Sunday

The next morning we had a traditional Bulgaria breakfast.It consisted of waffles, eggs, sausage?no just kidding.It consisted of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggs, cheese, and ham.Mrs. Dimitrova took us up to the local monastery, were the locals were throwing a festival.It was like the Medieval fair but without all the losers.From there we went to a small village with some shops but nothing special.We didn't spend a lot of time there ad we went back to Veliko Turnovo.We had a special type of coffee cooked on sand or something like that.Mrs. Dimitrov read my future from the remains left in my coffee cup.It was like a fortune cookie, but better. (By popular demand this is Dale narrating.)Then we went back to the Dimitrov's for lunch which was consisted of muyscaka.After lunch and some conversation we reluctantly headed back to Sofia.

The rest of the week was fairly normal with Blaine and I working on our various projects.Wednesday we met with Villi, an OU alumni, and Vasco, who will be attending OU in the fall, for dinner.Thursday night we went to our usual spot (Griffin) and wandered the streets of Sofia.Friday afternoon Didi picked us up and we headed to the Rodopi mountains.We stayed at a nice bed and breakfast.Saturday morning we went to a cave called the Devil's Throat.It is named this because the entrance looks like the head of the devil.Inside this cave is a waterfall and an underground river.At the exit of the cave there were various vendors selling honey and herbs.One of the venders started talking to Blaine.He communicated to the vendor ne bulgarski "no Bulgarian" to which the vendor replied in a high pitched voice "HONEY HONEY".After that we went with Didi and her friends for some real caving.

Didi's friends are experience cavers who have there own gear that they let us borrow.The entrance to the cave that we went into was about 50 feet high.To get up there we had to climb with the aid of some gear.Inside of the cave were two statues of pre-historic people.We took pictures with these statues which you can view.This cave had a couple galleries which were connected by small crawl spaces.At the end of the caves was a small hole that led to a large gallery whose floor was about 90 feet down.We were lowered to the floor were we hiked out taking us to the other side of the mountain.To get back to the cars we had to hike over the mountain that we just went through.During the hike we had a close call.While Blaine was hiking down the mountain he slipped, trying to keep his balance he over corrected himself.This caused Blaine to run uncontrollably down the mountain.When I saw him streak by I yelled "slow down" not knowing that he did not have control.He then tripped and landed on a pile of rocks in a heap of dust.Expecting the worst our party went to see if he was o.k. . I knew he was fine when he comically yelled "OWW" in the way only Blaine can.Luckily he only suffered miner scrapes and a sore heel.Blaine was able to hike the rest of the way, which is good because he's a big guy and it would be hard to carry down the mountain.We had supper together and called it a night.Sunday morning we went to another guided cave.Afterwards we went to a lake to relax and have a picnic lunch.Unfortunately, the lake was not ideal for swimming.After the picnic went back to Sofia.