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San Francisco East Bay Travel Group Meeting - July 8 (online) and July 25 (in-person)

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Please join our East Bay (San Francisco area) Travel Group meetings!
We welcome newcomers and travelers from around the globe to our online and in-person meetings.

WHEN: July 8, 2023 @ 11am PT
WHERE: online

WHEN: Tuesday, July 25, 2023 @ 12:30pm Pacific Time
WHERE: Geppetto's, Orinda

TOPICS: for July 8, online
Sheri M - introduction and RS tour in England
Carol and Tony say hello!
CWsocial - tales from Bulgaria (and a few photos)
Diane - plans for Mexico travels in 2023 and RS tour in 2024
diveloonie - travel plans for London, Mexico and Cuba

Please let me know if you have travels to share, with or without photos

Posted by
2187 posts

Please add me to the Zoom on the 8 th. Iโ€™m going to Mexico in the fall and booked a RS tour for October 2024, skipping European travel this year.

Posted by
1021 posts

I will miss July 8 due to a family trip. And for the in person meeting--July 25 is a Tuesday. Do you mean July 27?

Posted by
1562 posts

I think weโ€™ll make the Zoom meeting and hopefully the in person meeting as well.

Posted by
10918 posts

We were supposed to be on a 3 week trip that would have included both of those dates, but since we had to alter our plans it looks one Iโ€™m available on the 8th. Iโ€™d love to join in. Thanks.

Posted by
1 posts

I would love to join your online meeting on July 8th. I have recently travelled to England with a Rick Steves tour and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Please add me in for July 8th.

Thank you.

Sheri M

Posted by
1021 posts

I hope to make it July 25, as long as I'm not overwhelmed with packing for a trip back East the next day.

Posted by
10918 posts

CWsocial, not a huge deal about the change in our plans. Our 3 week RV trip, culminating in a week in Washington to visit family and 5 days in Portland to catch up with friends had to be cancelled due to RV issues. We are just skipping the first portion that involved camping on the Oregon coast and will stay with family in Washington and friends in Portland. Our camping friends arenโ€™t happy, but they can go without us.

Posted by
282 posts

In the air on the 8th but would love to come on the 25th.

I've sent the meeting link via private forum message to everyone above who has expressed interest. There is sill room for the online session.

I'm waiting to see how many will be joining the in-person meeting on July 25th before confirming a location. Please let me know if you'll be there so that I can get a reasonable count. Thanks!

Posted by
1330 posts

I'm looking forward to July 8th on line.
I can probably also come to the in person meeting on July 25.
Thanks, as always, Catherine, for arranging all of these.

Posted by
94 posts

If Iโ€™m not too late, please include me for tomorrowโ€™s online!

Posted by
3002 posts

I vote for Orinda for the 25th - even though I already have a 1pm zoom on my calendar that I have to decide to do or not...

Posted by
17 posts

Hello,
I would like to be added to the online meeting, tomorrow at 11am.

Thank you,
GagetGirl

Posted by
1330 posts

Hi Catherine --
I don't see a link in my email yet...
I'm looking forward to the meeting this morning.

Posted by
34913 posts

thanks CWsocial and avirosemail - another wonderful zzzzoomland party! Gotta work on my Cyrillic and Bulgarian!

Posted by
3728 posts

Great meeting, thank you Avi and CW! Loved hearing about Bulgaria as it is a country we may be spending some time in, in the future. The food looked awesome and you did a nice job on your photobook.

Posted by
356 posts

Thanks CWSocial and Avi for a fun meeting. CWS, thanks so much for your Bulgaria trip report with great photos. Iโ€™m not a foodie but those food photos reminding me of Bulgarian food made me hungry. It was interesting to hear about the differences between your Bulgarian tour and mine. Also it was nice to see photos of the Rose festival.

Posted by
3002 posts

This was indeed a fun zoom get-together and a strong case for Sofia --
one question I didn't get to pose was about the ground meat patties:
were they called kofte or kefta or something similar --
that's what they're called in the MiddleEast and in Turkey,
and i find it brings a smile to the deli counter guys in Mediterranean shops if you ask for it that way instead of for meatloaf :-)

I found the menu online for Egur, Egur, the upscale Armenian place in Sofia that I went to a couple of times for lunch:

English Menu:
http://eguregur.bg/en/menu/35000/BBQ.GRILL/
Bulgarian/Cyrillic Menu:
http://eguregur.bg/bg/menu/35000/BBQ.GRILL/

In the first column, the second item is:
ะŸะ˜ะšะะะขะะ˜ ะกะ’ะ˜ะะกะšะ˜ ะšะฎะคะขะ•ะะฆะ

The Latin character version is, in fact, a variation .... "kyuftentsa":
PIKANTNI SVINSKI KYUFTENTSA

Egur Egur gave me an English menu and I asked for "spicy meatballs." At another place with a Bulgarian menu, I used Google Translate with my camera and then pointed :-)

Posted by
657 posts

Thanks all for a really enjoyable and enlightening meeting. Great presentation and I also appreciate all the suggestions for exploring the US west coast! No gardens in Burbank that I know of, but Huntington is definitely worth seeing and easy to access from L.A.

Posted by
1562 posts

We plan to be there. 80 degrees? Sounds cool to me! I might have to bring my puffy jacket ๐Ÿ˜‚

Posted by
1330 posts

Looking forward to seeing you at Geppetto's on Tuesday.

I have posted the September (and beyond) meetings on a new thread while I have my laptop, so that I can easily "bump it up" while I'm traveling. Not to be confused with this upcoming July 25 in-person meeting!

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/travel-meetings/san-francisco-east-bay-travel-group-meeting-sept-9-online-and-sept-26-in-person

Please post on this thread for July and on the new thread for September and beyond.