Incoherent Scribblings

Holiday at the Black Sea

Almost two months from now, A. will be conferring along the Black Sea in a little place called Sozopol, Bulgaria, “one of [Bulgaria's] most popular beach resorts. Preferred by people for its casual ambience and ancient atmosphere.” And guess what?! I will be going along!

When I studied in Paris, my roommate was Bulgarian. Her name was Déliana and she tried to persuade me to come home with her to Sofia over Christmas that year, but I opted to go to London and Amsterdam instead. At that time (1994) Bulgaria hadn’t been free from the Soviet Union for that long and honestly, I was a little wary of traveling there. However, after the Christmas break the pictures Déliana showed me from her home peaked my interest and before I went back to the States she began teaching me the Bulgarian alphabet and those basic language things like “hello,” “goodbye,” “please,” and “thank you.”

I never thought at that time I would ever visit Bulgaria. And so even though Déliana and I corresponded for about a year, eventually we lost touch and unfortunately, I have forgotten all the Bulgarian she taught me.

I love to travel and the idea of spending a lazy week along the cost of the Black Sea soaking up the June sun and exploring the ancient landscape while A. confers with his nerdy colleagues sounds like a little piece of Heaven to me.

Even though I suppose I better try and get a hold of an English-Bulgarian (or in an emergency a German-Bulgarian) phrase book before I go…