Wednesday, October 4 – Last full day in Bulgaria–hard to believe.

Started with a morning run–last one before we head home. It went faster than usual because the hotel was out in the woods–not quite as many photo ops as when next to the beach.

Took a walking tour of Pleven and visited the local art gallery. Another beautiful weather day here in the Balkans.

Next stop was the village of Asenovo (population 200) with a welcome from its mayor. He took us to a Catholic church–apparently less than 1% of Bulgaria is Catholic (which explains the dearth of churches) but most of Asenovo is, thus this an active church. The local priest, who is actually from Poland, stopped by to say hello.

We then stopped at the town hall and the public library before adjourning to the mayor’s home, where his wife ( a force of nature) gave a cooking demonstration and then served us all a huge meal.

After the meal, they looked for volunteers to try on traditional folk costumes. When a 2nd person was clearly not stepping forward, I took one for the team and let them dress me. I certainly hope I get some extra points in Heaven for that one as it ended up including more Bulgarian folk dancing. I was approximately 187 degrees when they finally got me out of that outfit.

In a positive development, Dan got dragged out to don some menswear (which was about 10% of what I had on). Even better, we sent photos to Erin & Dom and told them we were set for wedding wear. They are now officially scared

Final stop…back in Sofia. Funny, we left 8 days ago and it seems like more than a month. So much packed into these past 11 days.

Final group dinner 18 stories above the city with a panoramic view. Good food, better conversation, felt too short knowing we are heading out at 3:30 tomorrow morning and won’t get to see anyone at breakfast. Said our goodbyes when we got back to the hotel.

Wow, I really hate this part, but it’s a sign it was a great time, you don’t regret leaving if it wasn’t a whole lot of fun.

Tomorrow…the trek back…

16,791 steps, 8.9 miles.