Some of the stories told in the murals painted on the monasteries

 Here is one of the sides of the church at Suceavita. This side tells the story of how one gets in to Heaven. In the middle of the mural are the scales of Heaven. All of the good things you do in life are in one scale and all of the bad things are in the other. If you can enlarge this you will see that the devils are sitting on top of the scale on their side trying to make it even heavier. Those darn devils will do whatever they can to get more recruits. If you are good then you go down the left side of the mural and enter into Heaven, if you are bad you go down the right side in to Hell.

 Here is a close-up of one part of that mural. Here is Saint Peter opening the gates of Heaven. As you can see there is a long line of people waiting behind him to get in. On the right of this picture you can see an angel taking the soul of a person who had been good in life.

In this one if you look at the part in the upper right you can see the story of the Garden if Eden. They are the pictures with the white background. The first shows Adam in the garden alone. The next he is with all the animals, then Eve is brought in. The fourth is when they discover the tree of knowledge. After that is when the serpent shows up to tempt them. Then they are shown covered with fig leaves and being banished from the garden. In this way regular people who could not read or write could access the stories that were in the Bible. So these monasteries are like giant picture books for non-readers.

Four of the World Famous Painted Monasteries of Bucovina

 In the area around the city of Suceava, Romania there are some world famous painted monasteries. Painted on the outside and the inside. These monasteries were all built after battles won by Stefan Cel Mare, the first ruler to bring together what is not Romania. The monasteries are painted on the outside with scenes from the bible. This was important in the 1500's since most people could not read. Thw first one here is the monastery at Suceavita.

 This one is the monastery at Moldovita. It is amazing that the paintings on the outside have survived for over 400 years. The paintings on the north side of the monasteries are mostly faded and degraded but the south side, protected from the weather has survived remarkably well. Also the round end of the church, like you see here always faces east.

 This one is the most famous of the group of painted monasteries. This is the one at Vornet. It is most famous because of the blue color that can be found on the walls. It is a blue that they are not sure how the painters of the day were able to make. Since this was almost 500 years ago, they did not write down the formula of what they added to make the color.

The last one is the smallest of the monasteries the monastery Humorului. So on Monday I took a tour around the area and was able to see these 4 monasteries. I visited them all on a whirlwind trip in 2007, so it was nice to be able to spend some more time enjoying and marveling at how old they are and how well they have held up against the weather. I have more pictures of the pictures on the outside of these monasteries if any one is interested. Tomorrow, Wednesday, I will be heading back to Bucharest for my last week of this year's adventure, doing a little sight-seeing and resting up from my adventures before heading home.

In Suceava, Romania

 I am in Suceava, Romania for a few days. In Suceava there is a fortress that was built by Stefan Cel Mare in 1508. They are currently restoring it, a fact I wish I had known before paying to go inside. Anyway, here is the sign outside the fortress. Cetatea, means fortress.

 Here is the fortress showing the outside of the fortress, the main defensive wall. You can see some of the inside walls also.

 This view shows the three entryways into the fortress. Each of these entries is located on another defensive wall. So there are three defensive walls in the fortress. If you breach the first wall, you find the second wall and so on.

This picture shows some of the restoration going on. Unfortunately, the restoration is going on everywhere in the fortress and therefore you can not actually go anywhere. I am sure that it will be a great place to visit once it is finished.

My last class in Varna

 Here is my class hard at work on the last day. We were finishing the U.S. History class that I taught for three weeks in Varna. Their final assignment was to create a poster about what we had learned. I envisioned a paper with some cute pictures drawn on it with little captions for each picture. I guess that is why i am the teacher and not the student. What they came up with you can see below. They went on their own and looked up more information on what they had learned and created this poster.

As you can see I gave them a lot of information over the 18 hours of class. We started with the first inhabitants of the America's and how they got here and continued from there. They were great students, not only was all of the information presented in English, but they even took their class notes in English. I was impressed. Now it is back to Romania and a visit to the painted monasteries of Bucovina. Stay tuned for some impressive pictures.

Hanging with the Vista Language School Day Campers

 I had a lovely morning and afternoon today. I was at the Varna Library in the American Corner. There is a part of the library that is dedicated to an American section, with American books and reference material. It is supported by the American Embassy here in Bulgaria. This was my second trip there with with Vista campers. The first day I presented a lesson on the similarities and difference of life in Bulgaria and America. Today there was a short lesson on Native Americans and then some arts and crafts. The campers made a teepee and a totem pole. Here you can see one of the examples of the work they did. The cut out the pattern for the teepee and then decorated it. The totem poles were also a lot of fun for them.

