Winter is finally here, and with it the the overcast weather and incessant drizzle. It has been much warmer and dryer so far than last year, but i think the rains are finally here. Work has been slow lately as well, partly because its winter time and there are no tourists, and partly because all the projects that the park is working on are large scale project i cant really help with. Its great news for the park, and the projects are going to be great for the area, but other than translating and occasional project proposal page, it doesn't give me much to do. I'm now waiting for spring when things pick up again and I can resume my bird migration project.
The good news is that Christmas is just around the corner, and it will be a nice break from things here in malko turnovo. This week I'm going to a Christmas work party in another town and we will have a huge banquet all night long. should be a good time. after that, i get my Christmas break, and I'm off to see my host family for a bit before heading out to the mountains for a few days of snowboarding (weather pending). I'm really looking forward to this because i have been staying quite here in malko turnovo for the last month trying to save up some money and i need to get out of town for a bit. during the summer malko turnovo is nice, with lots of hiking, good weather and all that, but during winter there is absolutely nothing to do.
Funny story though, yesterday i had just finished making myself a bomb dinner of chicken fajitas with cheddar cheese, Spanish rice, chips with dip, and a classic margarita (all hard to get items out here in Eastern Europe), and i had just sat down to enjoy my meal when there was a ring at my door. i got up and found my next door neighbor out in the hall asking me for help. My neighbor is an old lady that often comes over so i can open up cans and jars for her, but this time she wanted something else. i went over to her place, helped her move a bit of furniture around and then, after a bit of mistranslation, i realized that she wanted me to go around her apartment and dust off all of her light bulbs. why, at 7:30 at night, she needed her light bulbs free of dust i will never know, but there i was, wiping down ceiling fixtures all the while thinking of my awesome dinner slowly going cold just down the hall. oh Bulgaria.
Other than that, there is not much news to tell. i will post again soon. peace
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
The Middle East
Well, I just returned home yesterday after my big trip in the Middle East with Kristen. It was a fantastic two weeks exploring and adventuring around Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Israel, checking out cool sites and soaking in the local culture. I have discovered that I really enjoy the middle east and, haggling with cab drivers aside, had a great time there. It was really cool to see so many of these famous places that I had always heard about as a kid, and in person they are no less incredible. It was also very interesting because some of these places, especially Israel, are places that you read about in the news all the time and seeing them first hand really puts the issues going on there in perspective. Of course, any attempt to fully explain the experience of such a trip through a simple travelogue is doomed to failure, but I will attempt to at least give a basic summary of where I have been, and what I have seen.
We started the trip off in good fashion by spending a day in one of my favorite cities, Istanbul. Since we had both been there before and seen the sites, it was a calm day. We spent most of the morning wandering around the markets and hitting up a few of Mosques, and then spent the afternoon relaxing over a cup of Turkish tea and smoking hookah while playing some backgammon. That night we met up with a Turkish friend of ours and had a dinner of fresh mussels from a street side vendor before heading off to see the nightlife. Then it was off to the airport to catch our night flight in to Egypt.
The first advice that I will give you about traveling in the Middle East is never, for any reason, try to spend the night in Cairo International Airport. Without going in to detail, let me just say that it sucks, and you should avoid it if at all possible. Moving on, Cairo is a very interesting city, although It wasn't quite what I expected it to be. The city has a vibe all its own, and feels very different than anywhere that I had been to before, but I enjoyed my time there and learned a lot. We were fortunate enough to meet up with some other friends that were traveling around the region, so there were four of us when we took Cairo by storm.
The first night we were in town we got invited to the wedding reception party of the hostel owners brother. They insisted that we come, and I could not think of a better way to experience Egyptian culture first hand than to check out a wedding party. After a 40 minute drive across Cairo (the city is HUGE) we came to this large pavilion set up in the middle of the road. Our group, as far as I could tell, was the only group with foreigners at the reception, and we got treated like VIPs. They set up some tables right in front of the stage for us and then started bringing out food and drinks. There was a live band, dancing on chairs and games. Everyone was really nice and we had a great time.
The next day we went out and toured around the city, saw Saqqara, Giza, and the citadel and markets in the Islamic part of town. We even stopped in a small shop and watched them making paper out of papyrus. It was a good day, but there wasn't enough time to see everything that I wanted to. I still want to go back to Egypt and see Luxor, Alexandria and some other more out of the way spots. There is just so much to see and do there that it would take at least a month to do it justice.
That being said, it is also kind of exhausting being in Egypt, especially the big cities like Cairo. I don't mean to generalize when I say this, just give a bit of an impression of what it felt like, but it seemed that most people in Cairo are either very friendly, or out to scam you. Since most appear to be the latter, you tend too be overly cautious of the former. It gets tiring not being able to trust anyone, or ask people for help. There are still people that will go out of their way to help you (and they are a big relief to find) but for the most part they are trying to benefit from you in some way. Finding a bus is perhaps one of the hardest things to do in Cairo, because if you ask anyone they will tell you that it doesn't run, or its broken, or its a holiday, or some excuse, then offer to drive you for an exuberant amount of money. You could try asking some one else, but they will say the same thing. Unless you happen to already know where the bus is, or got directions from your hostel/hotel, then best to just take the cab. Needless to say, it gets old after a while. However, I think that is probably my only issue with Egypt.
From Cairo we headed out to Dahab, a coastal city on the Sinai Peninsula. We stayed there for a few days for some diving in the Red Sea and relaxation before catching a bus up to the border to head into Jordan.
Our first day in Jordan we took a cab (again, same problems finding transport) up to Wadi Musa, the town just outside of Petra. Petra a city about 2,000 years old that is almost entirely carved out of rock, and some of the buildings there are just magnificent. Erosion and earthquakes have damaged many of the buildings, but even after all this time some of the structures still look almost perfect. I would have to say that Petra is one of the most spectacular places that I have ever been to. The entrance to the city is a long winding canyon, impressive enough by itself, that leads right into the Treasury, the most impressive building in the city. We spent the entire day wandering around in amazement before heading back to Wadi Musa.
The next day we got up early and caught a 6:30 bus to Wadi Rum and met our Bedouin guide. Wadi Rum is amazing, towering desert cliffs and endless stretches of sand. The vistas there are almost unreal, and it is very humbling to walk around out there. We toured a bit of the place with a 4x4 but once we got away from the main tourist area we switched up and got camels. I have never ridden a camel before, but I have to admit that its probably the best way to travel in the desert. Its very relaxing and enables you to enjoy the silence without the roar of a jeep engine or anything. You get to move around at a steady pace and enjoy the scenery.
