Outside the Cities

We drove outside Varna on our second day there and stumbled upon a monastery. We decided to visit, thinking it'd be a collection of buildings. Needless to say, it wasn't. This first picture is a bit of mural that was taken off the monastery wall during its rediscovery.

The place is called Aladzha; it's north of Varna and south of Golden Sands, about a mile from the coast. You can see it's all wild around it from this picture. In fact, it's in the middle of a nature reserve.

And here is the monastery itself. Yep, it was carved into the hillside in the 13th and 14th centuries. Despite my fear of heights, I went all the way to the top.

This was one of the monastery's bigger chambers - the refectory. Yes, the ceiling's that low and yes, it's open to the air.

And here's a picture out from about halfway up the monastery. Really pretty parkland surrounds it and it'd be a pleasant place for a picnic. Unfortunately, my companion did not take a picture of the scary stairs up the side of the hill, so I can't show you how brave I was.

BAPHA Spells Varna

We were in Varna, and yes, it's spelled that way in Cyrillic, Tuesday and Wednesday. Here are some pictures from Tuesday. It was chilly and cloudy, so, since it's a seaside resort, it wasn't as happy a place to be as I'm sure it is in the summer. This first picture is of the McDonald's. Every major Bulgarian city has at least two, I've observed.

Like Sofia, Varna has a lot of public sculpture. This piece is on the sea side of a large public walkway. You can see the nice way the road is laid out.

This is the bravest ship in the Bulgarian navy - it actually won a battle. In 1912. They are very proud of it.

A lot of Varna's architecture is definitely mid to late nineteenth-century, like this building. I just liked the look of it.

Here's a picture of the sea from the rather pathetic public beach. There's more beach that looks better up and down the coast, but the public bathing area's building has just been really neglected. It needs help. You can see how gray the sky is and how rough the sea is.

Here's another shot of the public walking areas. This is a plaza about a quarter mile from the picture of the sculpture. One thing about all the towns we visited is that there is a shopping district that's walled off to traffic. It's nice to just stroll down the avenue.

Progress for Philipp

I made some progress while traveling on Philipp's heart. It's -much- bigger than the first one I made, so it's going slower.

Sofia Fabric Stash

Just off of Vitosha Boulevard and west from the Ministry of Justice, there's a quartet of fabric stores and even a yarn shop. I found them! Actually, I didn't know they were there, but they're only a couple of blocks from Hotel Niky, so we found them on one of our walks. These pictures are of what I bought.

The green lace was by far the most expensive fabric, so I only got half a meter. It's really pretty and has lots of motifs. The shiny cream has a metallic jacquard woven into it, and the gray has cut out floral patterns. I just fell in love with it. All are coming home with me!

I still need to take a picture of my yarn shop finds. She wasn't open until Saturday, after I'd taken these photos.

The Tortured Turtle

Our hotel in Sofia, Hotel Niky, had an attached restaurant/beer garden. It's pictured here. On our last night in Sofia, we decided to take it easy and eat there. It was Palm Sunday evening and the place was crowded with kids and families. Children were running all over the place, and it's a garden with water and ... a turtle.

If cats have nine lives, this turtle had dozens. The poor thing was petrified with fear the whole time we were there, and with good reason. The children were barely avoiding it as they played in the area. Once, a child almost fell, knee onto the turtle's back. Poor turtle!

The pictures were taken the following morning at breakfast, so it looks empty. Turtle was still intact and in basically the same position. The food there was good and inexpensive, like almost everywhere in Sofia. Most places, you can walk out with full meals for under fifteen euros. We only paid more at one overpriced Greek restaurant.

Checkerboard Blackwork

The designs on this panel remind me of a checkerboard. I've made progress this week, but there's still a lot to go. Hopefully I'll work on it some this week. I'm sooooo behind on these stitchalongs.

Another Sofia Day

These pictures are all from Saturday in Sofia. It was another gorgeous day and we did a lot of walking again. This top picture is of the old Turkish baths building. It's in really bad shape and is being renovated, so you can't go inside. This site is an ancient baths and mineral springs site, dating back to Roman times.

