This is another street scene. The upper part of the town is hilly.
This is the street that Shirley lives on but her house is not visible in this picture.
Modern mural outside the local church.
This is a restored church from the 12th century built of brick. Note the 12-side cupola on top. The building is quite small. Even today many Orthodox churches are not large although certainly larger than this. Churches do not have to be as large because there are no pews. Everyone stands during the service, except there are a couple benches to the side for older people who cannot stand that long. The service may last more than two hours while everyone stands. Bulgarians are a religious people but church attendence is low.
An older home, not unusual in size. Houses often have multi-generational families.
White Storks are protected and welcome in town. In this town they frequently build very large nests on top of telephone poles. In other towns they build nests on the roof of churches or other buildings. Therre are nests close to my residence and to Shirley's. We can hear the storks clacking their bills which is one way that they communicate. This species of stork is the one that is reported to bring babies. Shirley says that she is not worried.
In Bulgarian, stores are called magazines. In small towns like ours the food store are quite small sometimes not much larger than an American living room. Shirley's host family is here shopping for a Sunday picnic.
A most honored member of the family is the baba (grandmother). Here in Shirley's yard is her family's baba (on the right) being visited by other babas from the neighborhood. Visiting is a very important activity in Bulgaria.
Welcome to our home town. We'll post more pictures soon.
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