The Final Stretch

Well, as you have probably already noticed, I have made a few changes to my blog in preparation for my trip. I added an event calendar that shows the tentative plan of action for the next month and a half, and I created a map that more or less plots the course we will take during our journey. The itinerary is not set in stone; we will be buying train and bus tickets as we go along, so we have the flexibility to stay longer in any city if we really like it, and leave early if we really don't. In fact, the only thing that we really cant miss is our flight out of Amsterdam on Nov 15th, so as long as we get there before then we are fine.
In the mean time, when I'm not sending out couchsurfing requests and double checking train times, I am cleaning up my apartment and sorting things that I will need to bring with me during my travels. I plan to take only one backpack with me, so everything that comes will have to comfortably fit in there. There is nothing worse than starting a huge adventure like this and having to lug around 100 pounds of unneeded stuff across an entire continent. Lightweight is the name of the game.

I am getting pretty excited about the whole thing though. I have been itching for a change for a while now and the moment has finally come. By the end of the week I will be homeless, and come next week I will be unemployed as well! Hurray! Um, wait. Ok, so hopefully I will only temporarily be homeless and unemployed, I imagine that is not a state I would like to remain in indefinitely. But in the mean time, it will nice to have unlimited freedom to go where I want, do what I please, and pretty much just enjoy life for the next two months. Im sure reality will waste no time in crashing down on me once I return to the states and I realize that I have to find a job ASAP, but oh well, I will worry about that when the time comes.

Anyway, wish me luck as I wrap up the last few things here, and I will post again as soon as I can. Peace

Contemplating Bulgaria

I just got back to Malko Turnovo the other day from a few more work related travels around the country. I had to go to Sofia to start filling out some of my end of service paperwork, get checked out by the doctor to make sure I haven't contracted any strange diseases while I was here, and get my teeth cleaned (good news: I don't have any strange diseases). It was nice though because I was able to leave a few days early and go see my host family one last time over in Simitli. It was good to see them again, and gave me some time to reflect on my service here.

(Me contemplating things)

It was strange being back in Simitli two years after I had first got there, and was interesting to compare how I am now to how I was then when I was living there. My perspective on Bulgaria has certainly changed, not better or worse necessarily, but has definitely become more complete and informed. Bulgaria is no longer this new strange place that surprises me at every turn. It has become normal, and after long trips to other countries I return here and am greeted by a sense of familiarity. That being said, I can never see myself feeling completely at home here. I think that the general outlook and way of life for many (but by no means all) of the people I meet here is different than my own, and after spending so much time here I still feel very much like a foreigner in my day to day exchanges. It's a hard to describe situation.

(Field work with the Germans)

The time is almost up though, and pretty soon it will be on to new things. I have less than two weeks left here at my office, and most of that time will be spent finishing up reports, cleaning out my office and apartment, and working with a group of German researchers that just arrived in town today to continue with some bat studies in the field. I have a feeling it will be a very busy two weeks.

One month left!

I will be finished with my service here in exactly one month! Time has been flying by lately and I have already begun to organize my things and pack up my apartment. Next week I will travel out to Simitli to visit my host family one more time, and my brother (who is out gallivanting in Greece at the moment) will join me there. I'm looking forward to seeing them and getting the chance to say goodbye. After that I head to Sofia to take care of some paper work, get checked out by the doctor, and go to the dentist. Then its out to Plovdiv for one final group gathering, and it will probably be the last time I see many of the other volunteers here that are in my group. It should be a good time though, and its nice that we can have one last gathering right before we all head our separate directions.

(Goodbye Malko Turnovo)

After I am done in Bulgaria, Braden and I will begin our epic European tour. I haven't planned out all the details yet, or an exact route that we will take, but its going to be the biggest trip that I have taken yet. We will travel for a month and a half through Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungry, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Holland, England and Ireland, before catching a flight back to Nebraska on November 23rd. I am super excited about it, and have been doing a bit of research on all the stuff we can see and do while we are there. It is sure to be a vacation full of sweet adventures and general tomfoolery. The plan is to couchsurf as much as possible as well, to try and meet lots of people, and so that we don't run out of money after the first week. The good news is that I can get money in lieu of a ticket home from Sofia, so my flight back from Dublin is pretty much free. Not a bad deal.

(Lake Bled, one of our first stops on the trip)

I will do my best to update my blog as often as I can during my travels and post pictures as well, so keep checking in for updates. Also, if any one is interested, I can send out some post cards as I meander my way across Europe. Just email me your address and you will be sure to receive a kick-ass, personally autographed post card from any one of the aforementioned countries. What more could you want?

2,000 Leagues (give or take) Under the Sea

I finally got out scuba diving again last weekend! I had tried to go once a few weekends back, made the trip all the way south to the city that the dive center was located at only to find that they had canceled diving for the day without telling any of the divers. It ended up being a total waste of my morning and really frustrating because I had been looking forward to it so much. But last Saturday I got my chance. It was perfect weather and we took a boat out and dove one of the same wrecks that I went to last year. The first dive went went well, but it took me a bit to get adjusted since it had been a little while since I had been in the water. We got to spend plenty of time exploring the wreck though, swimming through corridors and making it all the way up to the bow of the ship. The water had the same murky green tint to it that I remember from last time, and was equally as cold. There were occasional fish and some jellyfish hovering around the wreck, but other than that, sea life in the area was fairly sparse. We explored the wreck for about half an hour or so, and then it was time to surface.

