Fun with Photoshop

So I have been messing around with photoshop even more since I made those maps for the park and I started using it to edit some of my trip photos that didn't turn out how I wanted them too. I was having troubles on cloudy days when my (kinda crappy) camera would either overexpose the sky, turning it white in the photo, or underexpose the landscape, turning it a ugly dark mass. So I decided to take some of these overexposed photos and just edit in the appropriate sky so that they looked normal again, and I would have nice pics from my trip. This is still a learning process, but so far I have been happy with my results. Check out a few of the pictures that I touched up.

The Colosseum

The Pantheon

Meteora

To compare them, here are the original photos before I added the sky into them. For some of them I had to go back outside and take all new sky pictures (fortunately it was overcast when I came up with this plan, so they sky matched the overcast sky from the pics).

I have a lot more of these photos but Im sure you get the idea. I didnt edit all of them, just a few of them that would make great photos. This last pic I was just seeing how much I could get away with, but its definitely my favorite so far. It was a lot of fun to come up with and make.

Finally, Trip Pictures

I just recieved all the trip pictures from Tyler. We ended up just using one camera on the entire trip so that we wouldnt be taking two pictures of everything, but we used his camera and not mine, so I had to wait for him to send me a disk of the pics in the mail. I just sorted through the pics (I took way too many) and they are now up on picasa. http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge enjoy!

Greece

The next stop on our trip was Greece. After a short flight over the Adriatic Sea we landed in Athens and were greeted with beautiful spring weather and nice green countryside. We took the first bus into the city of Piraeus, which is the port city of Athens, but both cities have grown so much that they are pretty much one city now. We met up with our couch surfing host and he took us to see the apartment that we would be staying at for the next two nights. It was a great place right next to all the transport lines, but the best part by far was a large terrace that overlooked the harbor and the Aegean. Both nights we were there we went out and watched the sun set over the water.

Our couchsurfer was super cool, but unfortunately, that first night he had to work an overnight, so we were on our own to explore the area. He did point us in the direction of a great restaurant that he recommended before he left, so our first order of business was food. We feasted on Greek food that night, but when we asked for the bill, the owner said that our couchsurfer had already come in and said that he would take care of our meal, so that we didn’t even have to pay. We tried insisting, but I didn’t want to be rude either. It was amazing how hospitable our host was, we had our own primo apartment for the night and he even covered our dinner!

The next day we got up early and took a bus in to the city center to see the Acropolis and wander around the area. The Acropolis itself is amazing. It sits on a hill right in the center of Athens and overlooks every corner of the city. The Parthenon and temples that sit on top of it are impressive examples of the ingenuity and capability of the ancient Greeks, and its mind boggling to think that they are over 2300 years old.
After the Parthenon we walked over to see the old Roman agora (marketplace) and the even older Greek agora. Then we went to see the temple of the Olympian Zeus, a large columned structure that took over 650 years to build and used to house a giant statue of the Greek god.

That night we met up with our host again and decided to do a night out on the town. We went to a club in the center that was packed with people but the music was so loud that I couldn’t talk with any of them. We even met this one super hot girl that was a friend of our host whose name is Iota (like the math symbol) but because I couldn’t hear well over the music, I thought her name was Yoda. Needless to say I was a bit confused, and even asked her again and got the same response. I didn’t figure it out until after we left, but kept thinking to myself that she is much better looking than the other Yoda that I know.

The craziest thing about the Greek club scene though is how late it starts up. We didn’t even show up until after midnight, and that was considered a bit early. By the time we left at like 3:30 in the morning, the parties were just starting to get into full swing. I would have loved to have stayed out later and party till dawn, but I had to catch an early bus the next day and I wanted to get at least a few hours of sleep.

The next stop was Delphi, considered the center of the world by the ancient Greeks and home of the Delphic oracle. It’s a collection of temples and structures situated on the side of a mountain that overlooks a beautiful valley and lake. We didn’t have a lot of time there because of the bus schedule and had to blitzkrieg the place a bit, but I’m really glad that I at least got a chance to see it. Plus the entire bus ride up there and back was gorgeous.


