car ride from Sofia airport to Karavelovo and back to airport
wide selection of Rakia
Stara Planina mountains
lots of beautiful sunsets
stork nest on the power pole
fun nights in the dance hall
daily schedule
staying up late practicing
special guest performing groups
lovely Lily, Donka’s sister who cooked all the amazing food and made so many accomodations for our different diet restrictions
Caleb and tupan maestro Marin
Sunday June 14
We are having such a great time at Rose Valley camp! I am really getting into tambura class and Bitov ensemble, and I love dancing and singing classes in the morning too. The first two days we had a fun dance teacher called Mitko he taught us Irino Irinke, Itmar, Selsko Shopsko, and Sandanska Ruchenitsa. The Selkso Shopsko he taught had a fun shouting call that says “Der se zhemo Shopte gazi!” which means “watch out ground, the Shopes are gonna stomp on you!” Saturday and today we had Petur Iliev who I love! He is so fun and such great energy to start the day with. He taught learned Mashko Shirto, Kukuneshko, Sborenka, and Liasa and they were all super fun and energetic. I have great memories of his Bulgarian dance class at Balkan Camp too, when taught me Petrunino and Eleno Mome which are still two of my favorite Bulgarian dances!
Today we woke up early to take a walk with some of the other campers and it was really nice. We got to see storks and their little babies in the nest at the top of a a power line pole and they are so beautiful! I also did a little interview with really cool woman Yana who is doing research on Bulgaria’s transition from communism to democracy and how music and dancing creates community, and it was really great to talk with her about my experience growing up in the folk dancing community and how important it is to my identity and my life, especially in times or isolation like during the pandemic. We also talked about the interweaving of feelings of happiness and joy with pain and sorrow in folk music and dancing! Yana also has a little girl who is really bonding with Sophie which is so nice because Sophie actually gets up in the morning! 🙂
Monday June 15
Today we had dance classes with Velizar Vasilev who is a very beautiful dancer and so strong and manly but beautiful and graceful at the same time. He did a great warmup at the beginning of class which I really appreciated because we are all getting tired and sore! He taught very nice dances, Polovin Ruka and Nazlun Tudorke/Nazlunkino. In tambura class we learned 2 new parts of the kjustendilksa ruchenitsa tune and reviewed the pirin melody. Then me and Caleb took a very very very long nap and slept all the way through Bitov ensemble! I also finished my drawing and thank you card for Lily, Donka’s sister who is cooking all the delicious food and making so many accomodations for all of our different dietary restrictions. At the evening party, we enjoyed an outstanding performance by amazing high schoolers from Shiroka Luka National Folk School, which is where Donka and Nikolai went to school and met and fell in love! They even sang some of the songs that Donka recorded on the National Radio, and she joined them and sang a verse of a song. Also Nikolai said the gadulka player’s great grandfather gave Nikolai his first gadulka!
Wednesday June 17
Yesterday we had our last full day of class. We learned two new dances from Velizar, Dobruzhansko Pravo and Ruka from Kalipetrovo. He told us that he is working on his doctorate and these dances are part of his research and dissertation! We also learned two more songs in Donka’s singing class, Jabulchitsa v Gradinchitsa, a happy song about girls picking apples from a heavy leaning tree, and Ah Zapas, a kind of funny and a little bit lamenting song from the perspective of army reserve ex-soldiers getting called back into draft and kvetching about the poor conditions and hard work and saying “oh man, how did you find me in my house!” We had our last tambura class and reviewed the Kjustendilksa ruchenitsa, and in our last Bitov ensemble class and reviewed Medenik ruchenitsa and Megdana something, and threw in Makamliisko for fun. We did a little student concert at the dance party after an amazing performance from the Karavelovo Youth Singing Group. Caleb and I played a medley Kjustendilksa ruchenitsa and Pirin melody with tambura Nikolai. Then for Bitov ensemble, Caleb played tapan, and I played tambura for Makamliisko and played and sang on Trugnala Rumiana/Tsufnalo Tsvete Shareno. It was fun and we had a great time learning all this new material, and we will keep practicing it and learning more! After the dance party we hung out in the dance hall and outside looking at stars and finding constellations. One of the village guys was hanging out with his friends and playing accordion, and I joined in and sang a song and it was cool!
