March 20, 2005
Of Mosques, Clubs, and Heat
Well, the photo-taking weekend had a significant delay factor in that, after a 60 degree day on Friday, the temperatures dropped below freezing for a short time on Saturday and there was actually a little snow involved. Things got back to sanity today. The sky was clear and crisp, at least, but it was still cool, and felt more like late fall than early spring. I have no idea if that distinction makes any kind of sense. But hopefully you get the idea.
What I came up with yesterday was this photo of Silistra's 16th century mosque. It's currently under the same reconstruction project it has been a victim of for, as I understand it, about five years. Presently, it's in the Disneyland phase and has been that way for a few months. I can only hope that somebody powerful saw what was going on with the tower and demanded the whole thing come to a halt. I'm not sure if mosques actually looked that way in the 16th century, but if they did, they shouldn't have.
There are various theories going around about that mosque. Some see its neverending rehab as a small part of Silistra's (and Bulgaria's) simmering dislike of the Turkish. Others have told me that if this isn't the reason no one has been inside without a hardhat and blueprints in five years, it ought to be. Some just shrug and say "tova e Bulgaria . . ." (That's Bulgaria [for you]). Whatever the reason, the mosque is a local landmark and sits square in the middle of town. Any visitor is going to see it, so there's some interest in getting it up and running again. And if it isn't operating, well, they can at least let people tramp through with shoes on and take photos, right?
Near the mosque is "Bar Life," an underground place that's pretty much the only place to go in Silistra for good house music, if you're into that sort of thing. Most of Silistra, as it turns out, isn't. Bar life is more of a niche club. It usually comes in third in polls behind "Insomnia" and "Easter," and during the summer it's rarely visited at all.
I mention it because you can see the sign on the left and because "Bar Life"'s main feature (other than house), is its couches, and couches came up in conversation the other night. It has two lounges that feature white couches next to glass tables. Mysteriously, those lounges are almost never reserved or filled. Everybody prefers to either stand or sit near one of the counters spread around the club.
It's a common them here in Bulgaria, couches getting ignored. You think they're the best seats in the house, so if you see them empty you tend to automatically think they're reserved. But mysteriously, they usually aren't. One almost angry explanation we got from a Bulgarian friend this weekend was that people go to a club to dance, and you can't dance if you're sitting on a couch. This would be logical and an outstanding argument if Bulgarians (and our friend, in particular) actually danced at clubs. Sure there are the half-full dance floors, but the vast majority of people at any club stand, sit, or make themselves discrete in any way possible around the tables off the dance floor.
I, of course, have no problem with this. It's my kind of club, really--the sit down and relax kind--but I still don't understand why the couches are usually ignored. Oh well, no looking the gift horse in the mouth I suppose.
Oh, and the cat's in heat again. I always thought that a "heat" was a rare thing. Monthly maybe, or something like that. But she goes into it every other week or so, it seems. I have no idea how anyone can ever have an unspayed cat for a long period of time. Half the time, she's a completely different cat set only on making loud noises and thrusting her rear at anything that seems convenient.
It would be fine if it were a broad, cyclical thing. Something to make me treasure the moments where I don't have to worry about how much noise she makes when I leave, but this almost constant thing needs to be changed. I'm starting to ask questions around town about the local vets' abilities to do the deed that no Bulgarian cat ever has done, and the results aren't too optomistic. One of my students asked "Aren't you worried about the cat getting infected by the operation?" If it's a gamble here, where I would have to worry, maybe it would be worth a trip to Sofia. Or on the really safe side, waiting until I get back to America, where reproductive organs are snipped as a matter of course, not a specialty.
Posted by Rob at March 20, 2005 07:20 PM