Hospitals of Varna

7/27/2009

The last day in Bulgaria I had a SAS program at 12:30, and Jon had one at noon, so we decided to spend the morning together so no one else would have to come back to the ship early.  Jon’s camera had broken and so we went in search of a camera shop.  We got to a street that had some restaurants, touristy shops, and a few blocks down, the large word “FOTO” on the outside of a store pointed us in the right direction.  We walked in to the shop, and were very relieved when the girl working there spoke English.  He purchased one of the cameras, and we set back out to spend the end of our lev (the currency of Bulgaria).  We headed back to the ship for lunch at 11:15. 
My afternoon trip was called “Hospitals of Varna”, and we were taken on tours of two different hospitals, one the public university hospital,  and the other was a much smaller, private hospital.  We were shown around by medical students, and given a presentation by the health care director.  Health care is definitely different, as are regulations to do with confidentiality and cleanliness.  It was a very interesting trip though, and something that most travelers don’t get to see – at least not in happy circumstances.  We got back to the ship around 4pm, and had two hours until on ship time.  I didn’t want to go far and risk getting back late, so I dropped off my stuff, and headed into the port building to attempt to get free wifi.  It worked, but not well.  It would go very fast and work fine, then suddenly disconnect my computer.  After several failed attempts at uploading pictures, I decided to throw in the towel.  I shut down my computer, and headed over to the vending machine.  I still had 5 lev I had not managed to spend in the morning, and so I put it toward snacks, which I feel will be very nice to have on the long periods of time at sea we have coming up.
After the ship had left the port, I went to a party with my extended family.  My adopted parent’s biological son had moved rooms, and was having an ice cream cake celebration.  The room was tiny, about half the size of the normal cabins, and we still managed to fit 10 people in it!  It was a “Congratulations on your new digs” celebration according to the cake, and it was a lot of fun.  After that, it was time for homework, and then to bed early.