A Chronicle of my Changing Times.

To Sofia and back...

Sofia is not my favorite city on earth.  This much is for sure.  But it is what Bulgaria has to offer for a large city.  Mind you, I haven’t really taken the opportunity to get out and really know it.  Every time I visit I manage to discover something else about it.  But still, it’s just not a great city.  It’s dirty, disorganized, randomly expensive (by BG standards) and people there tend to be rude.  I mean, Bulgarians are not the type of people who will say hi in passing generally unless you either say hi to them or you are close friends.  Maybe this is why I’m considered friendly and outgoing – the Midwesterner in me just can’t help saying “hi, how are you” to every person I know.  This type of friendliness just doesn’t fly in Sofia. (Pictured: Flags of the world and the Lady Statue - I'm sure it has a real name)

The city is a bit of a Mecca however for volunteers.  Usually this revolves around food or some movie/concert.  You want Indian food in Bulgaria?  The best is in the capital.  A real American style hamburger, that is not McDonald’s, with Heinz 57 ketchup instead of the uber sweet Bulgarian brands?  There’s a restaurant in Sofia for you.  The best movie theaters with the latest greatest releases are there as well.  Sitting in one with your Coke and popcorn or ice cream you could almost forget you’re not in .

This past weekend I had a meeting for a Play Writing Project that I’m part of so I made the three hour trek from Haskovo on Friday.  After the obligatory visit to PC offices I headed out to a wonderfully greasy lunch at Pizza Hut with a few other PCV’s.  Yup, enough pan pizza perfection to clog my arteries and give me indigestion for a month.  Sure did taste good going down though.  After hitting a few regular haunts (book bazaar & a pub where once hearing The Last of the Mohicans soundtrack forever endeared it to me) we did another usual thing and took in a movie. (Pictured: The Russian Church across the street from where we had our Playwriting meeting)

This is where my nice, normally scheduled visit took a bit of an unexpected turn.  One of my friends, Jen, had met one of the Marine guards at the US Embassy a few weeks back.  He called and invited us to stop by the Embassy to hang out.  I’m not quite sure if the idea of Marines or a kitchen stocked full with American food appealed to my three female friends more.  Personally, I’d like to think it was the tried and true offer that’ll get any warm blooded PCV’s heart pumping – free alcohol.  Regardless, after about 20 minutes and a checkpoint that reminded me of airport security on crack, I found myself once again on American soil.  I have to say we treat our servicemen right after seeing the pad that Marines live in here.  Besides the single slate pool table, surround sound system, big screen TV with countless movies – the aforementioned kitchen and pantry which happened to be larger than my apartment was enough to take my breath away.  To wrap up the evening I was treated to a ride back in an American standby – a SUV.  The only difference is that this one had diplomatic plates which did increase the coolness factor a bit. (Pictured: Jen, myself and Rachel)

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful pre-spring day.  After oversleeping as I’m wont to do, I scarfed down Dunkin Donuts with Olivia before heading to my surprisingly productive Playwriting meeting at a Starbucks wannabe coffeehouse.  I snapped a few of the photos shown here before heading off to catch an early bus back to Haskovo.  One really does need to limit time in Sofia lest you somehow lose your sense of what’s real in PC. (Pictured: Another shot of the Russian Church since it was such a beautiful day)

This upcoming weekend I’m off once again – this time to celebrate a truly American tradition, St. Patrick’s Day.  A few kindly PCV’s up in a city called Shumen are throwing a bash.  Heck, I might have some green beer (if we can find some food dye) in honor of my dad and a legendary tale about him.  Rumor has it that we may be able to go horseback riding as well, which is something I truly enjoy.  Looks to be another fun weekend…

Posted by: mjmarble at March 17, 2006 10:05 | link | comments (3)

Festival & Traditions...

This past week I was able to truly take in a bit of Bulgarian culture.  It all started this past Wednesday, March 1^st with Baba Marta.  This is one of the few completely unique Bulgarian traditions that I’ve observed this past year here.  Sure, there are certain traditions that have a BG twist to them, but this one is the only one of its kind in the world as far as I’ve heard. 

It’s a rather simple tradition.  On March 1^st you buy and receive red and white strings that you are supposed to tie around your wrist.  The string is commonly called a Martenitsa. When receiving them the giver wishes you health and luck.  You greet people on this day by saying “Chestita Baba Marta” which means 'Congratulations Grandma March.'  Often times you give/receive fancier designed red/white martenitsas which can be pinned on to your coat.  You are supposed to wear this red & white string/decoration until you see your first stork of spring.  When you see said stork you are supposed to take the martenitsa and tie it to a branch on the closest tree.  

This is actually easier done then one would think.  Throughout the countryside of storks build gigantic nests upon any pole-like structure that stands more than 2 stories tall.  This often includes church steeples as well as many telephone poles.  Unfortunately, I’ve learned since coming here that storks are migratory birds and will not truly return until spring actually arrives (although it has been gloriously warm of late).  More information can be found on the history and specifics of the holiday at this website as well as this one.

I received about 30 or so Martenitsas from colleagues and students.  I took most of them off but then received another 5-6 from close friends.  I figure that the ones from friends are the most genuine and have kept them on as well as one or two representative ones from school.  I also got a martenitsas necklace which I’m still wearing.  I had to take some off since they were going halfway up my arm.  Just think about wearing string around your wrist for 3 weeks or so – showering with it, cooking with it on, sleeping with it, etc.  You really do have to limit how many you keep.

This past weekend I took my martenitsas and myself into the mountains for a Kukeri festival.  This festival basically consists of people dressing up in strange hairy outfits whilst wearing cowbells and banging on drums to scare away ‘evil spirits’.  Well, that’s the general layman’s gist of what goes on at least.  So I went up to a remote village in the southern Rhodopie Mountains and watched this festival with about 40 other PCV’s. (Pictured: PCV's Jeremy, Gina, Jen, Jim & Erin)

It was amazing cold still up in the mountains.  I went down on Friday and stayed with a PCV in a town called Chepelare.  After spending the evening with about 4 other PCV’s at a hotel/bar owned by a fun gregarious Brit ex-Pat named Nasar, I broke off from them as they headed up to go skiing at one of the resorts called Pomporovo.  Instead I met up with a large number of other volunteers in a town called Smolyan for the afternoon before partying and crashing out at an unfinished house in a village called Stokitae.  Whilst bitterly cold that night, fun times were had which included sledding down an iced over hill a plastic tablecloth.  What was most amazing, however, were the stars.  I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen that many stars in quite a long time. (Pictured: A couple dancers after the performance when I got my camera back)

The next morning we got up and managed to catch a ride to the festival in the next town over.  There were about 6 groups of dancers including a group of Mummers from .  All the groups paraded down the street and danced in the square.  I had unfortunately left my bag with my camera back in Chepelare on Saturday morning and thus was not able to take pictures of any of the dancers.  The guys with my bag didn’t show up until after the performances had concluded.  I did manage a few pictures of people doing the Hora – traditional group Bulgarian dancing. All in all, it was an interesting festival – definitely a taste of that you don’t see on a daily basis. (Pictured: People dancing the Hora and mass chaos in the square of the village)

Posted by: mjmarble at March 07, 2006 17:17 | link | comments