Got a Big Ego...

Yesterday I went over to Shumen to tackle something I’ve wanted to do ever since I got to this area. Now, going to Shumen is something I do all the time, being the major hub city near me. I feel like I’ve done much of what the city has to offer, including walking the long pedestrian stretch, visiting the Tombul Mosque (biggest mosque in the Balkans), eating at both Chinese food restaurants and all duner stands, and hitting up the Kaufland countless times. However, there’s one thing I’ve never done in the year I’ve been here… until now.

Standing high above the city is one of the most ridiculous, Communistastic, gigantic monuments in existence. This hulking amalgamation of concrete is the Creators of the Bulgarian State Monument, also known as the Monument to 1300 Years of Bulgaria. As both names suggest, the monument honors the founders of Bulgaria by commemorating a big milestone in the country’s history. Pretty innocent enough until you get to this fun little nugget of info: The monument is the only one in the world to depict the entire history of a country... something so pretentious, so over the top that it actually becomes awesome.


They accomplish this feat by putting together several different factors. Firstly, there is a huge set of stairs leading up to the monument itself from the center of town. There are (supposedly) 1300 stairs in all leading up the mountain, one for each year of Bulgaria’s history. I didn’t take the time to count each individual stair, but I think it’s safe to say that the figure is at least close to that mark…

This picture was taken close to halfway up...

When you reach the top of the stairs, you are greeted by some of the most bizarre sculptures I have ever seen. Many of the volunteers affectionately refer to them as “the Transformers.” These robotic-looking piles of concrete set into the bigger hunk of concrete are supposed to be representations of some of Bulgaria’s greatest heroes. The dream team is all there: Tsar Simeon (king of Preslav), Omurtag, Isperix… powerfully staring down at all visitors with all the force of a lego man (the tough one with the frown). Another wall is completely covered in mosaics depicting great moments in Bulgarian history, such as important battles, people building famous landmarks… there’s probably a few hammer-and-sickles and something about the Turks in there as well.


The entire monument is crowned with a gigantic concrete lion, the symbol of Bulgaria, watching over the city and (of course) guarding the entire country. From this spot, on a clear day, one can theoretically see 3 very important Bulgarian places: Pliska (first capital of Bulgaria), Veliki Preslav (second capital), and Madara (home to one of Bulgaria’s most iconic symbols, the rock relief of the Madara horseman – a UNESCO world heritage site and depicted on all Bulgarian coins). The site of the monument is also significant in that, according to legend, the first king of Bulgaria climbed to the spot, looked around at the valley below and declared for the first time that this land would be Bulgaria. I don’t know if there’s any way to verify that legend, but it does actually make for some pretty powerful views at the top.

So that’s another vital Bulgarian experience off my list of things to do in this country. It’s also the cause of my extreme soreness today, but I think it was all worth it, if not for the entertainment value alone.

Until next time…

9/9/09

My landlord came over yesterday to collect this month's rent. Pretty standard routine, until he wrote down the date on the receipt: 9/9/09. He looked down at the page for a second and started laughing. As I awkwardly stood there, money in hand, trying to figure out what was going on, he attempted to tell me.

September 9th, apparently, was at one point the National Day of the Communist Party. This was a day on which every town in Bulgaria had a big festival celebrating the Party and its accomplishments and contributions to the nation, very much like a makeshift national holiday. The date was significant in that September 9th was the day a group of Communists won (or took control of) the Parliament for the first time, marking the biggest change in the country's history since Bulgaria was released from the Ottoman Empire. The last time this was celebrated was 20 years ago to the day.

My landlord went on to tell me how there was a big parade through Preslav, with a lot of flag waving and music. I expected him to start extolling the virtues of "the communism," something I've grown accustomed to hearing from the older generation here. However, his assessment was a bit different. He continued by saying it was a very impressive event, but also a sort of facade. A happy day only for people who were in the Party. The rest were just sort of obliged to play along. The day was sort of indicative of communism as a whole - some were, of course, more equal than others. Sure everyone got the same paycheck every month, but party members were entitled to a whole range of different benefits: bigger houses, better vacations, access to higher education etc.

He went on to say that, yes, there were a lot of good things back then - a lot of good memories, work for everyone, a stronger sense of national pride - but he doesn't know exactly which is better. He likes the fact that people can say things without fear of being punished for it, but doesn't like the lack of respect for people this brings. Like so many other Bulgarians, he likes that people don't have to be supervised 24/7, but at the same time doesn't like the lack of discipline this has created. He loves the fact we can travel anywhere in the world and the fact that there are international brands and actual diversity in the markets. However, he went on to say that even the people who are better off financially in Bulgaria still don't have much money to spend on luxuries like that. "Ima Criza" (There is a crisis) after all...

