Liz and Pete's Great Adventures : August 2014

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Vylma Eva O'Keefe

Vylma & lars when he was 6 months old ... I love this photo of her.

Vylma is my Mother. She was a young Mother ... 18 I think when she had me. By the time she was in her early 20's she had 2 children under 3 and was a single Mother. Back then there was no such thing as Government Support to help women in Vylma's position ... she had to work and rely on the support of her parents.

Vylma worked hard to support my brother and I. We lived in a State House ... government housing ... in Mairehau. She worked long days and would often do overtime to make extra money for us, which meant she was not home when we got home from school. In my teens we lived with her parents ... there were 4 generations living in one house ... Vylma worked at the Marathon Rubber factory on Cumnor Tce in Woolston not far from Grandma and Grandads. I worked with her at the Marathon during the school holidays ... I remember it being full of women ... we clocked in at the beginning of the day and clocked out at home time. These women, Vylma included were hard case! They took no nonsense from anyone and they worked hard. They could laugh, they could work and they could give the men who were their bosses a really hard time and they had their favourites.

I was a difficult teenager growing up and made Vylma's life hell. Like most teenagers and teenage daughters I thought my Mother knew nothing ... she didn't understand me and she didn't get it. Then I became a Mother and realised how difficult it is to be the kind of Mother I really wanted to be ... and as I get older I see my Mother in me everyday.

I admire how she never gave in and worked to support us ... this meant she paid rent so we could have somewhere to live ... she bought food for us so that we could eat ... she went and worked in menial jobs that had no future so that she could pay for the things that we needed and wanted. Of course as a child/teenager I never saw any of that, I see it now. I see you now Mum. I see your strength, your courage, your stamina, your energy, your passion and vitality and your great sense of humour!

I am grateful for you Vylma and everything that you sacrificed for us ... I am grateful for your commitment to us, for your example and for your efforts on our behalf and for the life you tried to give us. I love seeing you with your Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren ... I love seeing how proud you are of them and how loyal you are to them, I love seeing you find joy in them. I see you as a strong woman, who has had to do some very hard things and I don't know how you did it.

Today is Vylma's birthday, in Bulgaria ... she is 76. Happy Birthday Mum ... thank you!

Vylma with Mike ... #1 Grandson ... lars #1 Great Grandson.

Friday, August 29, 2014

Retreat ... Last Stop in Bulgaria

We are staying in the mountains, at a ski Resort, Borovetz Hills, just out of Sofia ... approx 2 hour drive depending on the traffic. We are here on our 5 day retreat and fruit fast. Tanya asked us before we left NZ if we would be interested in doing it and we said yes ... so here we are.

The menu is as follows ...
8 am ... herb tea and 1 teaspoon of honey
10 am ... 700gms of fresh fruit ... or a fresh fruit juice ... not smoothie ... can't mix your fruits either, we have to have the same fruit at each sitting e.g. all grapes, or apples, or nectarines etc.
Noon ... herb tea and teaspoon of honey
2 pm ... second serving of 700gms of fruit
4pm ... herb tea and teaspoon of honey
6pm ... third serving of 700gms of fruit
8pm ... herb tea and teaspoon of honey.

At 9am every day we are weighed and blood pressure taken by a qualified doctor. We have had an ultra sound to check our organs ... ECG for heart ... I have had a bone density test and Vitamin D blood test, Pete is having his colon irrigation today! So we are closely monitored. There is yoga ... dancing ... stretching exercises ... chinese gymnastics ... a pool ... sauna ... aromatherapy room and massage. Each day there is a walk in the mountains. We have been up Mt Rila to see Bulgaria's highest peak, Musala, what can I say ... amazing! We have a delightful woman, Daniela, who translates for us while we are here. Usually the fruit fast is 30 days, we are here for the last week.