This is St. Nedalya church, right next to the Sheraton. We never went inside, but when we walked by it on Sunday it was really crowded.

Sofia herself, supposedly. It's a modern statue and sits in a crossroads across from Tzum. To me, she's ugly, but well... she's the city's symbol.

And here is the oldest church in Sofia, dating back to the 4th century. It's surrounded by the Sheraton and the Presidential residence, oddly enough. The excavations around it are from the old Roman-era village that surrounded it.

I've Got Two Hands...

Bibendum's got both his hands now. Soon I'll be starting his bicycle. I still think he looks cute.

It's raining here in Varna this morning. We got here yesterday evening and it was overcast and cloudy. Maybe it'll clear up by this afternoon. I hope so - Varna is a seaside resort, and it's definitely better viewed in the sunlight.

Necklace from Pristina

I realized that I haven't posted a picture of this. When we were out fabric shopping a week ago Saturday, I saw this necklace in a jeweler's window and commented on how I liked it. My host dragged me into the shop to find its price. It was relatively inexpensive and is completely hand made. The filigree flowers were made in Prizren, home of a long tradition of filigree. The jeweler himself put it together into a necklace and, it turns out, it's not really a necklace, even if it was displayed that way. It's a chain for a belly dancing costume, to wear at the bottom of the skimpy bodice. That's why there are extra rings - to put dangling things on it. Anyway, I like it and it's a perfect necklace for me.

Egg's Nearly Done

From this picture, you can see the egg's nearly done. I've finished it since the picture, and there are only three more to go. Maybe I'll get this section done by the end of the summer.

We spent an easy day today because Sofia's pretty much dead on Sunday. Even though it's Easter at home, it's only Palm Sunday here. The weather's been nice, but kind of chilly.

Sofia on Friday

We wandered around the more "official" part of Sofia yesterday. One thing I have to say is it's full of sculptures, most of them good. We toured the national art gallery and the ethnological museum and were disappointed. This top picture is the Russian orthodox church a couple of blocks from the main Alexander Nevski cathedral.

This interesting bishop or king was in a park in front of the National Art Gallery and Ethnological Museum (they're both in one building, and that building was -not- crowded).

We saw this cute little puppy when we stopped in Macedonia to stretch our legs. She was very friendly and loved being pet! I resisted and did not take her with. The blue doors to the back are the restrooms - well, not really restrooms. No real toilets, only pissoirs. One of those really third world moments.

And this is another sculpture in the same park. There were a lot of them here! You can see more pictures of Sofia from our wanderings here.

Another Heart Start

This is the second of the German charity hearts. It's much bigger than the first on, and as you see, I didn't get much done this week.

Still Going Up

The town's still going up with all the buildings, and I got quite a bit done on it last week.

I've also plopped myself down in Sofia for the rest of the week. Pictures after going out tomorrow. We did eat at a nice restaurant this evening, and spent less than 15 euros doing it. Even cheaper than Kosovo. The town (except for the stripper bars) closes down by ten, though.

Pristina Scenes

Here are a couple of pictures we took on our walk Saturday - that are not condom ads. This first one is the statue of Skanderbeu, the Albanian national hero. He lived in the fifteenth century and fought the Ottoman empire. Lots of things are named after him, including a local brandy.

Here is one of the few visible remnants of the war in Pristina. It's a mosque that was turned into an Orthodox church during the Serbian dominance and then sacked during the war. There's still barbed wire around it, and it's sad looking. At least KFOR isn't still guarding it like other places around Kosovo. It's safe now.

How Much Brown?

Yes, I was working with brown again this week and am getting a bit tired of it. I do, however, seem to make real progress every time I stitch, at least. This week's brown was around the edges of the light panes of the skirt. They're almost completely sided now and it's looking pretty good.

One Heart Done

I finished the first of my two hearts this week. It's kind of cute, and I hope they like it.

