The office here at the park has been frantic and full of commotion lately. A European Union commission has been sent down here to audit our office as part of a large project that we have been working with, and my coworkers have been busy setting everything up in preparation of their arrival. Through this program (who’s goals I am still unclear of) Strandja park has received all sorts of new gear and equipment, ranging from new computer systems and GPS units, to a boat and tranquilizer gun. Most of this new equipment has yet to be used, a fact that was proven when my coworkers finally unboxed half of the stuff for the first time this week and asked me to set it up for them. As a result, I am now the resident IT expert at Strandja Nature Park. Need new printer drivers installed on a computer? Don’t have training on a GPS unit? Can’t figure out how to set up a PDA? Well I’m the guy to talk to.
To be honest, I didn’t know how to do most of this stuff either when I got here, but since I seem to be the most technologically savvy person in the office, it falls to me to figure it all out, and I have enjoyed doing it. I might as well pick up a new set of skills while I’m here anyway. So now every time we get a new piece of equipment, I read through the manual and search online so I can train myself on how to use it, and how to teach the rest of the office how to use it. I started off with basic stuff, like learning how to use manual functions on an SLR camera (one of those nice professional cameras) to my current goal of setting up an office network that links all 10 or so office computers and their respective peripherals, so that I can print or scan a document on any printer or scanner from any computer in the building.
While this sounds like quite the task (and indeed it is proving to be) I personally feel that it is much needed, because right now printing and scanning is crazy hard. For example, every month the assistant director of the park makes up a budget report on his computer, which doesn’t have a printer or internet. In order to print it, he has to save it to a floppy disk (remember those things?) and take it over to my computer down the hall. But he (and by he, I mean I) has to save it as a special file type because his version of Word and mine are different and not very compatible. Then once it’s transferred it gets printed from my computer. Doesn’t sound too difficult? Well, this process is usually repeated about 4-5 times for every document he prints because Word doesn’t spell check Bulgarian and he doesn’t catch the mistakes until after it’s printed. Same thing for spacing errors and what not.
We’ll see if my goal of an office network comes to fruition or not, but in the mean time I’m still busy helping with everything else. Right now I have been assigned the task of digitizing the parks records. It’s good and Im glad to be busy and helpful, but I have to admit that it’s not what I had imagined when I first came out here. Funny how things can change like that.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Small Town Life
Lately I have found that with no big projects underway, winter in full swing, and no tourists in the park, I have plenty of time for updating blog, but nothing interesting to talk about. Its the irony of writing blogs for me; when I'm doing tons of cool stuff, I only get a chance to update every few weeks. But when I have the chance to update every day, I have nothing to say.
Life here in MT is still plodding along like normal. There is still snow out on the ground from the snow storm after new years, and its overcast and drizzling. I have been trying to hang around here lately and save up some money, but I think in a few days I will need to get out to burgas for a change of pace. There is only so long I can stay here in this town with out going crazy, so in the interest in personal sanity, i think a weekend in the city with friends is a good idea. Overall though things are going ok. I have had plenty of time to catch up on my reading and lately I have been able to talk to my brother out in Kuwait (who is finally coming home in about a week!). I just need to appreciate this slow time because once the weather gets better and spring comes around I will get busy again.
Funny story though, my office building just got new blinds installed on all the new windows (we're coming up in the world) and my coworkers are super excited about them. however, its been really dark and overcast out lately so I keep pulling up the blinds to let in more light, and they keep lowering them down because, well, I'm not sure why. maybe just excited to have blinds I guess. Its funny, but now my office has natural lighting equivalent to that of a cave (Note on my office building: the Directorate of Nature Park Strandja occupies an old communist party headquarters looking out over the town center. It is complete with dark brown panel walls and padded double doors on every office to keep out eavesdroppers. Think of the KGB offices you see in old Bond films; that's where I work).
