I just can't put this off any more.
It was an incredibly hard visit. As usual, Dido wanted to be with Jim more for the morning visit, but I did get some great snuggles in, too. The director met with us before they brought him down, assured us that they will continue to take good care of him, and feed him the supplemental food that we have provided. We bought enough for 101 days, so we have a tangible goal to shoot for to get back here BEFORE he runs out of it. I don't know if it is possible, but we are sure going to be putting all effort into making it happen!
Toni left after our meeting with the director to head back to Sofia, but we stayed for our entire visit plus with him. They brought us his lunch so we go to feed him again before we left. He was very tired by the end of lunch, and we simply could not delay any further. (The social worker popped her head in the door asking if everything was ok, if we were ready to take him back to his room. NO, we are not ready, but we knew we needed to...sometimes I HATE being a grown up.)
We took a taxi to the train station then walked to the beach. Jim wanted to get in the Black Sea one more time. I'm not a sand lover, so we needed to find someplace that I could sit enjoying a Coke-Lite while he swam. That place turned out to be 2-3 km down the road. We took a taxi back to the train station, and that driver turned out to be a gem...a former professional fisherman, had never "seen a real, live American!" and had some great suggestions for visiting while in Bulgaria. He refused most of the tip that Jim tried to give him!
We wandered the train station in search of edible food to bring with us on the train, then tried to board. We were turned away, although there were other people, a group of young people, boarding our car. We were concerned that we would have no place to put our luggage, but the person (someone who worked for the train..I"m not sure of her title) INSISTED that we wait. Finally, she showed us to another car, not our assigned car or seats. We followed her. It seems that she put the entire large group of young people in one car, and put us in another car, presumably a much quieter car. Thank you, "train lady".
The train ride was fine...the window in our compartment kept floating up, but if we held it down, we got plenty of fresh air. I like train travel. The rocking sends me to sleep, and the seats are MUCH more comfortable than airline travel.
Toni had arranged for an English speaking driver to meet us at the train station and take us to the hotel. He works for the hotel, and when he is not a driver (Most of the time, I assume), he is the hotel's IT manager. He was called in when we could not use the internet on our floor!
Quiet evening of dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was delish, skyping with the kids, and bedtime.
This morning, we were up for a hotel breakfast then met the driver to go to the cemetery where Jordan/Jacob/Henry is buried. I'm still processing that. His grave has been visited recently.
We did some tourist stuff in Shumen, and now will get an early bedtime for a 9 am train to Sofia, then 3 hour drive to Blagoevgrad.
Check with Jim's blog for photos/videos.
Mary
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