travels

So I just got back from another whirlwind week of traveling around Bulgaria. I spent two days in Dupnitsa going over more training and information before I took off to Gabrovo to meet and shadow a current volunteer. Gabrovo pretty much in the exact center of the country, and it took about five or six hours to get there. It is a pretty city with lots of traditional architecture surrounded by low mountains.
The volunteer there works for the central Balkan national park, and I spent the day getting a feel for what his day is like and what kind of projects he is working for. Nature Park Strandja, the park that I will be working, for has more land area than Central Balkan National Park, but has a smaller budget and staff because it is not a national park. So my job will vary depending on what kind of projects I want to work on and because there is less infrastructure, but I am excited about it because I will have the opportunity to make more of an impact. I also got to meet a bunch of the people that work for two of the different parks in central Bulgaria, which might be useful later if I ever need to network with them later for a project.
Also living right now in Gabrovo is Casey and Lindsay, a married couple that trained in the same town as me last year. I got to hangout with them for a while and on Friday night we all went over to their place and had a big dinner. It was nice to just relax for a while and take a break from everything.
On Saturday I headed out to Veliko Turnovo, one of the ancient capitals of Bulgaria. It is a sweet city, all built on the side of a steep mountain above a winding river. Buildings were practically built on top of each other, and two parallel streets less than a block from each other could be ten floors different in elevation. The city is also famous for a huge walled castle complex built on a small mountain on the edge of the city. It was a huge fortification, and at the very top with a view of the whole area was the craziest small cathedral like church that I have ever seen. It was normal brick from the outside and the inside was covered with murals and portraits. The strange part was that the paintings resembled more of a gothic frank miller graphic novel (think sin city) than it did traditional religious artwork.
Anyway, other than seeing the castle I really didn’t have a whole lot of time to do stuff in Veliko Turnovo, but I really would like to go back if I get a chance. So far I think that it is the most interesting city that I have been to yet in the country, and there is a lot of history there that I would like to learn more about. Yesterday I headed back to Simitli and will be here for a few days before I head back to dupnitsa for more training. No time for a break i guess. there is only about two and a half weeks now until i move out to malko turnovo for good, so my time here is winding down. I have no other real interesting stories to tell other than my travels, but I will try to write again soon. later