Well, I am done with my trip now. Its been over a month and a half of crazy adventures and it has finally come to a close. Its been one intense ride, but I have to admit that I am really looking forward to getting back to the states and starting the next chapter. Although, I have been gone long enough that readjusting to life in the States might just be as exciting as my time in Bulgaria was. Its been almost two and a half years since I was last there, and I'm sure a lot has changed.

(Polar Bear swim time in Ireland)

Just the other day I was looking back over my most of my travel blogs, and I realized that for the most part I failed to accomplish my main goal with this project. I wanted to try and give an impression of my experiences; to relate the stories of the people I met and the feelings I had while exploring all these new and amazing places. Reading back through them though, I can't help but notice that all of them are just simple travel logs. I never had the time even to put details or funny stories in the posts, so while they tell where I have been, they don't do my travels justice at all. It is true that I had a very limited time to type up new blogs, and sometimes would go a week or so with only 15 minutes or so of internet time, but its still a bummer I didn't get more of a chance to write about all my cool adventures. I feel that there was so much more that I could have related and painted a better picture of my journey.

(The red phone booths and double decker buses DO exist in London!)

Hopefully though, once I'm back to the states and I figure what is going on, I will have much more opportunity to tell all my stories in much greater detail. I have so many crazy stories to tell, and plenty more pictures to show. It has been a great time though, and I am really fortunate to have gotten the opportunity to do both my volunteer service in Bulgaria, and the subsequent trip through Europe. Maybe fortune will shine upon me and I will be out traveling again before too long. I can only hope. Until then, peace out

The travels lately have been going great! I am currently in Dublin at the moment and am getting ready for a crazy Saturday night out on the town. Well, perhaps not too crazy, because the prices for stuff here is ridiculous. A pint of beer is 5 Euro, or about 7-8 dollars in pretty much any pub or bar. No way I can afford to go all night with prices like that. The city itself is great though, today we walked around for a while and ended at the Guinness brewery. After the tour we went up to the bar at the top of the brewery with a commanding 360 view of the city and enjoyed perhaps one of the best pints of Guinness that I have ever had. Way better then the ones you can get in the states.

The Canals in Amsterdam

Its been a wild ride up to Ireland as well. From Germany we rode the high speed train out to Amsterdam and spent almost a week there before catching a flight across the canal to London. London is a very expensive city, but one of its saving graces is the fact that all the museums are free. The history museums, art galleries, everything is free, so you can spend all day in the city seeing tons of cool stuff with out spending a penny. This was a great suprise to us and was probably the only reason why we didn't go broke during our 5 night stay there.

Windmills!

We couchsurfed for part of the time there, but we stayed the last few night with some friends of mine that I met during my travels in Romania this last summer. It was cool to see them again a lot of fun to spend time with them on their own turf. We also got to meet one of my dads good friends from when he used to live in London, and get some good dirt on my dad, info that we will undoubtedly hold over his head when I return home (heads up dad!).

So that about catches up things to now. There are only two more nights left before I have to board my flight back to the states, so I have to try and make the best of them. Tomorrow I hear the plan is to go join this big group of people and jump into the sea, a very Irish tradition apparently. Sounds cold to me though, but when in Rome.....

Its cold, cloudy, and I am lucky to be inside sheltered from the elements writing this update. After spending a few party filled days in Dresden, taking the afternoons to explore the re-built old town, my travels took me up here to Berlin, where we ran in to a bit of bad luck.

(our new friends in dresden)

The original plan was to stay with these crazy Germans living East Berlin that we met in Budapest and partied with for several days. We exchanged several emails and I thought every thing was going to be nice and easy, they even wanted to come pick us up from the train station when we arrived, but as it started getting closer to our arrival date they stopped responding to my emails.

I'm sure its not intentional, merely bad memory or something, but it turn out with Braden and I arriving in Berlin with no where to stay and no phone number to contact. We had a recommendation of a good hostel on the other side of the city, so with no better plan, we grabbed the U bahn across the city to find the hostel, only to discover that it was fully booked. Not only that, but he told me that every other hostel in the entire city was booked as well, and he had turned away no less than 50 other people that night alone! This was cause for concern.

(Berlin)

The first course of action was to find an Internet cafe and start doing some searching. Sure enough, hostelworld.com (the main Internet database for hostels in any country) listed every single hostel in Berlin as unavailable for that night. Unbelievable. After about an hour of some stressful head scratching and brainstorming, we decided that the best course of action (one of the only available courses of action actually) was to try and book a hostel for the next night, see if they could hold our bags the current night, and party till the sun came up and we could officially check in. After some cross referencing we found a place that was close enough to walk to that was available the next night and agreed to hold our bags for a day.

(All Braut, no bun, the way real Germans eat it)

Luck was finally on our side. We headed out to the place and talked with the guy at the desk and explained our story. He did a bit of investigating and discovered they had one remaining free bed, and one woman that was double booked, meaning we had two beds free at the hostel! Booyah! We quickly claimed them, excited that we would not have to stay up until 3pm the next day, when the check in hours started. After that it was time for a nice celebratory dinner and a few pints.

(Brandenburg gate ready for the festival)

Turns out Berlin is completely booked out right now because tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, quite possibly one of the most significant events of our time. There will be a huge celebration tomorrow at the main center of town, including a symbolic display of 1000 gigantic 9 ft high dominoes that run along the old path of the Berlin wall that they will knock down. Excitement is incredibly high right now every where you go, and I can only imagine the scene that will occur tomorrow. Mikhail Gorbachev and Kofi Annon are included as guests of the event as well.(the Berlin wall)

Its been a while since my last update, but I have very limited time online, and have been spending as much time as possible out in the cities exploring. Even with so much time to travel, sometimes is seems that there is never enough time to see half of the things that I would like to. The trip is still going well though, and right now we are Prague. All these cities never cease to impress me with the grandeur of their architecture, and the richness in their history. Just when you think you have seen the most impressive city you can imagine, you travel across a country boarder to yet another equally impressive city. Its crazy.

Vienna was (of course) great, and one of the cool things about it was that we stayed with a guy out on the edge of the city where the vineyards start. Our first night in we went to this little hole in the wall restaurant that serves only a hand full of different dishes, but they are all traditional and all the wines they have on tap are produced locally, sometimes less than a kilometer away. During our next days there we wandered around the town and were lucky enough to encounter several cool festivals. From there it was off to Brno for a night, and then out to Krakow.

krakow!

Krakow is totally sweet: clean, fun, lots of good bars and restaurants, tons of history, the architecture, and as a bonus, super cheap compared to the cities we visited before it. The first day, however, was a bit of a somber one because we spent the day out at Auschwitz. It is a very powerful experience, and it made me reflect and wonder how such atrocities are possible in todays world. Its so sad. The rest of the time in Krakow was much more upbeat though, and it was definitely worth the journey out there to see it.

Well, got to go now, time for dinner and perhaps a few beers. Its is, after all, the Czech Republic, the country the consumes more beer per capita than any other country in the entire world. Cheers!

The days have been super busy lately, and it feels like we are just touring around non-stop. We have been meeting up with tons of cool people as well, both through couchsurfing and also people that we run into at the hostels (the few times that we are forced to stay at them). We had a couple of action packed days in Budapest, and I have to admit that it is now one of my favorite cities. It has so much to offer, and we were lucky enough to plug into a fantastic group of people there that was able to show us around part of its extensive night life.During the day Braden and I would wander around and do the touristy things, but then in the evenings we would meet up with the couchsurfing groups and stay out until all hours of the morning. The bars there are pretty sweet, huge multi-level places with open atriums and DJ clubs accessible from random entrances. Pretty crazy. The last night we were there (before having to get up way too early and run across town in the rain to catch a 6:30 train) we were at a place that had a reggae party DJ contest down in an old converted wine cellar.

Now I am laying low in Bratislava, trying to recuperate and catch up on sleep before shooting over to Vienna and possibly starting the whole process again. However, as I am writing this I have been informed that instead that the plan for tonight might be to go to the pub for the rugby game before heading over to this club in an old converted nuclear fallout shelter. We'll see how the night ends up.....

PS, got a new album up on picasa, check it!

I am currently chilling right now in the town of Pecs, Hungary, staying with a friend of mine that couchsurfed with Braden for a while back in Bulgaria. I have only been here for two nights, but they have been two very action packed nights. Last night we went to a wine tasting party out in one of Hungary's most famous wine producing regions, and the day before we met up with a bunch of the local exchange students for some interesting presentations on different countries around Europe, followed by some time checking out local bars.Today was a relaxing day going out to a natural spa just outside the city where they have a collection of geo-heated pools, and we just hung out and and recovered from the last week of travel.Before coming here we had a few days out in Zagreb, the capitol of Croatia. They were some fairly low keys days, we but had some great hosts and it was a great time hanging out with them and touring the city together. Zagreb is a really cool looking city, with interesting architecture all through out, but there really isnt all that much touristy stuff to do, so while it was fun wandering around, it didn't take long to see all the major sites.

Overall the trip is still going great, but every day the weather is getting colder and colder, and I fear that winter is closely approaching. Ugh, winter sucks.

I got two new photo albums up on my picasa page from my trip so far, check them out!

I am sitting inside right now in Slovenia, waiting for a thunderstorm to pass over so that I can go out on a day trip I had been planning to a nearby town. The weather here has been less than stellar the last few days, although we did get a break yesterday and had absolutely perfect conditions to go out and visit lake Bled.

(Bled Castle)

The lake was gorgeous, and was even cooler looking than I expected. We spent the day strolling around the shore, visiting a few nearby towns, and visited the castle overlooking the lake as well.

The first day here though it rained half the day, and we got soaked trying to get to our place to stay. It cleared up after lunch, and we got a chance to go check out the old town of Ljubljana, but then we got caught in a bit more rain. Ljubljana is a sweet city, and if the weather clears up then hopefully we will get some more time to wander the center tomorrow, but the bummer part was that on Saturday and Sunday, practically everything is closed. Even all the markets are closed on Sundays past noon, so while its cool to walk around and look, there is hardly anything really to do. Hopefully today and tomorrow will turn out better.

