Bulgaria

I would not be one to encourage people to take their children across the world for a 

'vacation', but our son and his wife, Beth both traveled when they were young and both continued to go to new places and learn new languages. They think nothing of traveling with their children. The youngest is not likely to remember anything about the trip, unless of course she is like my father, who could remember things from age one. The youngest I remember anything like that was at the age of two.  I recall two things that happened when I was two. I remember seeing the full moon over the local high school while my dad was carrying me. I wanted him to get it for me. I can see it all in my mind, but I think the only reason is that someone took my picture and talked about it later. I do however remember vividly the time I fell on the register in our kitchen and it was so hot that it burned scars into my hand. I remember what the grill looked like, I remember my dad grabbing me up and taking me into another room, but that is all I remember. Thank God, I don't remember the pain.

Back to our story. John and Beth took the three to Bulgaria to visit with people they knew when they served as school teachers while in the Peace Corps.  Their oldest son, my sweet grandson, is in second grade. He had to miss two weeks of school. He probably could not have done that if he were in a regular school, but his IB World school encourages travel. 

At one point we went to visit John and Beth while they were serving there. We saw a lot of the country,  but we didn't see everything there was to see. For example, we did not visit this fortress in the background. It is Tsarevets,  a medieval stronghold located on a hill with the same name in Veliko Tarnova in northern Bulgaria.

It is good to be familiar with life in other countries so that one might accurately compare life in our country. We would have many more patriotic Americans if they really knew what it was like to live elsewhere. There would certainly be much less display of disdain for this great land.