Sports in Bulgaria with an American Flavor

After the whirlwind trip around Germany and the Czech Republic with KP and JoJo, Mark returned to absolutely beautiful weather in Bulgaria.  When it starts to get nice outside, one activity that increases without fail, is participation in athletics.

The most popular sport in Bulgaria is, as one might expect, soccer.  (Yes, I know that is not what they call it, but that is what it is.)  After that, many different sports have some degree of popularity.  Volleyball is big, as is tennis, weightlifting and basketball.

Basketball is so big, in fact, that they hold all-star games involving former NBA stars.  Imagine his surprise when Mark opened his email and saw that former NBA star, wedding dress model and all around sideshow Dennis Rodman was in town for a basketball all-star exhibition.

Nice quote, Dennis

Normally, that would be an event worth seeing.  However, as chance would have it, there was also a football tournament right in Blagoevgrad on the exact same day.  The local college club team, the AUBG Griffins, were hosting a four-team tournament of flag football.  The other three teams were all from Sofia, and apparently play in a league there in the fall.  So, this was kind of like the spring game we might see at campuses in the US.

So, which event would you choose?

Mark decided that there will always be a Dennis Rodman sideshow going on somewhere, but live football within walking distance?  That's pretty rare.

The results of the games cannot be reported here (because I did not write them down), but I am told that the Griffins represented themselves fairly well.  They ran a variation on a spread offense, concentrating on the short pass to matriculate the ball down the field.  I am not sure what defense they were running, it looked like a 3-1-4, but that is just a guess.

In any event, good times were had by all.


And, also, apparently good times were had by Dennis Rodman as well.  (article taken from the Sofia News Agency, novinite.com)

Praha

In your mailbox this December: "Merry Christmas, from KP & JoJo"

Having finished their tour of Germany, Mark, KP & JoJo headed to the Czech Republic and its beautiful capital city, Prague (or as they call it there, "Praha").

The city has a long history and managed to not get destroyed during World War II, making it one of the most well-preserved historical cities in this party of the world.

Crossing the bridge to the castle

One of the main tourist sites in Prague is the astronomical clock.  Our intrepid trio investigated this "must see."  Apparently, the clock will not only tell tell, but also your astrological sign, your weight, the weather for the next two weeks and the next three answers that will be produced by the nearest Magic 8-Ball.  This is made all the more impressive by the fact that this thing was built in 1410.

In addition to all of those features, the clock is also houses in a pretty nifty little clock tower.  Our trio decided to climb up to the top to see what they could see.

The trio purchased the entry ticket and took the elevator option.  The ramp pictured above (modeled by the stunning KP) are the hike necessary to get to the top AFTER the elevator portion.

Prague's Old Town Square

Once at the top of the tower, the trio was treated to a pretty decent view of the city.  In the immediate area was the Easter market that was taking place in the city square adjacent to the clock tower.  In the other direction, a crowd was gathering beneath the clock as the top of the hour approached.

According to Rick Steves, the pickpockets hang up in the top right of this photo.

"Toot, toot"

At the top of each hour, a trumpeter steps onto the walkway around the clocktower and plays a little trumpeter tune.  The crowd goes wild.  Then the trumpeter waves his little hat (the trumpeter does this entire act while in full costume from ... the past) and the crowd cheers.  Then he goes to the other three sides and repeats the act, to the wild applause of the tourist throngs below.

In full costume, but not fully in character

After ditching Mark, KP and JoJo headed to Paris.  Mark had been there fairly recently (and really, you don't want to wear out Paris), though, so he headed back to Blago for some sports, sports, sports.

Big Day

Happy Birthday to Gail Trocinski.  (and to Gerry as well)

Beaten Path and Wildside of Dresden

After spending a little time touring Lutherstadt, Mark and KP & JoJo went on the next leg of the tour, a train to Dresden.  Dresden is located in what used to be East Germany and was the Saxony region of Germany even before that.  In contrast to Prague (which the trio will visit later), which was spared during WWII bombing, Dresden bore the brunt of a significant, sustained and controversial air attack near the end of the war.  The city was being used as a refuge for POWs, refugees and retreating Germans at the time it was attacked, creating a controversy over the propriety of such action.  (The events of this chapter of the war are recounted in the Kurt Vonnegut's classic Slaughterhouse-Five, based on his experiences as a POW in Dresden.)