We spent the rest of the day riding the camels before arriving at our Bedouin camp, a set of three large tents sheltered underneath a rocky outcropping in one of the valleys. After watching the sun set and eating a traditional Bedouin dinner, we spent the night chilling around the campfire sharing stories and listening to one of the locals play the lute. Later that night, once the moon went down over the horizon, I got out of bed and went out to watch the stars. Being so far out from any city and having the air be so dry, the stars were brilliant, thousands of tiny diamonds set against an inky black backdrop.
After Jordan we had a day long trip out to Tel Aviv, the first city in our Israel adventure. After a bit of a mishap, we were fortunate enough to be able to meet up with some Israeli friends of Kristen and stay at their place for the duration of our time in Israel. They were a great couple and they even spent two of the days going on road trip to different places with us. It was great, because they were able to explain things to us and takes us to places that we wouldn't have been able to go to on our own. We spent a few days in Jerusalem, made a trip out to the Dead Sea, and spent a few more days checking out other sites. After that it was time for me to head back to Bulgaria, and time for Kristen to go back to the States.
Overall I really enjoyed my time in the Middle East. I haven't been back now for two days and I already miss the food. But, its back to work now, catching up on whats been going on while I have been gone. I do have three new folders of pictures up though for those of you interested, they even have captions this time. Check them out. http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge
We started the trip off in good fashion by spending a day in one of my favorite cities, Istanbul. Since we had both been there before and seen the sites, it was a calm day. We spent most of the morning wandering around the markets and hitting up a few of Mosques, and then spent the afternoon relaxing over a cup of Turkish tea and smoking hookah while playing some backgammon. That night we met up with a Turkish friend of ours and had a dinner of fresh mussels from a street side vendor before heading off to see the nightlife. Then it was off to the airport to catch our night flight in to Egypt.
The first advice that I will give you about traveling in the Middle East is never, for any reason, try to spend the night in Cairo International Airport. Without going in to detail, let me just say that it sucks, and you should avoid it if at all possible. Moving on, Cairo is a very interesting city, although It wasn't quite what I expected it to be. The city has a vibe all its own, and feels very different than anywhere that I had been to before, but I enjoyed my time there and learned a lot. We were fortunate enough to meet up with some other friends that were traveling around the region, so there were four of us when we took Cairo by storm.
The first night we were in town we got invited to the wedding reception party of the hostel owners brother. They insisted that we come, and I could not think of a better way to experience Egyptian culture first hand than to check out a wedding party. After a 40 minute drive across Cairo (the city is HUGE) we came to this large pavilion set up in the middle of the road. Our group, as far as I could tell, was the only group with foreigners at the reception, and we got treated like VIPs. They set up some tables right in front of the stage for us and then started bringing out food and drinks. There was a live band, dancing on chairs and games. Everyone was really nice and we had a great time.
The next day we went out and toured around the city, saw Saqqara, Giza, and the citadel and markets in the Islamic part of town. We even stopped in a small shop and watched them making paper out of papyrus. It was a good day, but there wasn't enough time to see everything that I wanted to. I still want to go back to Egypt and see Luxor, Alexandria and some other more out of the way spots. There is just so much to see and do there that it would take at least a month to do it justice.
That being said, it is also kind of exhausting being in Egypt, especially the big cities like Cairo. I don't mean to generalize when I say this, just give a bit of an impression of what it felt like, but it seemed that most people in Cairo are either very friendly, or out to scam you. Since most appear to be the latter, you tend too be overly cautious of the former. It gets tiring not being able to trust anyone, or ask people for help. There are still people that will go out of their way to help you (and they are a big relief to find) but for the most part they are trying to benefit from you in some way. Finding a bus is perhaps one of the hardest things to do in Cairo, because if you ask anyone they will tell you that it doesn't run, or its broken, or its a holiday, or some excuse, then offer to drive you for an exuberant amount of money. You could try asking some one else, but they will say the same thing. Unless you happen to already know where the bus is, or got directions from your hostel/hotel, then best to just take the cab. Needless to say, it gets old after a while. However, I think that is probably my only issue with Egypt.
From Cairo we headed out to Dahab, a coastal city on the Sinai Peninsula. We stayed there for a few days for some diving in the Red Sea and relaxation before catching a bus up to the border to head into Jordan.
Our first day in Jordan we took a cab (again, same problems finding transport) up to Wadi Musa, the town just outside of Petra. Petra a city about 2,000 years old that is almost entirely carved out of rock, and some of the buildings there are just magnificent. Erosion and earthquakes have damaged many of the buildings, but even after all this time some of the structures still look almost perfect. I would have to say that Petra is one of the most spectacular places that I have ever been to. The entrance to the city is a long winding canyon, impressive enough by itself, that leads right into the Treasury, the most impressive building in the city. We spent the entire day wandering around in amazement before heading back to Wadi Musa.
The next day we got up early and caught a 6:30 bus to Wadi Rum and met our Bedouin guide. Wadi Rum is amazing, towering desert cliffs and endless stretches of sand. The vistas there are almost unreal, and it is very humbling to walk around out there. We toured a bit of the place with a 4x4 but once we got away from the main tourist area we switched up and got camels. I have never ridden a camel before, but I have to admit that its probably the best way to travel in the desert. Its very relaxing and enables you to enjoy the silence without the roar of a jeep engine or anything. You get to move around at a steady pace and enjoy the scenery.
We spent the rest of the day riding the camels before arriving at our Bedouin camp, a set of three large tents sheltered underneath a rocky outcropping in one of the valleys. After watching the sun set and eating a traditional Bedouin dinner, we spent the night chilling around the campfire sharing stories and listening to one of the locals play the lute. Later that night, once the moon went down over the horizon, I got out of bed and went out to watch the stars. Being so far out from any city and having the air be so dry, the stars were brilliant, thousands of tiny diamonds set against an inky black backdrop.
After Jordan we had a day long trip out to Tel Aviv, the first city in our Israel adventure. After a bit of a mishap, we were fortunate enough to be able to meet up with some Israeli friends of Kristen and stay at their place for the duration of our time in Israel. They were a great couple and they even spent two of the days going on road trip to different places with us. It was great, because they were able to explain things to us and takes us to places that we wouldn't have been able to go to on our own. We spent a few days in Jerusalem, made a trip out to the Dead Sea, and spent a few more days checking out other sites. After that it was time for me to head back to Bulgaria, and time for Kristen to go back to the States.
