Happy Easter....(A week and some change late)

So Happy Easter folks. And I know all of you are thinkin what the hell am I on, cuz Waster was a week and some change ago. But Since the Bulgarians go by the Orthodox Catholic calendar, Waster is a week after we celebrate it in the States. And one of the things that I actually like about BG is that it is still so rich in culture and tradition. On Easter EVERYONE young and old paints eggs. But eggs are only painted on Thursdays or Staurdays (damned if I know why). The first egg painted MUST be red, symbolic of Christ's blood. A really nice bread called Kozunak (which I am not particularly keen on) is made and lamb is eaten on Sunday. Also, when the clock strikes 12 AM on saturday, most Bulgarians go to church, light candles, and walk around the church 3 times. They also walk down the street holding the candles too. Its kinda cool.
I dont know what anyone else does for Easter, but when I was younger I went to church and dressed up all pretty and died egss. But as I got older, I stopped dying eggs, and going to Easter Egg hunts, and basically stopped going to church. I cant remember my mom cooking anything special for Easter, but I remember there being a nice dinner.
I was invited on Saturday over to my program director's house for lunch. I brought a nice bottle of wine, and we ate salad, and some other Bulgarian food including lamb. After, her son, daughter and I went for a bike ride. We left about 2 and I didnt get home til about 7:45 NO LIE. We biked in the rain to a nearby (well not THAT nearby) town and met up with a friend of their's. She was nice. We stopped at her house for a bit then biked a lil bit further before we decided we were all dead tired and should turn around. It was a great workout. Honestly I really had to check myself a few times. I kept gettin caught up in that city girl mentality.
First off, to go biking I wore my Airmax sneakers. I thought we were gonna bike ride around the town, you know along the street or in the park. But we were on the grass and had to go through dirt and stuff. Then the rain didnt help matters at all. We came to this one place where the grown my split, like a hurricane ran through it and created a rift. To get from one side to the other we had to get off the bikes and walk over a whole bunch of dirt and mud. You know I almost caught a heart attack. I didnt want my kicks to get messed up, and I damn sure didnt want to slip and fall and get all dirty. I made it over tho! *whew, wipes hand across forehead*
Before we got to the friends house we had to bike almost 10 Kilometers (dont know the conversion, but look it up if your so interested) and I thought I would die. IT was fun goin down the hills and feeling the wind in my face and feeling carefree. But then after a while I just got tired and going up the hills was no walk in the park. But I made it!
Overall we stopped often enough for me to catch my breath and get my energy back to keep on biking. I would do it again, altho I was worried what the daughter and son thought of me after hearing me complain about the bugs, rain, gettin dirty, being tired, near death, etc.