This morning we got up at 7 and packed up our bags and had breakfast at 7:30, and I gave my special card to Lily and she was so happy and she was showing everyone! yay 🙂 We had such an amazing time at Rose Valley camp and we learned so much. We learned lots of amazing new dances and songs and I learned my first two melodies on tambura! I met cool new people and made friends with this girl from the village Plamena even though she doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Bulgarian, we were just dancing together every night and having so much fun. We drove together with Nikolai back to Sofia airport and he told us a lot of stories and explained a lot of stuff about Bulgaria and Macedonia relationships which was really valuable to learn from. We made a pitstop at a gas station and I got some sour gummy worms and a dark chocolate kinder bueno bar which was super yummy. We said goodbye to everyone at the airport in Sofia and went our separate ways. We got the subway back to our “Heart of Sofia” apartment and settled in, and then Caleb and me and mom walked to the women’s market looking for a nice traditional Bulgarian folk embroidery shirt for Caleb and we found it! The shopkeeper Elizabeth was so nice and excited that we love Bulgarian folk music, and she showed videos of her son who is a gadulka player! Then she brought us across the street to another shop and her husband Georgi and Caleb got a nice embroidered cloth for muting his tupan, and Georgi insisted that I choose a small ceramic bowl as a gift! We went back to the apartment and I took a nap and Caleb went out to get a Bulgarian sports jersey. Then we all went to nice Bulgarian dinner at Manastirka Magernitsa. We got a Grandma’s appetizer plate with roasted eggplant, roasted peppers, feta cheese, yummy dips, and Caleb and Aba ate the sausage. We ate it with the pitka fluffy bread with chubritsa and it was very good. I got a veal with mushrooms, Caleb got red deer, Aba got wild boar casserole, Mom got lentils, and Sophie got fried chicken bites. Caleb and I went inside the restaraunt to look around and they had all this cool Bulgarian stuff like costumes and books, and barbies in Bulgarian costumes. They were playing Bulgarian music and we did a little dance and one of the waiter guys was suprised at us dancing and said “I did not expect to see this!” Everything was great and it was a nice traditional Bulgarian restaraunt experience for our last night in Bulgaria!
architecture highlights
statues, sculptures, monuments
cute signs
little trams
outside of the archeological museum
Serdica subway station ancient complex
standing guard at the Presidential building
St. Georgi rotunda church, oldest monument building in good repair in Sofia, dated back to Roman empire
map of historical buildings and figures
Saint Sofia
Moon and Jupiter on our last night in Sofia!
Wednesday June 10
Yesterday we woke up early, got a cab to the train station, and took a long bus ride from Thessaloniki to Sofia. We got another cab to our apartment called “Heart of Sofia,” settled in, and I took a little nap while Caleb and Aba did a small grocery shop. When I woke up Caleb wanted to go to a record store and then we walked around the town and saw lots of beautiful buildings, churches, and sculptures. We found a street market vendor selling real silver Yads, pointers for reading Torah, from the time of Russian occupation! There were a lot of vendors selling Nazi and USSR memorabilia, which Caleb thought was interesting but I thought it was icky. We also saw the president’s building and the dressed up guards that switch posts every hour, and we got to see them do the switch! Inside the courtyard of the president’s building, we saw the oldest intact building in Sofia, Saint Georgi Rotunda church, which is from the time of the Roman empire! We also saw a lot of ancient ruins in and around the Serdica subway station, which was really cool. We walked around for a long time and then went back to our apartment and rested a bit. Then we went back out looking for dinner around 9 or 9:30, but everything was closing, which was really different from the schedule we got used to in Greece, where people start going out around 9 or 10! The attitude here is really different too, the restaraunts and bars don’t seem very eager to welcome us in like they were in Greece. We were looking for a traditional Bulgarian restaraunt, but all the places we asked in were closing, so we just settled on the first place we found where the kitchen was still open, an Italian food place called La Bottega. Mom got salad, Aba got 4 cheese pizza, Caleb and I got fish called sea bream, and Sophie got spaghetti. When we finished our meal, Caleb told our server that he likes the musician Ivo Paposov, and the server broke out in a smile and said his name is Ivo too! It was nice to connect and see his personality come out a bit, and it gave me a little more hope that we can break down people’s walls here with music and dancing!