Overall I really enjoyed my time in the Middle East. I haven't been back now for two days and I already miss the food. But, its back to work now, catching up on whats been going on while I have been gone. I do have three new folders of pictures up though for those of you interested, they even have captions this time. Check them out. http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Life with my Brother
This October has been an exciting month! After a bit of frustration on when/where/how or if he would arrive, my brother finally showed up in Burgas on the 7th. He had just barley been able to convince his travel arrangers to get him a connecting flight to Burgas instead of terminating in Sofia (7 hours away) but in the process almost got tickets to Borgus, Spain, instead. Worked out in the end though and fortunately I was in Burgas (the Bulgarian one) at the time getting my new identity card and I was able to pick him up from the airport. We had two full weeks to hang out, see a bit of the country, catch up on news and he just left to go back to Kuwait this morning.
Kristen just finished her service on the 10th, and after that came out here to hang out with Braden and I. We went down to my place in Malko Turnovo for one big night with some other friends as sort of a farewell party for my buddy Tye who is heading off on a world tour. It was a good time, but Braden decided that he really doesn't like where I live that much. Way to boring for him. Shortly after he peaced out and headed back up to Burgas, where the action is (side note: my town is not that bad, it just has nothing to do in the evenings. Honestly though, if it did, I probably couldn't afford to do anything anyway, so it works out well this way) .
Last weekend the three of us took a short trip up to see the town of Velinko Turnovo, the old capital of Bulgaria. I had been there once before when I was in training, but it had only been for a day and there was still a lot of stuff that I wanted to see there. We had a good time and came back with some crazy stories. I got some pictures up as well.
http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge
Since the trip though I have been back here working at site and relaxing. I have less than a week now before my big trip to the Middle East comes up and I still have a lot to do. I'm both really excited for the trip, and also bummed because once its over, Kristen moves back to the States. I am not looking forward to that part at all.
As far as work goes, its slower now than I would like. I have found it increasingly difficult to try and start projects on my own, and my counterpart doesn't seem to be a huge help. Right now he is looking into conducting another bat study for the winter, but other than that there is not a whole lot going on. I still go bird monitoring everyday to collect data on the importance of the local marsh for the bird migration, but I am ready for a bigger project that will have some sort of tangible outcome. I have a feeling though that if I haven't started such a project yet, its not going to happen in the middle of winter either. My problem is my organization I think (as far as working with Eco-projects and such). The good news is that my organization is so well run and funded that it gets lots of stuff done already and is working with several huge projects. The bad news, for me at least, is that because of this everything that I have come up with as a good idea has already been thought of, and many times started already. I have the feeling that I will be the last PC volunteer here in my town because of this reason. But, I suppose that's a good thing because the region is better off with a well run Park without a volunteer than a poorly run one with a volunteer.
Anyway, I still have till next week to see whats up with projects and then I take off for my tour of Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Israel. I will post some sweet pics when I return. Peace
Kristen just finished her service on the 10th, and after that came out here to hang out with Braden and I. We went down to my place in Malko Turnovo for one big night with some other friends as sort of a farewell party for my buddy Tye who is heading off on a world tour. It was a good time, but Braden decided that he really doesn't like where I live that much. Way to boring for him. Shortly after he peaced out and headed back up to Burgas, where the action is (side note: my town is not that bad, it just has nothing to do in the evenings. Honestly though, if it did, I probably couldn't afford to do anything anyway, so it works out well this way) .
Last weekend the three of us took a short trip up to see the town of Velinko Turnovo, the old capital of Bulgaria. I had been there once before when I was in training, but it had only been for a day and there was still a lot of stuff that I wanted to see there. We had a good time and came back with some crazy stories. I got some pictures up as well.
http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge
Since the trip though I have been back here working at site and relaxing. I have less than a week now before my big trip to the Middle East comes up and I still have a lot to do. I'm both really excited for the trip, and also bummed because once its over, Kristen moves back to the States. I am not looking forward to that part at all.
As far as work goes, its slower now than I would like. I have found it increasingly difficult to try and start projects on my own, and my counterpart doesn't seem to be a huge help. Right now he is looking into conducting another bat study for the winter, but other than that there is not a whole lot going on. I still go bird monitoring everyday to collect data on the importance of the local marsh for the bird migration, but I am ready for a bigger project that will have some sort of tangible outcome. I have a feeling though that if I haven't started such a project yet, its not going to happen in the middle of winter either. My problem is my organization I think (as far as working with Eco-projects and such). The good news is that my organization is so well run and funded that it gets lots of stuff done already and is working with several huge projects. The bad news, for me at least, is that because of this everything that I have come up with as a good idea has already been thought of, and many times started already. I have the feeling that I will be the last PC volunteer here in my town because of this reason. But, I suppose that's a good thing because the region is better off with a well run Park without a volunteer than a poorly run one with a volunteer.
Anyway, I still have till next week to see whats up with projects and then I take off for my tour of Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Israel. I will post some sweet pics when I return. Peace
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
traveling around
Hey guys, long time no see! Apparently I'm not doing all that well at putting up several blogs a month, but I have been very busy the last several weeks and haven't had any time. I will do my best here to catch you all up with what I've been up to. Summer is officially gone now, replaced way too suddenly by winter. The warm weather just vanished one day (right after I left my town for two weeks with a pack full of shorts and t-shirts actually) and was followed by a solid week of cold, dreary rain across the whole country. Its finally sunny out again, but its only a matter of time before the featureless gray clouds eventually settle in for the whole of winter. ugh.
I did get to head out to the beach once at the end of august for a big birthday party though with a bunch of friends. We went up to a place called 'Sunny Beach,' which is basically a way over-developed city for foreign tourists, a complete blight on the environment with over priced drinks, but I didn't organized the event, I was just invited. There was a good group of people there though and I ended up having a great time. Its been difficult sometimes to meet up with people from my volunteer group (I'm the 'Bulgaria 22' group, or B22) since I live in the complete corner of the country. Most of the people from the beach party were all from my group though and I was a good chance to reconnect with people and catch up with what everyone has been up to.
On September 10th I set out for Sofia for two and a half weeks of traveling around for work related stuff. I had to go to Sofia for my regular dental and medical check up, but it was a good time because a bunch of my friends that were heading back to the states soon were in town. We got to hang out and say goodbyes because, unfortunately, most of the people that were there I will probably never see again. It seems weird that all these people are all finished with their service here and get to head home, while I'm only half way done.
