My dAd has a bottle of homemade rakiya that he drinks sometimes. I brought it home for him a couple of Christmases ago. I think he might just drink it to show off. The rakiya is pretty strong.

I also think that he likes watching other people drink it. It's funny because I often think this is what Bulgarians like about watching Americans drink rakiya the first time too.

The best part about this whole thing is that R. is not new to homemade plum brandy. She lived in Hungary and drank palinka. When we traveled in Serbia and Montenegro she drank slivovitz. In Albania and Macedonia she also had the local equivalent. Heck, she's been to Bulgaria twice and consumed plenty of rakiya there.

But this rakiya caught her by surprise and had her spluttering and coughing. Oh dear.