May 27, 2005
Everything and the Little Bits In-Between
So, um, where were we. I forget. Oh yeah, about a week ago now I set off for a small tourist trap in southern Bulgaria called Melnik. Tourist trap is a bit harsh. Really harsh, actually, since Melnik is easily in my top 5 places in Bulgaria and probably in the top 3, but that doesn’t change the fact that its name is probably one those that George Lucas had a hard time rejecting for a planet name in the Star Wars movies (We’ll get to Episode III later). Or maybe that just makes it cooler.
The trip began, as these things usually do, with a 7 hour bus ride to Sofia. Since Silistra and Melnik are in opposite corners of the country and about as far physically as places get in this country, I took a midnight bus on Saturday morning. Since the midnight bus is always full, I sat next to somebody and to punish them for sitting next to a tall person and making me lose all feeling below my knees for a few hours, I probably snored loudly in their ear and drooled on them in my sleep. I can only hope they’ve learned their lesson.
I woke up in Sofia, where the weather was freezing cold for the hour I was in the bus station and never again for the rest of the weekend. After quickly breaking the ol’ fast and spending 50 stotinki for the pleasure of using the best bus station toilet in Bulgaria, I escaped the living concrete hell that is Sofia as quickly as a bus to Sandanski (a town near Melnik which also has a cool name) would allow and relaxed as the weather got warmer and warmer with every kilometer we headed south. Three hours and a pit stop later, I’d gotten to where I needed to be.
A B-14 was also on the bus. B-14’s are volunteers that came to Bulgaria later in the same year my group arrived. They tend to be an isolated, secret-handshake-using bunch, and an intense rivalry has formed between we two groups of grizzled veterans that has resulted in more than a few stubbed toes and Indian burns. After the B-14, named Anna, for convenience, and I had gotten over glaring at each other, as tradition and honor demanded, we began to figure out why we were on the same bus together.
It turns out that, in addition to the group of 15 people I was attached to (One of whom, to my never-ending shame, was a B-14 going out with a B-13. O! Shame upon never-ending shame!), there was a group of B-14s celebrating the birthday of one of their own. The village would be packed with Americans. There was also an American woman on the bus who spent the entire trip speaking very loudly to her Bulgarian friend. Three Americans on the Bulgarian bus and the only voice a person could hear was English. We truly are the great upper middle class immigrants.
When we got to Sandanski, I gave Michael, the volunteer living in Sandanski, a call. Because Anna had nothing really better to do until we all went to Melnik, she followed me and Andrew, another B-13 living near Sandanski, to a restaurant where we ran right into a Bulgarian ambush. It turns out Michael had led us into a graduation party trap. A student of his was graduating, and even thought Michael had told him he would be busy over the weekend the family refused to take his “no” for an answer.
We walked into a dark basement restaurant where a banquet table was set up and a small band of two was playing Bulgarian music in the corner. It was around noon, so we had to adjust a bit to the light, but after a moment, Mike led us to a table near the banquet table and after apologizing far too many times asked us to sit down, make ourselves comfortable, and have some fun until he could get us all out. Never being one to refuse food, I ate all the salad and bread put in front of me and nearly chocked on the lamb when it set down near our plates. I also did my share of cheering (nothing like a few glasses of rakia before 1 pm) and congratulating the family and the graduate.
When Mike was able to leave, the three guests gave a quick goodbye to everyone, grabbed our baggage from the corner and bolted for the door (we were supposed to be in Melnik after all. Na gosti are all well and good, but could really be done anytime). We all hopped in a cab to take us the 20 kilometers or so to Melnik and I got into a nice conversation with the driver while the three in the back acted like children. Absolute children.
We finally arrived in Melnik. It was hot, but not too hot, and the village was beautiful but also packed with tourists, mostly Bulgarian and many American as noted before. It was Kiril and Metodi weekend and that meant a four day weekend for most and five days off for some. Saints Cyril and Methodius are the two brothers who created the Cyrillic alphabet, which, I think, in its past forms was a far more useful alphabet than either the current Latin or Cyrillic alphabets. Middle Bulgarian seems to have had a “th” sound in addition to its current complement of letters representing “ch,” “sh,” and “sht.” I think any alphabet that has a “th” sound and all of those other sounds deserves a lot of credit. But for some reason Bulgarian lost “th” and so I have to frustratingly teach students to say “the” instead of “duh.” Life is hard.
