Meeting the Group

The group meeting in the coffee shop at our hotel.

Our guide Jordan Hawes.

The Plov restaurant.

A plate of shared meat and vegetables.

Saturday, April 19th.

After we left the pool last night we both felt quite unwell. John was vomiting most of the night and I had a very upset stomach. I assume it was from the snack We had at the side of the road and the tea they gave us. We spent a very quiet day in our room and John slept most of it. I had breakfast but that didn't really agree with my stomach. Reception called and wanted to know why we hadn’t checked out. I had to explain that our reservation switched to being under Adventures Abroad and thankfully we didn’t have to switch rooms. Later reception sent us a small bowl of fruit to apologize for the mixup. If there was a good day to be sick, this was it as we had no plans and the meet up with the tour guide and group wasn’t until six. About 4:30 I went to the pool and swam for a half hour, which felt good.

The last two days of our city wander and visit to the national park were fun but not quite what we were looking to do or see. When we went about town we had difficulty gleaning the information from John’s Lonely Planet guide and using the maps to navigate through the city without the benefit of the language or even the alphabet, as they use the Cyrillic alphabet here which is indecipherable to us. And despite the good reviews on Trip Advisor, the national park was less than spectacular and somewhat disappointing.Therefore we also learned or confirmed what I already knew, that at this stage of my life I prefer tours where a company does all the research about what to see, where to go, where to eat and where to stay. I like to just sign up and go. The pressure is off and the trip is all arranged and guided.

We met Jordan Hawes, our guide in the lobby coffee shop. We are a group of 18, the majority are Canadians, followed by Americans and one Brit. The average age is in the seventies and as you can imagine in this area of the world, is a seasoned group of world travelers. It will be interesting meeting them and traveling with them for the next 35 days. Jordan outlined the trip, expectations and things to note and then introduced us to our first local guide, Sean (his real name is unpronounceable) after which we went to dinner. John decided to give it a pass and rest up. I went. We walked about 15 minutes to a beautiful restaurant called Plov, which is a native dish of rice, meat, carrots and spices. I only had a bread roll as I wanted to give my stomach a rest too. Then Jordan had us picked up by the tour bus and dropped at the hotel. I found John in bed, I followed shortly afterwards.