Well, after a few more days of wrapping stuff up, I finally finished up my work here in Bulgaria and started off on my grand adventure. We set off a day later than I had been hoping for because the night train that I had been planning on taking left the country before midnight, which I was not allowed to do since I was still officially a volunteer until midnight on the night of the 7th, but there was an early morning bus up to Belgrade the next day, so it all worked out.

We ran in to a few problems after reaching Belgrade, however. We were supposed to meet up with our couchsurfer in the afternoon that day, but after waiting around that the pre-arraigned meeting spot, she never showed up. We asked all the people we could find if we could borrow a cell phone to call her, but no one was willing to help us out at all. Serbs are apparently not the friendliest people to strangers, but then again, maybe it was just bad luck that all the ones we were meeting were rude. Either way, we got stuck having to search out a hostel at the last minute and found a place with the least friendliest and helpful staff that I have ever stayed at. The receptionist couldn't even point us in the direction of a restaurant for dinner, she just said "They're out there, I'm sure you'll find one." Gee, thanks lady.We ended up having a nice time walking around the old city though, checking out the sights. We even got to watch the old guys in the park playing speed chess, which was pretty sweet as well. Belgrade is a lively and interesting city, but it also still bears scars of the war. Bombed out buildings still stand in stark contrast to all the improvements and reconstruction that has been completed, and it serves as a reminder of the dark history that Serbia is still working to overcome.

Anyway, it was a nice day that ended with a crazy dinner. We finally found a little diner-cafe joint that we sat down at to have our meal, and after looking through the menu for a while at a bunch of dished we didn't recognize, we decided to ask the waiter what he recommend. He pointed out two items that he said were "fantastic" so we each decided to order one of them. I ended up with a Serbian style hamburger, and Braden got a plate of sausage. It sounds good at first, until you realize that ALL I had was one giant two pound hamburger, sans bun, toppings or side dish, and all Braden had was a mound of sausage, also with no side dish or dressing. It was just one giant pile of meat. There was no way either of us could have hoped to finish such a meal, and I remember just looking at each other laughing at the ridiculousness of it all when the plates were served. Crazy old Serbia....

The last night in Serbia ended up with Braden and I catching a night train out to Slovenia. We reserved a private room for the two of us complete with bunk beds and a little table/sink. Braden set up his laptop and we were able to enjoy a movie before going to bed while the train whisked us away to our next destination.

I will try to get more pictures posted soon, but my net is super slow at the moment and I was lucky even to get these ones posted as it is. I should have a new post up in the next few days. Peace

So far I have made it to Sofia, and things are going great! I had a decent sent off from my organization, followed by a weekend of visiting friends and final goodbyes in Burgas. Then Braden and I caught a train across the country to Sofia, where we have been for the last few days taking care of the last bit of paperwork before my volunteer service is complete. I have another two nights here, then it’s off to Belgrade, the first stop on our trip.

I got all my stuff down to one backpack (although barely) that I will be taking with me. The weather is great and I am pretty much prepared to go right now. I Just have to wait until midnight of my last official day before I am allowed to leave the country. Until then, I’m pretty much just hanging out. Here are a few pictures of the last days out in Burgas.

Well, as you have probably already noticed, I have made a few changes to my blog in preparation for my trip. I added an event calendar that shows the tentative plan of action for the next month and a half, and I created a map that more or less plots the course we will take during our journey. The itinerary is not set in stone; we will be buying train and bus tickets as we go along, so we have the flexibility to stay longer in any city if we really like it, and leave early if we really don't. In fact, the only thing that we really cant miss is our flight out of Amsterdam on Nov 15th, so as long as we get there before then we are fine.

In the mean time, when I'm not sending out couchsurfing requests and double checking train times, I am cleaning up my apartment and sorting things that I will need to bring with me during my travels. I plan to take only one backpack with me, so everything that comes will have to comfortably fit in there. There is nothing worse than starting a huge adventure like this and having to lug around 100 pounds of unneeded stuff across an entire continent. Lightweight is the name of the game.

I am getting pretty excited about the whole thing though. I have been itching for a change for a while now and the moment has finally come. By the end of the week I will be homeless, and come next week I will be unemployed as well! Hurray! Um, wait. Ok, so hopefully I will only temporarily be homeless and unemployed, I imagine that is not a state I would like to remain in indefinitely. But in the mean time, it will nice to have unlimited freedom to go where I want, do what I please, and pretty much just enjoy life for the next two months. Im sure reality will waste no time in crashing down on me once I return to the states and I realize that I have to find a job ASAP, but oh well, I will worry about that when the time comes.

Anyway, wish me luck as I wrap up the last few things here, and I will post again as soon as I can. Peace

I just got back to Malko Turnovo the other day from a few more work related travels around the country. I had to go to Sofia to start filling out some of my end of service paperwork, get checked out by the doctor to make sure I haven't contracted any strange diseases while I was here, and get my teeth cleaned (good news: I don't have any strange diseases). It was nice though because I was able to leave a few days early and go see my host family one last time over in Simitli. It was good to see them again, and gave me some time to reflect on my service here.

(Me contemplating things)

It was strange being back in Simitli two years after I had first got there, and was interesting to compare how I am now to how I was then when I was living there. My perspective on Bulgaria has certainly changed, not better or worse necessarily, but has definitely become more complete and informed. Bulgaria is no longer this new strange place that surprises me at every turn. It has become normal, and after long trips to other countries I return here and am greeted by a sense of familiarity. That being said, I can never see myself feeling completely at home here. I think that the general outlook and way of life for many (but by no means all) of the people I meet here is different than my own, and after spending so much time here I still feel very much like a foreigner in my day to day exchanges. It's a hard to describe situation.

(Field work with the Germans)

The time is almost up though, and pretty soon it will be on to new things. I have less than two weeks left here at my office, and most of that time will be spent finishing up reports, cleaning out my office and apartment, and working with a group of German researchers that just arrived in town today to continue with some bat studies in the field. I have a feeling it will be a very busy two weeks.

I will be finished with my service here in exactly one month! Time has been flying by lately and I have already begun to organize my things and pack up my apartment. Next week I will travel out to Simitli to visit my host family one more time, and my brother (who is out gallivanting in Greece at the moment) will join me there. I'm looking forward to seeing them and getting the chance to say goodbye. After that I head to Sofia to take care of some paper work, get checked out by the doctor, and go to the dentist. Then its out to Plovdiv for one final group gathering, and it will probably be the last time I see many of the other volunteers here that are in my group. It should be a good time though, and its nice that we can have one last gathering right before we all head our separate directions.

(Goodbye Malko Turnovo)

After I am done in Bulgaria, Braden and I will begin our epic European tour. I haven't planned out all the details yet, or an exact route that we will take, but its going to be the biggest trip that I have taken yet. We will travel for a month and a half through Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungry, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Holland, England and Ireland, before catching a flight back to Nebraska on November 23rd. I am super excited about it, and have been doing a bit of research on all the stuff we can see and do while we are there. It is sure to be a vacation full of sweet adventures and general tomfoolery. The plan is to couchsurf as much as possible as well, to try and meet lots of people, and so that we don't run out of money after the first week. The good news is that I can get money in lieu of a ticket home from Sofia, so my flight back from Dublin is pretty much free. Not a bad deal.

(Lake Bled, one of our first stops on the trip)

I will do my best to update my blog as often as I can during my travels and post pictures as well, so keep checking in for updates. Also, if any one is interested, I can send out some post cards as I meander my way across Europe. Just email me your address and you will be sure to receive a kick-ass, personally autographed post card from any one of the aforementioned countries. What more could you want?

I finally got out scuba diving again last weekend! I had tried to go once a few weekends back, made the trip all the way south to the city that the dive center was located at only to find that they had canceled diving for the day without telling any of the divers. It ended up being a total waste of my morning and really frustrating because I had been looking forward to it so much. But last Saturday I got my chance. It was perfect weather and we took a boat out and dove one of the same wrecks that I went to last year. The first dive went went well, but it took me a bit to get adjusted since it had been a little while since I had been in the water. We got to spend plenty of time exploring the wreck though, swimming through corridors and making it all the way up to the bow of the ship. The water had the same murky green tint to it that I remember from last time, and was equally as cold. There were occasional fish and some jellyfish hovering around the wreck, but other than that, sea life in the area was fairly sparse. We explored the wreck for about half an hour or so, and then it was time to surface.

Between dives we just hung out on the boat, but there were really big swells and I ended up getting a bit sea sick. It ended up being a pretty miserable wait, and I couldn't wait to get back in the water where everything is more calm. As soon as I got in the water and started descending I felt much better, and the second dive went smoothly as well. We didn't get as much bottom time since the dive was so deep; if we had stayed down too long we would increase our risk for both nitrogen narcosis and decompression sickness, both of which I would like to avoid. But we toured part of the ship once more and checked out a few areas that we didn't have time for the first trip down. After that it was back to the surface, and then back to shore.

Over all it was a good trip, and for me its nice to be able to dive at least semi-regularly so that I can keep my skill set up and not be nervous every time I dive. Hopefully I get more opportunities to dive once I get back to the states, but being how I plan on staying in Nebraska at least until the New Year, I'm not counting on it any time soon.

(Dive conditions similar to Nebraska)

In other news, summer seems to have suddenly ended today. This year brought with it much milder than usual summer weather, which was nice because I got to avoid all the miserably hot summer days, but bad because it was shorter than last years. Today, September 1st, I was greeted with a completely overcast sky and a cool Autumn breeze. Summer is over way too quickly, it seems to have just flown by. Now I just hope the really cold winter weather stays at bay until I return back to the States.

It is not uncommon for Bulgarian towns to have a town holiday, one day where all the locals come together to celebrate, dance, drink and partake in general merryment. These are very festive events that are greeted with much fanfare and can sometimes resemble small fairs that we used to go to as kids back in the States (although the titl-a-whore sometimes slightly resembles a 30 year old spinning death trap here, and I wouldnt recommend riding it).

Malko Turnovo though has what would be considered the mother of all town holidays, due to the fact that it lasts not just one pitiful day, but for a whole week. Thats right, SEVEN straight days of town holiday! It sounds like a great idea, but the plan went awry somewhere along the way and now it seems more like one days worth of events and booths that were spread out over the course of a week. One day there is dancing, the next there is music, the day after that there is a ballon vendor, and today we are graced with a cotton candy peddler. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.... Having just one event from a fair show up for a day in the town center is hardly exciting, and I would have much rather had them all at once for one day of festivites instead of everyday having one. Makes for a lame holiday. I would show you pics, but honestly there is nothing to see.

