Ellis and Jodie's Bulgarian Adventure

For various reasons, Ellis and I decided to stay in Bulgaria this year for Passover. This would be the first time in our lives that we didn’t celebrate the holiday with family, and we had to make a decision as to where we wanted to be for the Seder. After much thought, we decided to go to the communal Seder at the Jewish Community Center, and share a table with friends. As a result, I also found myself without any preparations to make for the holiday. We can’t get special food here, and I don’t have a separate set of dishes (in any case, there’s absolutely no room for such a thing in my small kitchen), so we decided to make the best with what we have. I went to the Synagogue last week to buy matzo, which turned out to be very different than what we are used to – narrower and rectangular in shape, instead of square. I also had friends bring me matzo meal and matzo ball mix from Israel – this way I could make our traditional popovers, and of course, matzo ball soup. With no preparations ...

Cherny Vrah is the name of one of Sofia's main streets in our area of the city. Jodie travels to work on it, and I cross it every day as well. The street used to be very colorful, with trams clanging their bells as they passed in both directions, and people crowding the many small flower stores, fresh fish shops, and vegetable stands on both sides. And it was usually quite congested with traffic. Here is a picture of how we first saw Cherny Vrah . And this is what the street looks like now: The street is undergoing major repair work as part of the expansion of Sofia's Metro system. Every day there are new obstacles and obstructions on the street. Many of the small shops have been demolished in preparations for a Metro station, and the trams no longer pass by. The sidewalks have disappeared, and in some places you can't even see the narrow street due to tall barriers in front of the huge construction sites. If there is any good news from this endless project it seems to be t...

We have mentioned the problem of Sofia's stray dogs before. This is the band of dogs that camp out in the woods near Tokuda Hospital.

Pogacha is a traditional, round bread which is used in many Bulgarian ceremonies and celebrations. This was also the name for the celebration that we were invited to by one of my colleagues, Luca, and his wife Iva, in honor of the birth of their son, Nicola. Although the customs surrounding the birth of a baby had their origins many centuries ago, and most of them have not survived, there are still some customs which have made it to modern times and are generally followed by all women after giving birth. When a baby is born, the baby is not taken out of the house for a period of 40 days. During this time, only close family members are allowed to visit and to see the baby. In ancient times, this was due to the fact that a woman was considered “unclean” and as a result, she and her baby were at great risk from evil spirits. Today, it is more of a feeling of protecting the baby from germs and keeping him safe. At the end of the 40 days, there is a celebration, which only the women family...

It sounds like something we're familiar with from Israel. A major construction project in central Sofia has ground to a halt because of an unexpected archaeological discovery. Workers digging the city's second metro line came across remains of a church with preserved murals dating back to the 12th century, and remains of early medieval buildings dating to the 5th-6th century. Several medieval graves have been discovered near the church. The Culture Minister wants to preserve the finds, which may necessitate their being moved to a museum, or the rerouting of the metro line to an even deeper tunnel. According to news agency Novinite.com ,"Downtown Sofia is filled with archaeological sites from the Antiquity and the Middle Ages; Sofia Architect Petar Dikov has revealed a plan to restore the Roman streets and structures of Sofia, known in Roman times as Serdika, in order to create an open-air tourist attraction."

Today on her ride home from work, Jodie was talking on the phone in English. After she hung up, the taxi driver asked her where she was from, and Jodie replied, "Israel." "Oh, I'm Palestinian," he said. "From Jordan." "I've been to Jordan," Jodie said. "I really liked visiting Petra." The Palestinian driver told Jodie that he had come to Bulgaria to study 30 years ago. He had studied chemical engineering and ended up staying, and today he drove a taxi. Jodie and the taxi driver agreed on something right away. Politics gets in the way of everything.

We just returned from Turkey, and the magnetic memories of our trip have found their places on our crowded refrigerator. All the trips of our Bulgarian experience are now included on the refrigerator. The problem is that it's not a big refrigerator, and with what's planned for the coming year, it is soon going to be covered from top to bottom.

Oh, this is good! Bulgarian Meatball Soup Ingredients (8 servings) 1 lb Ground beef 6 tb Rice 1 ts Paprika 1 ts Dried savory Salt, pepper Flour 6 c Water 2 Beef bouillon cubes 1/2 Bunch green onions; sliced 1 Green bell pepper; chopped 2 Carrots;peeled,sliced thin 3 Tomatoes; peeled & chopped 1 Sm. yellow chiles, split * 1/2 Bunch parsley; minced 1 Egg 1 Lemon (Juice only) Instructions *Note: Remove most of the seeds from the chiles. Combine beef, rice, paprika and savory. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix lightly but thoroughly. Form into 1-inch balls, then roll in flour. Combine water, bouillon cubes, 1 tablespoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, green onions, green pepper, carrots and tomatoes in large kettle. Cover, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. Add meatballs, cover and bring to boil again. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Add chiles and simmer, covered, 40 minutes or until rice is cooked. Add parsley during last 5 minutes of cooking time. Taste and add m...