After Delphi we made our way up north to meteora, a grouping of sheer cliffs and rock pinnacles that rises up out of the country side. Monks used to live up in these cliffs and built a series of monasteries perched on top of some of the pinnacles. There are only six of them left, but they are awesome to see and the view from them is the best. We took a cab up to the top one, and then hiked our way down to the town, stopping to see three others as we made our decent. We tried taking a short cut between some of the cliffs so we could see the last two monasteries, but after a bit of a detour and some intense scrambling on precipitous ledges, we found ourselves on top of one of the solitary cliffs. We ended up just chilling up there enjoying the view for the rest of the day, before attempting to make the harrowing decent down the other side toward town. We survived though, and rewarded our efforts with a feast of a dinner and some cold ones (note: Greek beer sucks, everyone there drinks imports) before moving on to the last stop on our trip.
Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece and is actually only a few hours away from Bulgaria. Unfortunately, there really isn’t that much to see aside from one cool tower (formerly known as the ‘tower of blood’) and some nice archeological museums. It was relaxing though and provided a good segway for life back in Bulgaria.
This trip was the first that I have done I a while to ‘touristy’ places, and it was very nice in the sense that it’s super easy to get around and see things without any effort. Everyone knows English, signs are well marked, and transportation runs when the signs say they run. It was a breath of fresh air to be in Western Europe like that and I have to say that I enjoyed it.

However, it also had its downsides. We went during off season but there were still hoards of people everywhere. I can’t imagine being in, say, Venice or Athens during peak season, but I do know that it would suck. It takes away from the direct experience of what the country and culture is like, because it just caters to foreigners. It also takes away from the excitement of traveling a bit. It was almost too easy, and there wasn’t the same sense of adventure in Italy or Greece that I had in some of the other countries I have been too; finding a place to sleep in Montenegro, trekking through Jordan; or wandering through endless bazaars in Egypt. For my next (and last) trip during my service here, I plan on going to a place that’s a little less traveled and will bring back that intense sense of adventure.

Overall though, I had a fantastic time and consider the trip a success in every regard. I ended up couchsurfing over half the time and met tons of cool people. In fact, I started this trip with just Tyler and I, and over the course of the whole two week trip, the only time it was just the two of us was in Rome. In every other city we either stayed with people, met other friends that were traveling, or joined up with other travelers and explored together. That’s the best way to do it I think.







(still waiting on the rest of the photos, I will post them as soon as I can. sorry for the wait)

Italia

Well, I'm back from my kick ass adventure around the Mediterranean. It was a great trip, and I got to accomplish everything that I set out to do and see. I started off in Milan, where our flight came into, and spent just a short while wandering around the center of town, visiting the duomo (the main cathedral) and a few other sites before moving on. It was only a short amount of time, but at least enough to get a glimpse of the city. I would have liked to have stayed a bit longer, but I wanted to devote most of my limited time to the other cities on my list.
My next stop was Venice. I have to say that Venice is just as cool as I imagined it to be, although I don't think that I would ever want to visit during the summer when tourist season is at its peak. The city is spread out on a series of small islands connected with bridges and canals, and apart from the main bridge that connects the city with the mainland, there are no roads in the entire place. I went two days walking around a city with out ever seeing a car!
It is also a very confusing city at first, since there are no real main roads and all the walkways are split by a seemingly endless system of waterways. I eventually figured my way around, but the first day I spent a great deal of time with my face buried in a map trying to figure out where the hell I was. It got even more confusing one night when we were trying to get back to our hostel because it was high tide and a lot of the paths were flooded, so we had to take the long way around the city, at night and in the rain. In fact, the entire main plaza (Piazza San Marco; the famous one with the bell tower and all the pigeons) actually flooded every night we were there. at midnight it was completely underwater, up to my ankles in some places! This city will be in serious trouble if the ocean levels rise even a few inches.