Life here in MT is still plodding along like normal. There is still snow out on the ground from the snow storm after new years, and its overcast and drizzling. I have been trying to hang around here lately and save up some money, but I think in a few days I will need to get out to burgas for a change of pace. There is only so long I can stay here in this town with out going crazy, so in the interest in personal sanity, i think a weekend in the city with friends is a good idea. Overall though things are going ok. I have had plenty of time to catch up on my reading and lately I have been able to talk to my brother out in Kuwait (who is finally coming home in about a week!). I just need to appreciate this slow time because once the weather gets better and spring comes around I will get busy again.
Funny story though, my office building just got new blinds installed on all the new windows (we're coming up in the world) and my coworkers are super excited about them. however, its been really dark and overcast out lately so I keep pulling up the blinds to let in more light, and they keep lowering them down because, well, I'm not sure why. maybe just excited to have blinds I guess. Its funny, but now my office has natural lighting equivalent to that of a cave (Note on my office building: the Directorate of Nature Park Strandja occupies an old communist party headquarters looking out over the town center. It is complete with dark brown panel walls and padded double doors on every office to keep out eavesdroppers. Think of the KGB offices you see in old Bond films; that's where I work).
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Dealing with Floods and Russia
It has been a very interesting last week here in Bulgaria. First off, we had a problem at the park visitor center. Someone forgot to shut off the water to the building before everyone left for Christmas break, and the pipes on the second floor burst, flooding the whole building. It was just noticed the beginning of this week, and we have been working to get it cleaned ever since.
The thing about Bulgarian houses is that they are not built out of wood and drywall, but out of cement and brick, which during a flood is both a good and bad thing. The good thing is that they dont rot or get mold inside the walls, but the bad thing is that the water doesn't really drain out. When we first showed up at the house there was a good two inches of water sitting on the SECOND floor, and over the past few week that had trickled down and left a good inch of water on the first floor as well.
Then, to make it even more difficult, Bulgaria doesn't have proper equipment used to clean up a mess like this. ordinarily I would use a wet-vac and some industrial floor driers and have the place cleaned up in no time. Unfortunately, that stuff doesn't exist over here, so we had to sweep the water out of the building with brooms, and then get all the wood burning stoves in the house going full blast to dry up the moisture. For the last few days it has been my job to sit in the house and feed logs into the 3 fireplaces. Not the most exciting task, but gave me a chance to catch up on my leisure reading while sitting in front of a nice fire. So I guess I cant complain too much.
The other big news, for those of you that haven't been keeping up to date with the headlines, is the gas crisis going on in Europe. Because of a conflict between Gazprom and the Ukraine over gas shipments, Russia closed down its Ukrainian gas pipeline to Europe. Unfortunately, this one pipeline supplies approx one fifth of all the gas used in the entire continent, and for most of the Balkan countries, it is the only source. Bulgaria doesn't have any sizable reserves on hand, so as soon as the gas stopped coming from the Ukraine, the gas outages began. homes currently receive no gas, trains have been running with out heaters, schools are closing, heavy industrial complexes have been shut down and only a few necessary buildings are being supplied (I am assuming stuff like government and hospitals).
Fortunately, most homes here are heated with wood (as is the case here in Malko Turnovo) or electricity from some coal or oil powered plant. But there are still a lot of people with out heat, or hot water, and that's a big deal right now because Bulgaria is in the middle of some pretty cold weather. there is still a good six inches of snow on the ground here, and most likely a lot more the farther north you go. I'm hoping that this gets resolved within the next week, otherwise its going to be a long, cold winter.
The thing about Bulgarian houses is that they are not built out of wood and drywall, but out of cement and brick, which during a flood is both a good and bad thing. The good thing is that they dont rot or get mold inside the walls, but the bad thing is that the water doesn't really drain out. When we first showed up at the house there was a good two inches of water sitting on the SECOND floor, and over the past few week that had trickled down and left a good inch of water on the first floor as well.
