August began with the arrival of a new companion, a dog that we found on the streets of Shipka. We decided to call him “Nathan” in memory of our old friend. We give him food and water, he follows us everywhere in Shipka.
We have continued to work on the roof, changing the bad planks to new ones before leaving for a few days to visit Greece.
We decided to go to Samothraki island. The journey ahead was long but it was worth it. We took the train from Kazanlak to Svilengrad then crossed the border by foot and walked to the village of Ormenio. We then took the train from Ormenio to Alexandroupolis, and then the ferry to Samothraki island.
It is one of the most beautiful places we have visited in our lives, a natural place with waterfalls, beaches and mountains. We hitchhiked from Kamariotissa to the free camping “Natural living” where we slept for 3 days. We were happy to find how the welcoming the Greek people were.
When we came back to Shipka we started to clean the museum grounds, moving the bad planks to the chitaliste and removing the broken tiles etc. After that we started painting the wooden structure at the front of the museum. We were lucky to be helped by two experts from Shipka, Nasko and Marian, the husband of Daphina. They added the covering to the roof, tiled it, and installed the gutters.
The roof was ready just before the Shipka Fest. The condition of the roof of the chitaliste is also in very bad shape so we went to Enina to collect materials, boards and beams.
The month of August ended with the arrival of a new volunteer, Lillian-Beth from England. She will stay for 5 months in Shipka.
Welcome to Bulgaria Lillian-Beth.