After Sofia I had a couple of seminars teaching the new group of trainees that just recently got to country. They seem like a good group, but none of them will be living anywhere near me. I honestly think that once my buddy Tye leaves Burgas, that I will be the most remote volunteer in this whole country. Lucky me I guess. Anyway, the training sessions went well and afterward I got to spend a decent amount of time hanging out with Kristen, cooking good food and just chillin (we actually made 100% from scratch egg rolls one night. We had to hand make the batter for the shells, fry them individually, make the filling, roll them, then fry them up one at a time. took way to long to do, but they turned out fantastic).
For those of you who know him, Wyatt Stebbins (a good buddy of mine from college), ended up coming out here to Bulgaria from Ecuador to attend his brothers wedding, and he gave Kristen and I an invitation. Its the most random thing ever, and I was quite surprised when he first emailed me to say he would be out here. It was great to see him again though, and it also gave me the chance to see a traditional Bulgarian wedding, which is vastly different than a traditional American wedding. Wyatts brother was marrying a Bulgarian, and other than the immediate family, Kristen and I were the only Americans in attendance. It was an interesting ceremony, held in an Orthodox church, and afterward there was a big reception at a local restaurant. We got to meet tons of new people and became good friends with the brides family. The reception had started at 6 pm, and we ended up being one of the last groups to leave at around 4:30 in the morning! It was a great time though, with good food, drink, and dancing around the restaurant all night long.
The next morning we met up with the wedding party in the hotel lobby for 3 hours of chatting over coffee, and turns out some of the Bulgarians there were from Omaha! They had come in just to see the wedding and then were going to head back to the states. One of the ladies was super excited when she learned that I am from there, and that my parents still live in Nebraska. She made me promise to give her contact information to my mom so she could invite her over and make her some traditional Bulgarian food. Small world indeed.
After a while Kristen and I had to head out in order to catch the last bus out to her town, but the married couple invited us out to the brides village to celebrate again with her extended family, and they wouldn't take no for an answer. They even offered up their apartment that night if we needed a place to stay! The next day was a holiday and we wouldnt have work anyway, so we ended up going along, and everyone piled in to cars for the 30 minute trip out to the mountain village. We ended up arriving at the little town of around 500 people, and the towns main (and probably only) restaurant had been reserved for us. We sat down and pretty much continued the banquet that had gone on for almost 11 hours the night before. Big salads and drinks were already on the tables when we arrived, and the main course for the day was whole roasted lamb. We didn't get back to town until 10 or so that night. It was a great time, and I am now invited back to the brides parents house anytime that I am in the region.
That next week I had my Mid-Service Conference, a big gathering of all the B22s to go over peace corps policy stuff, talk about projects, and prepare for the second year. Sessions were very boring, and they had decided to hold this conference in this remote hotel way up in the mountains, next to nothing at all. I felt like I was in the Shining, even more so since it rained non-stop the entire time we were there. Again, it was real good to hang out with the group, but after 4 days of being couped up in one hotel with 40 people, I was ready to get out of there. I had one last stop to make at my host families house before I would start the 14 hour trip back to site.
My host family is still doing good, and they were very excited to see me, but disappointed that I was only staying for one day. I would have loved to stay longer, but I had been gone too long already and I had work to get back to in Malko Turnovo. It was a great time and I even got to go out to the vineyard with them and help finish harvesting the grapes. I It was a good year for grapes, and my family will have 2000 liters of wine this winter!!! I'm not even sure its possible to drink that much wine, but my host father wants to see if he can mail some of it to me once its finished. We'll see about that one.
Now I'm back in site, catching up with stuff and staying very busy. I'm still doing well though and I'm looking forward to this weekend so I can finally take a break and relax.
I did get to head out to the beach once at the end of august for a big birthday party though with a bunch of friends. We went up to a place called 'Sunny Beach,' which is basically a way over-developed city for foreign tourists, a complete blight on the environment with over priced drinks, but I didn't organized the event, I was just invited. There was a good group of people there though and I ended up having a great time. Its been difficult sometimes to meet up with people from my volunteer group (I'm the 'Bulgaria 22' group, or B22) since I live in the complete corner of the country. Most of the people from the beach party were all from my group though and I was a good chance to reconnect with people and catch up with what everyone has been up to.
On September 10th I set out for Sofia for two and a half weeks of traveling around for work related stuff. I had to go to Sofia for my regular dental and medical check up, but it was a good time because a bunch of my friends that were heading back to the states soon were in town. We got to hang out and say goodbyes because, unfortunately, most of the people that were there I will probably never see again. It seems weird that all these people are all finished with their service here and get to head home, while I'm only half way done.
After Sofia I had a couple of seminars teaching the new group of trainees that just recently got to country. They seem like a good group, but none of them will be living anywhere near me. I honestly think that once my buddy Tye leaves Burgas, that I will be the most remote volunteer in this whole country. Lucky me I guess. Anyway, the training sessions went well and afterward I got to spend a decent amount of time hanging out with Kristen, cooking good food and just chillin (we actually made 100% from scratch egg rolls one night. We had to hand make the batter for the shells, fry them individually, make the filling, roll them, then fry them up one at a time. took way to long to do, but they turned out fantastic).
For those of you who know him, Wyatt Stebbins (a good buddy of mine from college), ended up coming out here to Bulgaria from Ecuador to attend his brothers wedding, and he gave Kristen and I an invitation. Its the most random thing ever, and I was quite surprised when he first emailed me to say he would be out here. It was great to see him again though, and it also gave me the chance to see a traditional Bulgarian wedding, which is vastly different than a traditional American wedding. Wyatts brother was marrying a Bulgarian, and other than the immediate family, Kristen and I were the only Americans in attendance. It was an interesting ceremony, held in an Orthodox church, and afterward there was a big reception at a local restaurant. We got to meet tons of new people and became good friends with the brides family. The reception had started at 6 pm, and we ended up being one of the last groups to leave at around 4:30 in the morning! It was a great time though, with good food, drink, and dancing around the restaurant all night long.
The next morning we met up with the wedding party in the hotel lobby for 3 hours of chatting over coffee, and turns out some of the Bulgarians there were from Omaha! They had come in just to see the wedding and then were going to head back to the states. One of the ladies was super excited when she learned that I am from there, and that my parents still live in Nebraska. She made me promise to give her contact information to my mom so she could invite her over and make her some traditional Bulgarian food. Small world indeed.