He told me a story about how there was no real incentive to work back in the days of the Party. How, since everyone got the same amount of money, people would just show up to their jobs and sit around for a while. The only motivation was basically bribery... The doctor would put a stethoscope to your chest and say "oh you're fine" until you whipped out a bottle of whiskey for the guy, after which he would pull out the required paperwork from a desk, claiming he had previously forgotten about them, and perform the proper check-up. He told me about the vast underground economy that existed, probably as a result.

He told me all this with a wistful smile, almost as if he missed it. After a short pause, he took my money, gave me my rent receipt, and shook my hand. "Those days are over now" he told me, and walked away.

Hail to the Party of Lenin, our (not so) eternal vanguard.

Until next time...

Brasov and Transylvania

SO we get out of Buchurest in the morning so we wouldn’t lose a lot of time traveling. The train trip itself was beautiful, passing through the Carpathian mountains as we made our way into Transylvania. The scene was exactly what might come to mind when you think “Transylvania.” Little wooden villages nestled in between gigantic, dark, craggy mountains. It seemed Sinaia was the most like this, and it’s understandable to think of how the medieval residents of these areas could have imagined legends such as Dracula and the like.

Brasov itself is located in between those same mountains and a smaller hill on the edge of a broad valley. The whole place has more of a German kind of feel than a Eastern European one, as the old town (where we stayed) is located inside an old walled city complete with a gigantic Gothic cathedral, tiny cobbled streets lined with old buildings, and tons of spires and clock towers scattered around. A lot of the town has been pedestrianized and most of the roads are lined with cafes and restaurants, some of them leading into historic basements or bordering some building that looks like it should be in Fantasy Land.




The second day we took a day trip out to see some of the castles in the surrounding area. First was Bran Castle, which (legend has it) was Dracula’s castle. Unfortunately Dracula is a fictional story and the historical society of Bran has plenty of disclaimers around that this was not, in fact, Dracula’s castle. That hasn’t stopped countless people from trying to cash in on the connection. The beautiful castle guarding a pass between the regions of Transylvania and Wallachia is completely surrounded, not by a moat, but by hundreds of t-shirt stands and souvenir shops, mostly Dracula themed. There was Dracula’s bakery, Dracula’s 3D (5D?) movie experience, and even Dracula’s money exchange. The whole thing took quite a bit away from the experience of walking around in and exploring a very real and interesting castle in the mountains.

Bran Castle without all the crap cluttering it up (I didn't take this)

Much better, in my opinion, was the second castle we went to – Rasnov. Located roughly halfway between Brasov and Bran, Rasnov was a much more stereotypically eastern European town, and the gray weather made it even moreso. The Citadel of Rasnov sits at the edge of a gigantic cliff overlooking the town. Despite the giant sign right in front of it, the castle is much less touristic, very imposing, and gives a good feel of an actual medieval town. After a good climb by foot up to the castle, it’s another climb to the top of the place, where you can see the entire town and valley below. We stayed up there for a bit, watching storm clouds roll in over the mountains towards the bigger town of Brasov (another very Transylvania moment), until we had to walk back down in the rain. Good thing there are some cafes around in the town as well…

On our last day in Brasov we went up the mountain directly bordering the town, awesomely named Mt. Tampa. Tampa is topped by a “Hollywood-style” sign, to which you can walk and from which you can enjoy a good view of the town below, which we did. It’s pretty spectacular…

Looking up at Mt. Tampa from the center

And looking down at Brasov from Mt. Tampa (I didn't take this)

All in all Brasov really impressed me, and it’s definitely a place to which I wouldn’t mind returning, as well as the incredible mountains around town. Sighisoara was also a beautiful place on our trip. But for now it’s back to work – back to the orphanage and Yasli, and I think I have some good ideas for both this coming school year (Starting Sept. 15). We’ll see what happens…

Until next time…

Bucharest

We arrived in Bucharest in the afternoon of our second day, but we started walking around just before evening, just in time to see the city light up, simultaneously hiding its ugly concrete blocks, and highlighting it’s beautiful (if extremely over the top) Gothic architecture. It has a very cool Gotham vibe to it, very nice but you know there’s something shady going on at all times. It’s as if you're having a good time, but in the back of your mind you know that, at this very moment, somewhere a politician is being corrupted or some art is being heisted.