So far so good ... we are not body hungry, but appetite hungry. Pete said he would like steak and bread ... I would love some Vic's bread and yoghurt and cheese. I think we will only need to do 10 days rather than the full 30. The doctor said he was not expecting us to be so healthy and since our blood pressure is not dropping too much and urine tests every morning are good he said we should be able to do the rest of our fruit fast while in Turkey. We have a build up program when we start eating normally again, 5 days and I think it is like 1 potato a day or something like that, building up gradually to eating again.

Our blood results came back today ... it is official, the Doctor said I am nearly perfect...I am guessing you already knew that though. We had a meeting with the head Doctor and Director of the clinic and she has given us some dietary suggestions ... no dairy for me or meat ... no white bread, sugar or meat for Pete. Pete's suggestion is to manage his insulin spike that he gets and to drop his fat percentage and mine is to drop my fat percentage. My bones in my legs are really good but my calcium is dropping in my arms ... they recommend 1 tablespoon of raw sesame seeds ground in a coffee grinder ... add honey and eat last thing at night. The sesame seeds need to be eaten within 15 minutes of grinding. That should be pretty easy I think. We are to continue to do a fruit and tea fast once a week. I am pleased that Pete has been able to get to the bottom of his tiredness ... not necessarily new news. We have seen two rather provocative movies on food and diet ... Food Matters ... Fat Sick and Nearly Dead ... check them out if you are interested.

We were a little nervous about coming on the fasting retreat ... we were not too sure how we would manage without food for 10 days ... especially when there is so much yummy food to eat here in Bulgaria. We have been surprised how easy we have found it. Being part of a group of people helps and the on going support is very helpful. There are about 50/60 people here from all over ... Dubai, US, New Zealand, Europe ... seems like it is very popular. We are not feeling tired ... we have done a couple of longs walks ... around 2 hours... and we did not feel fatigued or hungry. I do find it hard walking up the stairs to our room on the 4th floor though ... I have to take them slow. We are so pleased we came to Bulgaria, Tanya, Steve, Rosi and Pavlin have made our trip here so memorable and enjoyable. This country is wonderful ... we have loved everything here so far and have not been disappointed at all. I suggest you put Bulgaria on your bucket list and soon!

We leave the retreat on Friday and on Monday we fly out to Turkey ... we are really on our own then. We are a little nervous ... Tanya has loved showing us her country and has been a very enthusiastic and passionate tour guide. I am not sure how we will get on in Turkey being left to our own devices. No one to translate for us ... take us to out of the way places like Teshavo, that as a tourist we probably would not have seen. Our guide now is Lonely Planet. Mike and Chris suggested places for us to go in Turkey ... that has been very helpful. All part of our adventure though. That is part of the reason that we have done this ... to challenge ourselves a little. We know there will be parts that will be more challenging and difficult than others.

I have been reflecting lately on the discomfort of some of our travels so far. There are things that we notice in ourselves and each other that we don't like much that have been avoidable when working or busy with daily routines of life. Now that those routines aren't present we notice 'stuff' comes up and it is hard to ignore. There is no getting away from ourselves, maybe drugs and alcohol might work short term ... our heaviest baggage is ourselves. I have found it hard to let go of my fitness routine ... Pete has found it hard to let go of work. We still get anxious or stressed about the same things we did in ChCh ... location does not matter ... 'where ever you go there you are!' (Kabat Zin).

More Photos ...

Herb Tea and Honey

One of our fruit meals ... Nectarines ... the best I have ever tasted!

Toilet with Bidet and heated toilet seat ...

Sunrise from our room ... I wish I was Gail right now ... then maybe our photos might be better composed.

View from the top of Mt Rila ... these are mountains not hills ... stunning.

Lake at the top ... reminds me of Mt Cook

I love the colours and textures of traditional Bulgarian clothing

Coat and bag ... all hand done

This is for Tom, if he reads our blog ... the wood is stacked like this at each end and then stacked normally in the middle. Apparently it keeps the wood securely in place ... I noticed this is how wood was stacked in the US as well.

Another photo from our room ...

