Вечеря с българите!

For those of you who can’t read Cyrillic and don’t know Bulgarian, that means “dinner with the Bulgarians” (well, according to Google Translate, anyway).

We’d been looking forward to dinner with the Bulgarian ski team ever since they had extended the invitation to us last week via Pepa. And I think it exceeded all of our expectations. The Bulgarians know how to travel in style–they brought a cook and a masseuse with them from Bulgaria, as well as boxes of potatoes, carrots, onions, huge cans of Bulgarian olives, jars of smoked peppers, and traditional Bulgarian cheeses. We attempted to explain to them that we wanted to eat together with them even if there weren’t enough seats at the table, but when we arrived they had already eaten and we were shown to the table for a delicious 4-course meal. As they joked and chatted in Bulgarian about how the cook was showing off for us, we were fed cucumber, tomato, and olive salad with a yummy soft cheese that was a little like feta, plus smokey salami and more cheese. Our glasses were filled with Bulgarian red wine and Rakia–a traditional distilled grape drink. Next came a white bean soup with bread, and some sort of Peprika-tasting spice sprinkled on top. The main course was “kebab”, rice with delicious tender slow-cooked pork and mushrooms. For dessert there was an eggy dessert bread with honey on top, as well as some ice cream that we had brought from the store in an attempt to contribute something.

We ate until we were stuffed, and they kept asking us if we wanted more! After dinner, we traded slideshows of pictures from Vermont and Bulgaria, and we assured them that Bulgaria looked awesome and we would definitely come visit sometime soon.

We tried to show our gratitude by saying “blagodarya” (thank you) lots of times. It was a great night out from our little cabins, and a lot of fun, as well as a cultural experience!