A. and I went to<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Pancharevo" target="_blank"> Pancharevo Lake </a>this past weekend. It's a man-made lake right outside of Sofia. And I mean right outside of Sofia. It's maybe a 15 minute drive from Mladost where I live but once you are there it seems like a world apart. Look at how green everything is and how wonderful the late afternoon light it. It has been really hot this past week so we went in the late afternoon when it was a little cooler.
<a title="pancharevo lake by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7405749276/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8141/7405749276_6b97cd3c7e_z.jpg" alt="pancharevo lake" width="640" height="480" /></a>
It was still sunny and hot but maybe not <em>as</em> hot as it had been. As a side note: the heat seems to be inescapable these days. It's hot when you wake up, it's hot when you go to bed and a fan does very little to help mitigate the situation.

Anyhow, we grabbed beers and then walked along the side of the lake for a little bit and found a place to sit. Now when I say this you may be imagining sitting along side the bank of the like on the grass but you'd be wrong. Someone has built a series of tables and benches so we found a free bench to sit on and watch the lake. There were still plenty of people at the lake and I imagine it was even busier during the day.

Our spot had two attractions. We could watch men fish and we could watch a little group of ducks. <!--more-->When it game to fishing, nothing seemed to be biting in the late afternoon. There was lots of casting, waiting and casting again. We took some bets on who was going to catch a fish but after 30 or more minutes nobody had. It was interesting to learn that to fish on this part of the lake, you pay for the right to fish and then you pay for the fish you catch based on weight.
<a title="fishing and ducks at pancharevo lake by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7405742766/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7085/7405742766_1c2af307e9_z.jpg" alt="fishing and ducks at pancharevo lake" width="640" height="480" /></a>
I am not really up on my fish. I am pretty familiar with red snapper, salmon, trout and tuna but the finer points escape me.  And of course fish in Bulgarian and English don't have the same names so I am always kind of at a loss when reading menus or looking at fish at the store.

I found myself surprised to see men walk by with baskets of fish that they had caught earlier in the day. One man walked by with a basket that a fish in it that was probably 24 inches long and fat and it was joined the basket by a lot of smaller fish maybe 6-8 inches long. A. said the big one was a bottom feeder and told me the name in Bulgarian but I now I can't remember it. I just didn't expect to see such a big fish in the lake. <a title="ducks at pancharevo lake by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7405737962/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7104/7405737962_bf8ab7aa20_z.jpg" alt="ducks at pancharevo lake" width="640" height="480" /></a>

I'm not sure why I was surprised that there was such a big fish in the lake but  said so and A. shrugged it off saying that's the difference between a lake and a river. Fair enough, that's when it struck me that I've never really fished in a lake. I'm used to the 6-10" trout that I grew up catching in the Blue Mountains at our family cabin along Mill Creek in Oregon.
<a title="bold ducks by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7405740382/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7094/7405740382_b83f163a40_z.jpg" alt="bold ducks" width="640" height="480" /></a>
While nothing was really happening in terms of fishing, there was some excitement with some ducks. They got really close to us. I wished that I'd had some bread to feed them and they clearly wished the same thing. Once again, I said so but A. told me that there are signs up that say don't feed the animals. <em>Oh</em>. I guess neither the ducks nor I speak Bulgarian (or bothered to read the signs). Just for the record, I didn't feed them. Though every bone in my body wanted to.
<a title="part of pancharevo lake by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7405745250/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8017/7405745250_18da15ed4e_z.jpg" alt="part of pancharevo lake" width="640" height="480" /></a>
My experience from childhood is that ducks really like the day-old homemade pancakes that my dAd makes (you know, American pancakes) or day-old crusty French bread. But I didn't know that there were going to be ducks at Pancharevo Lake or maybe I would have put some whole wheat bread slices in my purse--not that I had French bread or pancakes--and I could have illegally feed the ducks. <em>Too bad, </em>I was breadless<em>.</em> Instead I had to settle for taking some photos.
<a title="pancharevo lake in the late afternoon by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7405747252/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7100/7405747252_5ff5bfa1a1_z.jpg" alt="pancharevo lake in the late afternoon" width="640" height="480" /></a>
After a beer, we walked around the lake a more. I took some photos. Surprise, surprise. Then we had some dinner at a restaurant outside by the lake. The place wasn't fancy but the food was good. I am talking plastic tables, plastic chairs and a tablecloth that has cigarette holes burned into it and the kind of recycled paper napkins that as soon as you touch them begin to disintegrate in your hands. Luckily the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kebapche" target="_blank">kebapcheta</a> were hot and tasty and my shopska salad was delicious--what a difference a few weeks makes in terms of the quality and ripeness of the tomatoes and cucumbers. And by the time we got back to Sofia, it was in fact a little cooler. <em>Phew</em>. <a title="pancharevo lake is so green by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7405751716/"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5333/7405751716_39acc08892_z.jpg" alt="pancharevo lake is so green" width="640" height="480" /></a>