Monday, August 25, 2014

Searching for Sugar Man ... Rodriguez

Those of you who know me ... like my family ... know how much I love Rockamentary films. There is nothing like watching a good film about a great band or music artist. We have watched a few ... our latest love in this genre is '20 Feet From Stardom' ... an absolute must see if you have not already.

We recently watched 'Searching for Sugar Man ... on the bus from Tarnevo to Sofia. Peter and Leonie Brunt recommended this movie to me a while a go ... I put it on my must see list, but did not get round to it until now. Sugar Man is a gem of a movie. We love the music ... kind of Dylan like sound. His story is really inspiring ... a lost music man who is a legend in South Africa but a musical failure in the US. His music really spoke to the people of SA ... in the early '70's.

The film unfolds beautifully ... there is so much good in the story of Sugar Man. Rodriguez is an unacknowledged hero in this film, on many levels. If you have a spare evening or wet afternoon and feel like sitting down and watching a feel good film about a forgotten music artist who sings and writes really good music and you have not already seen it, I recommend you get this out and sit back and prepare to be surprised, possibly even inspired!

I want his music!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Always Look UP

Land of Sunflowers

I don't know where to begin ... Bulgaria is amazing. There is so much here ... history, 6000 years to be exact ... food, delicious ... beaches, amazing, weather, hot, hot, hot ... cost, cheap ... 9 of us went out to a restaurant and we paid, including alcohol it came to $NZ78 approx and it was a very good restaurant. Our accommodation has been approx $NZ40 a night and sometimes that has included breakfast.

We have been taken completely by surprise. We love Bulgaria and want to come back again. Our experience has been made easier by having Tanya and Steve as our hosts and Tany'a daughter Rosi as our driver, educator and tour guide. I am sitting in a very nice hotel on the third floor balcony of the equivalent of an Alpine Village as I write, looking out over the mountains and the village and it is beautiful! There is a lot about Bulgarian countryside that reminds us of NZ ... Lewis Pass ... St James kind of country. Bulgaria is surrounded by mountains. There is so much to say and soooo many photos and I don't want to bore you all so I am having difficulty working out where to begin. Here goes.

Bulgaria has a rich history ... it has been invaded and occupied many times over the years, the most recent being Russia until 1989 ... Bulgaria is now a democracy, still recovering from Communism. The Turkish invasion was one of the worst periods in Bulgarian History. But with that said there is so much here ... Roman ruins that are 1000s of years old ... villages that have been around for 100's of years. Bulgaria is an old country.

I am intimidated by the history and the story of Bulgaira ... NZ feels so young in comparison. Our history is so different ... our architecture is so new ... we are so far away from the great centres. Some of the buildings that we have seen are amazing ... the old churches are works of art, like the Aleksander Nevski Church in Sofia, the Rila Monastery that is hidden away in the mountains and the Tsarevets Fortress in Veliko Tarnovo, the old Capital ... have been around for 100's sometimes 1000's of years, they have amazing paintings on their walls and ceilings, beautiful stain glass windows, carvings on doors and their woodwork, all are pieces of art. Always look up in Bulgaria ... there will be a mountain, or an old building or church on a mountainside or beautiful art work on the ceilings and above the doors of these very old but beautifully kept buildings.. We find it hard to stop taking photos, we are wanting to capture every experience but as you all know it is impossible to really capture the experience, feeling or true image of a place in a photo, but we have sure tried.

Their food is so yummy ... fresh goat and sheep feta, sheeps milk yoghurt, yummy ... their tomatoes are huge and so delicious along with their cucumber. The fruit is beyond believable ... water melon less than $NZ2 is beautiful ... their peaches are the hugest that I have ever seen and so are their nectarines. Grapes, fresh figs, berries and so it goes ... so sweet all of it! They have and sell lots of honey and it is delicious. We had herb tea and honey with our breakfast this morning and it is delicious. They make a really yummy pastry ... like yorkshire pudding with fresh feta cheese, or spinach or both inside it for breakfast ... are you salivating yet?

