2:16pm

It's a beautiful summer day in Belbovo, Bulgaria. We went into Elena this morning for a little museum run. Unfortunately, they assume only Bulgarians will want to visit them, and there's no English. That kinda kills the purpose of going to museums I guess. Lots of old pictures, guns, paintings, etc., but no idea how they fit into the story of this picturesque little town.

The find of the day was an "underground" church, the Church of St. Nicholas. It was built during the time of Turkish oppression and designed to look like a barn or something. When you descend into the simple looking shell, you're breath is taken away as a small chapel opens before you covered (every square inch) in beautiful murals depicting the life of
Jesus and other New Testament stories. I'm not kidding when I say we felt the same awe we felt when walking into the Sistine Chapel! You could have spend hours studying mural after mural. And we're the only ones in there :-). Gotta love it. I promise you it won't be like that at the Sistine next week! There's an old piano inside and Tiana plays one or two haunting tunes. It was a surreal moment. We enter the larger church beside this one and there is something happening, but we are welcomed to observe. Although it is larger, it doesn't hold a candle to the small secret church.

The kids love driving around here. We've hired a little diesel van and dad drives like the Bulgarians (when in Rome...) on their tight little roads filled with potholes. It's always an adventure. Maybe later we'll try to get closer to the 1,000 meter mountains on the horizon and find a picturesque viewpoint.

Enjoying reading Bran's "Dracula" while lounging beside the pool. We visited the castle in Transylvania where Bran seems to have been inspired to write the novel, so it's easy to imagine the setting: massive gothic palace, jagged mountain picks, and the howling of wolves.

9:42pm

Somehow I got totally sun burnt today and it just sort of sneaked up on me. Considering today was our first real day of laying around in the sun, I guess I should have seen it coming. Levi, Jordyn and I took a walk around the town as well, snapping photos everywhere. An old gnarly man over there, a lady herding a bunch of turkeys, a old truck that looks like it saw action in WW2 (and still in use), gorgeous flowers and delapidated buildings side by side. Every corner has a picture that belongs in National Geographic.

And while we're walking, I just kept on burning. Man, am I hot right now.

Around 3pm we decided to go for a drive towards the mountains and found ourselves way out in the middle of nowhere beside a beautiful mountain stream. We got out and marveled at the unique rock formations, like layers of shale stacked vertically and the water just running right over the top. Everybody's always on the lookout for the big wild boar, but
haven't seen one yet.

Conversations around supper seemed to center around what we missed most about home. For me, it's the routine, the schedule (believe it or not), and the geographical location of "home". Luke misses his cowboy hat (you heard me right). Levi misses his clean room, and I'm like, "clean?!". Tiana misses EVERYTHING, Jordyn the horses. Sara misses Sushi :-).

However you put it, we like home! There IS something to be said though about having your whole family on a trip like this. Home kinda goes with you wherever you are, with all the fixin's (including sibling conflict). Excuse me while I do conflict resolution between Jordyn and Luke :-).