Anyway, summer is coming to a close, and the trees in the park are already starting to turn colors. Pretty soon fall will come and hopefully I will get some cool pics of that.

I am back in Malko Turnovo now, exhausted and a bit sick, after an intense 3 night music festival in Burgas. This year it was really awesome and I had a few friends come in to town to join in the festivities with me. We spent the afternoons relaxing at the beach (the weather was perfect), chilled out in the evenings and cooked some bomb dinners, and then headed to the show around 9 or 10 each night. The set up was similar to last years; 7 stages right on the beach, with music playing until the sun came up. The music catered to almost every taste, including rock, metal, punk, rap, ska, reggae, jazz and at least two stages devoted to techno and house, which effectively turned the beach into an outdoor rave toward the end of the night. It was a wild time.

(Stage 1 of 7, courtesy of spritofburgas.com)

However, going from such a concert back to the slow pace of life that is Malko Turnovo is quite the transition. Now I am recovering and entertaining a few German couchsurfers that are staying at my place for a few days while they explore the park. The weather is surprisingly nice considering its august, and provides ideal weather for seeing the region. After that I think things quite down a bit until around mid-September, when I have to start prepping for my trip back to the states. Time has been flying lately, and I have a feeling that it will continue to do the same until the big day comes.

I have definitely been taking advantage of living close to the sea this summer. This last weekend I got out of work a day early (on account of it being my birthday) and headed up to burgas to celebrate with a bunch of my friends that had come in from out of town. We ended up having a relaxing afternoon at the beach followed by a rather epic night.

The next day we headed up north to a town called Obzor to meet up with more people and spend the weekend relaxing on the coast. There ended up being some 25 people or so in our party and it was a lot of fun just chillin and seeing everyone again. Now that our term is almost up there are only going to be a few more events where we can get together, and I have a feeling that none of these upcoming events will have a majority of the group attend. Its kinda weird knowing that after being here 2 years with some of these people, I will probably never see some of them again.

Today I got back to Malko Turnovo and I realize that I am pretty much finished with work here. All my projects are finished, all my secondary activities are over, and the office has slowed down for august, so I am not sure what I will do to stay productive and fill my time. Office hours are definitely starting to drag. I did get my confirmation on my final day though, and I am happy to announce that on October 7th, I will officially be finished with my job here! Time to start planning my after-service trip.......

Last week was my Close of Service conference, the last big gathering of my group to discuss final paperwork and begin preparations for finishing up our work here and heading back to the states. It was good to see everyone again, but going over readjustment information and final tasks for Bulgaria really makes it seem like I am almost finished here. There are a still a few months left before my contract is up, but since work at my office is so slow, I have a feeling that I will spend a fair amount of time in my office getting ready to head back home. There are a number of things I have left to take care of, but they should all be pretty easy and I have already begun to finish them. I also need to start thinking of what I want to do once I get back to the states. I was hoping that I would have some sort of epiphany while I was here, with my plan for the future instantly becoming clear and laid out before me. Unfortunately, when I was envisioning this scenario, I was not taking into account that these sort of things never actually happen in reality, and I have no more idea of what I want to do in life then I had when I first got here. So much for that plan.

The good news is that I finally got to see the last major site in Bulgaria that I hadn't seen yet but wanted to. Its a place called Belogradchik, and its located only a few hours away from the conference site (which was itself some 13 hours from where I live, and explains why I haven't been there before). Since I was already that close to it, I went the rest of the way with a few friends of mine to go hiking and check out the area. Belogradchik is a region full of really cool rock formations scattered about in a forest, and the main rock complex has the remains of an old roman fort built right into the rock. It somewhat reminded me of Garden of the Gods (minus the roman fort), right outside Colorado Springs, only this site was not climbable. I had a good time though exploring though and just sitting on the rock pinnacles gazing out at the region.

Sometimes I get so frustrated with things here in Bulgaria. I have been having plumbing issues in my apartment ever since I moved in; both my faucets in the bathroom and kitchen leak, and I have had a coworker of mine come over two or three times already to fix them, but then a week later they break again. This time my bathroom faucet handle completely snapped off and started spraying water all over the place. I attempted to turn off the main water valve to my apartment, but that doesn't work either so I had to rush to my office and get help. We ended up having to purchase a whole new faucet assembly and install it, which isn't a hard task, but in Bulgaria sometimes (actually quite often) a simple task can become inexplicably difficult.

Anyway, we finally fixed it and got it working great, but then only a few hours later the hot water gasket sprung a leak and started spraying scalding water all over the room. I shut off the boiler and attempted to fix it myself, but the new faucet that we had just installed was a complete piece of crap, and the bolts on it snapped, leaving me with a faucet that i couldn't reattach. The next day my coworker came back over, equally frustrated, and wanted to know where the old faucet was. I of course had thrown it away since it was busted, but then he got all upset. "why would you throw a broken faucet away?!?"

I have a decent amount of experience doing home repair stuff, but Bulgaria takes it to a whole new level. Stores never sell the part you need, and if they do it will probably break all too soon. Sometimes it seems like everything is in a perpetual state of disrepair. In fact, today I just saw a truck driving down the road with a drivers side door that didn't shut, and the driver had to hold in closed the entire time he was driving.

In other news, this next week is my Close of Service conference, where we have to go over paperwork and things to prepare finishing up our work here and get ready to transfer back to the states. Time has been going by very quickly lately, and I have the feeling that I will be done here before I know it. Only three months left!

So my brother has been here for just under three days and It has been a fairly crazy adventure so far. I picked him up from the bus station on Wednesday morning around 1:30 am, took him to his new flat to drop off his bags before taking off to celebrate 'july morning'. July morning is a pretty cool tradition here in Bulgaria that started way back in the 70's with the hippie sub-culture, rebelling against the way the people lived and society. It has slowly changed since then and now mostly entails jamming out rock concerts along the black sea coast, dancing around bonfires, and drinking until the sun comes up, at which time everyone goes swimming in the ocean. It is a lot of fun and really cool to party all night long on the beach with so many people.

Unfortunately, Braden had a bit of bad luck and happened to step on a broken glass bottle just an hour or so before sun rise, and cut his foot so bad that we had to take off and get him cleaned up. His was bleeding all over the place, and the apartment looked like a crime scene before we cleaned it up. The next day I ended up taking him to the hospital and had to try to explain to the doctor what happened. He got a few stitches, and other than hobbling around like he has a bum leg, he is ok. In the mean time we have been busy setting up his apartment and taking care of everything he needs to get settled in to the groove of things. Tomorrow we are hosting some people for the 4th of July and hopefully it turns out well.

In other news, I found out what had happened with my computer. Apparently the motherboard crapped out on me, so now im stuck with a broken pc and no sure idea with what to do with it. I will try to take it to another store to see how expensive it is to replace a motherboard, but the guy at the last shop just suggested I buy a new one. That totally sucks because I dont have near enough money to buy a new PC, and malko turnovo is super boring without one. Hopefully the next place I take it to gives me better news. We'll see.

Other than that, the weather is great, the beach is fantastic, and the summer is still young. More updates as the happen. peace out

Misfortune has fallen upon me recently and my computer has died. This is a serious event, since my computer contains pretty much everything that I use on a day to day basis. Malko Turnovo was a boring place to live before, but now it has become mind numbingly so.

(The victim)I'm not sure what went wrong with it, and I took it into a shop to get it repaired last Wednesday but I don't even think they have looked at it yet. I'm hoping its something easy and cheap to repair and I can have it back and working again by the middle of this week. My worst fear is that its some major issue with the hard drive and the computer place loses all my information. Music and movies aside, this would mean the loss of all my trip pictures, all my documents and pretty much all my important information. I had been getting ready to back up all my info when the 'incident' took place, and in retrospect I should have been a bit quicker with it.Aside from that though, things are going well. Tourism in Bulgaria this year is slower than normal and as a result we are getting less visitors in the park. It means less work for me because last year I spent a good deal of time working with foreign visitors and this year not so much. The flip side is that I have more time to hike, work on projects, and do other things. Still though, work in general is slower than I would like it to be. Things seem to be winding down already though, and I recently received a packet of information on stuff I have to do to prepare for my 'close of service' seminar, which will be held next month. I have less than four months left here and I have a feeling that the time will just fly by. It seems that it was just beginning of May a few weeks ago and now its moving into July. The summer will be over way too quickly.

(The Black sea)My brother is also on his way over here to spend a bit of time, and I am super excited for it. I secured a pretty sweet apartment for him in Burgas and he should arrive here tomorrow or the day after. After that, it will be a lot of laid back beach weekends with him and my friends from the coast. Cant wait!

(the brother)

I have just returned from the last big trip I will take during my service here, and quite the trip it was. I traveled more than 2,200 miles by car, bus, train, taxi, hitchhiking, walking, and running (only one time when I was late for my train) in about a week. I set out on this adventure by myself, but I met so many people all along the way that other than my time spent in transport, I was almost never alone. My goal for this trip was to really get out there and go places that no one goes to, to get the 'real' experience, away from all the tourist infrastructure, away from food menus written in English, travel around country where I cant read the signs. Turns out, I should have gone to Africa, because this place I had envisioned doesn't actually exist for me in Europe. Transport was easy, signs in Romania are in English, and while the signs in Moldova and Ukraine are in Russian, I can read Russian so it wasn't a hindrance.

I think that with globalization proceeding the way it is, the far far away destination spots no longer exist. Everywhere you go you can find the same products, the same services, and the same foods. McDonald's in Odessa, Andy's pizza in Chisinau, the list goes on. This trade and connectivity is of course a good thing, but sometimes makes me wonder what it would have been like to travel abroad some 100 years ago, before everything became so homogenized.

Still, my trip was a good time, and Moldova and the Ukraine are about as different from the states as you can get in Europe without going to Belarus (good luck getting visas to that place). These places are still dotted with reminders of the communist rule; the soviet star adorning the train station in Chisiau, the hammer and sickle on top of every column in an art gallery, and good old fashioned soviet style tenement apartments everywhere you look.

