Hike and Hora

So Nichole's neighbor took us into the mountains on Sunday. Full on, locals only hiking. Its not so much that others aren't allowed its more that there is no trail. Every once in a while you're like oh yeah I can stand up straight and kind of see this path-ish thing through the woods, the rest of the time you're moving plants and ducking and stepping on rocks and/or lose soil and sweating 5 gallons of water. If we weren't following Niki, we would have been lost for days. BUT it was soooo worth it just for the view, not to mention the experience and the fact that I learned how to jump down mounds of rock slides w/o hurting myself (its super fun).

The rock mounds that you jump down while creating mini rock slides look kinda like this

View of the valley we hiked to

Nichole and Pavolche. Thats the distance we just hiked, and this was the 1/2 point.


The hike took about 3.5 hours and I only have one lasting scratch to show for it. Next time though, I'm not wearing shorts. I was super hot but there is way more brush then I am used to dealing with since they dont mark trails here...

This morning we went to a regional dance competition in Vratsa. We have been going to Hora (the traditional Bulgarian dance) classes on Sundays with some of the girls from the school. They sing the songs and we dance. Today was our performance, in costume, and on stage. If we did well enough today we can participate in some national festival in August. I dont know when we find out, but I dont really mind either way cause it was really fun just to go. The outfits are awesome and really really colorful, they make you feel like you should run around in a meadow or something. AND on a side note each training group in the Peace Corps has to do a cultural presentation in July. We chose the Hora since we already had to practice it, seemed kinda fitting. We're going to wear these outfits and invite the girls to come sing at our presentation.

Pavolche group in our outfits