On the 6th day we slept until our 4 year old alarm clock woke us up, ate breakfast, and got ready for the day. This morning, Grace enjoyed helping Daddy shave and even got a little shaving cream of her own. After a quick lunch we headed out for Sofia. Grace loved riding in the taxi that we caught on Vitosha, especially since the driver put in a music CD of Bulgarian children's songs just for her. Our first stop was the US Embassy to get that photo opportunity that we missed...
Well, we arrived on this snowy morning and took three wonderful pictures with the Embassy in the background just as a security agent came out and told us we would have to delete the photos. He pointed to a no cameras sign, that was covered with snow so you couldn't see what it said. He was very nice, though, and we explained why we were taking pictures. He volunteered to take pictures of all 3 of us facing away from the building, so we had to settle for that.
Then we went to one of the most impressive sights, Alexander Nevski Cathedral, just so that Grace knows someday that she was there. This church is so beautiful both inside and out. It is a definite not-to-be-missed opportunity. As we were leaving the church, we noticed that the craft vendors had their shops set up still, on December 20th in the snow. We decided to give them a little bit of business as we passed and we bought Grace a pair of hand-crocheted traditional children's slippers and three hand embroidered eggs with Bulgarian designs. The eggs have a real egg shell inside that is covered with fabric.
Then we started realizing that the temperature was dropping and the traffic was increasing. We really wanted to get Grace inside. Because the orphanages don't have warm clothes for the children, she has not been outside very much in cold weather, so we really didn't want her to get chilled. The problem is that rush hour is starting, people are flooding the streets with last minute shopping just like in the states, and we don't have any idea where to easily locate a taxi. It seemed that every taxi we found was already full. We finally ducked into a clothing store and a Bulgarian Chinese restaurant to warm up while we searched. Eventually, we did get a cab back to our street, and Mark and I were wishing that we had enough milk for hot chocolate. Daddy decided that this was a must and trudged back outside to the corner store for milk and chocolate mix.
Grace was fine when he left and waved "bye-bye," but then she became worried and started knocking on the door and saying, "Daddy, ella" which means "Daddy, come here." We finally went to the window and started watching for Daddy to return. She pointed to everyone on the street with expectancy until Daddy finally put the key into the lock. The wonderful hot chocolate wasn't nearly as good as having Daddy home again.
Tonight Grace started playing hide and seek with her feet covering her face. She is amazingly flexible and can touch her feet easily to her nose or lay down forward flat onto her legs. She laughs and laughs at bath time.
Before we went to bed we got almost everything packed up to leave. We want to make sure we are ready to go at 12:00 noon tomorrow.
In front of the US Embassy in Sofia
Across the street from Alexander Nevski Cathedral
Downtown Sofia with Daddy
Glad to be back at the apartment
A warm bath and some hot chocolate...yeah!
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