2011-07-13 16:07:59前權 & 靜宜

Greece to Bulgaria PartII

Translated by SFT    

 
Mimi and Tony work 7 days a week. They only take 10 days off from work annually.   They have to work hard to pay for the tuition for the private school their children attend, for the car loan, and for business expenses.  Tony was so busy that they decided to let Mimi to take us to visit Koprivshtitsa, thinking Mimi could also take the chance to recharge herself.  Koprivshtitsa, a historic town 120km away from Sofia, was one of the focal points of the April Uprising in 1876.  The April Uprising was a revolution organized by the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire from April to May 1876, which resulted in the re-establishment of Bulgaria as a constitutional monarchy in 1878 and eventually gained its full sovereignty in 1908. Koprivshtitsa is now a very popular tourist destination for its authentic Bulgarian architecture and for its folk music festival.
 



Bulgaria was occupied by the Ottomans for 500 years.  Rebellion often took place in Bulgarian lands. The April Uprising was among one of them and Georgi Benkovski was one of the revolutionary leaders.  When the fighting broke out in Koprivshtitsa, Benkovski formed a 200-men troop to assist the rebels.  The troop toured the entire region tirelessly, mobilizing many insurgents, and played an important role in the fighting. He was later killed by superior Ottoman forces near Ribaritsa in 1876; he was only 33 years old then. Upon entering Koprivshtitsa, we could see a statute of Georgi Benkovski in honor of him, the freedom fighter.


 
A little bit farther in, we saw the ‘Lyutov House’ named after the original owner. Georgi Rakovski (1821-1867) once owned the house. Rakovski was also one of the leaders in the Bulgarian fight for independence from the Turks. Lyutov House was built in 1854. It’s Koprivshtitsa’s well-preserved house museum, featuring beautiful wooden carvings.  The revolutionary leaders had gathered here to discuss the insurrection against Turks.



The next house we saw had been belonged to Ljuben Karavelov, who was born in Koprivshtitsa.  Karavelov was a writer, who dedicated his life and poetry to the struggle for liberation of Bulgaria . Some of his works are in the Bulgarian school textbooks. There’s a hundred-year-old printing machine in the house.  It’s now easy to print books or magazines. Can you imagine how hard it was to do so hundreds of years ago?
 


It’s Monday, so not all the museums were open. We would have to wait for some other time to see all of the exhibitions. After walking around a half of the town, it’s lunch time.  We had visited a couple of Bulgarian tourist spots, enjoyed the Bulgarian traditional dishes, and rested for a few days, so now I would like to know more about Tony and Mimi.


 
Like Chuan and Yi, Tony and Mimi have very different personalities.  Mimi could live and relax in Koprivshtitsa. Tony?  After 3 days, he would have packed everything and gone to Sofia . So how did they become a couple?  They knew each other through relatives.  Tony was so busy that he missed their first date, which left Mimi an ‘unforgettable’ impression. Tony called Mimi to apologize the following day, asking her out for coffee.  Tony says love would conquer the differences between people who love each other.  I think so, too.  How about you?
 
Mimi stated that only after marriage, could a person truly know his/her spouse. She made fun of Tony, ’Tony is like my third child.  He would bring strangers home even though they don’t speak the same language.’  We are two of the strangers, but not any more!

Not surprisingly, Tony’s neighbors were curious about us. When Tony was having coffee in his store, they asked him, ‘Why did you bring 2 foreigners home?’ Tony responded, ‘Because they are clean.’ Upon hearing that, Yi refuted right away, ‘No! We had not had an indoor shower for 24 days. You are the first European taking us home.’ Tony burst into laughing on Yi’s frankness. Meanwhile, he touched his chest and said,‘Your hearts are clean!’ 
 
Tony told us his neighbors did not believe him when he declared to them that those 2 Taiwanese had been to 10 countries with a total of 23,000 km’s bike ride. I wondered why.  Tony explained to us that because they did not have the idea of biking around the world. If you don’t have an idea first, you will never pursue it. It’s just like courting a woman, if you don’t go for her, you will never have a wife. Even though Tony could not speak good English, his reasoning made sense. 

Back to the bottom line, ‘How did you shower outdoors?’




‘In summer time, we feel sticky because of perspiration, so if we don’t take a shower, we cannot sleep well. We clean ourselves when it’s dark. We hold up a small bottle of water or fill the wafer in the camping bag and then spray or pour the water on us like from a shower head. If weather is cold, we will boil some water to mix with the cold wafer to make it warm.  When we are on the road, we sleep in the tent, and cook our own meals. Doing so, we have pedaled through 4 continents: Asia , Australia , North America and Europe .’
 
For most countries, nodding means ‘yes’ and ‘head-shaking’ means ‘no.’ Here in Bulgaria, they completely reverse the meaning of our nod and head-shake gestures - a nod means 'no' and a shake means 'yes'.  Tony kept shaking his head when he listened to me describing our biking trip.
 
When Tony was young, he once traveled to Austria .  However, he did not have enough money, so he slept with hunger in the bus station. Fortunately, Reni saw him and helped. From then on, they have become forever friends. Recalling his own traveling experiences, he wondered if we had ever gone to sleep hungry.  Yi and I responded instantly,’ No.’ It requires energy to cycle. We have to have food for us to ride the bike.  With Yi’s cooking, we have simple meals yet with variety. We are lucky to have food all the time and have never gone hungry.
 
