Ukraine and Bulgaria

I celebrated my 55th birthday on June 5th by inviting a couple of our friends over for cake and ice cream. As in the past 3 years, Alvin made my cake and we had some of the 14 quarts of homemade ice cream from our freezer. Alvin even decorated the cake with a fake barbie doll!!

In preparation for our 2 week trip to Ukraine and Bulgaria, we needed to pick some of the cherries before we left even though they weren't at the peak of their ripeness. A little afraid that neighbors would pick the tree clean while we were gone, we decided to pick a bunch for the freezer and then hoped there would be some on the top of the tree when we returned that were totally ripe. (Glenn picked about 8 quarts of really deep purple (very ripe) cherries when we got back into town so now we have more than we can possibly eat!)

I think we have enough cherries to last for a while!!!!

We left for our Black Sea Orthodox cluster meeting in Kiev, Ukraine on June 9th where we provided member care appointments. We were there for a week and the weather was quite nice. The two previous times we've been to Kiev, it was sticky and hot!!!

I don't know if you can see it or not, but there is a picture of Sponge Bob on the sign and believe it or not, the name of the car wash is Sponge Bob!!! Sponge Bob made it all the way to Ukraine.

Glenn and I enjoyed a good chuckle when we saw the billboard with the announcement of the upcoming Miss Blonde Ukraine competition! Evidently, true Ukrainian women have blonde hair!

After a week in Kiev and just before we left for the second week in Sofia, Bulgaria, Glenn had to do a load of laundry. He remembered to bring a clothesline. He's so smart and handy! (I just take enough to last the two weeks!)

On our way to the airport to catch our flight to Bulgaria, we talked the van driver into stopping for lunch at Domino's Pizza!!! Yes, Domino Pizza is in Ukraine and it was soooo good!

Janet, my walking partner in BP, was at the conference with us in Kiev to do testing for the children of our personnel. She was headed back to BP when we were going to Bulgaria and in the van with us...She enjoyed the pizza with us, as did Alex, the guy who drove us to the airport. Actually, his Ukrainian name is Sasha but it is Alex in English.

The rest of these photos are from Bulgaria.

Our hotel was just a few minutes from ancient Roman ruins. I enjoyed walking among them each afternoon during our break time.

Our last day in town we had a free afternoon so a dozen or so of us made a trip to a nearby village to do a little pottery shopping. We stopped by this site to check out the amphitheatre. I don't know anything about it since I wasn't around when our "guide" gave a little bit of the history. I didn't buy any pottery because I am saving my money for Polish pottery, even though the Bulgarian pottery is quite interesting.

I took a couple of pictures of some crazy signs we saw in Bulgaria. Does it really mean all you need at the hotel is clothes, underwear, accessories, bathing (???) and souvenirs?

Notice the top left? What is dental tourism?

#5 says, "Using of the swimming pool is against payment". What on earth does that mean???

And I loved this spice packet found in a little corner grocery store! "Seasoning for Tasty Food"? If the food is already tasty, why does it need seasoning? If it isn't tasty, why would you want to eat it?

Well, our time in Ukraine and Bulgaria is over and we are back in Budapest. We'll be here for 5 days before we head to Turkey for another cluster meeting. I'll update before we catch the next flight!

Before I close, I'd like to wish my father a Happy Father's Day! I have a wonderful Dad and I love him very much. Wish I could be there to tell him in person how much he means to me!

Happy Birthday to me!

The beginning of this past week found us still in Marietta, Georgia. While I was in the U.S., I recognized a strange phenomenon. When we are overseas, we always enjoy looking for American products such as Oreos, cake mixes or Crisco in the various countries we visit. It's almost a game as we go from grocery store to grocery store just looking (and occasionally, but not often, buying) to see which American products can be found.

Well, when our daughter lived in France, I used to buy these wonderful spiced cookies each time we visited her and Jonathan. Then one day Kari introduced me to this delicious spread (looks like peanut butter, but a little creamier) with the same spiced taste. Lo, can you imagine how excited I got when I found the same thing available at Kroger in America???? I got almost as excited as I would when I would meet an African from the Ivory Coast!!! Far more excited than when I found Oreos in Greece!