Of all the places I visited though, I enjoyed Braşov the most. It is an absolutely beautiful town nestled up in the Carpathian mountains of Transylvania that has preserved its original character, feel and architecture from when it used to be fortified. There is lots of hiking around the town, and in the center is seems there is always something interesting going on. Its just a good time walking around the streets exploring.

(Brasov)

Moldova was a good time as well. I didn't spent all that much time there, but for my first day I met up with a volunteer who is working there and he showed me all around Chisinau (pronounced Kishe-now). Its an interesting city with a surprisingly large number of parks and shaded boulevards. In fact, the entire city looks like it was almost built in a forest from the number of trees that are present. It make for a pleasant place to wander around and relax at. It was nice though being there with someone that was familiar with the area because I was able to learn a lot about the place in a very short amount of time.

(Train Station in Chisinau)From Chisinau I was off to Odessa. It turns out that pretty much everyone that lives in Odessa speaks Russian instead of Ukrainian, so I got plenty of chances to brush up (aka 'start learning') Russian. Actually, I can already understand some Russian because of its similarities to Bulgarian, so I was able to get my point across most of the time without too much difficulty. I was also able to somewhat follow along with the topics of conversations, if not any of the details.

(Learning Russian in Odessa)From Odessa it was a long and tiring trip back down to Bulgaria, and I got stuck one night in Varna before I finally made it home. It ended up being a sweet trip though and it was over way to quickly. Now its back to work again and, unfortunately, it looks like I will be doing some in-country travel for work as well, which means even more time stuck in trains and buses. No rest for the weary I suppose. The good news though is that my brother should be here in just over a week and then summer beach weekends can begin! Summer here rocks.

Check out all the pics on my picasa page http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge

Its been a busy last few weeks and it doesn't look like things are going to change in the near future. The end of last month I got invited by my counterpart to go camping for a night along the sea with a couple of other friends. I had nothing else going on that weekend so I joined him and it was a good time. The weather was great and the black sea is just finally starting to warm up. We spent most of the day relaxing and catching crabs and shells out of the water to cook for dinner. I had never caught (or cooked) crab before, but it turns out it isn't too hard. We boiled them all over an open campfire that night and everything was delicious.

The next day we had to attend the traditional festival for the fire walking people out at a sacred site in the forest. There were a lot of people that attended, and once the main icon blessing ceremony was over, we spent the next few hours just hanging around eating and drinking. I took some video of the event, but unfortunately (and rather ironically) my offices video camera that I used is too advanced for the computers here, and I cant transfer any of the footage (If anyone knows anything about using a canon XM2, let me know...). It was a great day though and a good finish to a great weekend.

Last week I had some friends come out and visit me for a few days to attend the main fire walking festival that is held on the 3rd of June and is open to a lot more people than the first one was. It was a good time, and I got to guide my friends around the park for a few days before and we even got invited to a banquet out in the forest with a group of Irish folk singers. Needless to say that It was a crazy time, and we spent the whole night learning Irish folk dances. The next day we made it out to the main festival and aside from a bit of rain in the afternoon, it was a great time.

This last weekend I traveled out to the other side of Bulgaria to visit another volunteers eco-center that his organization is working on. To make it worth my time to travel 12 hours by train across the country though, I also coupled it with a white water rafting trip down the struma river. The rapids were nothing intense, mostly 2s and 3s, but it was still a good time and nice to finally get back out on the water like that. My guide was super cool, and told me that I was the best in the boat after only the first set of rapids (Not much of a statement though if you had seen the other guys I was with). It was definitely worth the money.

The day after rafting I went out to see the green eco-center. I got some good ideas I want to try and introduce to my coworkers after seeing the place, and it was refreshing to see a project like that underway out here in Bulgaria. After visiting the eco-center and learning about the work going on there, we took a short hike out to a cool waterfall and took a reprieve from the oppressive sun by swimming in a small pool between a smaller 10ft fall and a larger 100ft fall. It was a great time.

Last weekend was the second annual nature park clean up day. Its hosted by all the nature parks in the country, and lots of people volunteer to go and help clean up trash of some of the hiking trails and camping sites. Its just a one day event, but there was a good turnout and we cleaned up several dumpsters worth of trash. The day ended with some live music, lunch and a short hike to see some natural springs. It was a good time overall, and its nice to do volunteer work where you can instantly see the benefits of your work.

In other news, I finally came up with a plan for my final trip abroad during my service. I am going to Odessa, Ukraine, taking a rather meandering route through Romania and Moldova to get there. I decided after my last trip to Italy and Greece that I want to go someplace a bit less traveled that would offer a more intense experience. I want to have to struggle with the language, to order food that I cant read from a menu, and see places that no one really goes to. Im super excited. And to make the trip even more intense, I will be traveling solo, really throw myself out there. Hopefully I can set up some meetings with couchsurfers along the way to meet new people and have a place to crash, but I aside from that I dont really have a strong itenerary like I normally do when I travel. I will sort of wing it this time, and figure out transport as I go along. I wont be leaving until mid-june sometime, so there is still a bit of time to figure out the couchsurfing thing, but im sure it will be here before I know it.

(My tentative route from Malko Turnovo to Odessa)

Last weekend was my parks annual forest festival, and this years event was a big success. The weather was perfect, there was a good crowd that showed up, and everything went according to plan. The first day we started the festival in a nearby town and had booths set up with local foods, crafts and activities to check out while a band played and some local groups danced the traditional Strandja dances. Then everyone went on a nice 5 hour hike to the next village along one of our brand new hiking trails. The night ended with a giant outdoor banquet and party that lasted until the early hours of the morning. It was really cool, and over 100 people attended the late night festivities. There was music, dancing around one of the many bonfires, and plenty of food and drinks for everyone.

The next day we all drove out to the coast and hiked along another new hiking trail that follows the sea-side cliffs of southern Bulgaria. It was a relaxing hike and ended with a late lunch party at a nearby camping site. Everyone that attended seemed to have a good time, and it was nice to get to spend an entire weekend just hiking and relaxing. It was also a big relief for my coworkers, who have spend a great deal of time preparing for the festival and now that its over its a big weight off their shoulders.

In the meantime, work is continuing as normal and I'm busy filling up my schedule and preparing for summer. I have been getting a lot of couchsurfing guests lately, which is nice because it offers the chance to meet cool new travelers and help break up the monotony of living here in malko turnovo by myself. Hopefully this trend continues.

Consistently nice spring weather is finally here and it is awesome. Nice warm days and cool nights, i just hope it lasts a little while before the blazing summer heat arrives. In the meantime though, it perfect outside for hiking and exploring the forest, and I have been taking full advantage of it.

Work however has been a bit hit and miss as of late. My park has been busy prepping for their big annual forest festival that will take place next week, and I'm helping set up for that as much as they need me too, but some days in stuck at the office with no work. Other days though, I will go out in the forest and mark trails all day (which is one of the coolest jobs there is). Sometimes it seems like its either all or nothing, no steady in between. I am hoping though that after the festival is over then tourism will start to pick up for the summer and I will be busy guiding people through the park and helping with those kinds of activities.

As for myself, I can tell that I am itching for some sort of change in my life. I am getting really bored of life here in Malko Turnovo, and while do really enjoy the hiking, there is still nothing going on here outside of that. I have hopes that summer will offer me a bit of the change, once the beaches open up and a lot more stuff is going on at the coast. I have just been isolated out here for way too long and the sooner more people start coming out my way, the better.

I just got back from a short trip out to the Rhodopi mountains in south-central Bulgaria today. May 1st and 6th are holidays here, and everyone takes off all the days in between to get a nice 6 day vacation. Its kinda crazy, but I don't mind.

My trip was a ton of fun. I stayed with a couple of friends that live in small Turkish minority villages out in the mountains and I got to experience life out there first hand. A few of the towns were having festivals as well and one of the days there was even a big Muslim wedding that we got invited to. Turns out that Turkish Bulgarian weddings are very similar to regular Bulgarian weddings, although with a bit less drinking involved. It was a cool experience though and I got to meet a ton of people. Everyone out there was super friendly, and I have to admit that of all the places I have been to so far in Bulgaria, the villagers in the Rhodopis are the nicest.

I spent most of the days just hanging out, relaxing, cooking good food, and hiking all afternoon. The trails out there are fantastic and wind in and out of impressive canyons and valleys. The last day there we went on a 6-7 hour hike along a picturesque canyon with a cool natural land bridge. We made it all the way through the canyon and got to the very end, right in sight of the main road when we discovered that the bridge connecting our side of the river and the side with the road was gone. We had to finish the day with a pretty intense river crossing, struggling against the current while cars slowed down and watched.

The last day, May 6th, is a special day for the Muslims in the area. They are supposed to go out early and wash themselves in the river and get good luck and health for the rest of the year. We joined in, and discovered all too soon that there was more to it than just washing your hands real quick in the river. We had a bit of a late start and didn't get going until about 6 (way too early still if you ask me) and its was soon after that when I realized that we weren't going to the river that ran right through town, but had to climb a good ways up the mountain to this little steam. Along the way we paused to roll around in the grass (good for health I guess) before reaching our destination and performing the ritual cleansing. The water was ice cold, but fortunately the sun was coming up over the mountains so it wasn't unbearable. After washing we hunted for green tree branches so that we could make hats and belts out of them for the walk home. It was kind strange, but my hat ended up being pretty sweet and made me look a bit like Caesar with my short hair. Then, once we were accessorized with our forest apparel, we had to crawl through three sets of old thorny bushes to complete the ritual. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, and we all made it through without too much trouble.

Overall it was a rather strange ritual but it was interesting to see and a lot of fun to participate in. I have definitely never done anything like it before and it was funny because we were doing it with all the old grandmas from the town.

(Thanks to Thomas for some of the pics) http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge

So I have been messing around with photoshop even more since I made those maps for the park and I started using it to edit some of my trip photos that didn't turn out how I wanted them too. I was having troubles on cloudy days when my (kinda crappy) camera would either overexpose the sky, turning it white in the photo, or underexpose the landscape, turning it a ugly dark mass. So I decided to take some of these overexposed photos and just edit in the appropriate sky so that they looked normal again, and I would have nice pics from my trip. This is still a learning process, but so far I have been happy with my results. Check out a few of the pictures that I touched up.

