From Iskar to Vratsa...

So after weeks working and studying in Iskar, we finally took the trip we'd all been waiting for to our HUB site in Vratsa for site announcements. Our stay there was longer than usual as we stayed for 4 nights at a hotel off the main square in order to meet our new counterparts from our permanent sites and attend conferences with them. After weeks of teaching English, Bulgarian classes and countless meals and 'Na Gosti's' with our host families, the time had finally arrived when we would be told where we would live and work for the next two years. Our time in Vratsa was great! I am very happy with my permant site and my new counterpart. Overall, I couldn't be happier about spending the next two years working in Shumen, Bulgaria. I have included some pictures from our time in Vratsa over a few days and have included some descriptive captions. Enjoy!

One awesome look at Iskar my friend Chris took with his panoramic camera.

The school I worked at in Iskar....Im there right now posting this, ha. Our study room is on the top floor, above the entrance.



The flag of Vratsa, Bulgaria and the EU. Almost all Bulgarian cities display them in this way.



This is the one of the main squares (ploshtad) in Vratsa. This is actually taken from my hotel room window...beautiful!

A look down on the same square.

Some of the nicer buildings in the Vratsa city center.

One of the old towers of the city with the building we will take our Peace Corps oath in within the next two weeks.

The statue of poet and revolutionary Hristo Botev (1848–76) in the same square as the hotel. In May 1876, Botev entered Ottoman-occupied Bulgaria at the head of a band of patriot exiles. He and all his followers perished, having made their last stand on Mount Okolchitsa, just outside Vratsa.

The statue again...

...and yet again.

there is a 20-30 minute hike up one of the mountains which has a statue and viewpoint after a while. These next few pictures are from there, looking around Vratsa in various directions.

That's our hotel on the square in the center of this pic. 

Some of us at the viewpoint together. There I am!

This is how they announced our placement- a huge map of Bulgaria on the floor. Each paper represents one volunteer's location. Doesn't everyone look curious, lining the border?!

So I hate this picture, but there I am after I was told I would be going to Shumen to teach at a Technical High School. I couldn't be happier!  Man I needed a haircut-done and done.

Here are Chris, Anna and Elena(our Bulgarian teacher) from Iskar. In my opinion, we have the best group, haha. You can see where Chris and Anna are headed as well.

To celebrate, we found this 'secret bar' on the top of a building in Vratsa. We were the only ones there and I have no idea why because it seriously has one of the best views from a bar I've ever seen. The guy sitting on the ledge is my good friend Adam from the Iskar satellite group.

View from the bar.

View from the bar.

That night, some of us went the museums because all museums around Bulgaria were free of charge-just like 'First Thursdays' in Seattle. At the Ethnographic museum, there was a special show of fire dancers and quasi-pagan dancing from Bulgaria that was really cool.

The fire dancers

Just in case you were wondering, here is what some traditional Bulgarian dress looks like-courtesy of the museum.

Bulgarian wood carving-about 7 or 8 feet tall.

The last morning in Vratsa, I woke to this sunset and was off to Shumen with my counterpart for a permanent site visit.  

 To see pictures of what happened after that, Shumen and back in Iskar when we returned, stay tuned...