Saturday, 05 May

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="044d4c00dduajq.gif"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="95" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 46 WIDTH="91"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="46" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="91" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <A HREF="id138.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Friday, 04 May"><U><IMG SRC="0450b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>   <A HREF="id140.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sunday, 06 May"><U><IMG SRC="0460b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>       <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="11" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="11">   <A HREF="id133.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="May"><U><IMG SRC="0480b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> <IMG SRC="1f1afc60.jpg" border=0 width="175" height="198" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> The former public bath house in Pleven, Bulgaria</div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#003333" FACE="Arial" ><B>The Gastropod's Trail</B></FONT>     |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Gastropods Trail"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> Saturday, 05 May</div> <div> Cherven Briag, Bulgaria to Borovo, Bulgaria</div> <bR> <div> We were just barely out of our sleeping bags when we saw Osnian coming down the grassy slope. It was so touching, in one hand he had a plastic bottle full of fresh milk and in the other he had a small bouquet of field flowers for Nicole! He accepted our invitation to share breakfast with us. </div> <bR> <div> We would have loved to stay a little longer... I was anxious to get to Pleven hoping to find a place where I could upload my new pages to this web site. We found a number of Internet Cafes which are not able to let me connect my laptop, and the local ISP was closed on Saturday. You will just have to wait a few days longer.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="1fb40ce0.jpg" border=0 width="320" height="206" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="5" VSPACE="5">Pleven, like the other towns in Bulgaria we had visited, is badly in need of repair, roads, sidewalks, houses... On the other hand, Pleven has a magnificent city center with a beautifully laid out park surrounded by well preserved (or restored) old merchant houses, spectacular fountains and any number of sidewalk cafes. It was a splendid, sunny day and we enjoyed sitting on a park bench, licking on an ice cream, and watching the well dressed townsfolk doing the same.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="1faeeb30.jpg" border=0 width="238" height="179" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="5" VSPACE="5">On our way back to the Gastropod we passed by a small Church and saw a wedding party lined up waiting to enter. We could not resist attending a Bulgarian wedding ceremony and invited ourselves! After getting permission from the groom and the priest I was able to videotape the whole ceremony. In the Bulgarian Orthodox Rite, the two priests chanted the whole wedding ceremony but, in contrast to the Greek Orthodox church, the responses were beautifully sung in harmony by a small women's choir. We counted ourselves very lucky to be able to assist this solemn ceremony.</div> <bR> <div> Try as we would, the only thing we could not find in Pleven was a restaurant (<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >PECTOPAHT</FONT> as it is spelled in Cyrillic). It seems that, for the time being at least, in Bulgaria hotels and restaurants are few and far between. On the other hand, snack bars and roadside stops with simple fare are plentiful. We choose to drive a ways out of town and parked our 'Gastro Hotel' on the bank of a small river.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>