I wrote this and the next post last week. I guess I sent them to a nonexistent email so here we go again.
From: Adrian Francisco at Semester at sea
Sent: Mon 7/25/2011 6:44 PM
To: ukuleleadrian.postgamerport@blogspot.com
Subject: Varna Day 1/Nessebar Day- toe is messed up, and Thank You Hang Vuong
More on that later.
The first day in Varna was pretty pedestrian. We got off the ship, made our way into town, and checked out the sites. The real highlight of the city is its main church, the Church of the Assumption fo the Virgin, certainly one of the grandest churches I've ever seen. (It's no Italian cathedral though...) Beautiful gold onion-shaped domes on the exterior and simple, yet powerful orthodox imagery on the interior.
We also checked out some markets. We walked past Billa, which is the biggest market place in town, with rows upon rows of different fruits and vegetables. There were also clothes shops. Safe to say I didn't buy anything.
In the evening, we went to a concert in the Roman Thermae. It was a percussion ensemble concert, not unlike those I've seen at River Hill. But it was dynamic in that they used placement of the instruments throughout the ancient bathhouse to mess with their sound. Unfortunately we showed up late and couldn't get a seat on the inside, we watched from outside.
Today, we tried going to Cape... I don't even know how to spell it. But when we got to the bus station we learned taht there was no way to get there. Improvising, we decided to go to Nessebar, which is south of Varna. It is an ancient town surrounded by walls and separated from the mainland by a bridge. Its buildings are quite old, and its medieval churches, while no longer functioning, and some turned into ruins, are pretty well preserved. We looked around the towns various shops and we went to the nearby beach, which to my dismay included a lot of seaweed. But no doubt we enjoyed ourselves.
Oh, about the toe. So after we got back and after we got dinner, we went to the beach to hang out. To put it in short, someone tapped me and said "Tag you're it." When I realized what was going on, I dashed toward the next person as if I was a linebacker tracking down a runningback. The difference between me and the regular linebacker is I was playing on a beach while not wearing shoes while in the dark. Also, there was a big rock. So next thing I know my toe is snagged on the rock and I tumbled into the sand. And then I agonized in pain, not from being hurt from the fall, but being warped by the tripping. My toe hurt. I thought I just stubbed it or somethign like that, but it became apparent that it was worse.
God bless Hang Vuong. Immediately after I turned onto my back, she came right over and looked at my toe, barked orders at our friends, and began doing everything from elevating my leg to cleaning the wound, to wrapping to wound, to applying pressure, to messaging my lower leg so that I wouldn't lose feeling there. She's already done so much for the group in terms of both planning what we were doing and talking with the locals, even when she has little to no knowledge of the languages except "Hello" and "Thank you". Next thing you know, she's playing emergency doctor. No words can express my gratitude. I am blessed to have such a friend on this voyage.
After Victor and Veronica walked me like crutches back to the ship, I got looked at by the infemery, and I finally got a good look at the wound. It's nasty.About half the skin on the bottom of the toe is peeled off. It's bleeding. The pain was not indicative of how severe it looks. (But believe me, I'll live.) The Filipino nurse on duty cleaned the wound properly, which stung like nothing else, and then wrapped it with Band-Aid and tape.
Now I'm going to bed.
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