March 24, 2026
Sleep was as expected when I’m not home. There are moments of deep sleep, and then moments of tossing and turning, staring into the darkness, and wondering what my family is doing back home. In any case, I was up before the sun rose and prepared for the day.
The first thing I do no matter where I am at, is make the bed. I know I’m in a hotel, and technically housekeeping can do this, but it is a habit I formed early on and prefer to own the task of making the bed in which I slept in than having someone else do it. After that, I brushed my teeth and my hair and got dressed to review the agenda for the day. Packing my crossbody with the things that I wanted to bring, pen, notebook, necessary medical needs, and the usual chapstick and hand cream were essential items, then I headed downstairs to grab a bite before we leave.
By the time I got to the restaurant, a group of my classmates were already seated and having breakfast. Breakfast was a robust spread of a typical English/American/ Bulgarian continental breakfast. We quickly obtained the morsels we needed for the day and met Dr. Bieri in the lobby to set off to Bulgaria’s National museum of History. We had a set time to enter and our tour guide, Todor, was ready with a brief overview of where we are going, what we will see, and took care in how he would guide us through the museum. The gate that we passed through could only accommodate pedestrians despite the vast space between the gate and the museum and the large walk ways that led up to the museum’s entrance. The left walk ways was adorned with ancient stones from the 2nd and 3rd century AD each having a different origin or purpose that was fascinating to see and read about. After dropping off our coats and bags on the first floor, we walked up the stairs into a beautiful opulent space where the first landing joined four stairways, three that lead up to different areas of the museum, and one that leads down which is where we came from.
Todor took us through the museum from the oldest to the newest. It honestly gave us a better
picture into Bulgaria’s history and was intriguing to learn about. The first picture in the museum was eloquently described to us by Todor of the significance of the photo. It was a picture of an ancient grave, one of the oldest found in Bulgaria. What I found most interesting, based on Todor’s explanation of the photo, is the different metals and materials that were found at the grave site. As Todor explained to us, gold was found but at that time, gold was not valuable, it was just a metal that could be found at the riverbanks. Additionally copper was found but copper mines were not close to the site of the burial site. So how did the copper get there?
But the most valuable material of all were the shells. Since shells were not plentiful, shells were considered valuable. As we moved through the museum, stopping at notable exhibits, you can see the transition of the materials’ value and the shift they take when man decides that gold is most valuable. What they use gold on and how they manipulate it to create things for their needs.
Another interesting aspect of this museum is how I found certain things that stemmed from Asian culture. For example, there was a Jade buckle from Asia and Chinese porcelain made into a bowl.
The most interesting findings were references to the first Bulgarian Khans and the use of the lunar calendar. Readings reflect that Bulgaria’s culture stemmed from Central Asia. I asked Todor this but what I didn’t get the feeling that Todor’s knowledge of Bulgaria extended to how Asia influenced Bulgarian culture. One of the things I’m bound to do is to see how and when Asia’s influence started and in what manner.
After the museum, we headed to one of the oldest church’s in Bulgaria, the Boyana Church. It is a small
church that reflects three centuries of different styles of architecture inside and out. You can see the exterior of the building, the distinction on the old church, the styles of how it was built with different materials and influences of that century. Once inside the church the visit is timed, a group can only be in for 15 minutes and once the bell rings, you must leave. It was so interesting to see the frescas inside the church. There were areas of frescas that were painted and then chipped away revealing a different type of Fresca underneath from prior centuries.
What was unique about this site, outside of the historical value is the notable Sequoia trees on property which originated from the US. There were three in total, supposedly gifts to the queen at the time. This is also the site of Eleonar Reuss of Kostritz burial, the queen. She was the wife of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria. They called the yard a garden but it was not a garden that one would think of traditionally but a collection of trees, bushes, and plants that came from diffferent areas of the world. Hence the three sequoia trees presence on property.
I learned during my travels to Japan, that it is disrepectful to take photos of burial sites no matter how beautiful or meaningful it is, so I stopped taking pictures of sites where the dead rest to honor their peace.
From here we headed back to the Hilton where we had a
lively discussion with Stephen Reiter who is the GM of the hotel and from Switzerland. All of us had questions and took away something from the discussion. What I took away from it is that the Hilton does not provide cultural immersion training to its expats. Stephen mentioned an 8 month acclimation period for one of his assignments but there could be value in reducing the time frame with immersion training. It made me think about businesses that receive lots of different cultures from around the world and how those individuals are prepared to receive customers, guests, or business relationships if they are not prepared for it? How can we create more awareness and education to help people adjust and integrate better in a foreign country. Do business find value in this type of training? Would people be receptive to training? All things that intrigue me - one I will incorporate into my own business and research.
After the lunch and learn, we had a brief moment to freshen up before we were due to learn about Bulgarian culture through Dance and attire.
This was a lot of fun! Thank goodness for Liv. She teaches salsa so this was easy for her and she was next to me. I benefited tremendously from being next to her. How she counted it out and spoke out the steps made it a little easier for me to follow along. After learning and doing 4 dances to the beat of Bulgarian music, we were sweaty and exhausted. This helped our appetite out as we were ready to spend the calories at Moma a Bulgarian restaurant. The Rose lemonade and the Pitka at Moma were exceptional! Similar to the pita I had at the Hilton, the pitka bread was also crispy on the outside and soft and warm on the inside. It was an exceptional bread, one I proclaimed as the best I’ve ever had. I had wished, in that moment that Jimmy was with me to experience it. He loves bread. I immediately shared my opinion on the bread with him so I can share the moment even though we’re continents away from one another. I wish I had pictures to share but I was too hungry to remember to take the photo. 🤤
After our meal, Courtney, Leo and I left a tad early to catch a cab back to the hotel. It was a great day! One I’ll never forget.
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