Veliko Tina, Part 1

In many ways Veliko Tarnovo, also known as V.T., is a much nicer city than Sofia. It is smaller, less polluted and the traffic is nowhere near as bad as it is in the capital. Every year, we go and spend a week or so in our apartment in Veliko Tarnovo. 

The balcony of our apartment in V.T.

For I don't know how long, Irena and I have been saying, "When you retire, we will move in V.T. and that is where we will spend the winter, as it won't be much fun spending the winter in Kalotina." The main problem with this plan is that we have not retired yet. Well, I was retired for six months, but then I started working again and now we have started to put down roots in Sofia, not in V.T.

This trip to V.T. was rather different, as it was dominated by the presence of Tina. Yes, it was a lot of fun to have her delightful company, but she was also seriously ill. Several trips to the Vet were needed, along with quite a few injections and a course of antibiotics. First she was vomiting and had bad diarroheia, followed by about a day when the Vet said that we could not give her any food. Not surprisingly, she lost quite a lot of weight, but at last the medication took effect and she seems to be free of the parasite that was causing the problem. However, we still need to do another course of treatment when we return to Sofia, just to be sure.

We went for some nice walks in the lovely countryside around V.T. and it was good to have some canine companionship on these expeditions. Yes, dogs bring you hassles, heartache and more than a little extra expense. But now we cannot imagine life without Tina.