After a while Kristen and I had to head out in order to catch the last bus out to her town, but the married couple invited us out to the brides village to celebrate again with her extended family, and they wouldn't take no for an answer. They even offered up their apartment that night if we needed a place to stay! The next day was a holiday and we wouldnt have work anyway, so we ended up going along, and everyone piled in to cars for the 30 minute trip out to the mountain village. We ended up arriving at the little town of around 500 people, and the towns main (and probably only) restaurant had been reserved for us. We sat down and pretty much continued the banquet that had gone on for almost 11 hours the night before. Big salads and drinks were already on the tables when we arrived, and the main course for the day was whole roasted lamb. We didn't get back to town until 10 or so that night. It was a great time, and I am now invited back to the brides parents house anytime that I am in the region.
That next week I had my Mid-Service Conference, a big gathering of all the B22s to go over peace corps policy stuff, talk about projects, and prepare for the second year. Sessions were very boring, and they had decided to hold this conference in this remote hotel way up in the mountains, next to nothing at all. I felt like I was in the Shining, even more so since it rained non-stop the entire time we were there. Again, it was real good to hang out with the group, but after 4 days of being couped up in one hotel with 40 people, I was ready to get out of there. I had one last stop to make at my host families house before I would start the 14 hour trip back to site.
My host family is still doing good, and they were very excited to see me, but disappointed that I was only staying for one day. I would have loved to stay longer, but I had been gone too long already and I had work to get back to in Malko Turnovo. It was a great time and I even got to go out to the vineyard with them and help finish harvesting the grapes. I It was a good year for grapes, and my family will have 2000 liters of wine this winter!!! I'm not even sure its possible to drink that much wine, but my host father wants to see if he can mail some of it to me once its finished. We'll see about that one.
Now I'm back in site, catching up with stuff and staying very busy. I'm still doing well though and I'm looking forward to this weekend so I can finally take a break and relax.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
summertime
Summer up to now has been going great, and I have been keeping nice and busy. The week after my big dive trip I got to play guide and translator for a Dutch tourist that was backpacking across Strandja park. We were gone for six days, and for the first three days we had expert guides to lead the way, but on the last few days it was just me and the tourist, so it was just me in charge of trail finding, locating camp, and translating everything for him. I was actually kind of impressed with how well it went, and it gave me some quality time out in the park. The Dutch guy was pretty cool, but it was kind of a pain to translate for him sometimes since he was always changing his mind on what he wanted and would make some rather picky demands (compared to what I'm used to I guess). Overall it was a great time though and hiking in the mountains beats working in an office any day.
The next week after hiking I went up to Burgas and my friends took me out for dinner and drinks to celebrate my 24th birthday. It was pretty low key, but I had a great time, and the next day we went down to a town called Sinemorets and met a big group of volunteers for some quality time on Bulgaria's southern beaches. The beaches down along the southern coast are nice since they are much less developed and not as crowded as the beaches by the cities, and we spent the days lounging around in the sun. It was a good time, and a nice way to spend my birthday weekend.
After that it was back to the office for a bit, then off to the far side of Bulgaria to help with a training session for the brand new group of Trainees that just recently arrived in country. I only had to do a short seminar with them, but it gave me an opportunity to head out to that side of the country for more than just a two day weekend and see people. The new group seems cool, and I'm glad because most of the people that I'm good friends with here now are from the group that will be getting replaced. Hopefully some of these new trainees are place close to my sight so I will still have people to hang out with every now and then. Either way, life is going to be much different for me after the older groups leaves this October.
Anyway, until that happens, things will continue on as usual. Last weekend was the 'Spirit of Burgas' concert, the first of what will hopefully become one of the biggest annual music festivals in all of Europe (www.spiritofburgas.com). The concert lasted three nights, from 6pm to 6am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and had music spread across 6 stages all night long. I have to admit that I wasn't familiar with any of the bands going into this thing, but turns out that a lot of them are really good, and very popular in Eastern and Western Europe. The concert totally rocked, and during one of the headline shows Friday night there was even a partial lunar eclipse. With the success of this years concert I'm hoping that next years will be even better!
Now its back to the office again for the next few weeks. I had been planning a short weekend trip up to Romania to see Bucharest and Brasov, but it kinda fell through so now I think I will be sticking around here for a while. Which is ok by me, since the beach is only an hour away and there seems to be something going on in Burgas almost every weekend. Also, now that its late summer all the fruits and veggies are in season so everything is uber cheap and delicious. I gotta get my fill before winter comes and the only thing I can find is potatoes and onions.
The next week after hiking I went up to Burgas and my friends took me out for dinner and drinks to celebrate my 24th birthday. It was pretty low key, but I had a great time, and the next day we went down to a town called Sinemorets and met a big group of volunteers for some quality time on Bulgaria's southern beaches. The beaches down along the southern coast are nice since they are much less developed and not as crowded as the beaches by the cities, and we spent the days lounging around in the sun. It was a good time, and a nice way to spend my birthday weekend.
After that it was back to the office for a bit, then off to the far side of Bulgaria to help with a training session for the brand new group of Trainees that just recently arrived in country. I only had to do a short seminar with them, but it gave me an opportunity to head out to that side of the country for more than just a two day weekend and see people. The new group seems cool, and I'm glad because most of the people that I'm good friends with here now are from the group that will be getting replaced. Hopefully some of these new trainees are place close to my sight so I will still have people to hang out with every now and then. Either way, life is going to be much different for me after the older groups leaves this October.
Anyway, until that happens, things will continue on as usual. Last weekend was the 'Spirit of Burgas' concert, the first of what will hopefully become one of the biggest annual music festivals in all of Europe (www.spiritofburgas.com). The concert lasted three nights, from 6pm to 6am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and had music spread across 6 stages all night long. I have to admit that I wasn't familiar with any of the bands going into this thing, but turns out that a lot of them are really good, and very popular in Eastern and Western Europe. The concert totally rocked, and during one of the headline shows Friday night there was even a partial lunar eclipse. With the success of this years concert I'm hoping that next years will be even better!
Now its back to the office again for the next few weeks. I had been planning a short weekend trip up to Romania to see Bucharest and Brasov, but it kinda fell through so now I think I will be sticking around here for a while. Which is ok by me, since the beach is only an hour away and there seems to be something going on in Burgas almost every weekend. Also, now that its late summer all the fruits and veggies are in season so everything is uber cheap and delicious. I gotta get my fill before winter comes and the only thing I can find is potatoes and onions.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
One sweet weekend
It has been one of my goals while I am out here in Bulgaria to go SCUBA diving sometime in the Black Sea, and I finally set my mind to it last week. I did some searching online and after a bit of comparing prices, locations and companies, I booked a reservation for this last weekend through a place out of Sozopol, just 30 minutes south of Burgas. For 60 Euro I would get 2 boat dives in the Black Sea, a guide (since I don't have a dive buddy here) and all my equipment. It's a huge chunk of my living allowance, and I will be eating nothing but sandwiches and pasta for the next month, but its still a pretty good deal.