 Here is another example of a personalized teepee. This one he made for the tribe's chief. We showed them some examples of the kinds of things that would be drawn on a teepee and they then used their imagination. We spent a couple of hours working at this, and they all had a blast.

Here is the work of the group, along with the campers. I want to especially thank the Varna Library and the American Embassy for helping to make this day possible. I had a great time.

A Visit to Nessebar, Bulgaria

 Yesterday, Saturday July 13th, I had the great experience of visiting the old town of Nessebar. Nessebar is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is referred to as a city-museum. There have been people living in Nessebar for thousands of years. In the 6th century it became a Greek city. It was inhabited by rich sea merchants. They made their money by making and selling fig wine. It was a big seller all over the area. One way that the locals would show just how rich they were was to build a family church. The more beautiful the better. Here I am standing in front of what is left of one of these churches. Note the brickwork and intricate design. Also note I am wearing my Dodger shirt (Go Dodgers lol). At one time there were more than 40 churches in this small town. Only a few remain but those that do are beautiful.

 This is what remains of the town defensive wall. The town is actually a small island that has been joined to the land by a small road way. This is part of the original fortification of the town. When you have something valuable you want to protect it. The people who lived in this town were rich enough that when the Ottoman Empire defeated them, they were able to pay tribute and not have their town and churches torn down. The Ottomans did not mind Christian churches as long as the roof was no higher that a man on horse back. The churches in this town are much taller but because they had money the Turks left the churches alone. So even though you had a great defensive wall like this one must have been it was no guarantee that you would survive an attack.

Here is a view up one of the streets in Nessebar. As you can see the streets are still lines with cobblestones, nice to look at but not the best to walk on. The house have wood siding because it is the best for this seaside location. Also as you can see, and this is not even the most crowded street, every nook and cranny is filled with a vendor trying to sell you something. Interestingly enough, many of the vendors were selling Jack Daniels Tee-Shirts. Go figure. As my host and friend Miss Tony said "Jack is probably rolling over in his grave."  I hope you enjoyed this small view. I have some more pictures of some of the churches, if I hear from enough of you I will post them too.

Ruins from Roman Times

 Varna has been an important seaport on the Black Sea for thousands of years. The Greeks were here and so were the Romans. What you see here are the ruins of a Roman Bath House In the center of this picture is what is left of the large dome. They believe the dome would have stood around 60 feet high. The baths are from the 1st century, so see Varna has been around for a long time, Livermore is proud of our almost 150 years, Varna has been around more than 10 times longer.

 In this picture you can see some of the large community rooms that would have been used in the bathhouse. Public bathing houses were very important to the Romans. This particular one is the 4th largest bathhouse found. The size gives you and indication of the importance of Varna to the Roman Empire.

Here is another view. I included this one because as I was taking this picture a man came by and wagged his finger at me and said something. From his tone of voice I am sure he was not saying,  "nice day to take some pictures." It was more like, "you are not supposed to take pictures from outside like this." There is an entrance fee to get in but I figured why pay to go inside when you can see all of it from out here. So, oops here I am getting in trouble in ancient Varna. Thank goodness it is not ancient Rome, or I might have been put in the arena with a gladiator or wild animal. lol

The Varna Zoo and Another View of the Cathedral in Varna

 The zoo in Varna is not a very big zoo but it does have a little bit of everything for all to enjoy. Here is a picture of Bambi. When anyone would come by the deer would all get up and beg for food. This particular one was too cool to get up. Of course it was really hot and humid so maybe it was not too cool, maybe it was too hot.

 The owl here is an eagle owl. I thought he looked good up there looking down at me, like he was the king of the castle. There were lots of different types of birds at the zoo.

 Ahh yes the bear. He was sitting down in the moat looking up at a group of kids and trying to get them to feed him. So there were lions and tigers and bears, oh my at the zoo. I saw the lions and bear but I did not see the tiger. The sign said there was a tiger but he must have been in back resting from the heat.

Last here is another view of the cathedral here in Varna. It is such a beautiful building and since I was directly across the street from it and there were no buses in the way I thought I would take a picture. This is the place where the bus I rode from Bucharest to Varna stopped and let me off. It is near the Sea Gardens. I also liked the cloud formation that was behind it. For a while I thought we were going to get a thunderstorm, but we did not.

