Adventure in Europe

I am leaving the country on Wednesday heading first for Tirana, Albania. We will be spending several days there and I am most interested in seeing this country. It was completely isolated during the cold war and politically they tended to align themselves with China until the death of Mao. At that point, they basically closed the borders and did not allow anyone in.

Then I am heading to Athens, Greece. I could not be in that part of the world and not go to Athens. Unfortunately I will not have time to go to the out islands but look forward to seeing Athens. Plus some good authentic Greek food. My father in law was born in Greece and came to America (legally through Ellis Island) in the early 1900s. He fought in WWI and became a citizen. He went to law school and came to Winston Salem to work for the VA as an adjudicator. I never met him but he seemed to be quite the guy. Learned English and was very well spoken. So by marriage, Greece is my home country.

Then we are on to Sofia, Bulgaria and up to American University of Bulgaria in Blageovard for a conference/reunion of the BFTF fellows. We have almost 180 folks coming for this four day event. Loads of panels and loads of visiting. Afterwards, we are going to stay for a day and see Sofia. I was there once and was impressed but only had about 3 hours to see the sights. This time I will have a day and half.

Then home and as hard as it is to believe, it will be August and time to start preparing for the school year.

I did purchase a new cell -- a Blackberry Storm which is a global phone. So once I figure out how to use the global apps I will be in good shape.

I hope to keep this blog up once I get on the road. In a sense it will be my diary -- I have learned if you don't write down something every day you tend to forget what all you saw and did.