This morning we woke up, had some yogurt and granola and coffees for breakfast, and then Caleb and I took our bags to the Serdica station to check out the baggage lockers which I spotted yesterday. We figured out how to use them and pay for them, locked up our bags, and then we went back to the apartment to help with the rest of the bags. We made a second trip to the subway station and out the rest of the bags in the lockers, and then we walked around in the city some more. We showed Mom and Aba the president’s building and the St. Georgi Rotunda. We showed my mom the market vendor selling the Yads, but they were very expensive because they are made of real silver. Me and Caleb also showed my mom the ancient complex under the Serdica subway station, and we met a homeless guy who had a really beautiful voice and he was singing and we sang with him and he was really happy. We figured out the subway with some difficulty and help from a German lady, and took the yellow subway all the way to the airport in Sofia. We met up with Donka and Nikolai and Marin and all the campers and we drove in three cars for about two hours to Rose Valley camp in Karavelovo. It is very quiet and beautiful here, in between the Stara Planina mountains and the Sredna Gora mountains. and we had dinner and first night dance party! After the dance party I borrowed a beautiful tambura for classes this week, and Caleb helped me tune it up and one badly repaired tuning peg fell off so Belle gave us a plier for tuning it. Caleb and I stayed up till midnight practicing chords and singing together!
Xoth-O-Glentismata
Picasso copycat street art
Bakxai fest
churches
Jewish museum of Thessaloniki (before I learned that photos are not allowed! shhhh)
beach in Halkidiki
Heptapiryion
Trigonion Tower
Pasha’s Gardens
Galerius Palace
Arch of Galerius
Rotunda
Sunday June 7
The Xoth-O Glentismata was awesome! It was at a big stadium, and it was super crowded with young and old people! The dance floor was crazy crowded and if you got too close to the edge you would fall off the little raised up dance floor, so we ended up mostly dancing on the grass and the track in smaller circles which was nice. There was a Thracian style band and then a Pontic lyra guy. Caleb and I got a bunch of chicken souvlaki and some beef soutzoukakia, and also a little cucumber tomato salad. We danced a lot and my mon led a Paidusko! Yesterday we had a nice breakfast at our hotel and then Caleb and I walked around looking for thrift stores. I wanted to find a flowy white dress and Caleb wanted to find Greek sports jerseys, and we went to a couple places but we didn’t find what we were looking for so we will look again on Monday. Then in the evening we all went to Bakxai fest, a super amazing music and dance festival with five different bands from different Greek regional music and dance- Ipirus, Macedonia, islands, Crete, and Pontos! The Macedonian brass and Pontic were my favorites, they were high energy and so fun to dance! It was a lot less crowded than last night’s concert and there was much more room to dance comfortably, and there was a big flat stone floor with no edges to fall off. There were young people and old people, but more 20s-40s-ish and a lot less teens taking up the dance floor than at the Xoth-O-Glentismata! Caleb and I got souvlaki and soutzoukakia from a food truck across the street from the venue and it was yummy, and we got some beers and I got a tequila mojito (strong!) from the vendors at the venue. The guy at the drink stand was very impressed with my Greek speaking yay 🙂
Today we went to the Jewish museum of Thessaloniki and it was very beautiful to see the art, pictures, gravestones, and religious items like tallit, tefillin, megillah scrolls, ketubah, traditional clothing, and a beautiful velvet ark cover. We couldn’t take pictures but it was all very beautiful and powerful. We learned that at one time Jews made up half the population of Thessaloniki. They contributed to a lot of social welfare organizations like children’s orphanages, Bikkur Cholim (hospitality for the sick), and Matanot L’Evyonim (giving food gifts to people in need). It made me very emotional to go through the holocaust section after learning there was such a vibrant Jewish community that had so many social contributions here. I’m glad we went even though it made me sad, because it was important to learn about the rich Jewish history here. After the museum we went to Halkidiki to hit the beach! It was so beautiful and relaxing. The water was cold but once you get used to it, it is super refreshing and perfect for the hot day! We got beers at the beach and then we went to a gyro place at got yummy chicken gyro and brought it back to our chairs. We ate and then I took a nice little nap on the beach chair which felt so good. Caleb and I went back in the water for a while and then we packed up to go back to the hotel.