The Colosseum

The Pantheon

Meteora

To compare them, here are the original photos before I added the sky into them. For some of them I had to go back outside and take all new sky pictures (fortunately it was overcast when I came up with this plan, so they sky matched the overcast sky from the pics).

I have a lot more of these photos but Im sure you get the idea. I didnt edit all of them, just a few of them that would make great photos. This last pic I was just seeing how much I could get away with, but its definitely my favorite so far. It was a lot of fun to come up with and make.

I just recieved all the trip pictures from Tyler. We ended up just using one camera on the entire trip so that we wouldnt be taking two pictures of everything, but we used his camera and not mine, so I had to wait for him to send me a disk of the pics in the mail. I just sorted through the pics (I took way too many) and they are now up on picasa. http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge enjoy!

The next stop on our trip was Greece. After a short flight over the Adriatic Sea we landed in Athens and were greeted with beautiful spring weather and nice green countryside. We took the first bus into the city of Piraeus, which is the port city of Athens, but both cities have grown so much that they are pretty much one city now. We met up with our couch surfing host and he took us to see the apartment that we would be staying at for the next two nights. It was a great place right next to all the transport lines, but the best part by far was a large terrace that overlooked the harbor and the Aegean. Both nights we were there we went out and watched the sun set over the water.

Our couchsurfer was super cool, but unfortunately, that first night he had to work an overnight, so we were on our own to explore the area. He did point us in the direction of a great restaurant that he recommended before he left, so our first order of business was food. We feasted on Greek food that night, but when we asked for the bill, the owner said that our couchsurfer had already come in and said that he would take care of our meal, so that we didn’t even have to pay. We tried insisting, but I didn’t want to be rude either. It was amazing how hospitable our host was, we had our own primo apartment for the night and he even covered our dinner!

The next day we got up early and took a bus in to the city center to see the Acropolis and wander around the area. The Acropolis itself is amazing. It sits on a hill right in the center of Athens and overlooks every corner of the city. The Parthenon and temples that sit on top of it are impressive examples of the ingenuity and capability of the ancient Greeks, and its mind boggling to think that they are over 2300 years old.

After the Parthenon we walked over to see the old Roman agora (marketplace) and the even older Greek agora. Then we went to see the temple of the Olympian Zeus, a large columned structure that took over 650 years to build and used to house a giant statue of the Greek god.

That night we met up with our host again and decided to do a night out on the town. We went to a club in the center that was packed with people but the music was so loud that I couldn’t talk with any of them. We even met this one super hot girl that was a friend of our host whose name is Iota (like the math symbol) but because I couldn’t hear well over the music, I thought her name was Yoda. Needless to say I was a bit confused, and even asked her again and got the same response. I didn’t figure it out until after we left, but kept thinking to myself that she is much better looking than the other Yoda that I know.

The craziest thing about the Greek club scene though is how late it starts up. We didn’t even show up until after midnight, and that was considered a bit early. By the time we left at like 3:30 in the morning, the parties were just starting to get into full swing. I would have loved to have stayed out later and party till dawn, but I had to catch an early bus the next day and I wanted to get at least a few hours of sleep.

The next stop was Delphi, considered the center of the world by the ancient Greeks and home of the Delphic oracle. It’s a collection of temples and structures situated on the side of a mountain that overlooks a beautiful valley and lake. We didn’t have a lot of time there because of the bus schedule and had to blitzkrieg the place a bit, but I’m really glad that I at least got a chance to see it. Plus the entire bus ride up there and back was gorgeous.

After Delphi we made our way up north to meteora, a grouping of sheer cliffs and rock pinnacles that rises up out of the country side. Monks used to live up in these cliffs and built a series of monasteries perched on top of some of the pinnacles. There are only six of them left, but they are awesome to see and the view from them is the best. We took a cab up to the top one, and then hiked our way down to the town, stopping to see three others as we made our decent. We tried taking a short cut between some of the cliffs so we could see the last two monasteries, but after a bit of a detour and some intense scrambling on precipitous ledges, we found ourselves on top of one of the solitary cliffs. We ended up just chilling up there enjoying the view for the rest of the day, before attempting to make the harrowing decent down the other side toward town. We survived though, and rewarded our efforts with a feast of a dinner and some cold ones (note: Greek beer sucks, everyone there drinks imports) before moving on to the last stop on our trip.

Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece and is actually only a few hours away from Bulgaria. Unfortunately, there really isn’t that much to see aside from one cool tower (formerly known as the ‘tower of blood’) and some nice archeological museums. It was relaxing though and provided a good segway for life back in Bulgaria.

This trip was the first that I have done I a while to ‘touristy’ places, and it was very nice in the sense that it’s super easy to get around and see things without any effort. Everyone knows English, signs are well marked, and transportation runs when the signs say they run. It was a breath of fresh air to be in Western Europe like that and I have to say that I enjoyed it.

However, it also had its downsides. We went during off season but there were still hoards of people everywhere. I can’t imagine being in, say, Venice or Athens during peak season, but I do know that it would suck. It takes away from the direct experience of what the country and culture is like, because it just caters to foreigners. It also takes away from the excitement of traveling a bit. It was almost too easy, and there wasn’t the same sense of adventure in Italy or Greece that I had in some of the other countries I have been too; finding a place to sleep in Montenegro, trekking through Jordan; or wandering through endless bazaars in Egypt. For my next (and last) trip during my service here, I plan on going to a place that’s a little less traveled and will bring back that intense sense of adventure.

Overall though, I had a fantastic time and consider the trip a success in every regard. I ended up couchsurfing over half the time and met tons of cool people. In fact, I started this trip with just Tyler and I, and over the course of the whole two week trip, the only time it was just the two of us was in Rome. In every other city we either stayed with people, met other friends that were traveling, or joined up with other travelers and explored together. That’s the best way to do it I think.

(still waiting on the rest of the photos, I will post them as soon as I can. sorry for the wait)

Well, I'm back from my kick ass adventure around the Mediterranean. It was a great trip, and I got to accomplish everything that I set out to do and see. I started off in Milan, where our flight came into, and spent just a short while wandering around the center of town, visiting the duomo (the main cathedral) and a few other sites before moving on. It was only a short amount of time, but at least enough to get a glimpse of the city. I would have liked to have stayed a bit longer, but I wanted to devote most of my limited time to the other cities on my list.

My next stop was Venice. I have to say that Venice is just as cool as I imagined it to be, although I don't think that I would ever want to visit during the summer when tourist season is at its peak. The city is spread out on a series of small islands connected with bridges and canals, and apart from the main bridge that connects the city with the mainland, there are no roads in the entire place. I went two days walking around a city with out ever seeing a car!

It is also a very confusing city at first, since there are no real main roads and all the walkways are split by a seemingly endless system of waterways. I eventually figured my way around, but the first day I spent a great deal of time with my face buried in a map trying to figure out where the hell I was. It got even more confusing one night when we were trying to get back to our hostel because it was high tide and a lot of the paths were flooded, so we had to take the long way around the city, at night and in the rain. In fact, the entire main plaza (Piazza San Marco; the famous one with the bell tower and all the pigeons) actually flooded every night we were there. at midnight it was completely underwater, up to my ankles in some places! This city will be in serious trouble if the ocean levels rise even a few inches.

In order to save a bit of money (volunteering doesn't really pay the best) we got most of our lunches from markets and only went out to eat for dinners. This was completely fine by me after I saw my first Italian market. I don't think I have ever seen so many awesome cheeses in one place before in my life. Not to mention handmade pesto, fresh Italian bread, and three euro bottles of wine. I ate better market lunches there than I usually do from restaurants here in Bulgaria. We had a different cheese every day and never even came close to trying them all; asiago, parmesan, elementar, gorgonzola, brie.... the list goes on. I love Italian markets.

Actually, while Venice was the start of our market adventure, it was in Milan that my quest to eat as much Italian cuisine that my body could physically handle began. Over the course of the week that I was there I had pizzas, cream ravioli, spinach and ricotta stuffed ravioli in tomato sauce, cannoli, lasagna, tortellini, spaghetti, Tuscan brushetta, gnocchi, gelato, calzones, and pizza again. One of the Italian couchsurfers that we stayed with even invited a bunch of friends over for a big dinner party and two of these friends were professional chefs. That is what is call the 'Jackpot'. It was the biggest Italian feast I had ever seen and lasted no less than four hours and included at least three rounds of homemade deserts.

The next stop after Venice was Florence, right in the heart of the Tuscan hills. It is a really cool city, nestled in a small valley surrounded by lush grape vineyards and olive groves. There was a bit of rain the first day, but the the weather cleared up for us and it was nice and sunny after that. Florence was pretty relaxing since we were there on a Sunday and Monday, and turns out that most things are closed those two days, so we had plenty of time to just wander around the city and explore. I did get to see the statue of David though, and it really is the most impressive statue that I have ever seen. The amount of detail in it is amazing, you can even see veins in his arms and legs. I guess that Michelangelo knew what he was doing.

From Florence we took a train down to Rome and started our city tour at the Colosseum. that thing is bigger than most modern stadiums that I have been to, its amazing to think that its as old as it is. Right next to the Colosseum is the old Roman palace for the emperors and the Roman forum where the senate met. Its one huge complex full of old structures, columns, statues and plazas. Some of them had been severely damaged, but it still gave a pretty good feel for what it would have been like to be there 1700 years ago. Just the sheer scale of some of the structures shows the might of Rome, and makes it easy to see how it was the most impressive city in the world.

We stayed in Rome for three full days and did a short half-day trip to the Vatican city to see St Peters Cathedral and the Vatican museums. We showed up in front of St Peters early in the morning to find the entire place completely packed with people and the cathedral cordoned off. Turns out the Pope was scheduled to speak in another half hour, so we waited around to watch his speech. He showed up riding in his little pope mobile, which is actually just Mercedes SUV with a giant bubble top so that he can stand and wave to people as he goes by. Kind of a silly looking car, and it didn't help that there was cheese vaudeville-esq organ music playing in the back ground as he putted around at five miles an hour. I tried to take a picture, but I was thwarted by the mass of people in front of me. I didn't stay long into the speech because the only part that I was able to understand (my Italian and Latin ain't the best) was him reiterating how condoms wont help stem the tide of AIDS in Africa. After that, I was ready to go. I did get to see the Sistine chapel though before I left.

