Patalenitsa festival/Sofia

Jen here. We performed in Patalenitsa, which our friend who has a daughter-in-law in Seattle informs us is the "Orange County" of Pazardzhik. There are nice properties and the mayor of Pazardzhik lives here (about 20 min. outside the center). It may be like Orange County as far as property values go, but I'm pretty sure there are no toilets like the one I experienced anywhere near Orange County!  We'll save you all the details, but as we neared the end of our trip, we were so happy to find restrooms with the basics: they flush, they're stocked with TP, there's soap, and a sink with running water. Any time we find one with all four, one of us shouts to the rest of the group, "It's a good one!"  

Here is where we performed, shortly after a giant thunderstorm. There were freshly fried doughnuts, 10 for 2 leva, which we devoured with powdered sugar before our performance.

It was such a thrill to perform for a small village -- everyone was gathered there. Smiling Bulgarian grandmothers, children, theater students visiting from England -- everyone was very welcoming. They seemed most pleased at our joint performance with the Pazardzhik Ensemble, Tzvetanka & Ivan. 

Our friend Sisi (Silvia) sang with her band, and Tzvetanka joined her on some duets.  The whole village joined in on one giant pravo, which I don't have a photo of because I was in it, too! 

Here are our friends from the Pazardzhik ensemble - sisters, who instead of being called Dolce & Gabbana, are jokingly referred to as Jordanche y Gergana, for their excellent fashion sense. 

At the end of the festival, we had dinner at a fancy hotel with a pool, and joked and laughed with our new friends in the Pazardzhik ensemble, amid clouds of cigarette smoke. The singer with the highest voice remarked, "If you smoke only at dinner, it'll make your voice higher!" If that were actually true, maybe we could all join the Pazardzhik ensemble! ;) 

We received wonderful gifts from Yanka, their director, but the most wonderful gift was sitting next to these powerful singers and learning from their vocal technique while learning songs together.  We're so grateful we got to work with them and hope to meet again soon! 

Next, we returned to Sofia. We did our final errands, like mailing postcards to our IndieGogo donors, and getting final souvenirs and sladolet (ice cream). 

We had a workshop with Binka Dobreva, who taught us some amazing Shope songs (all 3 sung at the same time!) 

We had the Last Supper, with snezhanka salad (also called Snow White salad, made with cucumbers, dill, onion & thick yogurt), lutenitsa (tomato & cheese sauce), bean salad, our final Shopska Salata, and grilled trout on the BBQ. I'm happy to report that I did indeed have Shopska salad every single day of our trip (14/14!) There were also chile relleno-esque stuffed peppers with egg & sirene cheese. So good! 

We were joined for dinner by the same musicians who played for us on our first night in Sofia, with the addition of Sasho on accordion, and Binka's lovely voice. 

Tzvetanka and Ivan had to leave for Burgas, so we were fortunate to have their friends take care of us on our last night in Bulgaria together.  Now, five of us are on our way back home with the Happiest Traveler. 

Many thanks to everyone who helped us get here, supported us from afar, and who await our return... Especially Scott, Dunes, Rik, Brian & Lydia, Rusty, Jon, David, Stuart, and Peter.