Valencia art and architecture

As promised, here is the next post.  Lest you get sick of reading my words, I'll just put in the pics. 

Thanksgiving in Europe

As most of you know, we were fortunate enough to find very cheap plane tickets for a direct flight from Sofia to Valencia, Spain for Thanksgiving.  We chose to spend two nights in Valencia and two nights in Madrid.  It was an amazing trip, filled with great food, beautiful art, fresh ocean air, fun city lights, and I have 180 photos to show for it!  I'm going to blog this in multiple posts.  This first one, appropriately, is all about the food.  

Horchata de chufas, the Spanish drink made of ground tigernuts, water, vanilla, and sugar, was invented in Valencia.  (There is a Mexican version in the US made of rice milk...also good, but Spainish is better.)  My personal goal was to consume as much horchata as possible while in town...as you can see, I found one as big as my head, and practically floated away drinking it!

               

Also invented in Valencia, is Paella Valenciana.  Unlike the paella most of us know, made with seafood, this one has chicken, rabbit, white and green beans.  It was one of the most delicious meals I have ever eaten.  (Thank you Samantha Brown for the restaurant suggestion.)

In honor of Sharon's chestnut stuffing, I indulged in chestnuts on the street on Thanksgiving!

Not to be upstaged by the horchata, Spain takes great pride in their hot chocolate.  It's typically served with churros; the chocolate is so rich, I think adding the fried dough is a bit excessive (though that didn't stop me from ordering them - twice!)

Several meals were comprised entirely of tapas.  At 1.50 or 1.80 each, we were able to sample nearly all of these tasty treats.
     

Other delicious Spanish desserts!


Of course, we went to the Nespresso bar and enjoyed complimentary coffee after Greg made a purchase to restock his personal supply.

And finally, in the lovely land of oranges, we enjoyed fresh squeezed juego del naranajas!

Gunshots on campus

Can you guess one of the many joys of returning to Bulgaria after an incredible Thanksgiving weekend in Spain? If you read the title of this post you know...the gunshots! Yup, when you share your campus with the military police, one of the benefits is the sound of shooting randomly during classes. Mostly we ignore it, although sometimes it does sound like cannon fire or a full-out assault. Fear not, we're safe.

As soon as I get home I promise to start loading up pictures from Valencia and Madrid!

Earthquake

4.0 quake hit about about 9km south of us last night, followed by a 3.5 that hit right underneath us at 7am.  The buildings shook, but there was no damage that I can see.  Always an adventure...

TV Superstars!

Yes indeed, we were live on Bulgarian TV.  I'm trying to figure out how to cut the file to put in on youtube for all of you to view, but until then, here are a couple of still images to enjoy.  You should know that both Alanna and Andy's faces were on as well, since the game was about matching photos of our relatives to us.  And, we had to speak in Bulgarian!  We have now exceeded our 15 minutes of fame in this 30 minute show and as you can see...I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille!

          

      

    

      

Notice Alanna's picture on our podiums!

"Slumming Chinese," 007, and best buds

What do you get when you combine half a dozen teachers, a long stretch of school with no vacation but lots of stress, and an excuse to go out. Yup, the midnight showing, on a Thursday, to see the James Bond premiere! Brett, Betsy, John, Tom, Greg and I all stayed up way too late, but it was totally worth it. It's good to have friends to be silly with...

Prior to the film, Tom, John and Greg went go-carting again. This time I sat out and acted as the videographer. They were fairly evenly matched at various points during the 15 minute race...until the guy in the black leather jacket with the long hair got on the course. He was really good. When all was said and done, Greg claims he's the winner, Junior and John claim otherwise.

This is pretty typical of the boys when they get together. It's sometimes hard to be the only girl...but mostly they are hilarious! The other night we stopped by Junior's place to drop off his movie ticket. We sort of forced our way in (he tends to keep us talking at the door) and now we know why. Ahhh...to be a 23 year old bachelor!

When the race was finished we headed to what we refer to as "slummin' Chinese." This Chinese restaurant is a dive, hidden at the end of an alley not far from our apartments. We happened upon it while walking one night and thought we had to try it. It was a highly entertaining meal!

Tonight, the gang is together again for our weekly Friday night cards. Betsy got her package of goodies from home, as did I - thank you Alanna, so I'm sure there will be tasty baked treats, as there always are. We may even learn a new game tonight...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN!!!

I know I'm a couple of days late...got distracted by Halloween, elections, and other Bulgarian goings on...but yay for Kevin's birthday!  Hope it was fantastic and may this year (and decade) be the best ever!

Sofia Images

I am so glad it's November!  We are still having fantastic weather, and we're all enjoying it while it lasts.  This weekend we got outside for some go-cart racing...we are lucky enough to have a course within walking distance (if you don't mind walking for 45 minutes, but it's only a 5 leva taxi ride if you do.)  We raced cars that have no speed control, and as you can imagine, there were some crashes - mostly caused by me!  It was so much fun, though I have to admit, I'm a little sore today.

                  Yes, Tom won...

We had fabulous STEAK dinners at our favorite local restaurant, Spaghetti Factory, which is literally in the mall behind our apartment building.  And we played cards, catchphrase, and mafia with our friends (and neighbors) Brett and Betsy (who always generously host cards), Tom, and John.  All in all, a really fun Saturday.

Today, was much quieter, involved getting caught up on some tv (we are now officially hooked on Gossip Girls!  Don't make fun till you give it a try - it's surprisingly good!), and a lot of walking.  Greg and I wandered downtown after lunch and took some funny photos, then John and I wandered around our neighborhood tonight enjoying the warm evening while Greg got some work done.  Quiet weekends are so great!  Good thing we had one because this week is shaping up to be a doozy...James Bond opens Thursday night when it looks like we'll have a group outing full of fun and then we're off on Saturday at 4AM to Vienna for the weekend!  Should be a blast!

Mall of Sofia - pretty modern building, right?

Standing in the food court on the 3rd floor of the mall, this is the view:

  Looks a bit like a war torn nation...

Finally, we happened upon Sofia's version of the Hard Rock Cafe: