Devin Hot Springs

There was an air of giddy excitement in the lobby of the hotel as we all waited, towels in hand, to board the 22-passenger van/bus. It was a beautiful, sunny early afternoon and we had all just finished lunch, eager to do something different to distract us from the physical discomforts of being on the MMS protocol. We were going on an excursion to the hot springs in the town of Devin, about a 40 minute to one hour drive (depending on many things) northwest of the hotel.

 

After boarding, we made our way up the deep snow-banked road and I thought the springs were at a higher elevation than our hotel. I realized I was wrong when we reached the mountain crest and quickly found ourselves far below the snow level. The snow and fir trees soon became a thing of the past and brown, leafless trees and bushes took over, looking like a typical wintry landscape with hardly a green thing in sight.

 
As mentioned in my earlier posts, the buildings and homes here are in shambles, with obviously no money for new materials or better construction. We saw more of this on the drive. I noted that they don't even demo abandoned/damaged buildings. Everything is pretty much left as is. I'm pretty sure that most structures here would break just about every building code in the US. They make do with what they have, or don't have for that matter. I saw one house with a huge plastic sheet on the roof that had some sort of advertisement on it with many rocks weighing it down, obviously to prevent water leaks. There are many lean-tos made of wood sticks and sheet metal, much like the kinds we made as kids.
 
However, we drove through a village called Shiroka Laka where most of the building were in much better shape and had more of an architectural style to it. It's also home to one of Bulgaria's only two music schools in the country. From Shiroka Laka Hotel's website, it says:
 

Shiroka Laka is a lovely village, comfortably situated in the central Rhodope Mountains, South Bulgaria. Its name means "wide meander".

Shiroka Laka is a national architectural and folklore reserve. It is famous for authentic Rhodopean houses – of the Zgurov, Uchikov and Grrigorov families, as well as for the unique iconostasis in the local Church of the Holy Mother of God.

Shiroka Laka is the music heart of the Rhodopes – the mountains of the legendary Orpheus. It is the source of the famous Rhodopean songs and their unique tunes with caba gaida (a local type of bagpipe) accompaniment. The most prominent Bulgarian folklore singers, bagpipers and ensembles have been discovered and created at the National School for Folklore Arts – Shiroka Laka.

After passing through that charming little village, we continued down the mountain valley road that meandered alongside a river and finally turned off into Devin. We made our way through this small city and found ourselves on an obscure road just outside of The main part of the city, driving right next to a smaller river. I kept thinking we were going to actually soak in the hot springs in the river, but instead ended up at a facility called Struilica. It had a large 25 meter long pool, a jacuzzi style pool and shallower large kid-friendly pool, all filled with water fed by the hot mineral springs from the nearby river.

 
The faint smell of sulfur wafted through the air as we hurried to strip our clothes and get in the water. While the air temperature was much warmer down here than at the top of the mountain, there was still a chilly bite from the winds that had picked up, enough to hurry ourselves in the water to get warm. Each pool had varying degrees of warmth, with the jacuzzi being the hottest, which is where everyone eventually found themselves and stayed until it was time to go.
 

I personally didn't last too long. I had been doing great with the protocol all day, not once feeling nauseated, until after about 15 minutes of being in the hot pool (I had been in the cooler pool for awhile first). I have low blood pressure, so I can't last long in hot temperatures anyway, as I get quite dizzy. I soon started to feel sick and just got out, dried myself and got dressed. I was done.
 
The rest of the day was just awful for me, always feeling close to throwing up, but never did. I had to muster up courage to finish the last 2-3 doses of my protocol. I just hung out close to Michelle (Mary's assistant), a fellow American, who was there to monitor everyone's health during the outing, while everyone else enjoyed the hot pool. Even my Mom was able to last the whole time in there. We made a quick stop on the way home in Devin to use the ATM machine and managed to snap a few shots:

 
In spite of it all, it was so worth the trip and was actually rejuvenating to swim in those mineral waters. The ride back to the hotel didn't seem to take nearly as long (as is usually the case), and we even stopped near the top of the mountain to help a couple with their stuck stranded car, which they needed to jump start. Coincidentally, it was right where some natural spring water taps were and several of us filled our bottles with this water before piling back into the van.
 
We were all so incredibly wiped out that we quickly ate our dinner and went right to sleep. Today I am feeling much better on the protocol, not once feeling sick, which means Mary has something to add for tomorrow. Yikes! Here I go......
 

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