Back to the 'Bul

Last weekend, Anne and Mark headed back to Istanbul.  Long time readers of this blog will remember that Anne and Mark visited Istanbul earlier this year.  However, Istanbul is a huge city.  It has about a jillion residents (well, at least 8 million in the city proper) and it has a lot of things to do.  Plus, it's just a bit down the road from here, so why not go back?

In their trip earlier this year, Anne and Mark flew from Sofia to Istanbul.  This was convenient and relatively cheap.  On this trip, however, Anne and Mark took a charter bus.  If they had to pick a preference, Anne and Mark would both choose the plane, but the bus was not all bad.  This particular trip was populated mostly with students from AUBG.   While this may have had its drawbacks (punctuality, for example), his feature added an extra layer of on-road entertainment.  For example, at one point, Anne and Mark (over)heard a very interesting conversation about whether there were turkeys (the animal) in Turkey (the country).  And, if so, whether the Turks called them turkeys.  Seriously.  Anne and Mark do not remember if that particular mind-bender was resolved on this trip.

The drive was a long, boring bus ride punctuated with 2 hours of tedium at the Turkey-Bulgaria border.  These two countries have a long and mostly contentious history.  Some people here are still upset about injustices that may or may not have been committed between the tenth and thirteenth centuries.  Additionally, this particular border has been the scene of some smuggling in recent years.  As a result, the bus Anne and Mark were on had the opportunity to spend the hours between 12 and 2 am waiting for a Turkish guy in a little booth to stamp their passports (this took two hours despite the fact that no one else was at the border crossing).

After this exercise in stupid, the bus stopped at a rest stop for ... well, rest.  While there, Anne and Mark visited a grocery store and took a look at the strange foods that the Turkish people had developed over the centuries.  So different from what we are used to in the US.

Ruffles with Whopper flavoring?  The Turks have moved ahead of the curve.

The group of rag-tag travelers made it to the hotel in Istanbul the morning after they departed Blagoevgrad.  After a couple of hours napping in the hotel, Anne and Mark went on a group walking tour arranged by the charter company.  About 20 minutes into it, Anne and Mark ditched the organized portion and went off on their own to explore the city.  It was not that the tour was particularly bad, it was just that it appeared that the guide was determined to give a tour of the longest lines in all of Istanbul and then wait in them.  At one point, the tour guide actually said, "Oh, there's a line, let's go stand over there."  Um, no.

Instead of the tour of the great lines of Istanbul, Anne and Mark went and saw a few sights on their own.  Some of them were quite famous, like the Blue Mosque and Haggia Sofia, and some of them were a tad bit less impressive.  Like this.

It's 9 am.  It's a public park in Istanbul.  Let's Party.

All Politics are Local

Vlado's campaign headquarters

As previously mentioned in this space, a friend of Anne and Mark is planning to run for mayor of the city of Blagoevgrad.  Well, as of yesterday, the campaign for the election is now underway.  Now, keep in  mind that elections in Bulgaria are not the marathon process that they are in the U.S.  Instead the campaign started yesterday and the election will be in October.  (of this year)

So Vlado put on a rally to officially launch his campaign and Anne and Mark were honored to be invited (actually it was put on in a public square so everyone was invited, but still, it was nice to get the invite) even though they are not eligible voters here.

The actual rally started with some junior dance troupes - apparently intended to warm up the crowd.  After that frivolity, the political speeches began in earnest.

Go Punch Party!

All of the key members of the party got up on stage and Vlado began his campaign speech.  What was the speech about?  Anne and Mark were able to recognize the following words and can translate them to English: "Good day," "business," and "thank you."  What else was he talking about?  Ummm, let us get back to you on that.

As you can see in the photo above, Vlado brought his daughter Krissi on stage.  As you may imagine, political speeches may not be overly interesting for a little girl, even if such speeches are being made by her father and his friends.  Krissi paid attention for as long as she could, and then she stole the show by waving to the crowd.

You tell em Daddy.  Word!

We are happy to report that the rally was well attended.  Here is a photo that we took panning around the crowd:

Panning the crowd

Plenty of people there, as you can see.... hey - wait.  Did you see that?  The guy on the left with the jacket on...

Is that what I think it is?

Hawkeye nation?  No, Hawkeye Inter-Nation.

It is.  It's a Tigerhawk, one of the registered trademarks of the University of Iowa.  Go Hawks!

