Bulgaria 2001

We went to Bulgaria in late August, early September of 2001 to visit Toni's Bulgarian friends and family. Mostly we stayed in the small village of Izvor, south of Plovdiv (2nd largest city of Bulgaria), in the foothills of the Rhodope mountains. We made a trip to the deep canyons near Greece and a couple trips into Plovdiv, including the old part of town.

This is our family as well as Misho's family. Misho was the videotaper for our wedding in Plovdiv and the two families have known each other for years. This is also the only picture we have of all four generations - third from the left is great-grandmother Baba Ganka, and in the back row third from right is grandmother Baba Nellie, next to her are Toni and Rob, and our son Philip in Misho's lap in front of us. Click here or on the picture to see more friends & family.

A couple street scenes in front of the villa. On the left is an 86-year-old neighbor hauling water from the "cheshma", or public spring, to water his extensive garden, including peach trees and grape vines over everything. Next he's talking to a lady on her daily trip of taking her cows to pasture.

The farmhouse of one of the less-prosperous but kind-hearted neighbors in Izvor. They lived behind our villa - Baba Nellie would yell over to them in the evening if we needed milk in the morning. Notice the butter churn next to livestock shed on the right. This is a traditional stone house with a stone slate roof, and still in decent shape. Most stone houses are replaced with brick houses with red clay roofs when the owners have the money for an upgrade. In front is an East-German made Trabant.

A nearby chicken house made of stone, with a slate stone roof. They don't make them like that anymore.

We went on a trip to some caves and canyons in the Rhodope mountains bordering Greece. Click here or on the picture to see more of this trip.

Scenes of old Plovdiv.

Street scenes of Plovdiv. The taxis are a bit smaller than what we're used to (the wheels are at the ends of the car!), but the busses are fairly large, with a flexible joint in the middle to help with the narrow streets.

More Bulgarian images and information at the web page from our 1997 trip to Bulgaria , or back to our home page.