It's a little expensive, but you really ought to try the cookies and the spread! This is the Lotus brand, the exact brand that Kari would buy for me in France! Let me know what you think about them!

Toward the end of our time in America, we celebrated Queenie and Pa's anniversary, even though Pa was no longer with us. Glenn's mother told us that Pa had already decided how he wanted to celebrate their 65th anniversary, and it was for the whole Borders clan to go with them to Outback Steak House. Pa had been saving for the event, which Glenn found in his bedside table, so "he" took the whole crew out for dinner just before Glenn and I returned to Budapest. To us, it was kind of odd that he wanted to go to Outback because Pa himself was a seafood lover...but we didn't argue! (How could we?)

Jackson, Beth and Stephen's son, dressed for the occasion with his smile and his cute little fedora.

We spent a lot of time with Glenn's family during the days, but I got to see my father a lot too. (More than usual because his "special friend", Emogene, was out in Texas with one of her sons.) Fortunately, Emogene flew back into town early on the day we were flying out, so we went to the airport to pick her up, and then ate together on the way home, and then she came over for dinner before we flew out late that night. She and my dad make a cute couple, don't you think?

We carried back with us 4 bags stuffed with clothes, food and books, and some items for 5 other people. Good friends from our church, Bobby and Kerry, picked us up from my father's house at 7 pm and took us to the Atlanta airport to catch our 11 pm flight out. They were both feeling kinda sickly with a bug their family had been passing around, but so far, we haven't had any of their symptoms. If they are reading this, we thank them very much!!! It was a huge favor they did for us and we appreciated it very much.

Now, every time we come home for a visit, folks are all the time telling us they'd like to come visit us in Budapest or we invite them to come visit us and no one ever comes. (Well, I shouldn't say EVER but I'm using literary license to make a point...) Lot's of folks have said, "I would have to get a passport" so we are going to make it easy for them. Go to the Powder Springs post office and get an application. We'd love to show you our beautiful city! And, to get your money's worth, stay long enough to run over to Vienna, Austria 2 hours away or up to Prague, Czech Republic that is 6 hours away!

We would love to have you come!

Anyway, the trip home was just the way I like them. UNeventful!

Our strawberry plants had started producing. We picked about 3 pounds of strawberries, cut them up and froze them for eating later over ice cream or in other desserts. Aren't they pretty? Glenn picked another 2-3 pounds yesterday so I now have 8 containers of strawberries in my freezer and there are tons more strawberries coming!

While in the U.S. I found this Hi and Lois comic strip that made me laugh and laugh and laugh! It fits me perfectly! And for those who can't read the small print, I've made a larger copy below in the next two photos!!! Hmmmm, I guess I'm not the ONLY one who likes a little bit of coffee with their whipped cream and white chocolate syrup!

Sounds just like me, doesn't it Karin and Kari?

Friday night we were invited to Melissa and Scott's for dinner. They are a young couple living here while Scott goes to the Central European University to study Ottoman Turk history. They live in downtown BP. When we left their apartment, we decided to walk part the way home. I loved this sign that indicates the direction to various countries, such as Poland, Croatia, and France! (The bottom sign says: Francia orszag, which is Country of France). Cool, eh?

This is the famous Astoria Hotel. At night, it is gorgeous. During the day, it is beautiful. I don't know which one is more impressive, day or night!

Today is my birthday and we have a few folks coming over for cake and homemade ice cream. (Remember the 14 quarts of ice cream I made just before going to the U.S. for the funeral? Well, I need help eating it or I will gain 10 kilos!) Alvin always makes me a birthday cake, so he is bringing it over when he comes. I love a party!

We head out this week for Ukraine for a meeting, then on to Bulgaria for another meeting. We will provide member care to our personnel. My role of TCK Education Consultant has officially been transferred to someone else as of June 1, so except for the emails coming in wishing me happy birthday, the daily onslaught of emails has slowed down. Now I can concentrate on helping Glenn with member care.

Take care! Because of our travels, I'm not sure when I will be able to update but I'll be back as soon as possible.