Life in BG

…bloody toes, bloody toes.

Yeah…had a little mishap this weekend. I went out on Friday night with some Americans I have met here–we felt the need to hang out as they are all nearing the end of their stay here (as are we)–and this happened:

It was late and very, very dark out. We were walking through a park and I was checking my phone because Mark had left me a text message, when BAM! A concrete block jumped out and took a chunk out of my toe. And yes! There are random concrete blocks and pavers lying around in the parks and even on the sidewalks here. At first I did not even look at it, figuring I had just stubbed my toe. But after a few minutes it wouldn’t stop hurting. So I held up my cell phone light to check it out and sure enough, blood was pouring out, all over my flip flop and onto the ground:

(This is the stain even after good washing.)

We did a quick fix and poured some water on it and I continued on with my night. When I finally had a chance to look at it, a chunk of my flesh was hanging off the bottom, barely attached to my toe. Ouch! It probably could have used a stitch or two, but I opted against that. Instead I wrapped it all up and went to bed.

On Saturday, Mark and I headed out for lunch (we had a great lunch on Vitosha Boulevard–the trendy street in town where we usually hate to eat, but this time it was actually rather pleasant) and then hobbled over to the pharmacy, where, for about $6 USD, I came away with all these goods:

I wasn’t sure about what was in that small brown bottle. There were actually two of those bottles in the package, one with liquid and one with powder. Since we can’t read well enough to understand the directions, we figured you must mix the two and so that’s what we did. It hasn’t turned my feet green or anything yet. I cleaned it, put on that mystery liquid and then bandaged it all up. It seems like the skin flap is starting to reconnect, so that’s good.

But today was a beautiful day here, so Mark and I decided to head up to Vitosha Mountain and take a little picnic. We took the chair lift up there and hiked around for an hour or so (not so pleasant on the toe), and then found a sunny rock to eat lunch and lounge.

After a few hours, we headed back down the mountain, came home, read and took a nap. Oh, and I made some banana bread. Yum!

As for the toe…well, it got a little mud in it, but I went through the whole regimen again and all seems to be well. Anything to stay away from having to visit a medical facility here, really. 🙂