравна) - Architecture and Ethnography Reserve, House of Yordan Yovkov

City of Sofia District
58. Sofia (София) - The National Museum of History, Boyana Church National Museum
59. Sofia (София) - Alexander Nevski Cathedral
60. Sofia (София) - National Church Museum of History and Archaeology of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian orthodox Church
61. Sofia (София) - National Palace of Culture
62. Sofia (София) - National Art Gallery, Institute of Ethnography and Museum maintained by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
63. Etropole (Етрополе) -Museum of History, Clocktower, Monastery of the Holy Trinity
64. Sofia (София) - Earth and Man National Museum
65. Sofia (София) - National Museum of Natural Science maintained by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
66. Sofia (София) - Museum of the History of Sport
67. Hisarya (Хисаря) - Thracian Temple in Starosel village
68. Sofia (София) - Institute of Archaeology and Museum maintained by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia Synagogue
69. Sofia (София) - Sofia Zoo
70. Bratsigovo (Брацигово) - Town Museum of History
71. Sofia (София) - St. Sophia Temple
72. Chirpan (Чирпан) - House Museum of Peyo Yavorov, Nikola Manev Art Gallery, St Athanasius Monastery in Zlata Livada village
73. Dimitrovgrad (Димитровград) - History Museum, House of Penyo Penev


74. Vitosha (Витоша) - Cherni Vrah

District of Sofia

75. Koprivshtitsa (Копривщица) - Archaeology and History Reserve
76. Sredna Gora (Средна Гора) - Bogdan Peak
77. Klisura (Клисура) - Museum of History
78. Osenvlag village (Осенвлаг) - Seven Altars Monastery
79. Samokov (Самоков) - Museum of History, the Nunnery
80. Rila (Рила) - Musala Peak
81. Botevgrad (Ботевград) - Clocktower
82. Skravena village (Скравена) - St Nikolas monastery, Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Ossuary of the members of Hristo Botev's detachment

District of Smolyan
83. Smolyan (Смолян) - Smolyan Planetarium, Museum of History
84. Pamporovo (Пампорово) - Snezhanka Peak, Uhlovitsa Cave
85. Golyam Perelik Peak (Връх Голям Перелик) - The Wonderful Bridges
86.Zlatograd (Златоград) - Ethnography Complex
87. Shiroka Laka village (Широка лъка)
88. Trigrad Gorge (Триградско ждрело) - Devil's Throat Cave
89. Buynovo Gorge (Буйндвско ждрело) - The Yagodina Cave

District of Stara Zagora
90. Stara Zagora (Стара Загора) - the Neolithic Houses, the Roman Forum of Augusta Traiana, the Stara Zagora Defenders Memorial Complex, Museum of History
91. Kazanlak (Казанлък) - Chudomir Art and Literature Museum, Thracian tomb of Kazanlak
92.Shipka Town (Шипка) - Shipka Memorial Church
93. Shipka Pass ( Национален парн-музей Шипка) - Shipka Memorial

District of Shumen
94. Shumen (Шумен) - Shumen Fortress Reserve of Architecture and History, Founders of the Bulgarian State Monument, Museum of History
95. Shumen (Шумен) - Tombul Mosque
96. Pliska (Плиска) - Archaeological Reserve
97. Madara (Мадара) - Archaeological Reserve
98 Velki Preslav (Велки Преслав) - National Reserve of History and Architecture

District of Yambol
99. Yambol (Ямбол) - the Ancient town of Kabile, Museum of History
100. Elhovo (Елхово) - Museum of Ethnography

There you have it ladies and gentlemen, that is the full list of 100 tourist sites as per the Bulgarian Tourist Union's booklet. I'm now off to give my eyes a rest, but I hope that something on here might pique your interest for the next time that you have visitors.