Where can I get some studinki?

9.19.12
On Monday evening we realized we were the ONLY people in this entire resort. When we arrived on Saturday there seemed to be two other couples here on a golf holiday but they left on Sunday and that left us with the place to ourselves. Great for us, but not so great for the resort I would imagine. It's new, and I guess they are struggling to be discovered.

In the evening we requested that the steam room and sauna be turned on for us and when we went to use it we discovered this gorgeous spa complex. They have massage facilities, a workout room, and a sauna/ steam room. The steam room is built to comfortably hold about 12-15 people and is beautifully mosaic tiled. The sauna is about the same size. They have two massive heated mosaic tile chairs and a lounge area with seating for a few small, intimate groups, and two tiled showers. It's really amazing....and we had it all to ourselves.

After our lovely sauna and steam, we returned to our room to cook dinner. We hadn't used the oven yet and when I turned it on (with dinner all prepared to go in it) I got nothing. I turned dials, switched switches, looked for power to turn on... Nothing. While I was sitting trying to decide what to do, suddenly the oven light came on and it began to make this terrible buzzing noise. Whatever, it was on, that's all I cared about. Tom didn't think things were right but I told him it was fine, European appliances work differently and always make weird noises. Suddenly there was a clicking noise and the oven power went off. Click, back on, seconds later off and back on again. Again, whatever, it was working (sometime) and dinner was cooking (hopefully). I went to shower, and get away from the terrible buzzing noise. While in the shower I suddenly heard the buzzing stop. Bummer. When I came out Tom informed me we had lost power to the oven, TV, and other outlets. He had flipped some circuit breakers and got nothing. Should he flip the main breaker? Naw, let's call the front desk. Moments later two security guys show up. Security??? Apparently maintenance had gone home so this was next best apparently. As they closed the door behind them, someone pushed it open and in walked the receptionist (Germana) and receptionist trainee (Toni) that started the day we arrived. Suddenly our room had 6 people in it (studio apartment) and the security guys plunges us in to darkness (without warning) by hitting the main circuit breaker. He turned it back on, and just as suddenly, turned it on and off two more times for good measure. Now picture it, six people, small room (actually plenty of room when it's just Tom and I, but throw in four strangers, and me in my Jammie's ((fresh out of the shower, remember?)) now turn out the lights, and it got pretty small pretty fast!) Well, it worked. Our power returned but it was decided, the oven was messed up. They would sent their colleague tomorrow to fix it, and they left with a "Sorry guys"! (um, my dinner? In the oven?)

We woke up Tuesday with plans to have the shuttle take us to the ski town of Bansko. When we looked out to check the weather, we saw a few people roaming around and thought a couple of other people had arrived. When we were ready to go request the shuttle, imagine our surprise when we stepped out the door in to a mass of impatient, pacing humanity! Apparently a tour group of Maltese people had arrived at 2 am to stay at the resort for a week. There was a shortage of shuttles and struggles over taxis, but we had our shuttle reserved so when the time came, and our shuttle arrived we went to get in. More confusion and a shortage of seats... I ended up in the front seat with Tom left on the curb... The driver (non English speaker) kept trying to get his "squish together" message across but I seemed to be the only one paying attention, and I couldn't squish, because I was in the single front seat! Finally one of the receptionists said her father was coming to pick her up and that they would give Tom a ride to Bansko. She instructed me to wait in the city center, and Tom would arrive shortly. Um, ok. The driver pulled out then abruptly stopped the van, made the "squish together" motion again, opened the back door and motioned Tom in. Everybody laughed at the situation, moved over, and we were off... In a van full of loud, happy, Maltese speaking people (Maltese is close to arabic). I worried about Tom not having a seatbelt (remember the insane way they drive here) but when I told him that later he informed me had ridden alone in the back in another Shuttle that had no seatbelts at all! (I swear it's like living in the 1950's here) Tom had the opportunity to ask one of the passengers about Malta, a place we have wanted to visit, during the ride. We made it safely to Bansko and set off to see the town.

Bansko is a typical mountain town with ski shops and locals selling hand knitted hats. We wandered the town taking pictures and picking up a few souvenirs. The sun was in and out until an hour before our shuttle was to pick us up. We experienced a brief fairly light rain and then it was over. We stopped in a bakery to buy some bread for Tom which he bought by sight (happy surprise: it turned out to be more of a chocolate filled roll than the small loaf of bread he expected). When we stopped in a small grocery (actually they are all small!) to buy a bottle of water, I saw the opportunity to get the Bulgarian "studinki" ( their equivalent to our penny) that I wanted. I have been trying to collect some for a project that I have in mind, and they seem to be barely used here, therefor hard to collect. After a funny game of charades trying to help the cashier understand what I was after, she allowed me to reach into her cash drawer and show her the studinki that she had. We traded a 5 cent piece for 5 studinki and we left one very confused cashier behind. At this point, I have to tell you.... Earlier in the day I walked into a bank to change a 20 cent piece into 20 studinki and you know what the guy in the bank told me??? "We can't take coins". "you can't take coins?" " No. Not at the bank. We can't take coins at the bank". Huh. Did I felt like a silly American, expecting to deal with money issues at a bank....

We took the shuttle back to our resort in time to Skype with Mykael and the kids. They were as excited to see us as we were to see them. They were going to a museum and Chloe wanted to know if we wanted to go with them:) after Skyping with them Kallen called so we got to catch up with everyone.Gotta love the modern conveniences.

Today is our last day here and it is the first fully sunny day we have had. We can see the mountains from our balcony, and it is a gorgeous view. We have decided rather than go back to Sofia to take a train to Istanbul, we are going to take an early bus tomorrow to Plovdiv (ancient Ottoman town) and spend the day before catching a Turkish bus to Istanbul. I don't know about Bulgarian buses but Turkish buses are supposed to be pretty luxurious. We figure it's got to be better than some of the trains we have been on!