Around the Sea Gardens

 Here in Varna, where the city meet the Black Sea is a place known as the Sea Gardens. It is a lovely park like area where you can wander around on tree-lined avenues, occasionally getting a glimpse of the Sea.

 In addition to the tree-lines walkways there are streets to walk on and plazas to walk through. Here is one of the many plazas that fill this area. The streets are lined with shops and restaurants. Also, as you can see, there are plenty of places just to sit and watch the world walk by.

 If you want an ice cream or a soda there are many kiosks like this one throughout the area. You can stop and get an ice cream cone (I picked chocolate) for 2.5 lev (the local money) and a Coca Cola Zero for only 2 Lev. That totals to about $3. Not bad, and don't worry, if you prefer a different brand of ice cream, just keep walking there is another kiosk up ahead.

If you prefer to sit down and have a meal, or just drink a coffee, or have dessert, there are many restaurants like this one all over the area. This particular one I have eaten at and the food was very good I had a mixed grill, some beef and some pork sausages with french fries. So there is a quick look at one of the beautiful places to see here in Varna, Bulgaria.

How I get to and from work here in Varna

 I guess 7 really is a lucky number. Today I was figuring out how long my trip to my work place was. So I timed myself as I went to work. First I have to walk to the bus stop from my apartment. It took me 7 minutes to get to the stop. From there I take the number 7 bus for, you guessed it 7 minutes. Once I get off I have a walk of, yep 7 minutes (actually it was like 7 minutes and 30 seconds but for the fun of this we will call it 7 minutes). So I walk 7 minutes, ride the number 7 bus for 7 minutes, and then walk 7 more minutes and arrive at the area pictured above. The stairs you see on the right of center of the picture lead up to the Vista Language School. I go up those stairs and in the door to where I teach my class.

 Here is a picture of the sign that is outside the language school. You can see the worm coming out of the apple where it says Vista language Centre (like the British would spell it). The window there looks into the office area.

Here is another Vista banner that hangs on the back side of the center. This window looks into one of the classrooms. So now you know how lucky I am to be able to work at the Vista Language Centre.

The New Classes

 Here are the students attending the first class of my U.S. History class in Varna, Bulgaria. They are from left to right Toni, Teodora, and Martina. They were very good students today during our first lesson.

This is what we discussed today. We talked about the First Americans and where they came from and how they got there. Then we discussed the major Native American tribes that were around at the time of Columbus' arrival. Yes I know this is not U.S. History but I thought it was important and when you are teaching like this, there is no curriculum guide hanging over you or test results threatening to bring your school down, so you can improvise. Besides I am designing the course as we go, who knows what we will talk about on Wednesday!

Wrapping Up Camping with Vista

 Here is a schedule from day 5 of the Vista Camp. It was the day we took the long hike to the waterfall. If you look closely you can see that I am on the schedule at 3:30 and again at 6:00. You can also see that the night went very late. We had a Vistas Got Talent night and I got to be one of the judges, I got to be the nice one who liked everything he saw.

 At the waterfall there was this cave. I have no doubt that in prehistoric times this cave was inhabited by cave men (and cave women too!). The location is too nice to not have been used. It is right at the waterfall so you have access to clean fresh water. The only problem I could see was that the ceiling was not very high. I could not stand up inside the cave. It does go back quite far and maybe the ceiling is higher back there.

And lastly, here is my new friend and interpreter Tsveti getting a quick hair rinse at the falls. This view would be what you saw if you lived inside the cave in prehistoric times. Well not with Tsveti in the picture, she is not that old.

Where I am staying and the long trek

 Here is a look at the small resort in Bulgaria that we are staying at during the week of camp. It is located in the mountains of Bulgaria, in a beautiful area. This is a picture of the restaurant area. We eat inside or out depending on the weather.

This is an example of the buildings that house the rooms. Each room has 2 or 3 beds and the campers are in these rooms. This building is where the girls are staying. The boys building, where I am at, is located in another part of the complex. There are recreation areas and even a large meeting room for us to use.

 Today we went on a longer hike. Here is a picture from up above looking down on the area we are hiking to. This area has a small waterfall emptying into the pool you see below. As you can see we had to hike down quite a long way, and since we went down a long way of course, we had to hike back up a long way on our way back.

 But, it was worth it as you can see from this picture. We are at the waterfall and sitting down and enjoying the view for a while. The students were able to go around almost to the waterfall on the rocks that you can see at the left of the picture. Even I went over there to be closer to the waterfall.