On one of our walks at night through the streets of Istanbul, not far from our hotel, we passed a shoeshine man, carrying the tools of his trade as he headed home at the end of the day. As he turned the corner, a brush fell off his kit and landed on the sidewalk pavement. I picked it up and called out to the man, and he came back to claim his brush. The man was so thankful and quickly set down his kit on the sidewalk and insisted on giving me a shoeshine in expression of his gratitude for my returning his brush. As it was raining, there was no point in getting a shoeshine, so I turned my back and pulled Jodie along as we headed up the street. Jodie said that I had caused the man to lose face, as I hadn't returned the favor, and for quite some time that night I felt bad about leaving the shoeshine man in the rain, calling out after me. But awhile later, when we were nearing our hotel, we passed another shoeshine man heading home for the night. As he turned the corner, a brush fell o...

We will have very fond memories of our visit to Istanbul, and we plan to come back some day and see the rest of the city. Here are some varied pictures of the sights we saw. The tram was very modern and comfortable.

On our final night in Istanbul we went out to a folklore dinner. A car picked us up at the hotel and brought us to a huge hall, where at least 600 people gathered for dinner and the show. We had a table by ourselves, right next to the stage. The food itself wasn't anything spectacular, and most of the other diners were tourists. And then the show began. Bring on the bellydancers! When the performances ended, many of the guests started dancing on the stage to the beat of the Turkish music. It seemed like a party of an Israeli teachers' association, so we decided to call it a night.

After visiting the old palaces of Istanbul, we headed for the more modern sections of the city. We took the funikular, an underground train similar to the Carmelit in Haifa, up under the hillside to Taksim for a walk along crowded Istiklal Caddesi Street. There were very modern shops along the street, and at least four Starbucks coffeeshops along its length. A special streetcar clanged its bell as it made its way between the many people. We tried to find Istanbul's biggest synagogue, located at the far end of the street, but by that point we were very tired from all our walking, so instead we headed down a second funikular train and caught the tram back to our hotel.

We took the tram to Kabatas Station and walked from there along the pier to Dolmabahce Palace , home of the last Turkish sultans. Domabahce Palace was built between the years 1834-1856 by the 31st sultan, Sultan Abdulmecid. As compared to Topkapi Palace, this one was very European, with elements of Baroque, Rococo and Neo-Classic traditions combined with Ottoman traditional art and culture. The palace was huge, and we took two guided tours inside through some of the 285 rooms, 44 halls and 6 hamams. Photography was not allowed inside. The harem of this palace was a disappointment, because it was not nearly as splendid as the official rooms and halls used by the sultan for entertaining official guests and holding state ceremonies. The Palace was home to the last six sultans until the abolishment of the Caliphate in 1924. In that year, ownership of the palace was transferred to the new republic of Turkey. It became the summer presidential home of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who enacted some o...

The famous Galata Bridge spans the Golden Horn, linking two parts of Istanbul, the old and the modern. It is very near the bustling Spice Bazaar. All along the length of the bridge there were people fishing. We crossed the bridge by tram the day after our visit by foot. The lower level of the bridge is full of fish restaurants, and like the over-friendly salesmen in the markets, the waiters tried to fish you in as their customers. We could easily have had a fish sandwich for 4 Turkish Lire, but ended up in a very nice restaurant for a good fish lunch. This is very appropriate = drinking Turkish coffee in Turkey. We enjoyed the meal, looking out at the busy port, filled with ferries, fishing boats and ocean going ships. This is the crowded passageway under the street we went through on our way back to the hotel.

For tourists, Istanbul's main attractions are its markets, and on Saturday we visited both the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar (also known as the Egyptian Bazaar). Everything was walking distance, but we're talking about quite a bit of walking. Pictured below are Jodie and a Kurdish carpet salesman. A word about the salesmen = the Turks are very, very agressive, and over-friendly. They can start an innocent conversation with you, only with the intention of getting you to buy something. If we had wanted to buy a carpet, no doubt this Kurdish man would have been the one to sell us something, as he went out of his way to introduce us to his entire family in a short 10 minutes. The best thing to do is just ignore those who try to accost you. Another thing about the salesmen and street hawkers, even though Jodie and I don't look at all Israeli, we were frequently approached in Hebrew, and this amused us. Istanbul has seen many Israeli tourists in the past, so perhaps all touri...