Im still waiting on my pictures, but I should get those posted and the blog about greece up in the next day or two. sorry about the wait.

The other day I was sitting in my apartment getting ready to cook up some dinner, and I decided that I would flip on the TV to see if there was anything good to watch while I was preparing my meal. I never watch TV, in all honesty i would say that I turn it on maybe once or twice a month, despite the fact that I have cable (I am forced to buy cable in order to get Internet, which I think is stupid, but my Internet bill is only about 14 dollars a month, so I cant complain too much). I was flipping through channels to see if there was anything good on discovery, history, or another station that was showing something other than mind-numbing sitcoms, and I came across the craziest station of all, the SKAT station.

SKAT, my local Internet/cable provider, has this local station that they air only in the region, and quite possibly only in my town. The station consists of elevator style background music with a screen that is split into four, one screen with Bulgarian news (without sound), one with a random Bulgarian TV show (still no sound), and last, and most bizarre, two live feeds from CCTV cameras that are placed around town. That's right, at any time of day or night, you can flip over to this station and watch live streaming content from video cameras placed strategically around the center of Malko Turnovo.

I have no idea why these cameras even exist in the first place, and even less of an idea why they are broadcast to everyone that has cable TV in my town. Who knows how many people are tuned in watching as you sit on a bench in the town square reading a book, or talking to friends, or picking your nose? Its kind of a strange feeling. I have even been over to peoples houses for dinner before when they have their TV on in the corner of the room with that station showing. Its just one of those things that the first time you see it, it makes you go 'hmmmm.'

I spent most of this week out in the field looking for nests of birds of prey. It was nice to be outside again, but on Tuesday we had really bad weather. It started out nice, then turned to light rain, which slowly increased to a steady downpour. By the time we made it back to the jeep it was dumping snow on us. I was completely soaked.

Yesterday we went out to the coast to do bird counts. It was a fairly uneventful trip, but we did get to take the Lada Niva mudding on some of the trails (which were huge mud pits after the rains from the days before). We managed to get it stuck once, but for the most part those Lada Nivas are pretty bomb vehicles. Of all the cool things to come out of Russia, these jeeps are on the top of the list. They don’t have all the nice features you would find on, say, a jeep wrangler, but they are tough vehicles. (the Niva after taking off-roading)Our park owns three of them, all in various states of disrepair. The newest one is in perfect condition and has a tow winch and CD deck. The oldest of them is missing interior panels and functioning seatbelts, has a hole where the radio should be, and when you take it barreling down rugged terrain the doors have a tendency to pop open at random. Needless to say it makes for an exciting ride. But as beat up as they get, they never seem to die.

Last weekend I went out to a town in northern Bulgaria called Isparih to help out with a kids basketball tournament that was put on by a fellow volunteer. The tournament was a huge success, but it was my first time out in that region and my simple trip out to the town turned in to a 15 hour adventure. Riding trains here can be difficult sometimes because when the trains pull into a station there is no announcement informing people which station it is. I had to make several transfers but since I had never been up that way before I didn't know exactly which station I was supposed to change at. We pulled in to one station that I though was the right one, and I even asked a guy and he said it was the one I wanted, but turns out it wasn't. I had gotten off one station too early. Unfortunately, the train that I had just gotten off was the last one of the night, and there were no buses that ran then either. I asked the station attendent how far it was to the next town where my train transfer was, and he said only 6-7 kilometers.

"Cool, no problem, I can hike that in about an hour," I replied.

"No you cant, there is no road," answered the attendant in a monotone voice. Well, scratch that plan.

I had resigned myself to the fact that i would now be spending the night in this crappy town, and then inquired where the local market was since it was now 9pm and I had not eaten since before noon.

"Sorry, market is closed" was the reply I received. Great, no train, no bus, no market, no nothing. This town sucked. The train station attendant was kind enough to let me in to the switching house where they had a fire going and it was warmer while I called my friend in Isparih to let him know that I would not be making it in that night. He said he had a friend that could drive out and pick me up since I was only some 40 kilometers from his place. Sweet, good news. So I hung out with the train guys in the station house taking about politics, the economy, and life in Bulgaria while I waited for my friend to arrive. It took him two and a half hours to make it the 40 kilometers! Turns out there really were no good roads to this place. That is the last time I make that mistake again.

Things are not going good these days for the environmental movement here in Bulgaria. Corruption, construction companies and organized crime have long been enemies of the national and nature parks, and have been doing everything they can to try and develop all the remaining land that is protected here.This situation recently took a turn for the worst when several of these outside vested interests sent in letters to the central government claiming that some of the Nature parks (mine included) were engaging in illegal activities and were working against the local municipalities. Now the parks are under a strict review and there is a strong possibility that the directors of all these parks will be replaced by people more sympathetic to the interests of the outside organizations. These parks have long been the only obstacles standing in the way of mass eradication of protected land in Bulgaria, but even with their sternest effort, they usually manage only to maintain the status quo. However, with the replacement of these directors the focus of these parks could radically change, opening up much of Bulgaria’s remaining forests and sea side to mass construction projects.

Here in Malko Turnovo, hostilities have intensified between the park directorate and the local municipality. Generally, the local governments are more in favor of development than conservation because of the increased money that comes with it, both official and under the table. These municipalities frequently try to undermine the parks and often look the other way during infractions in protected lands.

The outcome of this whole thing could drastically change my working situation. Right now I have a great organization that is here to do good work and protect the environment the best it can. I hope that this park can weather the storm and continue its projects to help protect and promote some of the few remaining areas of pristine nature in the European Union.

I just got back from the big traditional festival in a town called Shiroka Luka, out in south central Bulgaria. Its a little town located deep in the Rhodopi mountains, surrounded by snow covered pine forests and clear mountain streams. It was my first time out in that region and I have to say that I was impressed. Its a beautiful area and all the little mountain towns have a really cool vibe to them.

The festival itself is called the 'kukuri festival' held every first of March, and it is the largest one in the whole country. Its almost a parade of groups representing their different towns, all dressed up in kukuri costumes and preforming dances and songs. The kukuri costumes are usually made out of goat skins and their dances drive away the evil spirits and help bring a good harvest. They are fascinating to see, but I have to admit that some of them are pretty creepy looking. (this one is downright creepy)

These kukuri dances are an ancient pagan tradition that have survived the years and have been incorporated into modern Bulgarian culture. The most interesting part about it though is that they have blended slightly with the Bulgarian Orthodox church, so during these pagan dances you would see people dressed up as priests going around blessing the kukuri. Its one of the many examples where religion here is heavily used as a cultural and traditional instrument.

Of course, as with any big Bulgarian festival, this one wouldn't be complete with out the accompaniment of sausage and beer vendors. There were hordes of people dancing around the town with bottles in hand, sometimes giving the feeling of one giant outdoor party. It was a lot of energy and really added to the over all effect of the event.

We also traded martenitsi again like last year. I have to wear them until I see a white stork, at which time I'm supposed to tie them to a tree for good luck for the rest of the year.

You can check out my picasa page for more pics. http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge

Good news! I just bought plane tickets for my next big trip. Come the end of next month, I will be headed to Italy and Greece. I’m super excited, but also a bit anxious to finish up with my trip preparations. I have to admit though, planning this trip so far has been a breeze, mostly because finding bus and train schedules for these two countries is really simple, and I don’t need to get any visas. Way different than when I went to the Middle East. Visa stuff had to be planned all in advance and transport between cities was sketchy at best.

I also got lucky getting my flights. It was a bit of a hassle booking my flight from Sofia to Milan because the airline I booked my flight with, Wizzair, doesn’t accept American or Bulgarian credit cards, but I ended up getting the flight for only 35 Euro. Can’t beat that.

I think I will be pretty busy until then as well. This weekend I’m headed out to the mountains in south central Bulgaria to attend a big traditional Bulgarian festival. I missed it last year, but apparently it was a really good time and I’m fortunate enough to be able to make it this year. There should be a bunch of other volunteers there, most of whom I haven’t seen since last year. In fact, up until this last weekend, I hadn’t even seen another American since New Year’s Eve. That’s over a month and a half! It’s almost awkward now to hang out with other Americans, especially in big groups.

Still though, I need to get out of my town and do something different. Malko Turnovo still has that lethargic feeling that comes along with winter, and its getting boring. I even though winter was about over, because the weather was finally starting to warm up, but then mother nature pulled a fast one last weekend and dumped a ton of snow all over the country. So now its winter……again. Oh well.

I just got back today from another weekend in Burgas. It was a fairly uneventful, but last night I had a really good time. It started off like most nights I spend in Burgas, getting a quick bite to eat and then heading out to my favorite pub for a pint and a few games of pool. After a couple hours of watching my skill at billiards steadily decline, we quit playing and met up with some other expats living Burgas that I had never seen before. They were pretty cool, and the five of us ended up sitting around a table for the longest time deeply engaged in a debate about international politics and the state of the economy.

It was really interesting because all of us were from different countries and had different points of view. There was me, the American, and a guy from England, Ireland, Holland and Bulgaria. I think it's experiences like this that I love most about traveling abroad, getting to meet new people and have respectful debates with them. It's enlightening to hear how much we all have in common, as well as gaining insight on different perspectives about issues.

I was sitting in the break room the other morning before work listening to my coworkers start up a conversation about Shkembe soup. They were going on and on about this soup, talking about how good it is, and how good it is for you, and how much they love to eat it. Bulgarians just love the stuff. Its as close to a national dish as you can get without officially declaring it a national dish (which may have actually already happened, but I don't know about it). Listening to my counterpart describe Shkembe, this soup sounds like the end all of soups. Its delicious, nutritious, cheap, and is guaranteed to cure hangovers. Its best served hot, or slightly cold, and for either breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Its pretty much the Bulgarian equivalent of Mac & Cheese. What more could you ask?

Well, as with many a big-name summer blockbuster movie, it turns out that this soup may be a bit over-hyped. I realized something was suspicious when I first saw a bowl of this much revered elixir. At first glance it is not the most appealing nourishment, and at second glance, it is still not the most appealing nourishment. In fact, after a carefully executed scientific study, I have concluded that no matter how many times you see shkembe, it will never become more appealing, and actually runs the risk of becoming increasingly less so.

