Weekly Wrap-Up
Arriving To Our Volunteer Job In Bulgaria
My week in photos — Week 28 — September 22–28, 2022
Our last day in Sevlievo, Bulgaria had us wandering around a large park with our new friend George. He showed us the local ‘love tree’ and we couldn’t help but get our picture taken under it as you can see above.
We also couldn't help but buy a beer from the park vending machine while we decided to sit on a bench and rest for a while. This is certainly NOT something we would be able to do in Canada!
The next morning we hopped on the bus and headed off toward Varna. We first had to take a bus back to Veliko Turnovo, where we had visited the week before, then caught the 3-hour train to Varna. It was a beautiful trip and we passed mountains, valleys, and even vast farm fields. It looked like most of what they were growing was sunflowers!
We were excited when we caught sight of a blue body of water in the distance. We were getting close to the Black Sea!
We had reserved a private room in the Yoho Hostel for just one night on booking.com because our host would be picking us up the following day to bring us to our volunteer job. We had actually stayed at the hostel back in 2015 during our previous visit to Varna, so we found some familiarity with it when we arrived.
We chatted with the owner of the hostel and we might be painting some artwork for her in October!
As it was later in the evening, we didn’t do much but make some dinner and go to bed, but we had plans to get out and explore the following morning before our host came to get us mid-day. We were eager to get down to the Varna beach and to see the Black Sea once again as we had done almost 7 years ago.
We marveled at the beautiful and colorful buildings along the way and took in the revelry of the locals that were just starting their days off.
We made our way down to the beach and were excited to take our shoes off and dip our feet in the Black Sea again. The air was cool but the sun was shining strong, promising a glorious September day. While we were wearing our jackets, others were already bikini-clad and lounging in the sun.
We truly have lost our tough Canadian shells.
As promised, our host picked us up and drove us the 20km back to her house in the countryside. We are in a very small village, with a population of around 200, which suits us just fine. The peace and quiet out here is wonderful and at night all we can hear is the sounds of crickets and the sharp yapping of coyotes in the distance.
Okay, well maybe there is the odd dog bark here and there as well.
For weeks now I have been announcing that we would be volunteering on a farm in Bulgaria. Now that we have reached it, we can see that it is certainly not a farm, per se, but it does have a lot of fruit trees and some overgrowth that certainly needs tending to.
Our landscaping and gardening experience is certainly coming in handy already.
But before we got started in the garden, and on our first full day here, our host told us that she wanted to make a traditional sauce called Lutenitsa. We were thrilled to take part in this process and to learn how Bulgarians have been making this recipe for centuries. We even cooked it all on the fire outside! You can read more about that process here:
On Monday we finally got busy out in the apple orchard. She led us down through some overgrown bushes to a place where we could hardly see the fruit trees. We understood that we needed to pick the apples, but first, we had to clear the undergrowth to get to them. We did this for the first 3 or 4 trees that we could see, only to realize that there were more trees further down the hill.
We estimate that we picked between 150–200 kilos of apples on that first day.
Most of the apples are in excellent shape and will be sent off on Monday to be made into apple juice at a local apple pressing facility. We look forward to checking out that process.
There are some real beauties in the mix. In fact, I don’t know if I have never seen such perfect apples.
On Tuesday the real work began as we continued to clear more brush under the trees heading down the hill. We were amazed to find about 6 more apple trees that all have lots of fruit on them as well! The focus, however, on this area is to beat back a clematis vine that has been growing up from the valley and has been engulfing everything in its sight.
This orchard will be our focus for the next week at least as we will also be pruning the apple trees and taking down a few invasive trees that are growing amongst them.
On Wednesday our host declared that it was time for a beach day and we all headed off in her car. She took us to an area of beach north of Varna that is less busy than the one in the city. She told us to bring our bathing suits as she was convinced that we would want to swim, but I don’t think she realizes quite how wimpy we are when it comes to cold water these days.
Needless to say, we didn’t swim, but we enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and the peaceful vibe of the beach.
I couldn’t help but play with the shells and took many photos of them that I will share in a separate post at some point. Besides the cold water, there were also a few jellyfish floating in the sea, so we really weren’t into going in the water for a few reasons.
The plan is to stay here for 2–3 weeks to help them with various projects around the property. They certainly can use our help as much of the yard is very overgrown. The family is really nice and Marina, our primary host, is an amazing cook and has spoiled us rotten with her culinary delights. It’s been so nice to eat such good home-cooked food. It’s been a while since we have eaten so well on such a consistent basis.
For those curious, this arrangement was made through a website called HelpX. People can post ‘job’ listings for volunteers and volunteers sign up for the positions to help. We are getting free accommodation and food in exchange for about 4 hours of work per day. It’s a great arrangement and a wonderful way to travel as you get to learn about the local cultures up close and firsthand.
We also really enjoy doing things like this because we feel as though we are giving back to the countries that host us, plus we find purpose in helping others to get things accomplished that they otherwise would have a really hard time doing. It is immensely rewarding to see how much they appreciate all that we are doing for them.
Plus, we are getting our gardening on, which always makes us happy!
I’ll leave you with this stunning sunrise photo that I captured off of the deck outside our bedroom on our second morning. I will take this as a sign of good things to come while we stay here for the next few weeks:)
Hope everyone has a great week!
xo Jill
Thanks so much for joining me in my week in photos. Dennett started this challenge in her publication Weeds & Wildflowers during the beginnings of the pandemic, and it has since grown to include many authors. Check out the amazing writing and photography of Anne | Erika | Jane | Eileen | Juan | David | Mia | Susan | LensAfield | Kim | Barbara | Diana | Barb | Sandra | Shruthi | Ellie | Pene | Olive | Gustavo | Penny | Scott | Sasha | Tracy | Lisa | June | K. Barrett | Ivy | Shell and of course our host Dennett.
If you want to read about my past weeks, I have put all of my weeks in photos into their own list:
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