After the rally, Anne met up with the candidate and then a local band took to the stage.  Here's a taste of both.

Hey, Anne's back in Bulgaria!

Only in Bulgaria

Sometimes it happens that Anne and Mark look around and wonder where exactly they are.  This is perfectly understandable, given all of the different places they have visited and things they have seen.  Sometimes, however, they see things and realize that they must be in Bulgaria.  There are just some things that happen here that do not happen anywhere else.  For example, dumpster fires:

Now this is not the first dumpster fire that Anne and Mark have seen.  In Bulgaria during the winter, these were not common, but they were not "uncommon."  Apparently, people take the coals from their furnaces and drop them into the dumpster while they are still hot.  The next morning - boom - melted dumpster.  The unusual parts about this particular melted dumpster are (1) that it happened in the summer (and it is still far too hot for any one to be running the furnace around here) and (2) this is a dumpster for recyclables only.

Another example.  The fountain located outside of the main building of the university is sometimes covered by graffiti.  Usually, the city allows this "street art" to remain indefinitely.  However, next month Blagoevgrad will be holding local elections.  Apparently, in an effort to increase the prospects of the incumbent candidates, public works projects have picked up around town.  One of these, apparently, is washing off the graffiti of the fountain.  What makes it uniquely Bulgarian?  Well, it appears they just dumped a ton of Dawn dish washing liquid into the fountain and let it circulate for awhile.

Sorry, Mayor, I am still voting for Vlado.

Third example: horse rush hour.  It is not unusual to see horses around town in Blagoevgrad.  The Roma population still uses horse-drawn carriages on a daily basis and it is not uncommon to hear the clip-clop of horse hooves rumbling through town.  What is uncommon, however, is to see a couple of horses out for their nightly stroll without supervision.

These horses do not appear to be the brightest knives in the drawer, as they appear to be looking to eat the grass in the asphalt on a fairly busy intersection.

Today's fourth, and probably most memorable, "Only in Bulgaria" moment is brought to you courtesy of this kid in the Rooney jersey.  (For those of you who do not know, Wayne Rooney is an English soccer player who could be a twin brother of Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers)

Anyway, as you can see, little Rooney is ready to check out with his purchase of beer and a hard cider.  Not bad for a Thursday night, my friend.  

It was not clear whether the clerk carded lil Rooney, but is clear that he waited around for his change.

Also, for future reference:

Flea, bass player from the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Wayne Rooney, English "Football-er"

Not to be confused with EDWARD Rooney, the nemesis of "cool dude" Ferris Bueller.

Well, Now, That's Much Worse

Every once in a while, Mark tempts fate by saying something like "Well, at least it couldn't get any worse."  Without fail, immediately thereafter things get worse.  For example, Blagoevgrad is currently going through a bit of a drought.  After seeing the low level of the river and the dry reservoir, Mark said, "Well, it couldn't get any worse."  Then he saw this:

Leave something to the imagination my friend.

Yep... that's worse.

Even things that should not be able to get any worse, can get worse.  For example, a visit to the dentist's office is one of the most feared experiences for many people.  There's a guy with rubber gloves reaching into your mouth, everything hurts, there are sharp objects flying around - bleech (not to mention that all of dentistry is a scam perpetrated by "Big Dental" - but that's a topic for another day).  How could that experience possibly get any worse?  I know, let's make into a public spectacle:

Yep, that's worse.

Mark walked past this dentist office on the way to work today.  The examination chair is right in the store front window.  So, you know, if you're minding your own business and happen to be walking by, you can go ahead and check in on someone else's discomfort/torture.  Does that make going to the dentist a little bit worse?  Yeah, I think so.

Ok, so let's get to why we are discussing this topic.  As has been discussed in this blog previously here, here (briefly), here and here, the parking situation in Bulgaria is a train wreck.  And, apparently, that's all cool.  Parking on the sidewalk - Cool.  Propping up the tire of your car after you have parked on the sidewalk - Awesome.

The writers of the blog have expressed the opinion that this type of parking is not necessary, but is probably done just to drive us crazy.  So what could possibly make that worse?  This:

You have got to be kidding me.