Tony invited us to stay with them for a few more days. Yi wanted to turn it down,’ To keep us company, you have already spent much less time working. We don’t want to affect your business.’  ‘Eurika!’ an idea lit in Chuan’s head. ‘How about I go with Tony tomorrow to help him get the merchandise for the store and Yi helps Mimi in the store?’
 
 

The next day, Tony got up at 9 in the morning. After having coffee, he brought me along with him in his big white SUV to a factory to load up 16 bags of 10-pound fertilizer and then delivered them to the customers. Because the express transportation lines are currently under construction in Sofia , some sections of the streets are often jammed. Tony maneuvered around the small alleys to get to where he wanted to go.  After we unloaded bags of fertilizer, Tony went to 3 wholesale stores to get merchandize for his business.
 
What was Yi doing? Yi stayed in the store helping with packaging and price labeling. Helping and being helped has been our way to get by our bike journey so far. It’s a win-win situation.  
 


In addition to selling items in his own store, Tony is also a wholesale vendor. Therefore, they also need to distribute the goods to other stores. In the afternoon, it’s Mimi’s turn to deliver the merchandise, so Yi went with her. They drove along the mountain roads to deliver all the goods to 4 stores. After they returned, we went to Reni’s place to pick fruit. We all had fun hand-picking cherries.
 


Tony made a very encouraging remark to me, ‘Brother, you will be an outstanding writer and a prolific one!’ Goodness, my second book has not been written yet. Thank you for your confidence in me, Brother Tony.
 
We plan to leave for Romania on 7/8. We would have left earlier, but the night before leaving, Yi felt pain in her teeth. It just happened that Tony had a dental appointment to have his tooth crowned the next day, so we decided to go with him to have Yi’s teeth inspected to prevent unnecessary mishap later down the road.
 


Last time Yi had a dental problem was in Mexico. Her crown came off.  After the dentist had it cemented, he told us to use the ‘crazy glue’ if it fell out again.  Not surprisingly, it came off 2 days later.  Thanks for a local Chinese priest, Mr. Wu and his wife for taking Yi to another dentist.  Yi’s crown was then properly cemented into place.


Yi’s crown was fine this time.  However, with the language barrier that we don’t know Bulgarian and Tony knows limited English words, it’s a big problem for Tony to translate between the dentist and me.  Anyway, it required an X-ray since it’s hard to tell what was wrong. After we got back to Tony’s place, I used the computer translation and found out Yi had pulpitis; her dental pulp was inflamed.  If it’s not treated, it would get worse affecting Yi’s health and our future bike trip. However, the treatment would take a week. Tony sensed our worry, so he told us to stay with him until Yi’s tooth treatment completed and if it’s more than 10 days, he would take us to swim in Black Sea .
 
I wanted to pay the dentist, but she said Tony would take care of it.  I asked Tony how much it cost to see a dentist.  ‘Don’t worry. I will pay for the expense. Just relax. Next time when I visit you in Taiwan and if I have a toothache, I will let you pay for me.’ Tony spoke Bulgarian to Mimi and then Mimi translated it into English for us.

I was speechless. The only word I could utter was ‘blagodaria’ (Thank you in Bulgaria ) with my hand on my heart. 
 
‘Don’t mention it. Now you can also have a chance to meet my children.’  Summer vacation was just around the corner. Tony junior and Evana returned home from their grandmother’s. Both of them like climbing trees. They surely have the genes from their athletic father.
 
 



While Yi rested at Tony’s place, she helped watch the kids. I went with Tony to deliver merchandise and to get goods for his store.  Tony also provides a lot of other services (a jack-of-all-trades), rain or shine, including moving for people in and out of buildings without elevators, mowing lawns, working in the environmental protection industry, selling mechanical hardware, and doing construction work.  After work, we gathered in his friend’s for dinner. Stoian played accordion to entertain us while ladies were busy cooking ‘international' dishes.
 
Tony told us that after the dentist heard about our biking around the world; she thought it’s very special, and was willing to provide a discount for her services.  Therefore, Tony only had to pay for the balance.  We were surprised, but very grateful, so we bought her a present in a nearby store and gave her Taiwanese scenery postcards.



After returning Tony’s apartment, I drew a picture, trying to freeze two weeks’ good memories there. I gave it to Tony and Mimi to show our gratitude toward them.  With tears in her eyes, Mimi wrote down messages on our notebook,




 ‘Your smile and genuineness will always be in our heart. May your life journey fill with precious moments as the time you were with us.’ Yi could not help but passionately hug Mimi.

 

Uncle Jim says we will spend the rest of our lives repaying all the kindness that has been bestowed upon us in our journey. Indeed, actually, I think the rest of our lives is not enough; it will take us another life to pay back.
 



It’s time for us to leave. ‘Will you come back to Bulgaria for a visit?’ ‘Yes, niao-pa-be-ram.’  Someday, we will return with our children!  So long, Bulgaria .
 
 
 
 
sandy 2011-07-30 20:48:51

go!go!go!

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衝!衝!衝! 2011-08-02 15:30:11