Fabric Stash

After hours of walking in the wrong directions on Saturday, we managed to find a fabric store! It's just a few blocks from the National Museum, in the area where most of the formal gowns imported from Turkey are. No cottons there, and the selection was small, but what they did have was pretty. All of the fabrics are rayon blends.

My favorite fabric is this black - it reminds me of a forest on a winter night. I have a quilt block to piece by the 20th, so I really needed fabric. I also like the one with the embroidered swirls on it.

Hopefully, I'll be able to make a quilt square that looks like autumn from these fabrics. I think so.

Part Six Started

I started part six this week; I'm a part behind, but I don't really see a way to catch up. I've got alot of blackwork to do on this one, possibly even more than I did in part three. I need to get cracking on it.

It's a Muslim Country (Warning, OT and possibly offensive)

I know this isn't what you expect on my blog, but it struck me as silly, so I'm posting it. There are five or six of these identical billboards downtown. Yes, it's a Muslim country. Well, it's a secular country with a very large Muslim population. Anyway, it struck me as a way to show how very European Kosovo is, too.

Enlarging the Point

I worked a bit on this this week, and the inner design is beginning to take shape.

All Glitzed Up

I think I have most of the glitz on this done now. I like the way it looks, the diamond. It might make a nice small photo frame.

Egg Nearly FIlled

I'm almost done with my first egg. This is going faster than parts two and three. On the other hand, it's only four colors.

Yesterday, when I was walking home from the embassy, a gentleman in a car driving down the street stopped and gave me a lovely and unique compliment. He said I bring the summer! Isn't that sweet? I thanked him. Today the special at lunch was good - a savory crepe filled with ground beef and peppery spices. No sauce and just a little bit of the local cheese melted on top. Of course I couldn't eat all of mine, so it came home with me for lunch tomorrow.

I'm sorry I haven't been showing pictures yet. My host has been sick and we've gone no where. I've not even been able to walk downtown on my own due to scheduling conflicts. Tomorrow, though, we're supposed to go downtown and I'll make sure to bring a camera!

Nearly There

I'm still working on the last bit of band eight. The way the separated soy luster shreds, it's amazing I have any hair left. I've got just a little bit more to go and then I'll never separate the stuff again.

The Green Line Grows

This week, both the green line and the light green squiggles (okay, leaves) grew around the outer border. It's getting close to completion and I might go ahead and put things aside to finish it this week.

Just In Time

The next part of See the Star comes out this evening, and I completed it before it does. Something I'm not behind on, yay! I like the way the colors are coming together, and I hope to keep up to date with this one.

Charity Heart

I caved and started something else this week, but it's small and for a good cause. Elke, one of the owners of the Marquoir group, is taking hearts drawn by children and turning them into cross stitch designs. She has 31 of these and they're to be used for a German children's charity. I volunteered for one, and ended up getting two. This is the start of the first one. Since the picture on Saturday, I've almost completed this one. You can see more on her blog. Hopefully, this one will be done today.

A Bit of Blue

With my fondness for overdyed floss, is it a wonder I switched out a lot of the original colors of this for overdyed? I'm liking the results so far. This is still part three, and there's a bit more of it to do before Tuesday, as the new part comes out on Wednesday. I should have it done easily.

We didn't go anywhere this weekend; my host got sick, and though he wanted to travel, I refused to let him do so with a fever. Instead, we went over to someone else's house and played Pax Britannica. It was interesting, being the US in the late part of the nineteenth century. Yes, I'm a real geek. I play war games. I doubt many of you do, because it's one of those rare traits. I did work on this during the Congresses of Europe where the US wasn't invited. Got quite a bit of stitching done.

Getting a Leg Up (or Down)

Bibi's coming along. This week I did some white again and black. The black line going down is the front of Bibendum's leg on the bicycle. I'm definitely over halfway on him now, and the big white guy's end is in sight.

Another Building Rising

Well, more brown and more red brick this week on the buildings. You can see the right hand building next to the center taking shape. It's still fun and is coming along slowly but prettily, I think.