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We are cruising up the Danube between Bulgaria and Romania today.  Last night we had a concert performed by Bulgarian dancers and players.  They played an accordion, a flute like instrument, a small bagpipe and a lute.  The dancers were great to watch.  

Today we had a lecture on the history of the Balkans.  The Balkans, at least in this geography lesson, is the area from Turkey to Hungary which includes Bulgaria, Slovenia, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, and Romania.  This area was ruled over the centuries by the Romans, The Byzantine Empire, The Turks, the Austro Hungarian Empire, and Russia before it became independent after WWI. 

We also had a guest artist on board who made icons in the orthodox tradition. We got an interesting explanation of the meaning of the various symbols and figures on the icons. I was surprised to learn that the icon designs have all been established by religious tradition; there is no “freestyle” icon art. We found one of St George and a Dragon to bring home.

Bulgarian House

Monday: We spent the day travelling through Bulgaria. We had lunch at someone’s home in a town called Arbanassi. We split into groups of ten to make it practical and each group was assigned a local language student. It provided a nice contrast to the grimier, Communist era real estate. And our local student guide was a star – fluent in four or five languages, was starting college in England in a few weeks. This house was in the higher rent district – a gated community with one of Bulgaria’s Italian League pro soccer stars for a neighbor. They served beef stew and a salad made from cabbage and carrots with some tomatoes and cucumbers. They also served wine and cheese which they made themselves. This is definitely a nice middle class life style by US standards.

In the afternoon we visited an unused Orthodox church and had a concert. There were 4 singers who sang Gregorian Chants which was the music in an Orthodox church. They never used organs or pianos for music, just people singing. All in all, an interesting day in what had been an obscure part of the world for me.