Saturday with Aliosha in Plovdiv

Yesterday we all went for a walk into town and had a good time.

Some more graffiti for uncle Howard Gribble:

The Plovdiv Spiritual Seminary of Saints Cyril & Methodius (Пловдивска духовна семинария св. св. Кирил и Методий):

We were drawn by the distant sound of excellent Bulgarian folk singing into a political rally of the ГЕРБ party. During speeches there were frequent calls for оставка, which our handy mobile phone dictionary said means “resignation” — they were calling for the whole Bulgarian government to resign and apparently want new elections.

Then Erin and the girls walked home while Jacob, Phin, Seth, and I walked up the hill called Бунарджика (Bunardzhika), which has some interesting ruins on the side on the way up. It looks like maybe a 20th-century reconstruction of an aquaduct:

And a church I don't know anything about:

And some flowering prickly pear:

Near the top is a monument to Russian Emperor Alexander II, commemorating his role in Bulgaria's liberation from Ottoman rule in 1878:

At the very top is a statue everyone (even the maps) call Алъоша (Aliosha), a Soviet / Red Army soldier being praised for liberating the Bulgarians at the end of World War II:

The views out over Plovdiv and the surrounding valley were excellent, since it had rained the night before:

The boys pretended they were in an advertisement for clothes or yachts or something:

On the way down the other side there is an abandoned concessionary or cafe:

On the way home we saw an Evangelical Protestant church, a rarity in these parts: