Owen's here for a visit. He's down in Bulgaria before going up to Moldova where he has actual work to do, or something like that. I forget. Anyway, he's here.
As mentioned in one of his posts a while ago, movies in Russia very rarely come equipped with subtitles. I don't know why ex-pats don't revolt over this, but it may well be the reason Russia keeps ridiculous visa restrictions. If you keep Americans out of the country by requiring invitiations or visa fees, they won't have a chance to raise a revolution against the vile dubbing culture.
Anyway, Owen wanted to see Sin City. I'd seen it, but wanted to see it again, so we opted to take the late night bus out. It leaves at one in the morning, but is always empty and usually lets a person sleep. I said it was a good idea to take it.
Well, buses in Bulgaria can't really be that well depended on. Granted, they're usually always on time in the bigger cities, but as far as day to day numbers of people go, it's always hard to tell how many there will be.
At one AM the bus was packed full of people. After 3 years of not seeing each other, Owen and I had to get cozy and sit jammed next to each other for the five hours to Ruse. If we slept it was by luck alone. The lights were dark, but still too bright to allow reliable sleep, and there was no leaning.
Once we got to Ruse, though, the bus emptied and we found our own seats, content with 2 hours of solid sleep before Silistra and the promise of more sleep. An hour later we pulled into Tutrakan, a city of 9,000 between Ruse and Silistra, and the bus filled up again. I have never, never seen more than five people get on in Tutrakan, and I was far too dazed, confused, and tired to ask the guy who squeezed in next to me about why he was on my bus.
We made it into Silistra, finally, and slept a little before I had to meet someone about my computer. The guy I met had a small amount of faith in his ability to fix my hard drive, but gave me a 6 GB drive as a loaner/temporary replacement while he does his thing, or fails and leaves me to find a new drive in the states. So tomorrow, I should have internet access at home again.
That leaves Owen in the midst of actual, real life here in Silistra while he's allegedly on vacation. He'll also come to classes and chat with the students to take some last month of the year anxiety off of me. I'm not exactly sure how he'll be received, but it should be interesting.
Posted by Rob at June 13, 2005 09:50 PM