The travelling Hildebrands, after a wonderful visit to Bulgaria, have returned to their apartment in sunny Abu Dhabi. I tried several times to blog while in Sofia, to no avail. The blog page kept coming up in Bulgarian and no one was able to help me sign in.(although I have figured out the Arabic sign in page...Bulgarian was not working for me. :))
Our days with the Fords were filled with laughter, adventures, stories, good food and more laughter.
All 5 Fords met us at the airport on Thurs. evening. We headed to their cozy home of the last 3 1/2 years for Pat's delicious spaghetti and lots of talking and catching up. Austin graciously gave up his bedroom to us...and all 10 of us squeezed together for the next 7 days. It was truly a testimony to our family connections...the Fordebrands or the Hildefords... One shower...10 people..no problem..:) The washer and dryer pretty much ran nonstop..as did the dishwasher...but nobody cared.:)
During our visit we toured Sofia, Ryan and Sallie visited the boys' school(where Darren is headmaster), experienced grocery shopping a couple of times, had coffee at Starbucks, went to the movies, attended a Bulgarian wedding at their home church, made some new friends and saw some old friends from our time in Michigan, and generally had a blast.
Perhaps the highlights...of which there are many...was the trip thru the countryside to see Borovets, the ski resort..playing in the snow..with beautiful medieval forests all around us..eating outside in the crisp air..and laughing at the huge icicles that the kids were grabbing from the eaves. Or maybe it was visiting with Pat and Darren's landlords who live on the top floor of the building..Marin and Borianna..and laughing with them...mostly at their pet pigeon, Google, that swooped down and landed on Mike's shoulder...( I kid you not...). Or perhaps is was the evening we all were hanging out in the living room playing Signs and laughing... and then there were the great homemade biscuits Pat made, or her tortillas and salsa..and her pancakes made from scratch..Yep...all those are highlights. :)
I could go on and on..but I think that's all for now. And Darren loved his camelhead key holder...Ok, I'll stop.
Sallie summed it up best when she looked at me on Thursday afternoon while we were shoving things in our suitcases...and said, "Mom, it doesn't feel like we're heading home..it feels like we're leaving it."
She's right.
I'll write about Athens tomorrow or soon. :)