The centerpiece of the city is the ridiculous Palace of Parliament, the second largest building in the world (after the Pentagon). It’s monstrous, pretentious, and ugly as hell, but still fascinating. Nicholas Ceausescu, Romania’s Communist ruler for so many years, spent all the country’s money and razed an entire historical quarter of the town to build it. The building is still apparently 10% unfinished. Leading up to the palace is a huge center filled with fountains and lined with restaurants and giant obnoxious flashing advertisements. It felt very much like a more spread out Times Square. It’s a cool place with a lot to do and see, but knowing what they did to the city to create it kind of takes away a bit of the fun.


Much nicer (and more to scale), was the city’s old town area, which still seemed somewhat new actually. It’s an area of old cobblestone streets that the city is currently restoring. Lined with cafes, bars, and restaurants, the area is close to a university and has very much of a student kind of feeling to it. It’s easy to get lost in the tiny back alleys in there, but also really fun to explore and stumble upon a hidden square with a gigantic, beautiful building just kind of sitting there as if it was nothing at all. While walking around in there, we also stumbled upon an active movie set and met the director in between takes. Apparently Romania is becoming a big place for filmmaking, not only because it is cheap and relatively well connected but also because the places in it are like ready-made sets. Everything in the town seems like it was made to be filmed or photographed.


Right near our hostel was this interesting little monument:


It’s not really on a main square or near interesting things, but it is a site of huge importance. This is the spot at which the public captured the Communist dictator and executed him. On the spot, they’ve built something vaguely resembling an olive on a toothpick (kind of a weird way to commemorate it), but it’s a cool place nonetheless. The area sums up Bucharest in one little block. The streets around it contain architecture from the 1800s, the time of Communism, and modern times. It’s a place of huge significance, but dwarfed by its completely out of scale surroundings, and memorialized by something so ugly and confusing you can’t help but feel amazed.

However, once you peel back the layers, something really special lies underneath this place to which I'm sure I'll return.

Balchik Beach Days

About a week after the Archaeology Camp I helped supervise the kids’ annual trip to the beach. This year we went to the town of Balchik, a town located underneath a shelf of cliffs near the town in which I saw the Rockfest a couple of months ago. The town itself is beautiful, being the location of a vast system of botanical gardens. Back in the 1800s, this region was owned by Romania, and Balchik was the summer home of the queen. She built the botanical gardens and castle there as a way to reconnect with nature and to develop her own spirituality. After Bulgaria gained control of the area, they preserved it and turned it into a sort of national park.

Throughout the gardens, religious symbolism abounds, especially in the grand centerpiece of the gardens – a perfectly kept tree-lined stream, and leading over one of the cliffs into a waterfall that leads into the sea. In fact, a major theme around the gardens is the flow of water, symbolizing the passage of time and our journey through life, not to mention its life giving properties. The garden was also home to a giant collection of cactii from around the world, a winery, and a ton of great examples of Bulgarian revival architecture. When viewed together there was a great feeling of being somewhere in the Mediterranean, perhaps on a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea...




The kids spent each morning on the tiny beach in Balchik (more a set of stairs leading into the water due to the rocky coastline, though at low tide there was a small strip of sand). They were given free access to their monthly stipend every day, which they promptly spent on ice cream, corn, chips, temporary tattoos, and a whole host of other things, within the first couple of days (they stayed for 10 days). This is actually pretty common for many of the younger kids at the orphanage. The children receive 30 leva every month. As soon as the money hits their pockets, they head out on a spending rampage, often spending most of the cash within a day on anything they can find and afford. Sometimes, the kids will fill a grocery basket with as much stuff as possible, and then have the store clerk remove anything they can’t afford. The theory behind this behavior is that anything not consumed within a day will be stolen from them.

Anyway, I think my time in Balchik was really energizing and gave me a good opportunity to hang out with the kids and also to get to know the staff a bit better. The kids had a blast swimming in the sea, exploring town, and playing games (not to mention being away from town for a bit). The botanical gardens has made my list of favorite places in Bulgaria (even if the road up to it is cluttered in useless souvenir stands). The place is so well preserved and well kept, and the beach area reminded me a bit of Bayshore Boulevard back in Tampa – a long stretch of sidewalk along a picturesque bay. The beach was lined with pleasant, little cafes and restaurants, and there was just an overall laid back vibe around the town that is hard to find on the Black Sea. I hope to make it back there sometime.



Balchik also served as a convenient starting point for my trip to Romania with friends, my first time out of the country, and my longest period of vacation yet (a week). More on that later.

Until next time...