Snow has always amazed me. Made of small, intricate crystals falling from the sky, it has always been fascinating to observe the snowflake’s beauty. I recently got a new macro lens, capable of extremely up-close photography. Perfect for capturing the near microscopic detail in your average snowflake:

There are about 1 quintillion water molecules in your average snowflake. That’s a million million, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. So small, but always unique in its formation and appearance that no two snowflake are ever alike. Snowflakes are almost always 6-sided and form only at specific temperatures in the sky. About -10 to -15 C is when the largest and most beautiful ones form. These ones are smaller, as the temperature that day was warmer, around -5 C. Even still, they fascinate me to no end:

Next time it’s snowing, and trillions of snowflakes are falling through the sky, take a moment and reflect on the beauty held within each one. You’ll find the world just might become a more beautiful place.

On Saturday, the Barrie Photography Club met up at the lakeshore for an outing – to take photos of the Christmas lights display, the city at night and anything else that might have caught our eye. I probably haven’t mentioned it, but I have been elected to the Executive Committee of the club, with the title of Director of Speakers and Events. An important job, something I will definitely make the time for. Anyhow, here is a photo I took that evening:

The weather was great, very crisp and clear. We stayed out for about an hour, and probably around a dozen people showed up. Great turnout considering the temperature! Here’s another shot:

A few of us made one last stop across to the south shore (at the aptly-named South Shore Centre) to take a few shots of the city skyline. I only took one photo here. I think I got what I was looking for:

It was a great night! Hopefully I can take more photos soon, it felt good to get out and use the camera again.

Desi’s day started well before mine. She has her operation for some minor oral surgery on this morning, and very graciously let me sleep in. When she arrived back she was still frozen and fell asleep for a bit. The pain got worse as the day progressed, but with ice pack in hand she was determined to show me more of the city – so that is exactly what we did. One of the places we visited on this day was Desi’s old highschool:

The school specializes in the fine arts, as you can clearly see from the outside of the building. Its quite a beautiful building, no matter what angle you look at it:

Inside the building, we visited some of Desi’s old classrooms. The building was under renovations and none of her teachers were there to visit with, but we were still allowed to wander around the halls freely. We went to one of Desi’s old classrooms, and Desi sat down in (I think) her old desk for this photo:

And here is a view of the rest of the classroom:

The school was wonderful to visit, especially because of all the stories that Desi was sharing during the visit. It was wonderful to learn more about Bulgaria, about her past and about the many random things we saw on the walls. It was a lot of fun!

We then headed out for lunch and ate at a very nice buffet-style place. Once again I was trying new and different food, some I enjoyed and some I didn’t (no photos this time though). I am always up for trying new foods so every day was an adventure on our trip. The atmosphere in the restaurant was wonderful,and I’m a little upset I didn’t take a photo here. Desi deserves the recognition for finding it.

There seems to be a gap in my memory for this day. We may have gone to visit Desi’s friend Michaela again on this day as well, which was a great visit (her little daughter is simply adorable) but I have no pictures to show me what day this happened on. Oops!

Later that day we met up with more friends. Nasi ang her sister Grozi, Eli and her boyfriend, and Desi and I all went out on the town. We went for a wonderful walk and talk (though I didn’t do much of the talking) through a small amusement park, the same one with the bumper cars. The sun was setting as we walked, down to the sea shore to look for a place to eat. We found the same place we ate the night before, Godzila, and sat down and enjoyed a great meal:

Desi was quite the talker, even though she had surgery earlier that day. It was easy to see how much she loved spending time with her friends, and I did too – they are all wonderful people. SHe was sitting next to Eli:

and across from Grozi:

and of course very close beside me :

Everyone we met this day was wonderful, and even though Desi was in pain she was still cheerful and the day ended well. We’re getting near the end of our adventure at this point, but there is still much more to share for the following days!

We had a few plans for this day, all of which we accomplished. Our morning started with breakfast at a place that Desi brought me to. We started with pizza and finished with the Bulgarian version of an éclair which was delicious. We noticed a kitten near the restaurant, which we were told was sick. We gave the poor thing some food and headed on our way:

Next we visited the internet café to have an update to everyone. I stayed there while Desi had some running around to do, and once I was done we headed to visit Desi’s grandfather in the hospital. He had just undergone an operation to correct a hernia and was recovering well. The visit was brief but important – he really appreciated it.

