Bulgaria to the ship

The first morning, after breakfast and our first lecture (and our lecturer was great!), we had walking tours of Sofia. I'd been over this area already on my own, but now I had a local guide who could tell me everything. And really, EVERYTHING! This guide was amazing; people in the group talked about him for days, some telling me he was the best guide they've ever had. We hit it off and he does some work in the States too, so hopefully I'll see him next spring. 

I know my notes are incomplete, but Bulgaria is about the same size, geographically, as the state of Tennessee. The population of the country is 7.3 million, and Sofia has about 1.5 million people. Sofia is also a triangle of religious tolerance, with mosques, Cathedrals, churches, and synagogues. The oldest evidence of humans in Europe is found in caves in France and Bulgaria. 

The archaeological museum I visited? The building originally was a Turkish bath. The Ethnographic Museum/National Gallery of Art? That was the National Royal Palace. The "yellow brick road" outside and down the street? Yellow was the color of the Hapsburgs. Buildings of the royal Hapsburgs were painted yellow under King Ferdinand. And dirt from his wife's home of Vienna was brought to Sofia and made into bricks, then painted Hapsburg yellow, so that she could walk on her native soil. The basilica was the Basilica of St. Sofia, and Hagia Sophia is named after it. And the cathedral of St. Aleksander is the 2nd largest in the Baltics. 

We had free time in the afternoon, and the lecturer and I had to deal with table hosting arrangements, but I found a local artisan shop and had a wonderful lunch before then. Turns out, the setup on the ship wouldn't accommodate our plans so we had to do a quick rethink, and realized that we'd have to use every single evening and some lunches in order to host everyone in the group. Wow.

One of the local guides had a lecture that evening, then we had a group dinner at a traditional place in the hills outside the city, which included some traditional folk dances. In addition to packing, I had invitations to write and some other work to do, so another night of poor sleep. 

In the morning, we were off to Vidin, an old town along the Danube, where we would pick up the ship. Our guides were with us on the buses, which was terrific. We had natural history lessons along the way, where I learned that Bulgaria and Spain have the largest migratory bird flyways in Europe and Bulgaria has some of the largest bird sanctuaries, in part owing to its location on the Black Sea. The black stork is one of its signature birds, and is very prevalent in traditional stories. 40% of Bulgaria is natural forest, a very high figure for this part of Europe. Fossil fuel consumption has fallen dramatically in the last few years and solar power has grown exponentially. Yes, I did ask for some this. ;)

We stopped for lunch in Belogradchik, a lovely mountain town with spectacular views of the Balkan Mountains and their sandstone/red conglomerate anticlines that have been eroded into fantastic shapes. Think of the American West, places like Arches and the Garden of the Gods. 

Then we arrived in Vidin. The 14th century church featured beautiful frescos, and was opened just for us. The fortress was originally Roman, then expanded by the Bulgarians and then again by the Ottomans, but 85% of it dates to about 1000 AD. I love old forts like this.

Baba Vida Fortress in Vidin.

And a lovely rose garden outside. Who knew, but 85% of the world's rose oil comes from Bulgaria! Famous perfumes, like Chanel No 5, use it, as does NASA for its low and high temperature tolerance. One liter of rose oil requires 6.5 million metric pounds of hand-picked white or 3.5 million metric pounds of red petals. Whew!

And then we said goodbye to our guides and went to meet our luggage at the ship. I'd heard this ship was amazing, with a wonderful and accommodating crew. I had no idea....

 The Amadeus Silver at dock, waiting for us to board. My first river cruise!!

 The Panorama lounge, where each day we would have briefings for the next day's activities and where all our lectures would be held. The hospitality table for the tour groups was here too, as was the bar and the dance floor. It was a wonderful gathering space.

 'My' table. This table for (usually) eight was where we hosted dinner every evening and some lunches. It was a cozy spot at the back of the dining room and felt very special.

 The main dining room. See our table all the way in the back by the purple wall? 

 Around this central section is where breakfast was every morning, and any buffet items for lunches and some dinners. I LOVED the Gaudí-esque wall.

The sun deck had this fabulous chess board. I never had time to play, but assume I could have found someone....

 There also was shuffleboard, or something like that. I walked around the deck, and there was a small gym on board too.

My cabin. Look at that window! I'd been 'upgraded' - we'd had a couple of late cancellations and so I suspect I benefitted from that. No complaints! I would sit by the window and write dinner invitations; sometimes the passing water would catch my glance and make me dizzy. I woke up one morning and moved the curtains to find us docked against another ship and saw someone reading in bed! But most days it was so calm and serene and beautiful.

Despite the crazy schedule, our late arrival to the ship, and short notice to our guests, we had a terrific first group for dinner. What a wonderful way to start off! After dinner, the tour directors hosted a short meeting for all the tour staff, so the lecturer and I and the other group hosts could also meet (there were hosts from two of the university groups that were also on the tour). Now that we were on the water, I was looking forward to sleeping well.