We went out to Rouga restaurant for dinner and there was nice rebetika and laika music with two guys, a guitar and a bouzouki. Their vocal mics were too quiet but when we asked them to turn it up, they told us it was at the limit allowed by the restaraunt :(. For appetizers we got a salad, delicious garlicky oyster mushrooms, and dolmadakia. I got an ouzo mojito which was super delicious and we got beers and wine too. I got lamb kontosouvli, Aba got octopus, Caleb got lamb leg, Mom got vegan mousaka, and Sophie got chicken souvlaki. Everything was good and we sang along with a bunch of songs and the musicians were smiling at us and asked if we were Greek! Yay! After we left the restaraunt, Caleb and I walked around a little looking for more live music but it was all DJ boom bap rap music and oontsa oontsa techno music and “mediocre house on CDJs” (according to Caleb) so we just went to sleep.
Monday June 8
Today Aba returned the rental car while the rest of us had breakfast in the Caravan hotel. Then me Caleb and Aba figured out how to take the bus to Ana Poli, the old town, to see Heptapiryion, Trigonion tower, and Pasha’s Gardens! We learned that Heptapiryion was used as a prison from 1890s to 1980s, and one of the prisoners did fund raising and built a little church inside to raise people’s spirits and help them hang on to hope and faith. Trigonion tower was a fortress with a big portcullis and artillery storage rooms and we climbed lots of dim little staircases into little rooms with small windows. There were amazing views of Thessaloniki and the Thermaic gulf from the top of the tower. Then we went to see the Pasha’s Gardens, which has all these wierdly shaped Gaudi-esque stone structures and is very mysterious. No one really knows who made it or what it was used for or how it got its name, which is very unusual for a place with so much ancient history. I thought it would be much grander like the Bahaii Gardens in Haifa, but it was basically just a park with a couple of strange eroded stone sculptures. A little underwhelming, but the mystery makes it cool and a little bit eerie.
After Ano Poli we went back near the hotel, Aba went back and Caleb and I stopped by a junk shop to try a little crappy drum and tamborune and check out some random jewlery and stuff, but it was super smokey inside and we felt sick so we left. We got big pita wrap sandwiches with chicken from the Baghdad market store for lunch, which were decent but not amazing. We walked around some more looking for thrift stores, but we still couldn’t find the right place. I ended up getting a white flowy dress from H&M for a good price, but Caleb couldn’t find a good Greek sports team jersey that was good quality and good price this time. I guess we’ll have to come back :)! Then we came back to the hotel, showered, packed up, and went out for dinner and live music at Dihti, at the recommendation of the nice hotel desk guy Giorgios. We sang and danced, and there was a huge group of older Turkish people dancing and clapping and singing along and it was really fun. We shared a salad, I got salmon, Caleb got dogfish which is apparently a shark (!), Mom got pasta with salmon, Aba got mussel risotto, and Sophie got chicken shnitzel. Everything was great and we had a good time singing and dancing with the music. Caleb and I also got some ouzo and Mom and Aba got tsipouro, and they gave us free watermelon for dessert! When the watermelon was all gone I poured the juice from the plate into my ouzo and it was sooooo delicious! It was a great last night in Thessaloniki 🙂 Thank you Greece for being so amazing and fun and beautiful, I hope I will see you again soon!
Views of sea and Mt Olymous from Ruth and Christos’ house
Dinner and music with Ruth, Christos and Yiayia Eleni 🙂
sunrise
Church and bell tower across from cafe
Instrument workshop
waterfall hike
Mount Olympus
View of Naousa from the park
Artifacts from the Royal Tombs
Reproduction of a painting inside the Tombs, Hades and Persephone on the right, Hermes on the left
Golden wreaths
King Phillip II armor and shield
Outside of King Phillip II tomb
Museum of Aigai, partial restoration of the outer stoa of the Palace, and diagram of the precise measurements and use of Platonic perfect ratio
Artifacts from Kingdom of Aigai
Thursday June 4
Yesterday we said goodbyes to Yianni and Ira and we left Laimos and drove to Naousa to stay for one night. We accidentally put our bags down at the wrong house and an old lady came out and had some not too happy words at us, and then we figured out where our actual house was. We arrived at our guesthouse and met our host Panayiotis. He was very kind and sweet, which was so nice after the old lady special treatment! We settled in and Caleb Mom and me did a quick grocery run. I was super hangry so we made a quick pita sandwich with hummus with tomato cucumber and feta with lemon juice and oil and it was perfect. Then I fell asleep and took a big long nap! When I woke up me and Caleb and Aba walked to the park, which had a great view of the town and the sea, and some cool historical statues and sculptures dedicated to heroes and liberation and freedom. Caleb and I stayed in the park while Aba went to go get the girlies in the car and we all went to Paradosiako Taverna for dinner, which was recommended by Panayiotis. We sat outside and it was a pretty casual spot but it had very nice food and special Naousa traditional dishes and wine. We shared a delicious salad with lemony mustard dressing, grilled mushrooms with mustard sauce, grilled local cheese, and Mantza, which is a local stew type dish with eggplant tomato and pepper. Caleb and Aba and I shared lamb chops and Sophie got chicken. Everything was super yummy and we walked through the park after dinner and saw the city lights twinkling at night.