Between dives we just hung out on the boat, but there were really big swells and I ended up getting a bit sea sick. It ended up being a pretty miserable wait, and I couldn't wait to get back in the water where everything is more calm. As soon as I got in the water and started descending I felt much better, and the second dive went smoothly as well. We didn't get as much bottom time since the dive was so deep; if we had stayed down too long we would increase our risk for both nitrogen narcosis and decompression sickness, both of which I would like to avoid. But we toured part of the ship once more and checked out a few areas that we didn't have time for the first trip down. After that it was back to the surface, and then back to shore.

Over all it was a good trip, and for me its nice to be able to dive at least semi-regularly so that I can keep my skill set up and not be nervous every time I dive. Hopefully I get more opportunities to dive once I get back to the states, but being how I plan on staying in Nebraska at least until the New Year, I'm not counting on it any time soon.

(Dive conditions similar to Nebraska)

In other news, summer seems to have suddenly ended today. This year brought with it much milder than usual summer weather, which was nice because I got to avoid all the miserably hot summer days, but bad because it was shorter than last years. Today, September 1st, I was greeted with a completely overcast sky and a cool Autumn breeze. Summer is over way too quickly, it seems to have just flown by. Now I just hope the really cold winter weather stays at bay until I return back to the States.

Town Holiday....I think

It is not uncommon for Bulgarian towns to have a town holiday, one day where all the locals come together to celebrate, dance, drink and partake in general merryment. These are very festive events that are greeted with much fanfare and can sometimes resemble small fairs that we used to go to as kids back in the States (although the titl-a-whore sometimes slightly resembles a 30 year old spinning death trap here, and I wouldnt recommend riding it).

Malko Turnovo though has what would be considered the mother of all town holidays, due to the fact that it lasts not just one pitiful day, but for a whole week. Thats right, SEVEN straight days of town holiday! It sounds like a great idea, but the plan went awry somewhere along the way and now it seems more like one days worth of events and booths that were spread out over the course of a week. One day there is dancing, the next there is music, the day after that there is a ballon vendor, and today we are graced with a cotton candy peddler. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.... Having just one event from a fair show up for a day in the town center is hardly exciting, and I would have much rather had them all at once for one day of festivites instead of everyday having one. Makes for a lame holiday. I would show you pics, but honestly there is nothing to see.

Anyway, summer is coming to a close, and the trees in the park are already starting to turn colors. Pretty soon fall will come and hopefully I will get some cool pics of that.

Music Festival Extravaganza!

I am back in Malko Turnovo now, exhausted and a bit sick, after an intense 3 night music festival in Burgas. This year it was really awesome and I had a few friends come in to town to join in the festivities with me. We spent the afternoons relaxing at the beach (the weather was perfect), chilled out in the evenings and cooked some bomb dinners, and then headed to the show around 9 or 10 each night. The set up was similar to last years; 7 stages right on the beach, with music playing until the sun came up. The music catered to almost every taste, including rock, metal, punk, rap, ska, reggae, jazz and at least two stages devoted to techno and house, which effectively turned the beach into an outdoor rave toward the end of the night. It was a wild time.

(Stage 1 of 7, courtesy of spiritofburgas.com)

However, going from such a concert back to the slow pace of life that is Malko Turnovo is quite the transition. Now I am recovering and entertaining a few German couchsurfers that are staying at my place for a few days while they explore the park. The weather is surprisingly nice considering its august, and provides ideal weather for seeing the region. After that I think things quite down a bit until around mid-September, when I have to start prepping for my trip back to the states. Time has been flying lately, and I have a feeling that it will continue to do the same until the big day comes.

Beach weekend

I have definitely been taking advantage of living close to the sea this summer. This last weekend I got out of work a day early (on account of it being my birthday) and headed up to burgas to celebrate with a bunch of my friends that had come in from out of town. We ended up having a relaxing afternoon at the beach followed by a rather epic night.

The next day we headed up north to a town called Obzor to meet up with more people and spend the weekend relaxing on the coast. There ended up being some 25 people or so in our party and it was a lot of fun just chillin and seeing everyone again. Now that our term is almost up there are only going to be a few more events where we can get together, and I have a feeling that none of these upcoming events will have a majority of the group attend. Its kinda weird knowing that after being here 2 years with some of these people, I will probably never see some of them again.

Today I got back to Malko Turnovo and I realize that I am pretty much finished with work here. All my projects are finished, all my secondary activities are over, and the office has slowed down for august, so I am not sure what I will do to stay productive and fill my time. Office hours are definitely starting to drag. I did get my confirmation on my final day though, and I am happy to announce that on October 7th, I will officially be finished with my job here! Time to start planning my after-service trip.......