Dance Trip to Turkey

I'm a bit behind on writing this, but I've been busy planning Halloween stuff for the kids in the village. The weekend after my birthday I went on a trip to Edirne (Одрин in Bulgarian) Turkey with the dance group from Avren that I joined. I wasnt good enough to dance with them then but they took me along nonetheless to observe.

We took a bus from Varna down the coast through Burgas, then through Malko Tarnovo before crossing the border into Turkey. I, being the odd American out, had to get a visa. But its not a problem really, you give them 20 USD and they give you a sticker in their passport thats good for 3 months. Its nothing more then an entrance fee.

We went to an old fortress/monument in Edirne before we went to the hotel. It was on the top of a hill and overlooked the whole city.

There's a really intense system of bunkers up there left over from one of the many was fought over the territory. Its been Greek, Bulgarian and Turkish in recent history. These bunkers were occupied by the Turks, and the Bulgarians sieged and I believe, unless I understood this incorrectly, the occupied it for after five days. Its called the First Balkan War and it was 1913.

Rows of bunkers, they ran along both sides of this "road" and there was another one parallel to this

 That there is Dori, and some other people from out group, these particular bunkers were at the front of it all, near the edge of the hill looking over the city.

 Dori again, that black thing was padding that was wrapped in some shiny black stuff b/c it was really low and you have a high possibility of hitting your head.

Dori and Zori going into one of the bunkers.

 Cannon and city and me.

Then we went to our hotel and all checked it, which seemed to take forever, I think there were other buses of people, other Bulgarians for this statue opening celebration thing that my group danced at. We had dinner in the upstairs restaurant and all the Bulgarians sang and danced, like the do when they're all together, even if they dont all know each other.

 Regular old horo dance, hold hands and go in a circle with cool foot moves. Some of these are our dancers, others are from the other bus from Burgas.

The men of our group doing part of their official dance. The one on the end in blue is Niki, Dori's son. 

Dimitrova on the left and the women in the middle not in yellow are both from Avren and they had a birthday. 

Traditionally, back in the day women would dance with bread at celebrations, this is them joking about  it. 

A current take on old traditions, vodka. 

Mya, she's a teacher in Dabravino in the municipality of Avren, and she's a fairly good singer as well. 

The next day we all, very tiredly, got up for breakfast and then they dressed in their dancing outfits, we packed up the bus and drove to the church. Since this area used to be Bulgarian territory there's still some Bulgarians that live there. This church was a Bulgarian Orthodox Church for these people and they were unveiling a statue.

 Dori helping niki fix his outfit.

Statue to be unveiled.

The group before the ceremony, Bulgarian flag on the left, Avren flag on the right. 

Inside the church. 

We weren't the only people dressed in traditional Bulgarian clothing. 

Look! Its the traditional bread offering. 

Our group with some Bulgarian official in charge of Bulgarians abroad. 

The veil being pulled of the statue.

 Unveiled statue, this is when the group danced. I dont have pictures of that because I was taking video on Dori's camera for her.

We then had a few hours to see Edirne, go to the markets, get some food, relax before we drove back home.

Inside the market under the mosque.

Turkish sweets, and they had samples at this place. 

Central mosque.

Old house.

All in all it was a really good trip. Quick, but good. I got to spend time with people I work with outside of the office. Which is difficult because almost all of them commute into work from Varna or other villages in the municipality. I've been to dance practice since this, and because they're no longer preparing to preform really soon I can learn all the dances slowly and be ready for the next one. :)