The women dress amazingly ... I have taken some photos. I tried to be as discreet as I could because I did not want to be arrested. They smell beautiful ... they dress themselves up so well and everything is so well co-ordinated ... age does not matter. I have been the only grey haired woman that I have seen in Bulgaria before we reached Teshivo. It is not that the women are super trendy they just look good in how they have put themselves together. The colour of their hair ... shoes ... accessories ... makeup ... perfume ... bags ... they all seem to have big bags.

The countryside is amazing ... so many mountains ... high mountains. Fields of sunflowers ... that can be seen from quite a distance... a brilliant yellow and they look beautiful! There are a lot of gardens ... people grow a lot of their own vegetables and their gardens can be huge ... fruit trees, tomatoes, lots of tomatoes, corn, peppers, cucumbers, courgettes, pumpkins ... and they do not use a lot of chemicals by the look of it. There is a haze over Bulgaria ... like a heat haze ... that seems to be present in quite a few parts of Europe ... Italy, I remember it there, Greece also.

There is a blend of old ... really old and then new next to it. Houses that have been left empty for a long time post-Communism and some of them are starting to literally fall down. We are staying in a small village, Teshevo, at the moment and it is like going back in time. People are still using horse and cart ... and then we come across a BMW on our way back from our walk this morning. A woman was boiling her preserved beans in a black pot over a small wood fire, on the footpath next to our 5 star hotel. We went to the cheese factory up the hill from where we are staying to buy fresh feta ... if you like feta you would love this. Teshevo is wonderful and hidden amongst some of the most beautiful mountainous scenery ... we really love it here it is very peaceful and easy ... we wake up to goat bells ringing in the morning as they are taken of to be milked. Every place we have been taken to is wonderful ... all different.

The people here are extremely friendly and hospitable. We were invited to a couple's house for some juice and when the man found out we were from New Zealand he called the Mayor who took us for a tour of the amazing old church in the town centre. It's beautiful inside and they have a mechanical bell system that has been ringing every hour since 1812.

I am not sure I can find words that really describe Bulgaria's beauty, we have been captivated. Its got the scenery of New Zealand combined with thousands of years of history. Steve and Tanya have really spoilt us and we cannot thank them enough. Tanya's son asked us at lunch today what we are most excited to see and we could not answer ... Bulgaria has exceeded our expectations on every level ... we don't know what to expect next!

Points of Interest ...
1. When people are saying yes they shake their head no ...
2. When people say no they nod their head yes ...
3. We have not seen an automatic car yet ...
4. Their toilet paper is very thick ...
5. We have not seen any iPhones or MacBook Computers here ... too expensive I think.
6. The mafia seem to have quite a big influence in Bulgaria.

Lots of photos ....

Tarnevo Veliko

Monumental Art on the Side of Walls on the Streets ... Veliko Tarnevo ... the old Capital

Ruins of an old Bulgarian Fortress, built in the 13th Century

Church inside the Fortress

Look Up

Love these Colors ... on the outside of the Church

Gabriel & Petya ... Artists ... friends of Rosi

Pete was thrilled to find this treasure ... Trabant ... Russian

Sofia ... The Capital

Aleksander Nevski Church ... We loved this Church ... we were completely overwhelmed by the beauty inside and out.

The Art Work on the outside ... no photos inside. Note the detail.

Look up ... did the best I could here ... note the light fixture ... amazing.

A panel on the doors ... everything was perfect.

Colors on a Russian Orthodox Church

Women

The Coat

Simple but Classy

Lots of Heels ...

A Day at the Office ... note the size of the bag ... lots of big bags.

Love this as a traveling outfit ...

Dressed for the Market

Rila Monastery

Rila Monastery ... hidden in the mountains on the way to Teshavo ... this is a significant spiritual centre for Bulgaria. The building of this monastery began in the 8th Century and continued being built right through to the end of the 1800s.