Varshets in the rain

It didn’t. I mean the nice weather from Central Europe that we hoped would catch up with us…didn’t. We’re not that far away, or? How can the weather be so beautiful in Prague and so awful in Bulgaria, all rainy and cold? Bundled in sweaters, we spend most of our days preparing for our evening presentation in Varshets. Finally in the afternoon, the sun peeks out for a moment. Overjoyed, we spend a short moment sunbathing on the terrace of Diana’s house. Nikolaj even manages to do his laundry – he seems to enjoy the chance to wash his clothes outside, under cold running water, using old-school Bulgarian laundry soap. We arrive in Varshets at around 7 p.m. There is a wedding going on, so traffic is limited where our presentation is supposed to take place and it takes some explaining to the police why we need to drive down the closed street. In the end one of them softens up – thanks in part to our permit from the local municipality, after explaining how great our project is, and also after telling him that we would be passing through in a car which runs on used frying oil. He climbs in with Standa and negotiates our passage all the way to the fountain in the main square. We unpack our portable screen, put on music and are immediately surrounded by crowds of curious spectators. Just as Tomáš is beginning to present our project to the audience, the lightning starts. Then it begins to drizzle, followed by rain, which soon turns into a downpour. The audience stands there under their umbrellas and it is clear that they are captivated by the presentation. Some old grannies even stomp to the rhythm of the music. Everyone is waiting for the rain to stop.
But it doesn’t. Not the rain, but our drenched audience begins to go away. Although the weather couldn’t have rained more on our parade, we are happy with the event because the response of the people who stayed against all odds was really good. And this when there was a World Cup match on.