San Diego, San Francisco, San... Danski?

The last few weeks, well, all of 2012 in fact, have been unusually cold and nasty in Eastern Europe.  It usually gets cold here in the winter, but it does not usually STAY cold.  This winter has been consistently cold and snowy.  And because most winters do not have sustained cold and snow, Blagoevgrad is not particularly well suited to handle it.  As a result, it is difficult to get around and many people are spending more time in their homes.  Mark is happy to spend a little extra time at home now and again, but he has already read most of his English-language books and can only take so much of the local television.  I mean seriously, what is this?

Wow.

So, after a few weeks of this, a bit of cabin fever has snuck into the land.  To fight this off, Krassi and Zlatina planned a get-away weekend in Sandanski.  (*editor's note: "Sandanski" has two "n"s, not one, and has nothing to do with Penn State)

Sandanski is well known in Bulgaria as a spa town.  It does not have the weather of San Diego and is not so cosmopolitan as San Francisco, but you still know it must be a tourist hot spot because its name begins with "San."

The city dates back to pre-Roman times when the Thracians founded a settlement to utilize the water coming from the natural hot springs there.  Those springs are still bubbling up today and several hotels and resorts have sprung up around them offering spas and respite to weary Bulgarians and Greeks.  And Mark.

"Walk-through" style ruins from the fourth century.  According to the placard next to the ruins, this was the house of a bishop and the buildings that surrounded it.

There are several large hotels in Sandanski, but the particular resort Mark and the crew stayed at was called the  Sveti Vrach.

"Sveti Vrach"

This phrase is roughly translated as "Saint Doctor" or "Saint Healer."  Apparently, there used to be men who lived near the hot springs who claimed that the waters of the springs had healing powers.  If you had an ailment, you went to find of these men and asked them to heal you with the spring waters.  Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but the nickname for the healers stuck.

The resort is known as the retreat of the former president of Bulgaria.  Kind of like a socialist Kennebunkport.

Oh, if these walls could talk.    Actually, nevermind.  Even if they could talk, it would probably be in Bulgarian.

The top floor of the resort still has the same floor plan that the former president used, but now anyone can rent it out.  And it's not a terrible deal.  For about $500/night, you can live like a Cold War big-shot with your own suite consisting of a grand room, conference room, office (with red phone, now used to order room service) and six bedrooms, enough for you and most of your cabinet to spend a long weekend working out the issues of the day.

The master bathroom.  At the far end is the tub, then to the left is where you stand to use the shower (no curtain).  In the left foreground is the toilet.  Between the toilet and the shower is.... the drinking fountain?  These guys thought of everything.

The main attractions of the resort are the swimming pool filled with water from the hot springs and the outdoor hot tub.

Mark has been called, not inaccurately, an "avid indoorsman."  This is a fair characterization.  However, a hot tub overlooking the snow covered scene is not exactly the same as hiking the Appalachian Trail.  Rest assured, Mark made due.  In the hot tub (not hiking).

A photo of Zlatina taking a photo of Krassi.  Totally artsy.

Cultural Exchange

View from the cheap seats.

For those of you who do not know, Super Bowl XLVI was played this past weekend between the New York Giants and the New England Tom Bradys (at least that is what it seemed to be based on the commentary of the announcers calling the game).  Anyway, for those of you in the United States, you recognize that the game starts at the beginning of prime time (6:30 EST - Eastern Standard Time), following a brief 6-hour pre-game show. However, in Blagoevgrad, kickoff was just after 1:30 am (that's EEST - Eastern Europe Standard Time).  A few hours later, the Giants were awarded the Lombardi Trophy just before the sun rose over the Pirin Mountains.

However, despite this early Monday morning start time, as you can see in the photo above the student body of AUBG was out in force for this cultural experience/ sports holiday.  The AUBG American Football Club (Go Griffins!) arranged a Super Bowl party in the multi-purpose room of the dorms and put the game up on the big screen.

This Super Bowl party was not unlike several others that Mark has attended.  There was at least one person wearing an NFL jersey (granted, it was a jersey of a kicker who was on a team that was not in any way involved in the game, but still....).  There were arguments about the game.  For example, there were arguments about whether Wes Welker should have caught that pass (he should have), whether Ahmad Bradshaw should have gone down before scoring (yes, he should have) and whether the Patriots' defense allowed Bradshaw to score with under a minute remaining.  Although the first two questions were eventually agreed upon, no consensus could be reached on what the Patriots' defense was doing, as the room was evenly split between those who believed they were allowing Bradshaw to score so Brady could get the ball back and try to win and those who believed that they were simply doing their best impression of the parting of the Red Sea.  Also, like most Super Bowl parties in the U.S., there were several people attending who cared more about the advertisements than about the football.  For the record, going strictly based on crowd reaction the biggest hits appeared to be the ad for skechers and the ad for Oikos Yogurt in which John Stamos gets lit up by his girlfriend via headbutt.

