First days in Ireland

I'm just in to Dublin today from Belfast. I had a three hour bus ride this afternoon. There are already stark differences. Belfast, even though it was a more working class and gritty town had a definite character and personality. Dublin thus far, doesn't. There are pretty areas near the center, and lots of pubs etc, but there's just not a sense of the people or anything else. Perhaps my thoughts are a bit premature since I've only been around the center so far, I'll have to write more after I see St. Patrick's and Christ church tomorrow.
Before leaving this morning a Dutch guy and I took a Black taxi tour. It took us around the city and gave us a look at the many different murals and tributes to heroes in the struggles. We also saw Sinn Fein headquarters, got to write on the peace wall and got a general history lesson about the different players in the conflict. It was a great way to wrap up after meeting many very cool people and a great hostel experience. Other than the Dutch guy, there were German, French, Aussie and Welsh folk and a Gent from West Yorkshire who was an English hippie and a professed moosist. You'll have to ask if you want an explanation.
I'm on to Gallway tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully I'll have more stories.
I'm trying to figure out a way to put pictures up as well. I don't have my laptop and these places generally frown on hooking things up to their pc's. I'll see what I can do.

Got to looove the Plov....

10 points to anyone who can get the Seinfeld reference in the post title....

I did go to Plovdiv this past weekend, or as our guidebook somewhat humorously named it "The Plov." It was a very cool city that apparently is a rival to Sofia for the cultural center of Bulgaria. The city has an "old town" section, and given that it is a contemporary with Troy, it's real old. There are a lot of ruins that date back to the Thracian times, cobblestone streets etc. It was well worth the trip out there.

Unfortunately, I can't post the pictures, since they are on my laptop some 2000 miles away. I landed in Belfast today via Rome and am beginning the first big excursion on this trip. Starting her in Northern Ireland, I'm heading through the Republic, Bath and London in the UK, Switzerland, Paris, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic Austria, and then Sicily. I'm going to try and keep posting at cafes like I am now. It'll all depend on availability etc however.

Some quick impressions of Belfast: It's a pretty gritty town save the center where there's a really neat Botanic garden and Queen's University . There are apparently some very old historic pubs etc that I'll be sure to check out as well. People seem to be friendly. The whole driving/walking on the left side is a surprising mind bender. Over/under on time it would take me to get in an accident: 5 min.

Things

Let's talk about famous jinxes for minute. There's the famous "curse of the Bambino," which kept the Red Sox from being world champions after selling Babe Ruth and Famously broken by a hobbled Curt Schilling and co. There's the "curse of the Billy Goat," still keeping the Chicago Cubs from the championship after they kicked a billy goat out of the stands during the world series against my Detroit Tigers.
Then there's the time I said "Hey, there's not a problem with bugs or roaches in the apartment." Then it got colder out. It's kind of like the swallows returning to Capistrano, but a lot grosser.

Just when I was getting used to the cat urine....

I'm heading to Plovdiv for the weekend. I have lots of updates when I get back.

Weekend fun continued...

On Sunday we went to our hosts' newly acquired property just outside of Pernik. It's a small green space in the (very) rolling hills outside of the town. There's a tiny and ancient "bungalow" on the property as well. Our hosts were very proud of the new plot and took us out to do some grilling. We did it true campfire style over a wood fire. There was lots of Kebabcheta and Kuftetta for all, plus the obligatory tomato/onion/fetta salad. We also grilled 4 kilos of peppers. Thank goodness those were for later.

Yesterday evening, we went to a friend of a friend's birthday dinner at a restaurant in the center. It was supposedly a "Bulgarian Tavern," though I'm told real Bulgarians wouldn't be caught dead in a restaurant serving Bulgarian food. I (being a fan of Bulgarian food and wine) enjoyed it, with one exception. There was a "band" of 4 people who came to sing happy birthday to the honoree. This was all fine until the table next to us decided to pay them some ungodly sum of money. We're not sure how much, but it was enough to keep them there for over an hour. The rest of dinner consisted of us shouting back and forth. Add to this that there was French, English, Bulgarian and Italian all being spoken at the same time and it was a bit much on the ears. You can check out the band in the clip below.

Weekend fun

This weekend was not too eventful, but we did end up doing quite a bit. We kicked off Saturday by hitting the National museum of natural history. It contained a wealth of specimens. As you can see in the photo however, many of them were beyond old. This one was from 1923. There was an astounding array of different fish, birds, insects, mammals, reptiles etc. However, they were not in any discernible exhibits. They were labeled and arranged in row after row of glass cases. Check out my picture album if you are interested in seeing some of the displays. It was at once spectacular and shameful. There were all these instructive aides, but half of them were literally falling to pieces. We spoke to a woman there about the operation and funding of the museum. She said that the museum doesn't receive much funding from the government. It's mostly private donors, and doesn't add up to enough to truly take care of things. The woman only made 180 Lev (about 1.5 to $1) a month. It goes to explain why the archaeological museum cases (where they had them) were "locked" with zip ties.

Afterwards we took a trip to the south of the city near the "Palace of Culture." We were looking for an organic market, but it apparently closed early without warning. The "palace" turned out to be a really big conference center. It was a big concrete and glass building in a very 70's style. There was a huge grounds around the building though, and lots and lots of students relaxing after the first day of school. What's that you say? The first day of school was on a Saturday? Yes. There was a holiday on two Thursdays before. Pretty much everybody got the Friday off of work as well making it a 4 day weekend. So, everyone had to make up the lost day of work, by going in on the following Saturday, thus the kids also had to do something productive on Saturday, and they made it the first day of school. Weird..