Friday night I stayed in Burgas with Tye and had a chill night, shooting pool and hanging out with friends. Saturday morning though, I got up super early and caught a bus down to Sozopol and met up with the other divers. Besides me, there was the dive master, a Bulgarian that seemed to be a friend of the dive master, a Bulgarian lawyer from Sofia, and an Irish guy from Moscow. Everyone was nice, and after I got sized for gear, we all started loading up the boat to head out to sea. Our plan was to do two dives to a shipwreck not too far off the coast called Mopang. Mopang was an old American cargo steamship from 1920 that sank when it was either torpedoed, or rammed a sea mine, I'm not sure which. It now sits in 66 to 96 feet of water, and is flipped over on one of its sides.
The weather was great as headed out to the dive spot, which ended up being just a random spot out on the sea, impossible to locate with out the help of a GPS unit or something similar. We suited up and got ready to hop in. The water temp at the surface was nice and warm, perfect for a day at the beach, but the dive master said that once you hit the thermo cline there is a pretty sharp drop in temperature so I was suited up pretty good, including a full wetsuit with a hooded shorty over top and gloves.
We dropped in the water over the side of the boat doing the half back flip move (not sure what it's really called) and it was actually the first time I have entered the water like that. I have always done the giant stride entry, where you just take a big step off the boat. This way makes you feel cooler though, for reasons I haven't figured out yet.
Anyway, once we got in we began to descend along our anchor line to the wreck. Visibility was pretty good, about 30 feet or so and the water had an interesting green tint to it. We hit the thermo cline about half way down, and I couldn't believe how severe it was. The water temperature dropped about 20 degrees Fahrenheit within five feet! You could even see the heat transfer in the water, it had the same look as when you look down a street when its super hot outside and you can see the heat radiating off the cement. The water had this appearance and made everything blurry as we transferred down to the colder water.
Once we were through though it cleared up instantly and we descended even deeper, entering a giant school of jellyfish. I was now very glad that I was covered head to foot in 6mm of neoprene, since I was (relatively) warm and safe from jellyfish attacks. They looked really cool though, and the water was full of the semi luminescent - transparent jellyfish sediment that just hung in the water like it was in suspended animation. The jellyfish stretched out as far as I could see in every direction, and we didn't leave them until we passed the thermo cline again on our way back up.
We reached the sea floor and headed out to the right a few meters before, out of no where, a huge dark walled loomed in front of me, filling my entire field of view. The wall was the bottom of the ship hull, and I couldn't believe its size. We swam up and over it to the other side (top of the ship). All the cargo holds were open, and we were able to swim inside it. It was actually very eerie looking, with most of the interior super dark with faint green light filtering down from holes in the ship above us, illuminating beams and support structures all around. We explored a bit in the ship and around the side before we had to go back to the anchor line and head up.
After a short break on shore to get new tanks and let our nitrogen levels drop, we headed back out to the ship to do a second dive. We got to see a bit more of the main hull and mechanical rooms, and I set my new record of deepest dive at 96 feet!
Back up on the boat after the dive (and all the time between dives), I was talking with the Bulgarian lawyer about all sorts of stuff, ranging from politics (Bulgaria was recently declared the most corrupt country in the EU), the environment, my work in the Peace Corps and diving. He was a super cool guy and seemed excited about me working with the environment. Anyway, to make a long story short, he asked me if I was planning on diving again the next day and I said I couldn't, since the two dives I had just done had tapped out my bank account. He told me there was another wreck that he had come out three different times to dive, and every time he couldn't do it, either due to rough water, or lack of an experienced group. The dive master wouldn't take him alone, and since the wreck was technically an advanced deep dive (I 'm an advanced open water diver), there wasn't a group that would go with him. He said that he was planning on paying a group rate for himself just so he could go, and told me that he wanted me to come too. I politely declined, not wanting someone else to pay my way for a dive, but he insisted and when the dive master came over to ask if I would be diving on Sunday, he told him I would, and pretty much settled the matter right there. I would now be diving for free on Sunday so that he could see his wreck. Sweet!
After sharing a pint with the dive group, I headed back to Burgas for a big burger cookout with a few other volunteers from out of town, and then went out to our local pub to celebrate the birthday of the pub owner. Good times were shared by all, but I had to leave a bit early (2am) so that I could get some sleep and be 100% for my dive the next day.
The ship we were diving was called the Rodina, and was a Bulgarian cargo ship that actually has a pretty funny story of why it sunk. During WWII there used to be a training mine field in the bay of Sozopol, filled with dummy mines they used to train their navy. The captain of the Rodina, not wanting to waste time navigating a dummy mine field, decided instead to plow straight through it. Unfortunately, the Bulgarian navy decided to replace the dummy mines with live ones with out letting all its ships know about the change, and Rodina ended up plowing right through a live mine field and promptly sank to the sea floor.
I was nervous about this dive though, because it sits considerably deeper and in more exposed water than the Mopang does. Recreational diving is limited to 120 feet, and recommended to only 100 feet. Anything deeper requires either long decompression stops with separate tanks, or tri-mix (an advanced blend of air comprised of mostly helium requiring special gear and training). My dive to the Rodina went to 111 feet, a record I most likely will not break any time soon. I felt confident though, and knew that I would be able to handle the dive, and it turned out great. The Rodina is huge (300 feet long!) and it made for an amazing dive. The light had the same strange green tint, and combined with the sheer size of the wreck made it an interesting experience. Unfortunately, we only got 7 minutes to explore before we had to head back up to the surface, but I loved it.
Back at shore after the dive, caught another break when the Bulgarian guy that just covered my day of diving offered to drop me off in Burgas on his way through to Sofia, so I ended the day cruising along the coast in his convertible BMW. Turned out to be a great end to a great weekend, and I have now accomplished my goal of diving in Bulgaria.
http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge/20080720DiveTrip
Thursday, July 17, 2008
a busy few weeks
Well, its already been about a month since my last post and I have to admit, that this is really the first time in a while that I have had the time to just sit down and write about all the things that I have been up to lately. Things are going really good for me now and I have been keeping super busy. The weather has been really nice lately, warm days but still getting nice and cool at night. I have a feeling next month will start to get super hot, but I just recently bought a fan in preparation for the hot temps (it so far has proved to be a totally worthwhile investment).