Then, to make it even more difficult, Bulgaria doesn't have proper equipment used to clean up a mess like this. ordinarily I would use a wet-vac and some industrial floor driers and have the place cleaned up in no time. Unfortunately, that stuff doesn't exist over here, so we had to sweep the water out of the building with brooms, and then get all the wood burning stoves in the house going full blast to dry up the moisture. For the last few days it has been my job to sit in the house and feed logs into the 3 fireplaces. Not the most exciting task, but gave me a chance to catch up on my leisure reading while sitting in front of a nice fire. So I guess I cant complain too much.
The other big news, for those of you that haven't been keeping up to date with the headlines, is the gas crisis going on in Europe. Because of a conflict between Gazprom and the Ukraine over gas shipments, Russia closed down its Ukrainian gas pipeline to Europe. Unfortunately, this one pipeline supplies approx one fifth of all the gas used in the entire continent, and for most of the Balkan countries, it is the only source. Bulgaria doesn't have any sizable reserves on hand, so as soon as the gas stopped coming from the Ukraine, the gas outages began. homes currently receive no gas, trains have been running with out heaters, schools are closing, heavy industrial complexes have been shut down and only a few necessary buildings are being supplied (I am assuming stuff like government and hospitals).
Fortunately, most homes here are heated with wood (as is the case here in Malko Turnovo) or electricity from some coal or oil powered plant. But there are still a lot of people with out heat, or hot water, and that's a big deal right now because Bulgaria is in the middle of some pretty cold weather. there is still a good six inches of snow on the ground here, and most likely a lot more the farther north you go. I'm hoping that this gets resolved within the next week, otherwise its going to be a long, cold winter.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Winter Break
Malko Turnovo has finally gotten its first big snow! It came down non-stop for over 36 hours and now there is a good foot of snow covering everything in sight. It is very pretty, and this morning I went for a walk around the town to see it all: The trees filled with leaves of snow, the villagers shoveling the sidewalks and freeing their cars, the soft silence of snow covered fields punctuated by an occasion bird chirp, and the cold crisp smell of winter air interspersed with the smell of smoke from the dumpster fire outside my apartment. actually, that last one is not so much a smell of winter, but a normal smell that happens every so often when the dumpster fills up before trash pick-up day and needs to be cleared out.
http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge
Overall though its very nice out here. I have plenty of firewood and have been keeping my fireplace going to keep my apartment nice and warm. Today is the first day back at work since New Years, and the office still has the lethargic feeling left over from the holidays. This morning started off with good German chocolates and Scottish whiskey, the perfect thing to uh, well, not motivate one to work hard but relax and stay warm I guess. Integrating back into the American work environment might take a bit of adjusting after two years of this.
I had a great time over the holidays though. On Dec 23rd I took an overnight sleeper train across the country to my host families house back in Simitli. Those sleeper trains are awesome. You get a regular bunk bed to sleep the whole way in, and before you know it you are at your destination! Not bad. Anyway, spent Christmas Eve with the host family and had the big traditional dinner like last year. It was fun and really nice to see the family again. On Christmas morning I made my way out to the town of Razlog, nestled up in the mountains to spend the big day with some friends of mine. It snowed most of the day and I got my first white Christmas in a while.
The day after Christmas I headed up in the mountains to a local ski area that I been to the previous winter, but this time I had reservations at the mountain lodge above the ski runs. I met up with a bunch of other friends and for the next four days we all hung out and went snowboarding all day, then hung out in the lodge all night. I was really happy to get out snowboarding again and for the first two days we had constant snow and fresh powder that made the runs real nice. The last two days it warmed up and the slopes became pretty rocky, but it wasn't too bad. Unlike America, Bulgaria so far has been pretty dry and the mountains here don't have near as much snow as they did last year. Because of this the ski runs didn't have a nice deep snow base so once the powder melted off rocks were all over the place just barley under the surface, and a couple of times i was gliding down the mountain and caught an edge on a submerged rock.