In the morning we packed up and went to meet my Greek teacher Antigoni in Vergina to see the Tomb of King Phillip II, the father of Alexander the Great. We walked through a very dark tunnel and there were minimal lights on the exhibits to preserve them. We saw the outside of the tomb and some of the special items buried with him and some other important people who also had special tombs. We saw some of Phillip’s body armor, weapons, and shield that was found in the tomb to show that he was a great warrior and people believed the belongings he was buried with would go with him in the afterlife. One shield had very intricate designs, and we heard a tour group guide saying it took the archeologists 5 years to put the pieces of the shield together! After we saw the tomb we went out for coffee and lunch. Caleb and I got chicken pita sandwiches, Antigoni got a panini sandwich, Sophie got chicken fillet, and Aba got some tzatziki. Then we went to the Aigai museum which was stuff from the Greek Macedonia kingdom of Phillip II and Alexander the Great. We got to see some preserved pillars and outside of the palace, and read about how it was all designed with Platonic perfect ratios and very precise measurements. It was a political meeting hall for the people and the king was on the same level as the people to show that he wasn’t a tyrant king, but an equal with the rest of the people. There were lots of very beautiful statues and sculptures, pots and pans, weapons, jewelry, and building materials like nails and tools. Even with all the stuff we saw, the tour guide lady from the tombs and the plaques at the museum said that only 10% of the kingdom of Aigai has been discovered by the archeologists, so there is still so much more to be uncovered! One of the plaques at the museum also explained about the Mimallones, which was the name of Yianni and Ira’s hotel in Laimos. Apparently the Mimallones were a group of women, but an invader saw them from afar and thought they were men warriors, and so the invader got scared and retreated! It was great to meet Antigoni in real life and go see the cool museums together. After we said goodbyes we went to our very nice apartment in Litochoro, settled in, showered, and went to the Govetas’ house for dinner! It was so nice to see Ruth and Christo and meet Christo’s badass mother Eleni who sang with us, told us lots of stories about her life and gave us lots of blessings and kind words. Ruth made delicious greek salad, yemista (stuffed peppers and tomatos), tsatsiki, beets, and chicken. We drank local tsipouro with anise and it was so delicious! For dessert we ate watermelon and we brought the stuffed dates and figs that we got in Ioannina. After dinner we talked for a long time, and then we sang and jammed and it was so amazing! Eleni loves the old songs and she remembers all the words, even the songs she hasn’t heard in a long time are still locked in her mind somewhere! She was so happy to spend time together and share stories and music and laughs, and she kept saying she will remember us for the rest of her life! We will remember her too! 🙂
Friday June 5
Today Caleb and I woke up at 6am to watch the beautiful sunrise over the sea, then went back to sleep. Around 9 we packed up our stuff and went out for coffee and breakfast with Ruth and Christo. I got a spanikopita and a chocolate croissant, and Caleb ordered us freddo cappuccinos with medium sugar, but I think the coffee lady made us espressos with no sugar because it was super bitter so I added two sugar packets. After coffee and breakfast we took a short walk to a waterfall which provides water for the town of Litochoro, and then we drove about 40 minutes up Mount Olympus! We stopped at a cafe for lunch and I got greek salad and extra olives and feta cheese, Sophie got chicken, Mom got bean soup and Caleb and Aba got goat soup. Then we got back in the car and drove to Caravan hotel in Thessaloniki! We settled in and rested for a bit, and now we are on our way to Xoth-O Glentismata, a big music and dance festival party at Apollona Stadium in Kalamaria!
landscapes of the mountains
dancing at the Panayiria in Agia Triada in the afternoon and Akritas at night
hike at Agios Achilleios
Prespa dwarf cattle at Agios Achilleios
cool art pieces in the cafe at Agios Achilleios
Boat trip with Captain Lazaros from Akrolimni Lazaros Taverna in Psarades