So, we've reached our halfway point on kickstarter, $3,046 of our $6,000 goal. There are 19 days left to donate if you wish to do so here!
Meanwhile, Ryan and I have made our way one continent closer to Central Asia, to Greece. We arrived in Thessaloniki yesterday and our wonderful hosts, Ermis and Angeliki, took us right away up to their mountain home in Panagitsa near the border with Macedonia. It's beautiful here and we spent the day driving around the mountains, swimming in some hot springs, and cooking delicious meals from their garden. Tomorrow we'll return to Thessaloniki and meet Mette, who's flying in from Norway so that we can go to Istanbul and get our visas! And today we got our LOIs (letter of invitation) for Uzbekistan, which means we can apply and hopefully get the visas in a day. It's a complicated process...one for a separate blog post.
Before Greece, our first point of arrival was Sofia, Bulgaria, where we waited several days for our luggage to come (we were delayed in Chicago and missed our connection in Brussels...then we got rerouted on Alitalia, which everyone has told us is the worst for losing luggage...) First thing out of the airport in Sofia we got "controlled" on the bus heading downtown (we didn't know how to buy a ticket). The two ladies kicked us off the bus and luckily we found ourselves right next to a currency exchange stand where we got Bulgarian leva to pay our fine. Still by the time we left Sofia we hadn't figured out exactly how the public transportation works.
From Sofia we hitched a ride south with a nice old man who spoke German with me, then caught another ride with Ivan, who drove out of his way to take us closer to the Greek border and hooked us up with a hotel room within walking distance. After checking in, we walked down the road towards the lights up ahead, in search of food. We finally found a food stand close to the border, and two kind women (seemingly a mother and her daughter) patiently helped us figure out what we wanted to order. It took some difficulties to finally get our sandwiches (with a nice big chunk of Bulgarian feta in there). Once we did and we sat down to eat, I took one bite and figured out that the meat was barely cooked. I went back to them and tried to explain, but they insisted "no problem, no problem". They showed us the bag with the frozen meat inside. We didn't want to take chances, so we ate everything but the meat and left it in the trash. I waved goodbye to the girl in the stand, she waved back and then leaned over to look in the trash...shoot... We ran back to the hotel, got stuck in a thunderstorm, waited it out in a gas station amongst smiling Bulgarians, finally made it back to the hotel, and were immediately hit up by the owner for more money than we had expected...we barely had enough to pay and emptied our pockets of all but 90 Bulgarian stotinki (cents). The next day I was happy to leave Bulgaria, cross the border on foot, and catch a ride straight to Thessaloniki.
I can't wait to start rehearsing some of our new compositions and arrangements once we get to Istanbul. June 1st we play at Nardis, a really nice jazz club in Beyoglu right beneath the Galata Tower. We'll update again after the gig!
Meanwhile, Ryan and I have made our way one continent closer to Central Asia, to Greece. We arrived in Thessaloniki yesterday and our wonderful hosts, Ermis and Angeliki, took us right away up to their mountain home in Panagitsa near the border with Macedonia. It's beautiful here and we spent the day driving around the mountains, swimming in some hot springs, and cooking delicious meals from their garden. Tomorrow we'll return to Thessaloniki and meet Mette, who's flying in from Norway so that we can go to Istanbul and get our visas! And today we got our LOIs (letter of invitation) for Uzbekistan, which means we can apply and hopefully get the visas in a day. It's a complicated process...one for a separate blog post.
Before Greece, our first point of arrival was Sofia, Bulgaria, where we waited several days for our luggage to come (we were delayed in Chicago and missed our connection in Brussels...then we got rerouted on Alitalia, which everyone has told us is the worst for losing luggage...) First thing out of the airport in Sofia we got "controlled" on the bus heading downtown (we didn't know how to buy a ticket). The two ladies kicked us off the bus and luckily we found ourselves right next to a currency exchange stand where we got Bulgarian leva to pay our fine. Still by the time we left Sofia we hadn't figured out exactly how the public transportation works.
From Sofia we hitched a ride south with a nice old man who spoke German with me, then caught another ride with Ivan, who drove out of his way to take us closer to the Greek border and hooked us up with a hotel room within walking distance. After checking in, we walked down the road towards the lights up ahead, in search of food. We finally found a food stand close to the border, and two kind women (seemingly a mother and her daughter) patiently helped us figure out what we wanted to order. It took some difficulties to finally get our sandwiches (with a nice big chunk of Bulgarian feta in there). Once we did and we sat down to eat, I took one bite and figured out that the meat was barely cooked. I went back to them and tried to explain, but they insisted "no problem, no problem". They showed us the bag with the frozen meat inside. We didn't want to take chances, so we ate everything but the meat and left it in the trash. I waved goodbye to the girl in the stand, she waved back and then leaned over to look in the trash...shoot... We ran back to the hotel, got stuck in a thunderstorm, waited it out in a gas station amongst smiling Bulgarians, finally made it back to the hotel, and were immediately hit up by the owner for more money than we had expected...we barely had enough to pay and emptied our pockets of all but 90 Bulgarian stotinki (cents). The next day I was happy to leave Bulgaria, cross the border on foot, and catch a ride straight to Thessaloniki.
I can't wait to start rehearsing some of our new compositions and arrangements once we get to Istanbul. June 1st we play at Nardis, a really nice jazz club in Beyoglu right beneath the Galata Tower. We'll update again after the gig!
Our hotel in Bulgaria near the Greek border
Ermis' balcony in Thessaloniki