One of Raia's coworkers started a tea house here in Sofia and they have really neat shows and art and such. We met up with some other folks before hand for a drink then made our way to the tea house for dinner and Jazz. It was a trio, keys, sax and drum, and they were quite good. I think my favorite was watching them pull off a version of Us3's cantaloop.

Back to the center

Today I'm heading back to the center to visit the natural history museum, the Palace of culture, an organic market and a jazz show. I'll have pictures and descriptions of all when I get back.

I don't have too much to report right now since I've been hanging around the block planning the next leg of my journey. I believe it's going to be beginning in Ireland with a stop in Bath to see my new second cousin and London for a Fullham match (though at 30+ GBP, I may have to sell a Kidney).

Staying around the house can be a bit tiresome. Though it is comforting to know that I can always see the Mythbusters blowing things up, subtitles and all. What's strange about all the Discovery channel shows here is that they're re-voice-overed, by a guy with a Brittish accent.

Something else I saw on Bulgarian television, and a bit more strange, was one of my favorite movies: Hamlet 2000. Now, that it is being broadcast is not strange, it's a great movie. The irony comes in when you consider the fact that it is dubbed in Bulgarian. That's right, Shakespeare... dubbed.

On the subject of irony, I realized that payback can indeed be cruel. I've discovered that my punishment for actually thinking portions of the movie "Borat" were funny, is that I must now go around totally clueless and making a fool of myself, something like this clip:

Flying Solo

So I've been trying to get out and explore the city more on my own. It's been a little (by a little, I mean a lot) intimidating to be moving about in a place where you can't even read the street signs (when they exist) because the S looks like a C and the V looks like a B. And that's just the beginning.

Once I got to the center, and a good map, I was alright. I enjoyed the morning just walking around and familiarizing myself with the streets and landmarks. In typical European fashion the streets don't even pretend to make sense. Makes one thankful for the good 'ole grid of Chicago. Instead of head north, south etc., directions are often something like these directions to a park for me to run in (mind you this is being interpreted to me): "Head down to the big street, then go past the store, then there's a street, then another street, perhaps another, then you turn down one of them or something. That's where the park is! ...sigh. Speaking of running. I've found, as many others have I'm sure, that running is a great way to explore new areas. Unfortunately I'm really out of shape. By the time I'm able to explore out of the quarter-mile radius or so, I'll know these half a dozen blocks really well.

Back to the city center. Much of the day was spent going in and out of churches built at various points in history. Two really stuck out. The first was the Church of St. George. The oldest building in Sofia, dating back to the 4th century. I stumbled upon this church by accident trying to take a shortcut. Legend has it that Constantine himself visited here. The second was Hagia Sophia church, the second oldest church in Sofia. This church is in the shadow of the much more grand Nevsky cathedral, and has a much more rich and intimate feel to it. It has gone through several buildings and conquerors and thus has excavations taking place in several spots inside. Mass was beginning when I came in and the liturgy was sung by an absolutely breathtaking choir. Made me wish I knew old Slavonic.

In one of the churches I saw the shrine in the picture. There was a perplexing but enlightening interplay that went on in my mind while I stood in front of these pictures. There was someone's uncle, another's sister, a beloved mother and perhaps a dear friend. I was staring at these very inhuman representations, struggling to make out the notes scrawled on them, but very little translation was needed. These were individuals who were loved and connected to other humans. When you're traveling, among other people whom you can't understand and you don't know, it is natural to other them in subtle ways. These people, the Bulgarians. It really is subconscious, and unintentional. Thankfully this experience allowed me to tune in to the shared natural experience and identity.

Now, if I can hold on to that when a vendor tries to rip me off...

On the lighter side. There are these little elevated huts that are perched next to many traffic intersections. A traffic officer would stay in these and operate the lights before they were on automatic switches.

I've been told that occasionally officers would mess with motorist by stopping them even when there was no traffic late at night. I suppose with a job like that, you would need a sense of humor.

My afternoon adventures included a stop at the local post office and the archeology museum. I was going by the post to try and mail a post card to my youngest brother. After going in the wrong department, twice, I managed to get in broken English, that I needed to go to the "small shop" in the Foyer. Small shop being one of the three Kiosks festooned with, uh, postcards. After attempting to underpay for the stamp, since I don't know the Bulgarian number words, I had to pick which of a dozen boxes to drop it in, all of them of course marked in Cyrillic. After another broken conversation, I determined that it was the little yellow box all the way at the other end of the hall was where it needed to go. I was glad to have escaped without triggering an international incident.

The Museum of Archeology was next on the list. The artifacts were extraordinarily accessible, as much of them were set in the main hall. Strangely though, it seemed as if much of it was strewn about hap-haphazardly. It was difficult to get a sense of the history or the context of the artifacts as it was more like a collection of stuff than an exhibition. I was tempted to make the "low budget version of western Europe" comparison that I did before, but you certainly wouldn't gather that from the website. More strikingly though, was the building itself and the way that it had been transformed. The museum is housed in the former Buyuk Mosque, a far grander building than the one active mosque still left in the city and itself, an article of antiquity. All the interior had been white washed. When you looked up at the dome you could see where the white had peeled away, that there were colorful Islamic frescoes that had simply been painted over. It was a stark reminder of the collective distaste for all things Ottoman, and by association, Turkish and Muslim.