(mmm, look at all that flavor)

That being said, I have loved many a dish that didn't look the best, but that made up for it with taste. At this point I was still giving Shkembe soup the benefit of the doubt, that is, until I found out what Shkembe means. Its from the Turkish word for tripe. For those of you who don't know what tripe is (I also had no idea what this word meant), it pretty much means mixed stomach parts. So, shkembe soup can roughly translated as 'insert animal name here' stomach soup. Yup, just like mom used to make. Shkembe soup is made out of any animal that happens to be available at the time. Pig, cow, chicken, goat, mastodon, you name it, its probably in that bowl of soup.

A point of pride that I have with myself is that I'm always up for trying something once; heck, I even ate brain sandwiches from a street-side vendor in Cairo, which is about as sketchy as one can get, but I have to admit that I have still never tried the shkembe soup. There is something about it that every time I muster up the confidence and resolve to delve in to a bowl of it, it still manages to fend me off that the last minute. And as for the claim that it is the perfect cure for a hangover, well, let me just say that I have no reservations that it would forcefully induce the immediate evacuation of any remaining alcholol (and other contents) from my stomach, but I doubt the validity of the claim that it would work toward ameliorating the lasting effects of already absorbed booze. In fact, I can only envision this specific concoction as making the situation (and my relative health) worse. I know these statements come off as rather strong, especially when I have admitted the fact that I have never actually tried this dish, but they perfectly convey my opinion of the matter.

However, I appreciate the argument that to fully understand a dish, it must be actually tasted, so for the sake of an un-biased control group, I have devised a plan to feed this dish to my younger brother, whom I expect to arrive on vacation in this country sometime this summer (Mom, if you are reading this blog, please, in the name of science and human understanding, refrain from telling him about this, as it would completely ruin this plan. I promise, whatever may happen, he won't die from it). Upon conclusion of this trial, I will appraise you of the results so that you too can decide, with all the data at your disposal, what you actually think of this horrid soup.

I don't mean to give the wrong impression of Bulgarian food in general, because many of the dishes here are fantastic and I reckon that the vegetables are second to none, but shkembe may be one of the worst dishes that I have ever been introduced with. I also realize that, after living in this country for about a year and a half, it may seem random that I have only just now brought this up, but it was hearing the conversation between my coworkers in the break room that prompted me to ponder this food once more. So, if you ever happen to find yourself in a Bulgarian restaurant and you see shkembe on the menu, order something else.

One of my long term projects that I have been working on most days while living out here in Malko Turnovo has been bird monitoring. Its actually pretty sweet, and it gets me outside for at least a little while during my day. I haven't been going lately because during the winter there are no birds migrating, but now that its starting to get a bit warmer, migration time has finally come. I have been doing this now for almost a year an a half, and all it really entails is going out to this marsh just outside of town with a pair of binoculars and seeing what (if any) migratory birds are hanging out. I then compile the data of number of birds, species of birds, and if possible, other attributes such as sex, relative age, ect. This data will be given to a regional NGO that works with bird migration, and it can also be used to show the affect that the local marsh has on the bird migration patterns.The big issue right now with the marsh is that it leaks. Badly. I know it sounds funny, but the terrain that it sits on (and most of the terrain in Strandja actually) is very permeable to water and as a result, there are countless caves, tunnels and other subterranean water passages that make it next to impossible for lakes and ponds to form. This marsh right outside Malko Turnovo is the one exception, but even it is having problems retaining its water. Even though its steadily fed by a stream and has no outlets, it loses water every day it doesn't rain, and during the summer almost dries up completely. It stays dry until the winter rains and snows fill it up in time for the migration.Strandja Nature Park has looked in to cementing parts of the marsh so that it better retains water and can therefore host more migratory birds longer into the summer. Sounds like a great idea, and I was all for it, until just recently. The reason I'm a bit unsure now is because I have noticed that a lot of locals come out here to the marsh to shoot the birds that come in, and since the marsh is never particularly large, it makes hunting them super easy. Some birds such as storks are not hunted, but all the ducks that come in are pretty much fair game, despite laws that restrict hunting. None of these laws are enforced, so pretty much anyone can head out to the marsh whenever they feel like it and shoot away.So the question is, is the marsh better off being fixed so it can host more birds, some of which will be illegally hunted, or should it be left alone to slowly drain away, depriving the migratory birds of a feeding ground but also keeping them out of reach from local poachers? Its a rather tricky scenario, and there is no perfect solution, but its frustrating to put all this work into something and hoping that more birds come, only to realize that everyone else is killing them all off. Chances are that I wont really be in a position to influence the outcome of all this, but I still think about it everyday that I head out bird monitoring.

So, This morning I was reading some blogs of some friends of mine and what struck me about them was that they all looked cooler than mine. I realize now that I didnt do anything to make my blog format interesting, or add any other information. Its the most basic boring layout I could possibly have.

You should have already noticed something about this already; I have decided to write about this on my blog instead of using the time to change it. This is because I sat looking at my blog today wondering what I should do to make it cooler, and I came up with..........nothing. So here I am writing and complaining about it instead. Ugh, Im going to go make maps now. later

Work has been going really good lately and I still am feeling super productive. I finished digitizing a bunch of records last week for this project and then I got the task of updating all the maps in the trail guide book. It sounded easy enough at first, but it ended up being a rather complicated process.

The maps in the old guidebook are all basic, hard to read maps all made with windows paint, or something similar and the park wanted nice topographic maps with the trails overlaid on top. So I took the large wall hanging map of the park and scanned it into my computer in several sections. Then, using an open source graphic manipulation program similar to photoshop, I pieced all the sections back together. Once the map was whole again, I went through and edited out all the creases, smudges and other marks that were on the map so that it looked new again. (original scanned map of my town) Then, after cutting it down into the appropriate sections, I added the new trails. It was fun work and I got the chance to learn how photoshop works, because I have never used it before. I didn't do anything that advanced, but for my first attempt, I was really happy with it. Now I have to go back and do the whole thing over again for the English version of the book. I would show you the whole map, but its way to big to post here on my blog, so you get a little sample section. This is one of the maps that will be put in the new guidebook. pretty sweet huh

(finished map with trails)Work aside, the weather here has been very nice lately. It has been a very mild winter so far and today is especially warm. Its getting me excited for spring and getting out of Malko Turnovo. My calender is already starting to fill up with project stuff, and pretty soon I need to start planning my next trip. I just got to figure out where I want to go next....

The office here at the park has been frantic and full of commotion lately. A European Union commission has been sent down here to audit our office as part of a large project that we have been working with, and my coworkers have been busy setting everything up in preparation of their arrival. Through this program (who’s goals I am still unclear of) Strandja park has received all sorts of new gear and equipment, ranging from new computer systems and GPS units, to a boat and tranquilizer gun. Most of this new equipment has yet to be used, a fact that was proven when my coworkers finally unboxed half of the stuff for the first time this week and asked me to set it up for them. As a result, I am now the resident IT expert at Strandja Nature Park. Need new printer drivers installed on a computer? Don’t have training on a GPS unit? Can’t figure out how to set up a PDA? Well I’m the guy to talk to.

To be honest, I didn’t know how to do most of this stuff either when I got here, but since I seem to be the most technologically savvy person in the office, it falls to me to figure it all out, and I have enjoyed doing it. I might as well pick up a new set of skills while I’m here anyway. So now every time we get a new piece of equipment, I read through the manual and search online so I can train myself on how to use it, and how to teach the rest of the office how to use it. I started off with basic stuff, like learning how to use manual functions on an SLR camera (one of those nice professional cameras) to my current goal of setting up an office network that links all 10 or so office computers and their respective peripherals, so that I can print or scan a document on any printer or scanner from any computer in the building.

While this sounds like quite the task (and indeed it is proving to be) I personally feel that it is much needed, because right now printing and scanning is crazy hard. For example, every month the assistant director of the park makes up a budget report on his computer, which doesn’t have a printer or internet. In order to print it, he has to save it to a floppy disk (remember those things?) and take it over to my computer down the hall. But he (and by he, I mean I) has to save it as a special file type because his version of Word and mine are different and not very compatible. Then once it’s transferred it gets printed from my computer. Doesn’t sound too difficult? Well, this process is usually repeated about 4-5 times for every document he prints because Word doesn’t spell check Bulgarian and he doesn’t catch the mistakes until after it’s printed. Same thing for spacing errors and what not.

We’ll see if my goal of an office network comes to fruition or not, but in the mean time I’m still busy helping with everything else. Right now I have been assigned the task of digitizing the parks records. It’s good and Im glad to be busy and helpful, but I have to admit that it’s not what I had imagined when I first came out here. Funny how things can change like that.

Lately I have found that with no big projects underway, winter in full swing, and no tourists in the park, I have plenty of time for updating blog, but nothing interesting to talk about. Its the irony of writing blogs for me; when I'm doing tons of cool stuff, I only get a chance to update every few weeks. But when I have the chance to update every day, I have nothing to say.

Life here in MT is still plodding along like normal. There is still snow out on the ground from the snow storm after new years, and its overcast and drizzling. I have been trying to hang around here lately and save up some money, but I think in a few days I will need to get out to burgas for a change of pace. There is only so long I can stay here in this town with out going crazy, so in the interest in personal sanity, i think a weekend in the city with friends is a good idea. Overall though things are going ok. I have had plenty of time to catch up on my reading and lately I have been able to talk to my brother out in Kuwait (who is finally coming home in about a week!). I just need to appreciate this slow time because once the weather gets better and spring comes around I will get busy again.

Funny story though, my office building just got new blinds installed on all the new windows (we're coming up in the world) and my coworkers are super excited about them. however, its been really dark and overcast out lately so I keep pulling up the blinds to let in more light, and they keep lowering them down because, well, I'm not sure why. maybe just excited to have blinds I guess. Its funny, but now my office has natural lighting equivalent to that of a cave (Note on my office building: the Directorate of Nature Park Strandja occupies an old communist party headquarters looking out over the town center. It is complete with dark brown panel walls and padded double doors on every office to keep out eavesdroppers. Think of the KGB offices you see in old Bond films; that's where I work).

