Alaskan Bulgarian

New Things

We'll move on from yesterday and just cover the new in Silistra and Bulgaria. There's a new hotel, for one thing, it's on the river and a beaut. America's agricultural attache was the first guest to receive a bill at the hotel since he was passing through on his way to Romania. Great guy, actually, we had coffee and breakfast on his full day here and talked about life in Bulgaria. The embassy folks, on their visits, always seem to fill in some of the blanks, and there were a few detail questions I had about Bulgarian agriculture that he was able to answer.

The hotel though, is something. It has its four stars right under its name, Hotel Druster, above the doors. It's absolutely revitalized the east end of the park running along the river. It's the only area of the park that's well-lit at night now, and new pavement is being put in along the walkways on the approaches to the building itself. Although huge, the building is pretty well-hidden behind trees and you have to look for it if you're walking through the park. It's really a triumph, I'd say.

Last night there was a private party that came complete with guards in camouflage pacing the front entrance. Apparently, the president himself was there, but some have it that it was "only" the vice president. None of Silsitra's illustrious ex-pat community got an invitation, though, so I can only imagine that the party really wasn't worth going to.

And speaking of parties, Bulgarian TV has gotten really interesting all of a sudden. One of the national stations ran a marathon from what I think was the second season of "Beverly Hills: 90210" today, which was a season mostly of holiday parties, for some reason. It's great to see BH90210 here, though, I've tried to reference it in class a couple of times before, and none of the students had any idea what I was talkign about. Now they may have a better idea, and know how strangely Americans dressed in the early nineties.

Also, miraculously, Diema 2 has picked up NBA basketball. This morning, very early, I got to watch Memphis and Houston play live. It was an ESPN feed and they kept teasing the Spurs and Lakers, but Diema 2 cut off the coverage before I got to see the Lakers. Just as welll though, I imagine, seeing as how they lost. It may be a rough season. We'll see.

Posted by Rob at November 7, 2004 09:47 PM