The current city bares some scars of the war and the post-war period, but you kind of have to look for them.  Modern Dresden is a bustling, lively and fast-growing city.  Our trio decided to see a few of the "off the beaten path" sights, so they took a tour led by a crazy guy.  

Sorry, folks, he is not sticking a cork in it.  Instead KP demonstrates the edible nature of the welcome drink.

"Crazy," in this instance, is not intended to be an insult.  I think our guide introduced himself as a crazy guy, in fact.  Then he promised to show us the "real Dresden" - which apparently means the real bars and pubs of Dresden - and tell us the history of his city from his point of view.  First stop - politics.  At a pub overlooking a busy street, the group piled into a booth and the server brought everyone a "welcome drink."  This was minty and served in an edible, shot glass-sized ice cream cone coated with chocolate (see KP in the photo above).  Pretty tasty.  Then, when everyone had ordered an appropriate German beer (not sure what made them appropriate other than approval from the bar keep), our guide told us about a series of events about which he was incredibly passionate, although they could easily have never happened.

Apparently, after the communist regime left but before Germany reunified, there was a bit of time of uncertainty.  Who was in charge?  What is the law?  These were valid questions since the government was not ... well, did it even exist at the time.  To their credit, the German people did not fall into anarchy, although it appears our tour guide, at least, may have tried.  According to him, he and his neighbors, having had enough of East German rule, declared independence.  They drew up a map of their 6 or 8 block neighborhood, elected a king (not sure how that works) and declared independence as a "micro-nation" (not to be confused with "Micronesia," a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean).  And this guy was pretty serious.  He had a passport issued by the tourism minister (whose day job happened to be the bartender at the very bar we were sitting in at the time) and a flag of his nation (which looked a lot like the German flag, but with the smiling face of Mickey Mouse in the center of it).  Seems legit.  

According to our guide, the 'independent nation of his neighborhood' puts on a big party every year which is attended by hundreds of thousands of revelers.  Last year they even invited the governor of Saxony (or something like that).  The provincial governor responded to the effect of (1) what you are doing is paramount to treason, and (2) have a nice party.

Live and let live, I guess.  After talking politics, it was time for a little culture.  Our guide took us to his favorite hang-out, Lebowski's, although we did not go inside.

Thirsty for a white Russian?  Best prices in the city are right here.

Apparently, the Coen Brothers' classic "The Big Lebowski" has struck a nerve in Dresden and this bar is one of the results.  Patrons can show up at any time of the day or night and watch the film, as it is always showing (both in English and in German).  The Dude abides.

Our night walk through Dresden took us to a few other pubs and bars, as well as to a few local landmarks of street artistry and the like.  All in all, a fun experience.

"Mrs. Hippie?  I knew her when it was just Miss."

The next day, it was time for high culture.  In their travels, Anne and Mark (and KP & JoJo as well) have often seen the cherubs pictured at the top of this post, but only in gift shops.  It always seemed strange that they would appear at a museum gift shop, but not inside the actual museum.  Once, Mark even asked the person at the gift shop if they were in the museum and she said no, and did not know where they actually were.  Well, it turns out gift shop lady, that they are in Dresden.  At the Zwinger, more specifically.

There they are, see them?  It's like an old-school "Where's Waldo?"

The Zwinger is a large complex of art and culture, which a couple of very nice art galleries included.  

KP & JoJo tour the roof of the Zwinger.

After a few hours of admiring the art collection at the Zwinger, the trio headed down to look at the other parts of the old city.  One of the most striking visuals in Dresden is the Furstenzug (even writing that, I feel that I am mispronouncing it).  This is a panoramic mural depicting the sovereign leaders of Saxony.  It is over 100 meters in length (equivalent to about 2.3 miles, I think), made entirely of porcelain tiles and it includes all of your favorite Saxony sovereigns from Conrad to Dietrich, a handful of Friedrichs and even George.  Come see them all!

One of the more interesting pieces of symbolism in the work is shown in the photo above.  August II was on watch in Saxony when Luther hit the scene.  August, apparently, was a strong catholic and opposed Luther's efforts.  To commemorate this, the artist put the rose of Luther (an obvious symbol to those who know what to look for) under the foot of August's horse to symbolize his feelings about the reformation.  Take that, Martin Luther!