Seriously, after all of that crazy parking, THIS car gets a boot?  And who was the driver of this car?  You guessed it - Mark (he had borrowed the car to run errands).  Apparently, the car was not parked properly - which would men on the sidewalk - so it gets immediately booted (actually, in Blagoevgrad, if you want to park on the street you have to pay, but rather than having a meter there is an actual person walking around that you have to pay, even if you don't see that person when you park).  Eventually, Mark figured out what was going on and managed to get the boot removed after paying a penalty fee of 10 leva (about 7 bucks).  But the whole episode finally convinces Mark that this entire country is trying to drive him insane using nothing but the tools of parking and parking enforcement.... at least it can't get any worse.

Vote for Vlado!

Anne's and Mark's friend is running for mayor of Blagoevgrad.  For those of you who are still undecided about this election (coming up this October), please consider Vlado for Mayor.

"Vladimir Elezov" for those of you who don't roll with the Cyrillic alphabet.

Let's Get Started

This week marks the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester at AUBG and the school celebrated the arrival of students on campus with an all-campus picnic, topped off with a fireworks display just after nightfall.  Actually, many of the students have not yet arrived on campus, thanks to Hurricane Irene (many students work in, study in or travel to the U.S. each summer and many were stranded there when the hurricane dumped a bunch of rain, apparently mainly on Vermont and all the airports on the east coast), but the University decided to celebrate regardless.

First, there was a picnic with all the fixins.  Chicken fillets, some type of sausages and cole slaw.  There may also have been some beers and hard cider floating around the picnic site (although that's not a big deal here as the drinking age is 18 16 12 undetermined).

Eagle-eyed viewers of that photo might recognize that the area where the picnic is being held is actually a baseball diamond.  On the left of the photo in the background, you may be able to make out the top of the first-base side dugout.  The Bulgarian National Baseball Team (seriously) trains in Blagoevgrad and they share this diamond with AUBG.  So American sports have a strong presence in Blagoevgrad.  And not just baseball.

 After a few minutes of milling about, a real football game broke out.  And no, I don't mean "futball," I mean football.  As to the quality of the play... well, as you can see in the photo above, several of the defensive players have their head turned in the general direction of the ballcarrier (not a majority, but several).  Also, everyone appeared to affix their flags properly, so that's pretty solid.

Later, after the sports had been played, a local band played covers of some pop songs from the last few decades (think "wedding reception band") and the party was on.

Yes, all those kids are wearing the same t-shirt.  This is not a coincidence, but a planned part of the extravaganza.  The message on the t-shirt celebrates the 20th anniversary of the opening of AUBG, shortly after the communists left Bulgaria.  T-shirts were distributed to all faculty and students and they were all requested to wear the shirts to the picnic for a group photo (although if everyone has the same shirt on, the group photo is probably going to look like a bunch of heads floating on a sea of purple).  Mark was issued one of these t-shirts and it was a size "XL."  Unfortunately, this was a European XL, not a real XL (Americans might recognize it as a "M").  But Mark is a team player and wore the shirt to the picnic for the photo anyway (even though he looked like a guy who bought the biggest shirt he could find when he went shopping at Baby Gap).  Shortly after changing shirts, circulation did return to his extremities.

Appropriate Response?

One of the things that Anne and Mark occasionally struggle with while visiting countries throughout the world is finding the appropriate responses to various things without knowing local culture.

For example, when a person sees a sign like the one below, we cannot fault him or her rushing up to inspect it and/ or take advantage of the photo opportunity it presents.... or both.

Go Hawks!!!

If in Madrid (Spain) and see a sign for the "Iowa Cafe," any self-respecting Hawkeye alum is required to check it out.  This is clearly the most appropriate response.

But what happens when the appropriate response is not at all clear?

Chaos. That's what....

Case in point - what is this?  Is that guy climbing through the window with a pick axe?  At what point in human history - seriously - has the human race profited because a guy grabbed a pick axe or hammer and ripped something up?  And, further, when I see this sign, does that mean I should grab a hammer and start busting stuff up?  Would that be appropriate?

Another example.  If you find yourself at the airport and see the jetway pictured above, you know that it is going to be repaired and probably poses no real danger.  But... you still don't want to see mechanical problems immediately before boarding a plane.  So what is the appropriate response?  A prudent person might take this as a sign and maybe decide to not board a plane at an airport with this sort of thing.  (Anne and Mark boarded a plane that day anyway.)  Appropriate?

Example #3:

So, umm.  What... um...

It kind of looks like ... well...  ok, nevermind.  If anyone can tell me the appropriate response for this one, let me know.