Rosa

While walking to dinner, a woman approached us and frenetically started talking about lasers. Being three seasoned travelers, we immediately identified this as a well-practiced scam of some sort...everyone knows Americans love lasers.  Clearly, this is the classic Ol' Laser Con.

But, she's persistent...and pushy.  Through her piecemeal English we surmise that there are lasers at a cathedral, and it's starting right away.  Staying skeptical, we try to determine how much this is gonna cost us.  She says its free.  "Why would you come to Veliko Turnovo and not see the Wednesday laser show?"  Being unable to answer this riddle, we reluctantly decide to follow her...

Problem is, she takes off running like a damn antelope.  Three healthy males are having a hard time keeping up with this elderly pensioner.  What the hell do they feed old people in this country!  (Curt may be right, they all just look old due to chain smoking and rakia.)

Suddenly, out of nowhere, her husband is jogging next to us, and the route is leading down into some dark alleys.  Now, our skepticism turns into a bit of fear as the odds just increased that we're not only going to lose some money, but probably a few kidneys.

But, we don't have much time to dwell on this, because the next thing we know she is flying up a flight of stairs like Rocky Balboa.  At the top, we see this:

It was pretty darn cool.  The buildings on the hill would light up, coordinated with music, telling a story of the history of Bulgaria.  Rosa explains, "red is blood," "flash is war, bomb," "this part Russia and Turks fight," "after this, I take you to best restaurant in Turnovo."

How can we decline?  So, we follow her and she tells us she rents out rooms to tourists.  She lists them off, including Tim ____, Vice President, Bank of America.  "He gave me his card."

Eventually, we realize she's taking us to the restaurant at which we had lunch after the failed St. George expedition.  We all get a laugh when Rosa realizes we already know her friend Nadia.

We buy Rosa, Nadia, and Alex a drink as she shouts to the bartender to turn up the music.  "Do you have Elvis?" She tells us communism was bad because she couldn't get different flavors of ice cream. We buy her an ice cream.

She talks non-stop.  Her husband paints and has his paintings around the world.  She speaks Esperanto.  (Kevin says that's like finding a unicorn.)  She speaks some for us...we have it on video.  She thinks our hotel is Ok, but if an earthquake comes, it's not structurally sound.  We tell her we are going to the coast tomorrow.  She is angry at our choice of Sozopol.  She repeats over and over, "Sozopol is village.  Nessebar is beautiful! Best food. Like Greece.  Lamb.  Many churches. Miracle."

Today, we're off to Nessebar.