Anyway, Cyril and Methodius also gave Bulgaria its equivalent of Memorial Day weekend, and everywhere from Sofia’s bus station to Melnik was flooded with families taking a weekend trip. It made walking around Melnik a bit of a chore, since cars were trying to get up the narrow cobblestone streets right along with the teeming masses, but it didn’t seem to take much away from the weekend.
We checked into a great hotel, called the Despot Slav and relaxed for a few hours in whatever way best suited us. I went to a café with other members of the group I hadn’t seen yet and caught up with them over some overly-soggy baklava. After the relaxing, we all filed into a great little restaurant where Mike had set up a reservation. 15 people squeezed in around a big square table. We spent the next 4 hours or so eating, drinking the restaurant’s wine, and oddly enough, playing a few rounds of telephone. I also played rummy with Jill, the B-13 sitting ext to me at the table. A few hours in, the restaurant began to comp us on wine when they realized they were going to get an easy triple digit bill out of us. Melnik is famous for its wine and although I wouldn’t say it flowed like water, it was sure a lot easier to find and buy bottled wine in Melnik than it was to buy bottled water.
As it turned out, the bill was actually incredibly reasonable. The fifteen of us paid about 230 leva as I recall, and threw on a good tip. 230 leva works out to about 150 dollars. The next time you or someone you know in America can hold a four hour dinner, featuring about 20 or so liters of good wine total and three or four courses for everyone at the table, and see this meal run for about 10 dollars a head, let me know and I’ll give you a cookie. I love Bulgaria, I really do.
Then came sleep.
The next day we woke up at around 9 without anyone so much as complaining of a headache. Like I said, it was good wine, ten dollars a head. Boggles the mind. The hotel gave us a great breakfast, then we set off up the trail to the monastery at the top of the hill. The trail was absolutely beautiful. There were sandstone cliffs all along the way, spectacular drop-offs that would send you down a few hundred feet, and a non-functioning camera in my pocket (Batteries, fresh ones that lasted about 4 photos. Kodak batteries too, in a Kodak camera. I can’t explain this.). All the photos you see here are courtesy of Sharad, helping me out again. He’s a good man.
Near the end of the trail there were a few switchbacks that ran right along the side of the cliffs. The places where a foot could go were about the size of a shoe. And the surface was sandstone. I don’t think I’ve gone through a more hair-raising bit of a trail in my life. Even in Alaska in late winter. That’s saying something.
We all survived and got to see the monastery. A monk spent most of his time telling people not to take photos anywhere on the monastery’s grounds. Sharad wasn’t listening obviously:
But a monastery’s a monastery, so we finished up quickly, saw the grave of Yane Sandanski, had a quick lunch, then began the trip down the hill. We took the road this time. It was still a beautiful walk, but it involved less sweat and fewer brushes with death. Always a plus.
Back in Melnik, we relaxed a little more, then headed back to Sandanski and a few of us carried on to Dupnitsa, for easier access to Sofia the next day. Dupnitsa featured a quiet dinner and a quiet evening of rummy and chess. It also featured Sharad repeatedly (repeatedly, mind you) insulting my kitchen in comparison with Jill’s. Most of it revolved around the fact that I don’t keep tea or coffee around for the rare guest that passes through this corner of Bulgaria.
After the fun of Melnik and the relaxation in Dupnitsa came the prospect of a return to Sofia. I had to have a medical checkup. TB test, physical, the works. So I went into Sofia by bus Monday morning with three other B-13s and we split a cab fare to headquarters. There I was able to check my e-mail and post the lovely bit you saw on Monday before I ran upstairs to get the basics of the physical finished. The TB test went under my skin, because I hadn’t had time for breakfast at that point they did a blood test, and they checked my height, vision, hearing, blood pressure, weight, the works. Turns out I’m fit at or above the level of a fiddle, if you don’t count the 100 mg of Atenolol I take every night. And I don’t. After that I talked to the staff I wanted to talk to and left quickly for the theater. I had gotten a call from Aaron, and old friend from training, who had invited me up to Lovech, just two hours away from Sofia for the next day since I really didn’t have to be in Sofia. To catch a decent bus up there, though, I needed to hurry.
Fortunately, the Sofia tram system was with me and everything ran like clockwork. I got to the theater 15 minutes before an early showing of Episode III (And by early I mean early afternoon. There’s a showing every half hour at the theaters in Sofia), had a quick brunch, then sat down to watch the film.
