Trip to the aqua park in Blagoevgrad

Goran from Macedonia and I

The weather here has been horribly hot around 100 and a trip to the aqua park is a must in this situation. =) So on Friday a group of us, caught a taxi and for around 2 leva made it to the water park. The entrance fee was 5 leva and I was very surprised at how nice it was. There was techno music playing pretty much the whole time, and a couple slides to go on. Unfortunately because of my hand I got to just stand in the pool keeping my left hand in the air. I'm sure I looked funny. Hopefully before the weather turns bad again I'll be able to visit.

 As I'm visiting water parks, eating out in cafes and living in a pretty nice dorm with 24 hour security. I can’t help but think about the other side of Bulgaria. For example today in Sofia I was talking to a Bulgarian who is the head of a certain sports federation (without going into detail) the stories of the corruption, and shooting in Sofia reinforced what I had read about before coming. He was telling me how the EU gives money to Bulgaria for integration of the Roma population, but that the money is just taken by the officials. I know the EU is poring money into Bulgaria, all around there’s signs with the EU logo and saying things like "funded by EU" such as road construction. But as your sitting and eating gelato across the way from Cartier, Swarovski and there’s a BMW parked in front of where your sitting its pretty easy to forget about the other side of Bulgaria. On the other hand all of the animals on the streets, the children asking for money, and all the little old ladies trying to sell you flowers to subsidize their state pensions bring you to the reality of Bulgaria. To say the least Bulgaria is in a sticky situation where a lot of the educated are going abroad to actually make a living, corruption is high, and the standards of this country are not up to the EU. As a tourist I think this place would be great to go, but living here I’m beginning to understand what’s under the mask.