Here is the closer view of the waterfall from the rocks near it. It was quite a peaceful area to sit in and just think about nothing.

Camping with Vista

 Yesterday we went on a hike to a local canyon. Here is Miss Tony giving directions  to all of the campers prior to us leaving. She told me that I had dressed just right for the hike :) I was very pleased since I had told Miss Tony that I had always wanted to go to summer camp. If you look on the wall behind her (not the parking sign on the fence)you see a word written. It starts with an O, what it says is office.

 Here are some of the campers, waiting to begin the hike. They look a refreshed and energetic now but not so much when they got back. It was a hot day, so they were tired, happy campers.

Here we are at the place where we stopped the hike. We kind of had to, just ahead the river covered the entire canyon floor and so it was impossible to walk any further. The campers had fun climbing on rocks and playing in the water. It was a fun hike in the hills of Bulgaria.

At Summer Camp in Bulgaria

Well I am here, and there is internet connection, just not a great one so I will not be uploading any picture from here. I will save them and upload when I have a better connection. There are 20 kids here at the summer camp that is being held in a nice little resort complex. Yesterday I had my first class with them and we talked about what they liked to do. I showed them some pictures from Livermore and Yosemite. Today we will start a class in US History. I am not sure what they want to learn, but we will have fun. So I will post more as I go on. We will be here until Friday. Talk later.

In front of Gara de Nord

Just meet the bus in front of Gara de Nord. That was the directions I had on where to meet the bus that would take me from Bucharest to Varna to begin the teaching part of my trip. No problem right. Except that Gara de Nord (the North Train Station) is an L shaped building with entrances on all sides. The long part of the L is were most of the people enter and exit and where most of the taxis park. To me that meant that was the front of the station. Well there is another  entrance at the leg of the L, and it even has fancy columns and a big clock. I had to be there by 5:45am so I had scouted out where the bus might come the day before. I had three possibilities in mind as I arrived this morning at 5:30. As I was looking at my three areas I noticed a group of people gathering across the street from the area with the big clock and columns. As I walked over to the area it became clear to me that this was the entrance that the reservations man had talked about. Boy did I feel dumb, it was so clear that across the street from this area was where the bus would pick up. Now I had reserved with a company named Sud-Mercado and they had told me to look for the bus with Leon on the side. At about 5:45 a bus rolled up and stopped in this area. It did not say Leon but I heard people talking about Varna. I thought maybe this is mine. The driver had a list and when he had a free moment I asked if this was the bus to Varna, he answered yes and showed me the list of passengers. My name was not on the list. I asked if he was with Sud-Mercado and he said no and pointed to a smaller bus that had just stopped behind his. When I went to that bus a lady had a list and ta da my name was on it. I got on the bus paid my fare and 5 hours later arrived in Varna. I was met at the Cathedral of Varna (the place where they drop off) and taken to my cozy home for the next month. Tomorrow I go to the mountain area to join a summer camp and teach some English and also some U.S. History. I do not know if there is internet there but if there is I will continue to post here.

You ask, I answer

 First for Kaitlin, here is a look at part of the menu in the drive thru at that McDonalds. They even have a Quarter Pounder (which is new to me). This is a value meal menu, so you can get the main item with fries and a drink for 16.1 lei. That comes to about $4.60. Notice that they write it 16,1. In numbers where they use a , we use decimal point and where we use a comma they use the decimal point. So instead of writing 10,000 they would write 10.000. It can be a little confusing sometimes.

 And yes they even have breakfast at this McDonald's. This is still a new idea over here. Micul de jun is breakfast in Romanian and repede si bun means fast and good. No, Kathleen I have not been here for breakfast at all (lunch is a different matter).

 Now to Kathleen's question about the Metro. On the outside the train cars look just like Bart cars. They travel in groups of 6 cars. This is the station at Dristor which is close to where I am staying. Most of the stations look like this. Nothing fancy but very usable.

Here is a look inside one of the cars. All of the seat are against the outside and face the middle. The seats are in groups of 6 and there are 3 groups in each car. So a total of 36 seats in each car. This picture was taken on Saturday afternoon, this is why the car is almost empty. Usually the car is crammed with people. I did not take any pictures inside because I am not sure how the people sitting in there would have taken to having their travels recorded. So this answer two questions from comments on the last blog page. See if you ask, I will answer.