Sunday, a day of rest, ahem TRAVEL & Monday - THE DAY

Sunday we flew from Paris to Sofia.  The flight wasn't bad, thank you Jesus!!!!!!  We were supposed to have a little bit of a layover, like 4hrs or so.  But due to weather we were delayed.  We were in the airport about 6 hours.  The funny thing about that is the flight from Sofia to Varna is only 35 minutes and the drive is about 5 hours, which our guides did.  They drove and picked us up that night.  Bwahahaha  The ladies are WONDERFUL.  Our daughter's file was with VESTA ngo (non-governmental organization) so we didn't pick which agency we used.  They picked us up and then took us to our hotel.
 I think it was like 9 or so at night.  We dropped our bags and then walked down about a block to get some food and discuss the plans.  The food was delicious.  It was a chain restaurant that had authentic food plus western food.  Menus had both Bulgarian and English.  Definitely wanted to remember that for later in the week when we had a day by ourselves. ;0)  After we ate and had the plans for the morning, we headed to bed.

 Andy eating breakfast

 View from the window of our hotel room.

 Andy waiting to meet our guides to get this show on the road!

 This is the entrance to the Plaza.  I always looked for the 911 sign. lol

  We got up the next morning way before time to meet our guides so we walked down to see about breakfast and how much of the Black Sea we could acutally see.  Our hotel was just down from one of the main entrances to the park there on the sea.  It's beautiful.

(Pictures are a bit out of order, but at least I found them. lol)

We got into the van and headed back to the airport.  We had to pick up the Italian couple who would be traveling with us.  Our daughter is in the city of Dobrich and their daughters were in a smaller city right outside Dobrich.  But they had to drive back and forth everyday because there isn't a hotel in the small community.  The countryside between Varna and Dobrich is really pretty.  It reminded me of our farmland here at home.  

This is the hotel in Dobrich.  It's located on the edge of this major city park.  It's probably the nicest place in that town.  It's famous for their tennis.  Lots of famous players have stayed there and even some of our diplomats and politicians have stayed here because their signed pictures are displayed for all to see in the lobby.  
After getting everyone situated, we headed towards the center.  OH BOY.  We knew we were going to have a meeting with the director first.  But, they didn't let us know when she was coming in.  So of course, I don't have a picture of our first sighting.  But I can guarantee that Andy & I were both so teary eyed I probably couldn't have gotten a good one if I tried. lol   She came in and thought the translator was her mom. ;0)  She went right to her.  Then they explained that we were her parents & she had the biggest grin.  She kept telling us all day how young we were and how beautiful we were.  I don't know what she was expecting, but I'm glad she was pleasantly surprised.