Anyway, after getting back from my grand European tour I spent some time catching up with stuff at the office. Now that summer is here there are a lot more tourist groups coming down to the park and I have been helping leading trips on some of the trails and that sort of stuff. I spent just over a week back in Malko Turnovo before I had to pack up some stuff and head out to Plovdiv to help another volunteer with a minority youth camp that she was running.
I headed out there a few days early so that I could spend the weekend hanging out in town with Kristen, who was also helping with the camp. It was a good time, chilling, hanging out at the pool and watching the final game of the Euro Cup (a game equal in stature to the super bowl, but much cooler since it pits countries against each other and not states).
The trip was mostly uneventful except for one nasty run-in with some bugs. We were planning on staying with one of the volunteers that lived in Plovdiv that had just gotten back from a week of Peace Corps conferences, but as soon as we all stepped in to her apartment I discovered that while she was gone it had become infested with fleas. And when I say infested, I mean like in the most horrible way that you have only seen out of a Hollywood movie. I was wearing sandals and as soon as I stepped on the carpet my foot slowly started to turn black from all the fleas that started to cover it. Needless to say that my eyes got wide and I started to hop around the room like a crazy guy (I have a slight allergic reaction to flea bites) and had to run out of the apartment. Worst fleas I have ever seen in my life. We all had to get our stuff and grab a cab across town to stay with a different volunteer (fortunately for us Plovdiv has two volunteers).
The youth camp started on Tuesday and ended up being quite the experience for me. I don't work with youth at all here, and I never really worked with youth before in the states so it was a learning experience for me, but I will tell you right now that working with Bulgarian youth and American youth are two completely different things. The idea of the camp was to take around 20 minority youth (mostly Turkish Roma, or Gypsies) from a local school and head up in the mountains for three days and conduct seminars on stereotypes, teamwork, and cultural differences. There were a few teacher and then four PC volunteers, and we had a remote mountain lodge pretty much to ourselves.
Nothing ended up working like planned however. Turns out that all but one of the teachers had just signed up to get a free trip to a mountain lodge and spent most of the time sleeping and hanging out playing sports. The kids also felt like this was the reason why they had signed up, and we spent most of the time cajoling them to quit their games of football (thats soccer for you Americans) and join the group discussions, activities and team building games. If they didn't like an activity that we were working on, they would just leave and go do whatever else it was that they felt like. If we got at least one discussion and a team building game done in a whole day, then it was considered a success. It drove me crazy with frustration.
I always remembered when I did youth camps, or summer camps or whatever, that when there was an activity, you did it. Didn't matter if you didn't want to, or that you would rather play football, or sleep or whatever. The discussions and activities were always intrinsic to the camp and you did them with out asking, and leaving halfway through because your bored was never an option. Now, I want to point out that I think the kids are all good kids, but their whole cultural and education environment is completely different than I am used to. The fault is not so much with them as with the whole attitude toward these kinds of events. If the teachers got bored they would just quit, and go grab a beer or a nap, or worse, convince the kids to quit to so they would have someone else to play football with. The kids emulate this behaviour and are never corrected, so that when a youth camp such as ours is conducted, it falls apart into chaos.
The whole thing was a mess, but business as usual according to everyone that had worked a youth camp before. (aside: I think I am done working with Bulgarian youth camps unless the kids are younger than middle school)
After the camp finished up, Kristen and I headed out to Burgas to attend a small 4th of July party with a few other volunteers, some Bulgarians and a Dutch guy. We spent the day hanging out at the beach before going back to the apartment to cook a huge Mexican feast (there were hot dogs also for the more traditional, but who can say no to a huge plate of green chili enchiladas?). We even got a hold of some bottle rockets and artillery shells. We then proceeded to 'spread American culture' that night by launching a few artillery shells off of the roof of the apartment in downtown Burgas and chanting 'GO USA!'. The neighbors loved us, no doubt. It was a good time and actually ended up being pretty chill.
Kristen still had a few unused vacation days left over and the week after our 4th of July party she headed down to Malko Turnovo with me. I started off as a great week, hanging out, cooking good food and enjoying life until we both got sick. I'm still not sure why, but I suspect we ate some bad chicken (meat here is very questionable, and I now eat it on average of only once a week). Fortunately we were only sick for about a day, but it wasn't fun. The day after that I headed in to work and my office told me that it was a slow day, and that I should just go on a bike ride with Kristen down to the river and have fun. So we borrowed two old bikes from work and set off.
Turns out though, that the river is over ten miles away through mountainous terrain and one of the bikes doesn't have fully functioning breaks. plus, after we finally got to the river the chain on the other bike twisted, and I had to twist it back with two rusty nails before it would work again. By the time we got back we were completely exhausted, but it was still a good time. The weather was real nice for us and the forest was all green and pretty.
The next day was one of my coworkers birthdays (who happened to be the mayors wife) so everyone took the day off and we went out for a relaxing day at the river (we drove this time, thankfully). We went to a site that already had a table, outdoor sink and everything else that we would need, right along the river bank and began preparing for a huge feast. We had more food than we could possibly eat and sat around for about 2 hours just eating, talking and relaxing. Then we christened the new boat that the park just got for one of its projects, and spent the rest of the day paddling around in the river and swimming. Not a bad day at work.
This last weekend we headed back up to Burgas because Kristen had to head back to her site. On Sunday though, I got to spend another day hanging out at the beach before coming back to Malko Turnovo. Work this week has been real busy, I have been going out in the forest almost every day scouting out spots to put in a new hiking trail between two of the towns in the park. Its fun work, but I think that my idea of an established trail and the Bulgarian idea are a bit different. I'm not sure if i don't understand what they are doing sometimes, or if i understand and it just doesn't make sense. When I envision a tourist hiking trail, it should be easy to navigate, have clear markers, a sign indicating the start and end, and follow some sort of natural terrain past areas of interest. This trail that we have been scouting out seems to not follow any particular path, is marked only by axe marks in trees at random intervals, has no start/end signs, and meanders randomly through the forest, at times leading up steep banks and through thorn thickets. Its strange. If its just a start and we need to go out and widen, mark and clean up the trail then I understand, but I have a feeling that its finished how it is. I guess I will find out. (Also, while out on the trail trying to find out where we parked the jeep, me and my counterpart narrowly avoided getting mauled by a huge wild boar. Those things are big!)