In order to save a bit of money (volunteering doesn't really pay the best) we got most of our lunches from markets and only went out to eat for dinners. This was completely fine by me after I saw my first Italian market. I don't think I have ever seen so many awesome cheeses in one place before in my life. Not to mention handmade pesto, fresh Italian bread, and three euro bottles of wine. I ate better market lunches there than I usually do from restaurants here in Bulgaria. We had a different cheese every day and never even came close to trying them all; asiago, parmesan, elementar, gorgonzola, brie.... the list goes on. I love Italian markets.

Actually, while Venice was the start of our market adventure, it was in Milan that my quest to eat as much Italian cuisine that my body could physically handle began. Over the course of the week that I was there I had pizzas, cream ravioli, spinach and ricotta stuffed ravioli in tomato sauce, cannoli, lasagna, tortellini, spaghetti, Tuscan brushetta, gnocchi, gelato, calzones, and pizza again. One of the Italian couchsurfers that we stayed with even invited a bunch of friends over for a big dinner party and two of these friends were professional chefs. That is what is called the 'Jackpot'. It was the biggest Italian feast I had ever seen and lasted no less than four hours and included at least three rounds of homemade deserts.

The next stop after Venice was Florence, right in the heart of the Tuscan hills. It is a really cool city, nestled in a small valley surrounded by lush grape vineyards and olive groves. There was a bit of rain the first day, but the weather cleared up for us and it was nice and sunny after that. Florence was pretty relaxing since we were there on a Sunday and Monday, and turns out that most things are closed those two days, so we had plenty of time to just wander around the city and explore. I did get to see the statue of David though, and it really is the most impressive statue that I have ever seen. The amount of detail in it is amazing, you can even see veins in his arms and legs. I guess that Michelangelo knew what he was doing.

From Florence we took a train down to Rome and started our city tour at the Colosseum. that thing is bigger than most modern stadiums that I have been to, its amazing to think that its as old as it is. Right next to the Colosseum is the old Roman palace for the emperors and the Roman forum where the senate met. Its one huge complex full of old structures, columns, statues and plazas. Some of them had been severely damaged, but it still gave a pretty good feel for what it would have been like to be there 1700 years ago. Just the sheer scale of some of the structures shows the might of Rome, and makes it easy to see how it was the most impressive city in the world.
By chance we also stumbled upon an exposition for one of my favorite aritsts, Hiroshige, while wandingering around Rome. It was a fantastic collection of over 200 of his works, and it even included my favorite piece, which I was excited to see. It also made for a refreshing break from seeing ruins.

We stayed in Rome for three full days and did a short half-day trip to the Vatican city to see St Peters Cathedral and the Vatican museums. We showed up in front of St Peters early in the morning to find the entire place completely packed with people and the cathedral cordoned off. Turns out the Pope was scheduled to speak in another half hour, so we waited around to watch his speech. He showed up riding in his little pope mobile, which is actually just Mercedes SUV with a giant bubble top so that he can stand and wave to people as he goes by. Kind of a silly looking car, and it didn't help that there was cheese vaudeville-esq organ music playing in the back ground as he putted around at five miles an hour. I tried to take a picture, but I was thwarted by the mass of people in front of me. I didn't stay long into the speech because the only part that I was able to understand (my Italian and Latin ain't the best) was him reiterating how condoms wont help stem the tide of AIDS in Africa. After that, I was ready to go. I did get to see the Sistine chapel though before I left.

Im still waiting on my pictures, but I should get those posted and the blog about greece up in the next day or two. sorry about the wait.

My Spy Cameras

The other day I was sitting in my apartment getting ready to cook up some dinner, and I decided that I would flip on the TV to see if there was anything good to watch while I was preparing my meal. I never watch TV, in all honesty i would say that I turn it on maybe once or twice a month, despite the fact that I have cable (I am forced to buy cable in order to get Internet, which I think is stupid, but my Internet bill is only about 14 dollars a month, so I cant complain too much). I was flipping through channels to see if there was anything good on discovery, history, or another station that was showing something other than mind-numbing sitcoms, and I came across the craziest station of all, the SKAT station.