After the mountain adventure we all took a train out to plovdiv for a repeat of last years New Years party in the center of town. The weather ended up being pretty cold (somewhere around 20 degrees Fahrenheit I would guess) but that didn't stop us from going out to see the concert and fireworks in the center of town at midnight. We stayed out there for about 2 hours, dancing and celebrating the New Year Bulgarian style. It was good fun, and we had a decent size group so up for it. New Years day we left town and went to Stara Zagora where a few of us relaxed at a friends apartment and hung out. Getting food that day was a bit of a hassle though, practically everything in Bulgaria is closed on New years day, including the supermarkets, and it took a lot of searching before we found a place that we could buy stuff to make dinner. I imagine if I had been in a smaller town like Malko Turnovo and didn't already have something in the pantry, I would have starved to death. Ok, probably not, but you get my point.
Now I have to stay put here in MT for the next couple weeks and try to save up money again. I did the holidays pretty cheap (a day of snowboarding cost me less than 30 dollars, including lift ticket, board rental, and lodging on the slopes!) but a week of travel still adds up and I need to start preparing for activities once winter is over. I figure if I lay low for January and February, once March comes I should be able to get back out of town at least for a weekend trip or something. In the meantime, I need to find ways to keep myself occupied here because this town gets super boring. Hopefully I have enough books and movies to last me through the winter....
http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge
Overall though its very nice out here. I have plenty of firewood and have been keeping my fireplace going to keep my apartment nice and warm. Today is the first day back at work since New Years, and the office still has the lethargic feeling left over from the holidays. This morning started off with good German chocolates and Scottish whiskey, the perfect thing to uh, well, not motivate one to work hard but relax and stay warm I guess. Integrating back into the American work environment might take a bit of adjusting after two years of this.
I had a great time over the holidays though. On Dec 23rd I took an overnight sleeper train across the country to my host families house back in Simitli. Those sleeper trains are awesome. You get a regular bunk bed to sleep the whole way in, and before you know it you are at your destination! Not bad. Anyway, spent Christmas Eve with the host family and had the big traditional dinner like last year. It was fun and really nice to see the family again. On Christmas morning I made my way out to the town of Razlog, nestled up in the mountains to spend the big day with some friends of mine. It snowed most of the day and I got my first white Christmas in a while.
The day after Christmas I headed up in the mountains to a local ski area that I been to the previous winter, but this time I had reservations at the mountain lodge above the ski runs. I met up with a bunch of other friends and for the next four days we all hung out and went snowboarding all day, then hung out in the lodge all night. I was really happy to get out snowboarding again and for the first two days we had constant snow and fresh powder that made the runs real nice. The last two days it warmed up and the slopes became pretty rocky, but it wasn't too bad. Unlike America, Bulgaria so far has been pretty dry and the mountains here don't have near as much snow as they did last year. Because of this the ski runs didn't have a nice deep snow base so once the powder melted off rocks were all over the place just barley under the surface, and a couple of times i was gliding down the mountain and caught an edge on a submerged rock.
After the mountain adventure we all took a train out to plovdiv for a repeat of last years New Years party in the center of town. The weather ended up being pretty cold (somewhere around 20 degrees Fahrenheit I would guess) but that didn't stop us from going out to see the concert and fireworks in the center of town at midnight. We stayed out there for about 2 hours, dancing and celebrating the New Year Bulgarian style. It was good fun, and we had a decent size group so up for it. New Years day we left town and went to Stara Zagora where a few of us relaxed at a friends apartment and hung out. Getting food that day was a bit of a hassle though, practically everything in Bulgaria is closed on New years day, including the supermarkets, and it took a lot of searching before we found a place that we could buy stuff to make dinner. I imagine if I had been in a smaller town like Malko Turnovo and didn't already have something in the pantry, I would have starved to death. Ok, probably not, but you get my point.
Now I have to stay put here in MT for the next couple weeks and try to save up money again. I did the holidays pretty cheap (a day of snowboarding cost me less than 30 dollars, including lift ticket, board rental, and lodging on the slopes!) but a week of travel still adds up and I need to start preparing for activities once winter is over. I figure if I lay low for January and February, once March comes I should be able to get back out of town at least for a weekend trip or something. In the meantime, I need to find ways to keep myself occupied here because this town gets super boring. Hopefully I have enough books and movies to last me through the winter....
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
return of winter
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
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
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
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