While the trio was admiring the mural, a local news crew gave a report on it.  To be honest, we expected a little better technology (seriously, those Philips flat screens just are not what they used to be).  The content was pretty solid, though.  Nice work, news team.

Last, but not least, the trio stopped by the big, honking church right in the middle of the city.  Might as well stop by, after all, you can't act like you didn't see it.

Lutherstadt

Fans snapping pix in Wittenberg

After spending a couple of days in Berlin, our trio hopped a train and headed to Wittenberg.  This town is also known as Lutherstadt Wittenberg.  This is the town where Martin Luther was living, teaching and preaching when he nailed his 95 theses protesting the practices of the Catholics to the door of the All Saints Church.  Scholars and protestants refer to Luther as a leader in the protestant reformation.

In the Catholic educational system Luther is referred to as "the man who vandalized that nice church in Germany," if memory serves.

A matter of perspective, I suppose.

Oh, NOW they put up a fence in front of it.  That might have been helpful 500 years and 95 theses ago.

Anyway, if you want to, you can go see all the sights.  The university, the church where the vandalism nailing of the the theses took place (although the original wooden door has been replaced with a metal one), and Luther's house are all well preserved for visitors.

One might imagine that this place would be turned into something between DisneyWorld and Graceland with a religious bent.  That is not at all the vibe.  It is not heavily commercialized (there are several types of beer bearing Luther's name, but that was about it) and the town maintains a "small town" feel, despite its fame throughout the world.

Small town feel.

Upon arrival, our trio visited the famous landmarks and took in the views that have been basically the same for the past 500 years or so; seeing the town the way Luther may have seen it.  The next morning, the three bought tickets to the Luther House and took the tour.  The Luther House is where Luther and his family lived and entertained visitors.  After his passing, the house was maintained and it still is in remarkably good shape and gives a good flavor of what it was like when he lived there.

 For example, the two photos above, both show representations of Luther's living room.  The top photo is a drawing that is several hundred years old drawn by a contemporary of Luther and the bottom photo was taken last month by a contemporary of KP & JoJo.  The large black stove-type thingy is in both.  According to the locals, this is the original stove used to heat the living room, that Luther and friends would have sat around to talk, sing, or what have you.

KP points out the "tags" left by Peter the Great.

The only degradation of the Luther House that is obvious was some vandalism in the form of graffiti (seems to be a lot of vandalism in this town, just that most of it is 500+ years old).  In the photo above KP points out the graffiti left by Peter the Great of Russia, which is covered by a glass plate.  Apparently, after Peter visited the Luther House (probably in the early 18th century), he autographed the door to the living room on his way out.  Do not strain to read the signature unless you know Cyrillic, however, as it appears that Peter wrote in that script.

Although the living room may have been the best preserved area of the Luther House, the remainder of it was also kept in remarkably good condition and contained a wealth of artifacts.  Behind the house there is an archeological dig that has exposed the oldest part of the Luther House, which probably contained Luther's office.

If these walls could talk....

Below the office was the latrine.

If these walls could talk.... probably not as good.

Finding Wisdom in Berlin

A couple of weekends ago, Mark traveled back to Berlin to meet up with friends, KP & JoJo.  Long time readers of this space may remember these two from last year (Happy Anniversary, by the way).  As they are avid travelers, they hopped a plane across the pond and ended up in Berlin.

Once all three Minnesotans (sorry, JoJo, it is accurate) were in Berlin, they took advantage of the beautiful weather by finding a local guide to give them the bike tour of Berlin.  But not just any tour guide would do.  Mark, KP & JoJo were not only looking for fun, they were also looking to learn a thing or two, so they went and found the man with the plan.

