We Are Back!

Hi Everyone!

I'm happy to say we've come back home safely and soundly(lol) from our trip to East Europa. We had a wonderful time despite my initial concerns, and i'm happy to say the whole experience went better than i expected, pfew! But it's oh so good to be back home again. It was tough saying goodbye to the people we left behind and the ones who proceeded on their own way back to their own home, but it was nice to say goodbye to the East. Like i said, we had a very nice holiday but three weeks was just about enough time spent in the place which gave birth to me but has since become distant, strange and uncomfortable to me over the years. Three main reasons why i'm so happy to be back have to do with my health and well being and the fourth deals with my emotional state of mind and inner peace.

I will briefly describe those four reasons below. I will have to write a whole book in order to describe our whole stay and all our experiences which i'm not prepared nor willing to do, so below i sum up the three weeks in three(or so) paragraphs.

Reason #1: My lungs, my poor lungs. The air quality in Bulgaria, in the cities anyways, is poor if not below human living standards to say the least. No vehicle is required to pass emissions tests so 9 out of 10 vehicles on the road spit out black clouds of smoke as they move along. Cars, buses, trucks, etc, vehicles which should have been scrapped many years ago are still driving along the roads of Bulgaria and together with industrial plants contribute to the smog which is the air over the cities and the air we breathed for the most part of our stay there. My husband and i both had a constant sore, dry throat and trachea with an annoying constant dry cough. I'm sure my life has been shortened with at least 3 years after 3 weeks of breathing this horrible poisonous air. So you can imagine my joy at returning to the freshness of the Alps.

Reason #2: My stomach, my poor stomach. I was raised on Bulgarian food, but since leaving the country, my digestive system has grown unused to it. As a result, i had a constant upset stomach during the 3 weeks which included cramps, constipation, diarrhea, bloating and a constant annoying feeling of strangeness and heaviness in my stomach. My husband had the same fate. To add to that, we were fed continuously by various people and we proceeded to feed ourselves even more at restaurants. Wherever we went, people fed us and when we had enough, they fed us some more and since it's not polite to refuse the food they're offering you, we ate, and ate, and ate, and ate. As a result, i gained 1.5 kilos and my husband gained 4.0 kilos(most of it beer) in only 3 weeks! So you can imagine my joy at returning to our light, health oriented eating regime of fresh Swiss food.....and we're both on a strict exercise programme to get rid of the extra weight we brought back with us! Wish us luck with that!

Reason #3: My hair, my poor hair. This summer in Bulgaria was a very dry and hot one. Every day for the 3 weeks were were there, the temperatures soared to above 30 degrees C with no drop of rain. Due to the heat, the draught and the pollution, my hair suffered moisture loss and nutrient deprivation. As a result, it became dry, brittle, lost its luster and because of the hair colour i applied before the trip, it began looking like a tangle of hay and straw on top of my head. To make matters worse, during our stay at the Black Sea, which was the highlight of our trip and where we had a lot of fun and time to just relax on the beach, the combination of the salty water (and the Black Sea is infamous for its salt content) scorching sun and dry wind took away the last drop of life left in my hair and no amount of products which i constantly and tirelessly applied was able to save it. So you can imagine my joy at returning to the cool, moist, clean air and water and to the availability of hair care products my hair loves and is used to. It was intensive hair care week this first week that we've been back and i'm happy to say, my hair has been revived!

Reason #4: has to do with the whole way of life in the country and the attitudes of its people. The people who we know and belong to our family are very nice and friendly and we had a great time with them. I'm happy to have been able to see many people whom i hadn't seen for many, many years including some brand new ones(new babies and boyfriends/wives who have been added to our family). But in general, the public is quite rude and miserable. No wonder considering where and how they live, but regardless, it's not my fault they live the way they do so why take it out on me?? As tourists, my husband, his brother and their friend we taken advantage of on many occasions such as being charged too much for taxi rides, for drinks at bars, as well as short-changing them on change given back. They even tried to "pull the wool over our eyes" with me there. I had the advantage of speaking the language but other than that, i was a pure tourist myself. I had no idea where to go for what or how to get there, i was not familiar with the cities or just the way of life, so a few minutes into it, people were well aware that i'm clueless and tried to take advantage of that. As a result, i got upset a lot which caused some other health/physical concerns. So you can imagine my joy at returning to a civilized place where people greet each other on the street with a smile and are more than happy to help you out no matter if you're a tourist or a local or a disfigured mix of both as is the case with me. Oh so good for the inner peace that is!

Now, if after reading this you're thinking that we must have had a horrible time for those 3 weeks, that's not the case. Those were just the things i needed to get off my chest. To be totally honest, we did have a great time. Like i said, we got to see many relatives, my parents who came from Canada, we got to rest and relax, we got a nice tan, we visited many beautiful places, we ate a lot and drank a lot and laughed a lot, we danced, and sang, and at the end, we cried when it was time to say goodbye.

We miss all the people and we miss being on holiday, but we're happy to be home and back to our own routine of life good for the body, good for the mind, good for the soul.

P.S. the pictures will be posted a bit later due to some still being sent to me from mom's cam in Canada, so hurry up mom :)