Bulgaria and Paris in May

For everyone who knows us our yearly European escape is no surprise. However it still a surprises me that we do it. I’m not  a good traveller, really. I love being places but crossing borders, standing in lines with often times a crying child is not a walk in the park. There is a reason why we go back  there every year. For me Bulgaria still feels like home even though I have not lived there for almost 16 years… The sounds, the colors, the sites are something I start missing if I’m away for too long. And my family . This year was extra special because we went to grandma’s village in the Balkan where I would spend every single summer as a kid… Having Lydia there with me and watching her run the same dusty hills I ran so many years ago was indescribable. Her face full of excitement, her little hands filled with dirt… happiness is not complicated. It was my uncle’s 70th anniversary and I saw family I have not seen in a very long time. We sat  at a table as big as our living room for two days, ate, drank, talked, danced and then drank some more. No one was on their phone or computer… go figure. Like all trips we take with Lydia our routine evolves around her likes and dislikes. The stars of 2013 were a pony named Archie and a mineral water pool in a city ( Hissar) about 40 mins drive from Plovdiv. So just about every day we would get in the car and drive to see the horses and swim. I have a lot of images of Lydia in my dad’s car. Have a lot of images of that road we took so often. In mid May it’s just beautiful. It’s aligned with chestnut and acacia trees whose heavy , white blooms filled the air with a sweet aroma. Behind them were lush green and florescent yellow fields,  framed with bright red poppies against the blue sky… could never get tired staring trough the window. Ever…

And then there was Paris. Paris, Paris, Paris… For me it wasn’t just the city that made our visit extraordinary. It was my good friends with whom I got to spend time, drinking wine and talking about the good old days, ha!  As for that tower I am still trying to figure out what possessed me to take so many pictures of… It’s almost like a celebrity. Not a landmark. I saw HER in many different ways and that was fascinating to me. My favorite image though is not in my camera… did not need it to be.  3am on Saturday morning in a silent cab ride from my friend’s home to my hotel, there she stood, no lights, no people. Quiet, across the Seine…

We all had a beautiful time… here are a few fragments from it.