Their guide, Mr. Auto, took Mark, KP & JoJo to a few places that most bike tours will not go.  Of course they saw where the Berlin Mauer (that's "Berlin Wall" to the uninitiated) used to split the city.  Of course they saw the stadium and the revelers playing basketball in the court nearby.  Of course they went to Checkpoint Charlie and the Brandenburg Gate.  All of that is a given.  But they also went to look at the bridge where the people of East and West Berlin met up on November 9, 1989.  And it might not even have been planned.  According to the story, the people running East Germany had been considering loosening travel restrictions between the two halves of the city for some time, but had not reached a formal policy conclusion.  At some point on the 9th, the leadership told the spokesperson something to the effect that the travel restrictions would be lifted.  The spokesperson then dutifully went on national television and told all of Germany that the travel restrictions had been lifted.  Whether this was actually what the government of East Germany wanted is still a gray area.  However, within hours of this broadcast, tens of thousands of Berliners (the Germans, not the jelly doughnuts) were ready to cross over into the other side of Berlin.  Unfortunately, no one told the soldiers guarding the bridge that they could take the night off, so a fairly tense scene unfolded.  However, cooler heads prevailed because (and once again, thank heavens that people watch television) the East German soldiers had also seen the announcement on television.  They had not received orders, but the guy on TV said that the restrictions were lifted, so.....

And that is how vague statements and television reunited Berlin.  (or something like that)  Our three travelers had gained a little wisdom already (watch more TV).

I feel like I am learning so much!

After the bike tour, Mr. Auto took the trio to one final stop, the Prater Beer Garten.  Yee-haw!  There are not many things better than a nice hefeweizen after a long day of bike riding (well, at least three hours, anyway).  As it was the middle of the day and the garden was mostly full, Mark asked our guide whether these people were on their way home from work or on their way to work.  And if it were the latter, would that be a problem in Germany?  Mr. Auto then shared another bit of wisdom: "It is ok to show up to work drunk.  It is ok to show up to work late.  It is just not ok to show up to work drunk AND LATE."  Words to live up.

Bottoms up! (.... or what a big, weird nose you have.)

Later, our intrepid trio toured the city.  At the top of this post KP & JoJo are shown in Pariser Platz with the Brandenburg Gate in the background.  This photo was taken on the East Berlin side of the gate, where you can see the faces of the horses pulling the chariot atop the gate.  The view from the West Berlin side, while still of a chariot, is less flattering for the horses (not their better side).

Pariser Platz is a main square in Berlin and many tourists gather there for photos and general revelry.  And whenever you have tourists gathering in one area, you are likely to have a motley collection of pickpockets, salespeople, street performers and imperial storm troopers.   Wait, what was that last one?

"Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?"

After visiting the Pariser Platz, our group of ne'er do wells went for the scheduled tour of the Reichstag.  Tourist note: touring the dome is free, but you need reservations in advance.  No walk ups.

The Reichstag is the building that currently houses the legislative body of Germany called the Bundestag, but it has a long and fairly tumultuous history.  Prior to WWII, it was used to house the German parliament.  It started on fire in 1933 under mysterious circumstances.  During the war, it was not used for any legislative purposes, and mostly not used at all.  The Russian army took control of the building in 1945 and graffiti left by the soldiers is still visible in some places (preserved during renovations).  Then it was pretty much just a big empty building for a long time.  Rev. Gerry Trocinski served in the U.S. Army back in the day, part of his tour in Berlin.  The good Reverend reports that the building was unoccupied back then.  It stayed that way until East and West Germany were reunified, at which point there was a large renovation project, capped off with the construction of a nifty little dome for the top of the building.  After a few years of renovation, it was ready for prime time and opened to the public.

These mirrors are inside the glass dome and serve some sort of climate control purpose (recycling sunshine or something).  It also makes it possible to take a weird looking self-portrait.

Before leaving Berlin, the three managed to visit one museum.  The museum contained the Pergamon Altar, which (as you might guess) is an altar that was taken from a place called Pergamon.  Pergamon was a Greek settlement in Asia Minor (modern Turkey).  The altar was built to honor Zeus and the other Greek gods and very detailed reliefs of them in their famous battles and stories are depicted throughout.  The entire structure was brought to Germany in the 19th century for preservation in the Pergamon Museum (what a coincidence!).  The museum is very impressive, as it houses the Ishtar Gate from Babylon and a large collection of antiquities, but the altar is the main attraction.

If you have been reading your Book of Revelations lately, the word "Pergamon" may sound familiar to you.  Revelations 2:12 references "Pergamos" and something about the "seat of Satan."  So, maybe the huge altar built to the Greek gods was the seat being discussed (maybe not).  In any event, just to be on the safe side, it would be wise to not get too close.

Don't get too close.... oh, too late!