It has been a very interesting last week here in Bulgaria. First off, we had a problem at the park visitor center. Someone forgot to shut off the water to the building before everyone left for Christmas break, and the pipes on the second floor burst, flooding the whole building. It was just noticed the beginning of this week, and we have been working to get it cleaned ever since.

The thing about Bulgarian houses is that they are not built out of wood and drywall, but out of cement and brick, which during a flood is both a good and bad thing. The good thing is that they dont rot or get mold inside the walls, but the bad thing is that the water doesn't really drain out. When we first showed up at the house there was a good two inches of water sitting on the SECOND floor, and over the past few week that had trickled down and left a good inch of water on the first floor as well.

Then, to make it even more difficult, Bulgaria doesn't have proper equipment used to clean up a mess like this. ordinarily I would use a wet-vac and some industrial floor driers and have the place cleaned up in no time. Unfortunately, that stuff doesn't exist over here, so we had to sweep the water out of the building with brooms, and then get all the wood burning stoves in the house going full blast to dry up the moisture. For the last few days it has been my job to sit in the house and feed logs into the 3 fireplaces. Not the most exciting task, but gave me a chance to catch up on my leisure reading while sitting in front of a nice fire. So I guess I cant complain too much.

The other big news, for those of you that haven't been keeping up to date with the headlines, is the gas crisis going on in Europe. Because of a conflict between Gazprom and the Ukraine over gas shipments, Russia closed down its Ukrainian gas pipeline to Europe. Unfortunately, this one pipeline supplies approx one fifth of all the gas used in the entire continent, and for most of the Balkan countries, it is the only source. Bulgaria doesn't have any sizable reserves on hand, so as soon as the gas stopped coming from the Ukraine, the gas outages began. homes currently receive no gas, trains have been running with out heaters, schools are closing, heavy industrial complexes have been shut down and only a few necessary buildings are being supplied (I am assuming stuff like government and hospitals).

Fortunately, most homes here are heated with wood (as is the case here in Malko Turnovo) or electricity from some coal or oil powered plant. But there are still a lot of people with out heat, or hot water, and that's a big deal right now because Bulgaria is in the middle of some pretty cold weather. there is still a good six inches of snow on the ground here, and most likely a lot more the farther north you go. I'm hoping that this gets resolved within the next week, otherwise its going to be a long, cold winter.

Malko Turnovo has finally gotten its first big snow! It came down non-stop for over 36 hours and now there is a good foot of snow covering everything in sight. It is very pretty, and this morning I went for a walk around the town to see it all: The trees filled with leaves of snow, the villagers shoveling the sidewalks and freeing their cars, the soft silence of snow covered fields punctuated by an occasion bird chirp, and the cold crisp smell of winter air interspersed with the smell of smoke from the dumpster fire outside my apartment. actually, that last one is not so much a smell of winter, but a normal smell that happens every so often when the dumpster fills up before trash pick-up day and needs to be cleared out.

http://picasaweb.google.com/justinrobarge

Overall though its very nice out here. I have plenty of firewood and have been keeping my fireplace going to keep my apartment nice and warm. Today is the first day back at work since New Years, and the office still has the lethargic feeling left over from the holidays. This morning started off with good German chocolates and Scottish whiskey, the perfect thing to uh, well, not motivate one to work hard but relax and stay warm I guess. Integrating back into the American work environment might take a bit of adjusting after two years of this.

I had a great time over the holidays though. On Dec 23rd I took an overnight sleeper train across the country to my host families house back in Simitli. Those sleeper trains are awesome. You get a regular bunk bed to sleep the whole way in, and before you know it you are at your destination! Not bad. Anyway, spent Christmas Eve with the host family and had the big traditional dinner like last year. It was fun and really nice to see the family again. On Christmas morning I made my way out to the town of Razlog, nestled up in the mountains to spend the big day with some friends of mine. It snowed most of the day and I got my first white Christmas in a while.

The day after Christmas I headed up in the mountains to a local ski area that I been to the previous winter, but this time I had reservations at the mountain lodge above the ski runs. I met up with a bunch of other friends and for the next four days we all hung out and went snowboarding all day, then hung out in the lodge all night. I was really happy to get out snowboarding again and for the first two days we had constant snow and fresh powder that made the runs real nice. The last two days it warmed up and the slopes became pretty rocky, but it wasn't too bad. Unlike America, Bulgaria so far has been pretty dry and the mountains here don't have near as much snow as they did last year. Because of this the ski runs didn't have a nice deep snow base so once the powder melted off rocks were all over the place just barley under the surface, and a couple of times i was gliding down the mountain and caught an edge on a submerged rock.

After the mountain adventure we all took a train out to plovdiv for a repeat of last years New Years party in the center of town. The weather ended up being pretty cold (somewhere around 20 degrees Fahrenheit I would guess) but that didn't stop us from going out to see the concert and fireworks in the center of town at midnight. We stayed out there for about 2 hours, dancing and celebrating the New Year Bulgarian style. It was good fun, and we had a decent size group so up for it. New Years day we left town and went to Stara Zagora where a few of us relaxed at a friends apartment and hung out. Getting food that day was a bit of a hassle though, practically everything in Bulgaria is closed on New years day, including the supermarkets, and it took a lot of searching before we found a place that we could buy stuff to make dinner. I imagine if I had been in a smaller town like Malko Turnovo and didn't already have something in the pantry, I would have starved to death. Ok, probably not, but you get my point.

Now I have to stay put here in MT for the next couple weeks and try to save up money again. I did the holidays pretty cheap (a day of snowboarding cost me less than 30 dollars, including lift ticket, board rental, and lodging on the slopes!) but a week of travel still adds up and I need to start preparing for activities once winter is over. I figure if I lay low for January and February, once March comes I should be able to get back out of town at least for a weekend trip or something. In the meantime, I need to find ways to keep myself occupied here because this town gets super boring. Hopefully I have enough books and movies to last me through the winter....

things are still moving along ok, but i can tell you that malko turnovo does not offer much in the way of entertainment during winter. fortunatly, however, my real counterpart has returned from Germany and i now have someone else to interact with after work. he spends a lot of time up in borgas, but when hes here we usually hangout. the good thing is that im meeting new people in town through him, so hopefully i will know a lot more people here soon.

i have also started working with a woman that runs an afterschool program for kids. i have to admit that i havent been very useful yet, as im not the best with kids, but the kids seem to enjoy talking to me and once january comes i will begin teaching them english. I also went to an english class taugh by a teacher from out of town and i think i will continue to go to them because i will be able to help give them an opportunity to speak and it is helpful to me to learn new words and grammer. the class is taugh mostly in bulgarian but that makes it a perfect learning opportunity for me. the other people in the class are nice, but i feel silly because its just me and about ten married ladies. interesting class dynamic.

the weather has gotten cold, and this weekend a big snow front moved across most of the country. nothing as bad as in the states recently, but malko turnovo has gotten a decent amount of snow and right now there is fog so thick i can bairly see across the street. it was nice though because we had a huge christmas party for all the staff from the nature parks on this side of the country held up in a mountain lodge in central bulgaria. ten of us left in two russian jeeps (a rather uncomfortable setup) early saturday morning and drove all day to Kotel where we met up with the people from the other parks. it was a parking lot full of identical russian 'lada nivas'. it was pretty funny looking, but i had neglected to bring my camera. sorry. anway, it was about 25 of us up in this lodge in the forest with snow falling all night and we had a huge banquet with games, prizes and dancing. get that many excited bulgarians in a room together with all you can drink and it will be a memorable experience. it got pretty crazy, but most of the time i had no idea what was going on. but it was still fun.

now its back to work for a bit before i take off for simitli to spend a traditional bulgarian christmas with my host family. im taking my camera this time so i should have a lot of pics to post when i get back. take care and you all have a great holiday

well, not a whole lot has been happening lately. everyone else in my office is gone this week on a work trip to croatia to visit a national park there. im kinda bummed that i didnt get to go, but its because i have only been allowed to leave the country since last week due to my visa. hopefully i can go on the next trip.

as far a work for me, i have a language tutor now and i might be helping out with an english class pretty soon. ive been brainstorming other project ideas that i could do as well, but theres nothing else underway quite yet. the weather here is been kinda crappy, it usually rains most days and we had a lot of snow last saturday. today it was nice and warm but rained off and on in spurts all afternoon. then tonight there was a thunderstorm, which is unusual for so late in the year.

last week there was a jounalist in town that i had to take around and translate for. it really put my language skills to the test because she asked some pretty tough questions. it was good practice though because i probibly dont talk as much as i should. by the way, i put up a few more pics in the malko turnovo album from around town and such if you want to check them out. anyway, talk to you all later

hey, i got two new albums up. not sure how i can send a link to the main page where you can select which album you want to view, but here are the two links to the two albums. enjoy

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EbOGLZo3cMXKQ

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EbOGLZo3cMXOA

things are going well and i am still getting used to my new setting. i got to go to borgas last weekend and had a great time hanging out with my friends. it was a nice break from the solidarity of living here in malko turnovo alone. i have a good group of people to do stuff with there and i always look forward to seeing them.

work yesterday was awesome. my counterpart took a photographer out to shoot some pictures of a cave in one of the park reserves. they are trying to get new pics for a park calander. anyway, i got to tag along and i convinced my counterpart to accompany them into the cave. it was a decent sized cave, nothing like the huge networks they have at mammoth or jewel caves, but it had several large rooms and connecting tunnels. the entrance was about the size of a large doorway and led in a ways before it dropped down a short way that we had to scramble down. we had helmets and headlamps and there were a few passages that we had to squeeze through on our hands and feet. once get got into the main room we kinda pissed off the bats that resided there, and they were flying around in the dark, illuminated occasionally by the wandering glare of a headlamp beam. the cave had lots of interesting rock features such as stalagtites/mites, columns and beautiful sparkling ribbons of formed rock. we were down there for about an hour and a half or so before we had to head back. it was a sweet trip though.

other than that, the weather is slowly getting colder and colder and winter will soon set in. i am hoping work picks up soon, so i have more to do. winter is a really slow time for the park because no one wants to be outside. anyway, thats all the news for now, i will talk to you all soon. later