Is he ill or has he really gone to Bulgaria on his paid vacation, being befriended by black bears in the mountains？

I was indeed in Bulgaria but had to come home early.

Beautiful poetry @kaixin

I particularly liked these lines as they inspired memories of catkins floating over the Moores in Lancashire where my friend lived when I was a child. I used to visit there in the summer and we'd see great clouds of fluff riding the breeze from the dandelion catkins shedding their seeds :)

When swallows pass
Over blue water that surrounds the garden wall.
Most willow catkins have been blown away

This poem should be written by Su Shi when he was young. It portrayed a charming spring-summer landscape, running over with the sence of optimism and fancy-free youth.

You're right, that is exactly the feeling I got from the poem :)