Sofia

We left Kazanlak early on Thursday to return to Sofia. We went to the U.S. embassy, where the security was tight but the people were very welcoming and surroundings felt like home (especially the restrooms with automatic flushing toilets and faucets!). We received a warm welcome by the U.S. Embassador of Bulgaria and other employees of the embassy, whom we played a short program for.

The embassy held a wine and hors 'devours reception after the concert; it was refreshing to meet new people at this point of the trip that we could communicate well with.

The group gathered one last time Thursday evening at a restaurant near the hotel, where we reminisced about our trip and were thanked kindly by David for our cooperation and hard work. We also thanked David for his tremendous amount of time and work that he put into the trip and surprized him with a tambura that he had his eye on in Plovdiv when we stumbled upon the factory of a local luthier.

I think we can all agree that the performance experiences, friendships that we have strengthened, and things that we have learned and experienced from this trip will be something that we will never forget.