Grace's Fault...because God's community makes you do crazy things.: Pleven Tourism

Well, we arrived in Bulgaria on Sunday!!! The trip here was very uneventful, although I will tell you, that when I got onto that plane that was going to take us over the great big lake, I reached up to adjust my personal fan (you know the one that is over your head on a plane, for people who get motion sick like me, to use) it was MISSING! I looked above Grace's seat, no she didn't have one either, WHAT???? NO FAN???? I recovered and we made into the air, but landing was one of the worst flight experiences of my life. I had to use the puke bag……as a fan….but I still ended up SUPER sick.Anyway, we made it, it was fine, but I really hope that isn't a new trend for airplanes, especially international ones. I am hoping the British airlines that brings us home…has a fan for me!

Through circumstances out of my control, I am not allowed to go to Grace's visits with her. :( So I have been exploring the city and making friends. In fact, just yesterday I met a very nice, possibly homeless man, with INCREDIBLE English skills. Who said to me, "bob marley, yeah, reggie American, you like bob marley, I have a tattoo of him on my shoulder (he did not try to show me or anything as it was cold. I, as a smart traveler, was closing my bag while I was talking to him, although still showing interest) He introduced himself, we chatted a bit and then he excused himself. I found myself thinking, dang I should have asked him to show me around (but my American travel sensibilities stopped me, but it gave me a great start to the day!)

I walked and walked and took some photos and walked myself to the Regional history museum in Pleven. That place is HUGE. If you get a few hours, you should just try to walk through at least part of it. The website had told me that it cost 2.00 leva to get in but that Mondays were free. The website (and my experience in Sofia, 6 months ago) had me prepared to pay 5 leva to be allowed to take photos inside. The odd thing was, when I walked through the gate, the little booth was empty, and the entrance to the museum was not clear. I gave a group of men the "what's up" head nod, that I do to everyone here, most people think it is pretty weird, but who can really stop the midwesterner from coming out of me?? Anyway one of them said, "muesum?" and I said "YES". He jumped in the little booth and grabbed some keys. He then lead me to some HUGE doors, and unlocked them….then walked ahead of me to turn on some lights. throughout my visit a staff person followed me around from room to room turning lights on in front of me and shutting them off behind me. In certain areas they would pass the torch to the next person. I wasn't too werided out. I asked the first man if I needed to pay him for the photos and he said normally yeah 15.00 leva…huh, he didn't press me for money so I didn't pay him, as I got the weirdest feeling that if I did, he would just put it in his skinny jeans and keep it. At some point they found someone who spoke English who explained to me the layout of the museum and that his colleagues would be following me around :)

The first floor was all super old stuff. The things that remind me how young my country truly is and that Roman things didn't happen in just books. There were actual people leaving behind buildings made of marble and statues, that at one point were probably not headless, and gold crowns, bracelets and belt buckles. So first floor, roman antiquity and then moving to the late 1800s. they had wonderful displays of rooms in homes through the ages and the main hall throughout had different outfits from the regions in Pleven. Wedding out fits and socks and belts through the ages.

When I climbed the marble stairs to get to the second floor and began to see things turn more, what I pictured, "British European" I was instantly not as awed. Which I thought was odd, until it occurred to me, this is when my country's history starts, so I suppose it makes sense that I am not as excited to see old chairs from Jane Austin movies :) I also began to notice some of the items were being imported from the good old USA, then I laughed to myself a little, and said no wonder I didn't think this was as "foreign".

Here are some pictures from my experience. Some of my best ones could not be opened on the computer which was rough. I would really recommend this place to anyone traveling to Pleven. It gave me TONS of history on the people here and LOTS of things were marked with English tags…..which helped :) Oh and in the end I did end of paying 10 leva to take pictures. It was worth it. I wish these photos were in a better order. But I am very tired of trying to work on this post….so in no particular order here are some pictures:

Here is the outside of the museum, it goes on down both sides of the block. It is huge!

See photo below for a picture of the houses they are describing.

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I am sad that this is the only photo that I have taking about the ottoman rule. It is amazing that 500 years of ottoman rule can be described in a few sentences. There was a black and white painting there, that depicted the oppression of the Bulgarians under the Turks. It was a very intense photo. The Bulgarian, with the help of the Romanians and Russians were able to declare their Independence from the ottoman empire in 1877.

On the top floor there were lots of displays about the arts, music, dancing and theatre. These are some puppets.

belts…I bought a belt today, but I went a little more present day :)

traditional socks, if I can find some of these on the streets, I will buy them!

Here is St George, he is kind of my Pleven orphanage theme icon. So I pay attention when I see him! By the way, St George is no longer in the entryway to the Pleven orphanage, he has been replaced by some flowers and butterflies...