SKAT, my local Internet/cable provider, has this local station that they air only in the region, and quite possibly only in my town. The station consists of elevator style background music with a screen that is split into four, one screen with Bulgarian news (without sound), one with a random Bulgarian TV show (still no sound), and last, and most bizarre, two live feeds from CCTV cameras that are placed around town. That's right, at any time of day or night, you can flip over to this station and watch live streaming content from video cameras placed strategically around the center of Malko Turnovo.

I have no idea why these cameras even exist in the first place, and even less of an idea why they are broadcast to everyone that has cable TV in my town. Who knows how many people are tuned in watching as you sit on a bench in the town square reading a book, or talking to friends, or picking your nose? Its kind of a strange feeling. I have even been over to peoples houses for dinner before when they have their TV on in the corner of the room with that station showing. Its just one of those things that the first time you see it, it makes you go 'hmmmm.'

The Russian Jeep

I spent most of this week out in the field looking for nests of birds of prey. It was nice to be outside again, but on Tuesday we had really bad weather. It started out nice, then turned to light rain, which slowly increased to a steady downpour. By the time we made it back to the jeep it was dumping snow on us. I was completely soaked.

Yesterday we went out to the coast to do bird counts. It was a fairly uneventful trip, but we did get to take the Lada Niva mudding on some of the trails (which were huge mud pits after the rains from the days before). We managed to get it stuck once, but for the most part those Lada Nivas are pretty bomb vehicles. Of all the cool things to come out of Russia, these jeeps are on the top of the list. They don’t have all the nice features you would find on, say, a jeep wrangler, but they are tough vehicles.

(the Niva after taking off-roading)

Our park owns three of them, all in various states of disrepair. The newest one is in perfect condition and has a tow winch and CD deck. The oldest of them is missing interior panels and functioning seatbelts, has a hole where the radio should be, and when you take it barreling down rugged terrain the doors have a tendency to pop open at random. Needless to say it makes for an exciting ride. But as beat up as they get, they never seem to die.

Stuck in the Middle of Nowhere

Last weekend I went out to a town in northern Bulgaria called Isparih to help out with a kids basketball tournament that was put on by a fellow volunteer. The tournament was a huge success, but it was my first time out in that region and my simple trip out to the town turned in to a 15 hour adventure. Riding trains here can be difficult sometimes because when the trains pull into a station there is no announcement informing people which station it is. I had to make several transfers but since I had never been up that way before I didn't know exactly which station I was supposed to change at. We pulled in to one station that I though was the right one, and I even asked a guy and he said it was the one I wanted, but turns out it wasn't. I had gotten off one station too early. Unfortunately, the train that I had just gotten off was the last one of the night, and there were no buses that ran then either. I asked the station attendent how far it was to the next town where my train transfer was, and he said only 6-7 kilometers.

"Cool, no problem, I can hike that in about an hour," I replied.

"No you cant, there is no road," answered the attendant in a monotone voice. Well, scratch that plan.

I had resigned myself to the fact that i would now be spending the night in this crappy town, and then inquired where the local market was since it was now 9pm and I had not eaten since before noon.

"Sorry, market is closed" was the reply I received. Great, no train, no bus, no market, no nothing. This town sucked. The train station attendant was kind enough to let me in to the switching house where they had a fire going and it was warmer while I called my friend in Isparih to let him know that I would not be making it in that night. He said he had a friend that could drive out and pick me up since I was only some 40 kilometers from his place. Sweet, good news. So I hung out with the train guys in the station house taking about politics, the economy, and life in Bulgaria while I waited for my friend to arrive. It took him two and a half hours to make it the 40 kilometers! Turns out there really were no good roads to this place. That is the last time I make that mistake again.