Now, I don’t care how bad you think Episodes I and II are, the first sight of that “Star Wars,” John Williams’ sting, and the resulting crawl still send half a million chills up every hair on my body. In this Episode that chill continued through the first half hour of the flick. [Spoilers] I was giggling throughout the opening space sequence, and the excitement kept going all the way until Anakin kills Count Dooku. Then I chilled for about the next hour, let’s say. I would have been more excited by General Grievous and his fight with Obi Wan if a series of five minute cartoons on Cartoon Network hadn’t established General Grievous as a character about 287,985 times cooler and deadlier than he is in the movie. [/Spoilers]
Then the last 45 minutes came closer to making me cry than the last five minutes of Braveheart. And if you’ve ever sat there and watched me during the last five minutes of Braveheart, you know I get pretty close. George Lucas may not be able to write himself out of a paper bag when it comes to dialogue, but the man had a vision and he completes it and at least makes you feel the emotion involved. The last scene of the movie was exactly (EXACTLY) how I had imagined it, but it still hit me full in the stomach. Two suns, two people and a baby, that’s all I needed to walk out of a theater hopping happy. The tragedy had been resolved and the New Hope was born.
It was all written, of course. Lucas had talked about a fight on a lava planet between Obi Wan and Vader as early as his conceptual meetings for the very first movie. There are even conceptual drawings for Vader’s return to the planet sometime during the original trilogy. Incidentally, if you’ve ever looked at the conceptual art for the original trilogy, you know that Lucas used just about every image that he couldn’t use in the old trilogy in this newer one. Especially on Tatooine. In Episode II, there’s a shot of Anakin talking to Jawas in front of open sandcrawlers that’s identical to a painting originally designed for Episode IV. This latest episode uses a few shots of the social life on Coruscant that were thought up about 20 years ago. It’s amazing patience, yes, but it also made me want to see a little more.
Anyway, it’s a brilliant movie. At this point it’s still well below Empire Strikes Back, but possibly on level with the original Star Wars as far as rewatchability goes. For example, if those three movies are on at the same time, Empire gets full viewing privileges, but if Empire weren’t on, I would jump to Star Wars during the middle hour of Episode III. If Episodes I or II were on, Episode II would get commercial privileges, but Episode I would only get a little viewing if either the pod race or the fight with Darth Maul were on at a good time. Unfortunately for Return of the Jedi, its first half hour (the best bit of the movie) is superseded by the first half hour of Episodes II, III, and V. It might not even get commercial privileges. At any rate, I will at some point in my life sit through and thoroughly enjoy the entire 14-15 hour marathon.
Yes, I’m a nerd.
A tram and a bus later, I was in Lovech. We ate a little Chinese. We played Risk, I played for the first time (Really. I’d played half a game once. I’m not sure if that counts) and won. I’m not sure if that says more about the game of Risk or me, but I was happy. I recommend North America as a starting point, it works in real life and the board game, and in the board game you don’t even have to depend on Star Wars and Coca Cola to do your cultural dirty work!
The next day saw all the hallmarks of an American holiday on Bulgaria’s Kiril and Metodi Day. We played Frisbee, then American football, then we napped and had a good dinner. Not sure what else you could want there.
On Wednesday I went back to Sofia early and had the TB test checked along with a few remaining bits of the physical. After all that I hopped on a 1:30 bus back to Silistra, racing the sun to get back for the senior’s prom.
The senior prom here in Bulgaria is a little different than those in America. For one thing, it’s in the middle of the bleedin’ week. For another, the teacher’s are all invited and most of them go. The night starts with a dinner, then turns into dancing, drinking, cigar smoking, and all the things 18 year-olds do in Bulgaria. And all in front of and with the school’s staff. It’s absolutely fascinating stuff. I won the dance contest with a girl from 12B that I’d never met before and we got a bottle of champagne and a box of chocolate. I also danced with most of the class who were on the floor. Absolutely great times.
I went home at around 3:30 in the morning and slept for 2 hours before getting up to teach the first two hours of a pretty easy-going day. The first half hour of the first period of the day was spent listening to various groups of drunk, graduated seniors coming into the classroom and singing the school song. They hadn’t gone to bed and were all still wearing their fancy clothes.
After those two hours (Thankfully my only two hours of the day) I went home and slept.
Normal day today, classes, cafes, and the internet, and that catches us up to where we are today. Although thunderstorms, hail, and a crappy internet service mean that I haven't been able to get this out until far too late tonight.
Posted by Rob at May 27, 2005 09:42 PM