Sometime during the night, B did his regular bed swap and it was just as well he did!
Because a couple of hours later, he woke up and cried “I need a bucket” before being sick all over himself and our bed, poor little boy 🙁
I called for Ian, who had had to migrate into B’s bed as usual, and between us, we cleaned up the poor little boy and the bedding as best we could.
After we’d settled back down to bed, I couldn’t get back to sleep as I was wired and ready to grab the bucket (which was now firmly within reach by the side of the bed) at a nano-second’s notice!
But he fell back asleep, slept the rest of the night uneventfully and was totally fine the next morning 🙂
Which was a relief as I didn’t want him being ill whilst we had few facilities and resources to care for him, plus our visit to C and D’s would have to be postponed if he was poorly.
The next morning, when we got up I hand-washed the bedding and B’s pyjamas as best I could in the outside sink to get the worst of the sick off them, as C had kindly said we could bring some washing over and wash it in her machine, and as we had no spare bedding or nightwear, we needed to get those washed properly too.
We had breakfast then went for a short walk down the road and over the stream trying to find where D had told us HIS house was, whilst we waited for C and D to arrive and pick us up.
We found some beautiful flowers in a garden, and a huge walnut tree just down the road from our house, that we stopped to try and find some more windfalls beneath.
But we didn’t find D’s house!
The weather was stunningly beautiful again, sunny and very warm 🙂
We’d never been further north out of our village than the Town Hall in the square so we were looking forward to seeing the scenery out past there.
We weren’t disappointed!
We passed through typical Bulgarian towns and villages, and over a gorgeous river, which turned out to be the Ogosta River, a tributary of the famous Danube, which forms part of the border between Bulgaria in the north, and Romania.
C and D’s place turned out to be even more amazing in real life than all the photos in her weekly newsletters had shown!
They had a wonderful INTERNAL spiral staircase (something we’ve been discussing we need to get fitted in our place!), and I LOVED what they’d done with their kitchen, as it looked great!
Homely and traditional but with a clean modern décor too 🙂
The outbuildings were bursting with old bits of equipment and tools from the original owners and were a treasure trove of interesting bits and bobs to find a way to repurpose!
Seeing all their wonderful goodies made me feel quite disappointed that NOTHING had been left in our place!
Their garden was incredible too!
A lovely old paved area next to the house, with welcome dappled shade beneath the trees, and lots of interesting areas to explore within it; it was a child’s paradise!
C had kindly put together a little sandpit for B to play in whilst we were visiting, and so he spent lots of time with that, whilst the grown-ups sat in the warm Bulgarian sunshine chatting about anything and everything!
We had a wonderful lunch of sausage and bean stew (which would later form the inspiration for one of our own dinners in Bulgaria, and then several more back at home with some dried sausage we brought home with us), home-made bread, and the most delicious home-made chocolate cake!
They also very kindly let us have an extremely welcome shower in their wet room as we’d not been able to freshen up properly since staying in the Travelodge!
Whilst we showered, C even kindly hung all our washing on their line, and by the time we left it was all completely dry, as the weather was so sunny!
It was such a fabulous, relaxing day there, and once again, we felt so blessed to have been lucky enough to have made contact with them and become friends!
It was quite a wrench to have to leave.
They drove us back to our house, and we said our goodbyes with big hugs and a fair amount of sadness as we knew we wouldn’t see them again until next April.
After such a lovely, filling lunch we didn’t feel hungry so didn’t bother making any dinner, but gave B a few bits and bobs to tide him over the night, as he’d not eaten much of the lunch.
Then we got him to bed and spent the rest of the evening just sitting on the balcony enjoying the warm, gentle evening shower; the first rain we had ever seen in Bulgaria and the first rain that had apparently fallen in at least 7 weeks! It didn’t last long, but even rain is a novelty when you’re in a new country so is to be enjoyed!
We didn’t take many photos today… 🙁
