Thanksgiving in Plovdiv

We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner made mostly by Erin, and Jacob made rolls from scratch. We had mashed potatoes, green beans, chicken, gravy, stuffing, rolls, and water. For dessert we had apple crisp and chocolate pudding cake. We have many, many things to be thankful for, and talked about that before, during, and after the meal, alongside the eating, general silliness, and partial chaos. Here we are before beginning.

That morning Seth and I went for a run east along the south side of the Maritsa River, and entering into the Izgrev neighborhood encountered the delightful sight of these apparently unattended horses grazing on grass in the median of the 4-lane road:

On the way home we found an advertisement that was fun to read in Cyrillic because of the final word: ресторант · градина · барбекю = restaurant · garden · barbecue. Here is Seth in front of it sporting my brother Charlie's venerable Ethel Boyes Track t-shirt from Idaho Falls:

Near us in the old town are some ancient Greek columns I don't know anything about:

This is a kind of grave headstone I hadn't seen before, in the cemetery:

Here at the edge of the cemetery is a demonstration of how many types of wall you can get into a small space. This was the back side of someone's house:

A couple of days ago when it was sunny out, Erin and I went for a walk up on Nebet Tepe again, one of my favorite nearby places. From here you can see the two largest hills of Plovdiv and the city and surrounding mountains:

As we walked around town a bit we came upon this hilarious advertisement which advertises a "quinoa revolution" that I suppose I should consider supporting with what blood and treasure I have to offer:

One of the "subways" (to use the British term), a series of walkways underneath a large intersection, has some great tile art showing several of the names of Plovdiv, and paintings of nice old buildings.

Here we have Philippopolis and Пловдив (Plovdiv):

And here Филибе (Filibe) and Пълдин (Puldin):

Jacob, Phin, and I went for a run northwest on the north side of the Maritsa River:

I suggest they consider this photo for their next album cover:

We ended up at a high school that focuses on languages. It had a couple of abandoned buildings, some nice artwork, and students walking between other buildings to classes:

On the north side of Nebet Tepe is a really fancy house we walk by sometimes, with its own stone driveway, large garage, nice sculpted trees, etc.:

That's all for now.