Let's go back to Tuesday. Sometime Tuesday morning, I called the internet company in town because, once again and lo and behold, there was no working internet connection in my apartment. Normally, this wouldn't peeve me, but because I had a guest, it deprived two people of internet and that was unacceptable. The guy on the phone told me that he would put my name on the maintenance list and that another guy would swing by to check it out that afternoon.
So Owen and I waited in the apartment all afternoon, watching DVDs Owen hadn't seen or not seen in a while, and when 6:00 came around, we finally gave up on the internet guy. We walked around town and hung out in cafes like we did most nights of the week, and then went home, hoping for a better internet day on Wednesday.
It didn't come. Despite my going down to the office and asking very politely and seeing them put my name and address on the list, no one came to the apartment Wednesday afternoon either. Another afternoon was spent watching DVDs and lounging around the apartment. "Wasted" is a bit harsh, since there were conversations and the cat got lots of play and attention. All week long it was boiling hot outside when it wasn't pouring rain and thundering. And maybe relaxing was just what Owen was looking for at the end of his trip.
Thursday fooled us. The internet connection mysteriously reappeared around noon and disappeared just as mysteriously around 6:30. We never got a chance to go to the office to tell them what was happening. Anyway, we spent another afternoon in the apartment absorbed in the internet. We pulled ourselves away from the internet to play poker with the guys and saw the night melt away into Friday.
Friday came. I returned to the office in the morning and told an entirely different staffer what was happening. We waited all afternoon, and around 6 a guy showed up to help. We stopped the DVD we were watching, and I turned on the computer to show him what was happening. The internet, magically, was working. Frustrated, I asked him what could be causing so many irregular failures and he told me it might be power outages or something to do with electrical storms. He was guessing.
That night we left for Sofia so Owen could catch up on current movies with subtitles instead of Russia's dubbing (he hadn't planned on staying inside all week watching DVDs). Saturday morning we arrived in Sofia, and I went to an ATM in the center to withdraw some money for the weekend. What I didn't notice was that the main screen was frozen and that the machine wasn't really working. It swallowed my card and no amount of button pressing got the card back.
I went into the pharmacy where the machine was based and we waited (between trips to check in to a hostel) while the pharmacists working there tried to get the bank to come down and fix the situation. It was a Saturday and the bank wasn't going to do anything.
Four hours later, and with the clock approaching noon, we left the pharmacy and went to a nearby major branch of the bank owning the ATM (It's also the bank Peace Corps uses, so the card matched the ATM. I thought I had that on my side). After talking to one ineffective and one kindly security guard, I learned that there were no people of importance in the building, that there wouldn't be until Monday, that--no--there weren't any emergency numbers to call when a traveller needed assistance in a big, mildly expensive city like Sofia, and that I'd be able to do something about the whole thing if I showed up at the bank on Monday morning at 9:00.
On to the movies, then! Fortunately, Owen and I had enough pocket money to get both of us through the day as planned. We saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Batman Begins, and Sideways. I'm not sure if Sideways quite deserved all the praise it received last year, but that's not to say it wasn't a great flick. The Smiths were fun, and Batman Begins is easily my favorite of the series. I was a great day for movies, if a bad one for ATM cards.
A cheap dinner and a walk around town later, we were at the hostel and konked out after a long movie day following a long red-eye bus ride.
This morning, I sent Owen off to the airport so he could get back home to St. Petersburg, told the hostel people that I'd be staying another night, and came here--to Peace Corps headquarters--to catch up on a week with weak internet and to pass the time during a day when I'm short on cash and things to do. The results of Monday morning's bank stakeout will probably be revealed when I get back to Silistra Monday night. If the internet gods are smiling upon me.
Posted by Rob at July 17, 2005 01:03 PM