Well, that's about it so far. I will try to post the next one sooner. Peace
Anyway, after getting back from my grand European tour I spent some time catching up with stuff at the office. Now that summer is here there are a lot more tourist groups coming down to the park and I have been helping leading trips on some of the trails and that sort of stuff. I spent just over a week back in Malko Turnovo before I had to pack up some stuff and head out to Plovdiv to help another volunteer with a minority youth camp that she was running.
I headed out there a few days early so that I could spend the weekend hanging out in town with Kristen, who was also helping with the camp. It was a good time, chilling, hanging out at the pool and watching the final game of the Euro Cup (a game equal in stature to the super bowl, but much cooler since it pits countries against each other and not states).
The trip was mostly uneventful except for one nasty run-in with some bugs. We were planning on staying with one of the volunteers that lived in Plovdiv that had just gotten back from a week of Peace Corps conferences, but as soon as we all stepped in to her apartment I discovered that while she was gone it had become infested with fleas. And when I say infested, I mean like in the most horrible way that you have only seen out of a Hollywood movie. I was wearing sandals and as soon as I stepped on the carpet my foot slowly started to turn black from all the fleas that started to cover it. Needless to say that my eyes got wide and I started to hop around the room like a crazy guy (I have a slight allergic reaction to flea bites) and had to run out of the apartment. Worst fleas I have ever seen in my life. We all had to get our stuff and grab a cab across town to stay with a different volunteer (fortunately for us Plovdiv has two volunteers).
The youth camp started on Tuesday and ended up being quite the experience for me. I don't work with youth at all here, and I never really worked with youth before in the states so it was a learning experience for me, but I will tell you right now that working with Bulgarian youth and American youth are two completely different things. The idea of the camp was to take around 20 minority youth (mostly Turkish Roma, or Gypsies) from a local school and head up in the mountains for three days and conduct seminars on stereotypes, teamwork, and cultural differences. There were a few teacher and then four PC volunteers, and we had a remote mountain lodge pretty much to ourselves.
Nothing ended up working like planned however. Turns out that all but one of the teachers had just signed up to get a free trip to a mountain lodge and spent most of the time sleeping and hanging out playing sports. The kids also felt like this was the reason why they had signed up, and we spent most of the time cajoling them to quit their games of football (thats soccer for you Americans) and join the group discussions, activities and team building games. If they didn't like an activity that we were working on, they would just leave and go do whatever else it was that they felt like. If we got at least one discussion and a team building game done in a whole day, then it was considered a success. It drove me crazy with frustration.
I always remembered when I did youth camps, or summer camps or whatever, that when there was an activity, you did it. Didn't matter if you didn't want to, or that you would rather play football, or sleep or whatever. The discussions and activities were always intrinsic to the camp and you did them with out asking, and leaving halfway through because your bored was never an option. Now, I want to point out that I think the kids are all good kids, but their whole cultural and education environment is completely different than I am used to. The fault is not so much with them as with the whole attitude toward these kinds of events. If the teachers got bored they would just quit, and go grab a beer or a nap, or worse, convince the kids to quit to so they would have someone else to play football with. The kids emulate this behaviour and are never corrected, so that when a youth camp such as ours is conducted, it falls apart into chaos.
The whole thing was a mess, but business as usual according to everyone that had worked a youth camp before. (aside: I think I am done working with Bulgarian youth camps unless the kids are younger than middle school)
After the camp finished up, Kristen and I headed out to Burgas to attend a small 4th of July party with a few other volunteers, some Bulgarians and a Dutch guy. We spent the day hanging out at the beach before going back to the apartment to cook a huge Mexican feast (there were hot dogs also for the more traditional, but who can say no to a huge plate of green chili enchiladas?). We even got a hold of some bottle rockets and artillery shells. We then proceeded to 'spread American culture' that night by launching a few artillery shells off of the roof of the apartment in downtown Burgas and chanting 'GO USA!'. The neighbors loved us, no doubt. It was a good time and actually ended up being pretty chill.
Kristen still had a few unused vacation days left over and the week after our 4th of July party she headed down to Malko Turnovo with me. I started off as a great week, hanging out, cooking good food and enjoying life until we both got sick. I'm still not sure why, but I suspect we ate some bad chicken (meat here is very questionable, and I now eat it on average of only once a week). Fortunately we were only sick for about a day, but it wasn't fun. The day after that I headed in to work and my office told me that it was a slow day, and that I should just go on a bike ride with Kristen down to the river and have fun. So we borrowed two old bikes from work and set off.
Turns out though, that the river is over ten miles away through mountainous terrain and one of the bikes doesn't have fully functioning breaks. plus, after we finally got to the river the chain on the other bike twisted, and I had to twist it back with two rusty nails before it would work again. By the time we got back we were completely exhausted, but it was still a good time. The weather was real nice for us and the forest was all green and pretty.
The next day was one of my coworkers birthdays (who happened to be the mayors wife) so everyone took the day off and we went out for a relaxing day at the river (we drove this time, thankfully). We went to a site that already had a table, outdoor sink and everything else that we would need, right along the river bank and began preparing for a huge feast. We had more food than we could possibly eat and sat around for about 2 hours just eating, talking and relaxing. Then we christened the new boat that the park just got for one of its projects, and spent the rest of the day paddling around in the river and swimming. Not a bad day at work.
This last weekend we headed back up to Burgas because Kristen had to head back to her site. On Sunday though, I got to spend another day hanging out at the beach before coming back to Malko Turnovo. Work this week has been real busy, I have been going out in the forest almost every day scouting out spots to put in a new hiking trail between two of the towns in the park. Its fun work, but I think that my idea of an established trail and the Bulgarian idea are a bit different. I'm not sure if i don't understand what they are doing sometimes, or if i understand and it just doesn't make sense. When I envision a tourist hiking trail, it should be easy to navigate, have clear markers, a sign indicating the start and end, and follow some sort of natural terrain past areas of interest. This trail that we have been scouting out seems to not follow any particular path, is marked only by axe marks in trees at random intervals, has no start/end signs, and meanders randomly through the forest, at times leading up steep banks and through thorn thickets. Its strange. If its just a start and we need to go out and widen, mark and clean up the trail then I understand, but I have a feeling that its finished how it is. I guess I will find out. (Also, while out on the trail trying to find out where we parked the jeep, me and my counterpart narrowly avoided getting mauled by a huge wild boar. Those things are big!)
Well, that's about it so far. I will try to post the next one sooner. Peace
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