We also had to visit Desi’s best friend Nasi’s mom, who was in the hospital for cancer. We wanted to bring flowers, so we set out to find some. Leaving the hospital in search of flowers, we found this little guy:

The poor thing was meowing under a park bench. On the bench was a shoe box, with cat feces – our best guess is someone left the kitten in the box. It was likely scared and stayed in the box, and eventually pushed its way out and was too afraid to leave the area around the bench. This was where we found him, and we had to help.

Desi picked him up and we headed to a nearby store looking for milk. No milk here, so we headed across the street to another store. This one not only had milk, but it also had a small community of cats outside. We fed the hungry little kitten:

And we noticed an older man feeding and taking care of the cats. I asked Desi to tell him about the new kitten and maybe to take care of him. We hope that the little kitten found a new home, and headed on our way to find flowers.

We found them, and just in time. We had to hurry back to the hospital because the visiting hours were ending soon. Half way back, Desi realized she forgot her bags there. I stayed with our things while Desi ran back, and then we both ran to the hospital to be there just in time.

The visit with Nasi and her mom was good. Sad at times, and we were laughing at others. Great memories were shared and the visit was very meaningful for everyone. I hate to say it, but Nasi’s mom has since passed away. She was an amazing woman and will be dearly missed by anyone that has ever known her. Desi says that to her, Nasi’s mother was a hero. She was so much in pain but smiled and laughed and didn’t think of herself. Such a wonderful woman. May she rest in peace.

We walked with Nasi to work, and she got there just on time. We stayed for a bit and bought her pizza for dinner at the grocery store she was working in at the time. We then headed back to the apartment as we had to meet more of Desi’s friends later that evening:

We had a great time with them, and great conversations. Their English was conversational, so I was able to talk a bit myself as well (I’m sure Desi appreciated this so she had enough time to eat ).

After dinner Desi and I decided to go for a walk. it was dark out by now, and in the a square near the sundial was this woman, dancing with fire:

We watched her performance, and then headed off for a treat – Desi brought me to a place selling cotton candy (which Desi cutely thought I hadn’t tried before) which we shared as we walked to a small amusement park. We played a round of bumper cars (I think I won ) and then walked and talked all the way home. It was a wonderful evening and a wonderful day.

Even though we were back in Varna, our adventure still continued!

Our morning was long and uneventful. We passed the time talking, playing games and sleeping a little. We weren’t the only ones waiting overnight in the airport, there were many others who seemed prepared to do this on every leg of their journey – sleeping bags and all. After a while we headed back to the upstairs level where the check-ins are, and watched patiently as our check-in time slowly approached. Finally it came, and we were allowed to move through to the secure part of the airport – the part with comfortable reclining chairs that would have come in real handy over the previous eight hours.

The terminal we were leaving from was becoming familiar – it would be the second of three visits to the same row of seats. It wasn’t long before we were boarding the plane and heading to Sofia, Bulgaria. The adventure continues, because we still had no idea how to get from the airport to the bus terminal, and didn’t have tickets to get from Sofia to Varna (the other side of the country).

We met a woman on the plane that was making the same journey as us, so luckily we were able to find our way without much effort. We stopped in the bus station to eat lunch and I was surprised to find this:

One of my favourite beverages! Long since unavailable in Canada, but it is still very easy to get in Europe it seems – it’s a shame I only realized this after three weeks!

The bus arrived and we almost missed it – they thankfully waited for us and we were on our way. The trip was interesting for me, as I love the countryside views. The total trip across the country was around 5-6 hours if I recall correctly, and we arrived in Varna in the late afternoon. The woman we met on the plane was still helping us – her family that was picking her up from the bus terminal in Varna offered to drive us home as well – an offer that we graciously accepted.

We didn’t rest long. We decided to head out down to the shore and find a place to eat. It was quite an interesting strip, with sights like this not uncommon:

The food we ended up deciding on was delicious, and Desi’s aunt spotted us during dinner. It was a wonderful surprise as we hadn’t yet told anyone that we were back in town. By the time we finished it was dark, and time to head to bed – but one more stop first:

This is a cocktail bar that sits at the very top of a large hotel overlooking the city. We had seen it many times before and decided we might not have another chance to see the view on this trip – so up we went. I ordered an interesting drink and so did Desi. We sat and talked a bit as we looked out at this spectacular view:

We were both exhausted and ready for a good night’s rest, so we went back to the apartment for just that, on the way planning what tomorrow would bring.