Marketing 101: You can not go wrong using a moonwalking bulldog to sell athletic shoes.

Have Mercy.  (If you get that reference, please don't tell anyone that it was made on this blog)

If you are interested in seeing John Stamos getting knocked on his bum, Anne and Mark advise you to check it out ASAP.  Apparently, the ad used music without attribution and someone is going to sue someone over it.  C'est la vie.  However, if this litigation is successful, this valuable John Stamos footage will be removed from the interwebs and we will only have photos like this to remember him by:

Ever miss the 80s?  

As "cultural ambassadors," Anne and Mark often bring small parts of American culture to the AUBG community.  It appears that the Super Bowl has caught on with at least a segment of the population, but that has little to do with anything Anne and Mark may have done.   

It is always nice to see that the people of AUBG have begun to appreciate some of the parts of American culture.  One person at AUBG decided to assemble a collage of photos of Justin Bieber, for example.  Here is a sample of it:

That's a lot of Bieber.

Now, we are not here to nit pick, but we do recognize that Mr. Bieber is actually Canadian, not American.  However, the effort is appreciated, so much so, in fact, that Anne and Mark will include another view of the collage....

Good looking collage.

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, er, Temperatures

View from El Yunque Rain Forest.  Could do worse...

Ever had that feeling where you wake up one day and know that you should stay right where you are, but you get out of bed anyway and go on with the plans you had made previously?  If you do not know this feeling, go to Puerto Rico in winter time, stay for a few days and enjoy the 82 degree temperatures every day, and then buy a plane ticket to return to Bulgaria.  Then you will know the feeling.

View from beach on northeast side of the island at sunset.  It ain't all bad...

This is not to say that Bulgaria is a bad place, but rather to say that in the course of a day you trade in landscapes like the two above for landscapes like the one pictured below:

View from Anne's and Mark's balcony.  Ugh.

Any takers on that trade?

While in Puerto Rico, Anne and Mark were blissfully unaware of the weather conditions in Eastern Europe or of those to come in late January.  Keep in mind that Bulgaria has basically a Mediterranean climate - there are palm trees in the town square, for crying out loud.  Last year on St. Trifon's Day (Feb. 14), Anne and Mark were invited to an outdoor celebration, basically a BBQ in mid-February.  Winter weather is not supposed to be frigid here.

However, this winter has been colder than most, according to locals with long memories.  I have heard reports that the temperature in Blagoevgrad was around -10 Celsius.  Many of us are unfamiliar with the Celsius scale, so to make this figure a bit more "real" Mark can report that '-10 Celsius' is what folks in Minnesota refer to "a bit nippy."  Still not cold per se ("It's only cold if your spit shatters when it hits the ground), but one can sense a definite chill in the air.

Normally, for a Minnesotan, especially one with Mark's level of ... "insulation," this would not be anything to write home about.  However, seeing this waterfall:

.... so soon after frolicking in this waterfall

makes it a much more difficult adjustment.  (yes, big men can "frolic")

All of these pictures of Puerto Rico leads Mark to daydream one last time about the warm adventures there while hiding from the cold here in Blagoevgrad.  Once such memory is of the weekend of January 12.  On that weekend, the city of San Juan celebrated the festival de la Calle de San Sebastian.

As suggested by the name of the festival, the party was centered around Calle de San Sebastian.  When Anne and Mark were at the car rental place getting helpful advice from the customer service staff ("You have to be tough to drive in Puerto Rico" and "Ever driven in New York?" were the ways that the guy described local drivers), the guy at the desk tried to explain the festival.  From what they could gather, Anne and Mark have concluded that the festival celebrates a saint who may have done something in Puerto Rico or somewhere else, and, much more importantly to the guy explaining to us, this festival was featured in the 1992 Martin Short-Kurt Russell comedy/docudrama tear-jerker Captain Ron.

In any event, Anne and Mark still do not know much about Saint Sebastian, but if they had to guess based on this festival, he is probably the patron saint of stilt-dancers, regular dancers, people walking in parades even though they are not "in" the parade, the queen of the festival and her creepy, Johnny Cash-wannabe uncle, odd over-sized head costumes, and super awesome dance troupes (ok, maybe there was only one, but it was sufficiently awesome to made the video twice).  And.... roll clip!