Looking for Lev in All the Wrong Places

Continuing my late winter of exotic travel.....I joined a collection of acquaintances and strangers for a week in Bulgaria. It was organized by the University of Texas expat group who I've been kicking around with since I moved here.

I have to start with a mind boggling strange culture story provided by our British chalet host. This will give you a window into a bit of life in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria is conveniently just north of Greece with only some small mountains in between. But Bulgaria has it's own interesting language (sorta like Russian) and expressions. For example, the Bulgarian word for no is pronounced "ne." And the gesture is a nod of the head up and down. However, just to the south, the Greek word for yes is "ne," and the gesture for no is a shake of the head right and left. So that means that the same word and gesture that in Bulgaria means no -- in Greece means yes. Imagine how many people fights have started when someone shook their head and said "ne" in response to "You lookin at my wife?"

After learning that fun fact on the four hour bus trip to our chalet, I was ready to experience everything Bulgaria had to offer. Turns out that's not much. At least of the types of "activities" I'm looking for. But what is there is lovely.

Bansko, the mountain town we stayed in, appears to be one of the fastest growing places in the world. From a place that looked basically like what you see above plus a few broken frames of houses, it is now a mountain uber-village with fancy Doppelmayer ski lifts and bars with 5-7pm happy hours.

And all this in just two years. How is this amazing post-communism recovery happening? Bulgaria joined the EU.

This trip was my first introduction to what the expansion of the EU to the Eastern European countries is really doing. The "net debtor" countries (like Bulgaria and Italy) get LOTS of money for building infrastructure projects (roads, houses, strip clubs, etc) from the "net contributor" countries like Britain and Germany. Just like in America where California pays a lot of federal taxes, but a larger proportion of the big federal pool ends up helping fishermen in Louisiana and farmers in Indiana.

In the case of Bulgaria, they looked at where they might get outside money to come into the country, and the obvious choice was the super cheap ski destination of Bansko. And - poof! - instant ski resort. Rumor has it that the mafia helps with security and making sure there are no strikes, while charging huge sums for cement. (sound familiar?)

Either way, a nice ski resort has appeared and I had a great time kicking around with my friends for a week. Our chalet was built by hand by our fantastic British hosts Matt and Jenny. The mountain was pretty small, so it didn't take long to cover it, but that left plenty of time for lessons, beers, and massages. Don't worry, there was plenty of skiing too. Only problem is that all of Europe seems to be getting warmer, so it seems likely that in 10 years all this ski resort will be having trouble because there will be no snow! Don't tell all the Brits and Germans buying "investment" properties like it's going out of style.

Anyway, I love skiing. It's great. Here's some pics:

Towards the end of our trip, my friend Jon and I were sitting at a cool bar in the main square in town and an older couple came over and asked to sit with us because the rest of the tables were full. The sun was shining strong into the late afternoon so it was a great time to be out in the historic square. The Bulgaria couple were thrilled to hear we were from America and living in the UK. Turns out he was a doctor up on the mountain and had done some training outside of London.

During our conversation, the lady brings out a few small red and white pieces of cloth and gives them to us as gifts. They are called martinitsi bracelets and are a Bulgarian tradition in Spring. Women can only give them to men, and everyone is supposed to wear them until they see a stork! Then when they do, tie them to a tree for luck. How cool.

This lady tells the story better than me...

http://www.ducts.org/06_06/html/columns/fortin.html

So I've just returned from a fantastic trip in India. Will write all about it soon!

Cheers,
Dan

P.S. The title "Looking for Lev in All the Wrong Places" is a bad joke -- the Bulgarian currency is called the Lev.

Morocco #2 !!

Hmm, on second though I'm not sure I can do a lamp. How about a metal plate??

So in addition to our time in Marrakesh, we also took a 4 hour bus to Essaouira (pronounced essa-where-a) on the coast. It's a stunning little fishing town with similar rambling small streets and a much more laid back approach to selling than in Marrakesh. There are tons of tiny shops mostly selling carved wood stuff. The people there were happy to just chat with you - at a much smaller cost than in Marrakesh.

But like everywhere else in Morocco, bargaining was part of the fun. In general I am not a huge fan of bargaining. I know that in places like this they are ripping you off anyway, but I still feel like the 43 cents we are arguing over will go a lot further for him than me.

But in Morocco, everyone does it with a smile on their face! It's totally a game, and if you play by the rules, you can end up doing quite well. I bought a leather shoulder bag for about 20% of the asking price - but I had to walk out the door and down the street 3 times to get him down to that level. And in the end the guy was still very happy and I felt like we'd bonded the way you do with a tough competitor on the football pitch. You know what I mean?

But the best part was just wandering around, seeing the boats, the people and the birds. So many birds!

Then after taking the bus back, we were walking along the streets of Marrakesh on my last day and ended up walking through a part of town where we hadn't been before. There were tons of shops with counters selling mostly meet, fish, and produce. It seemed to be mostly locals poking around getting their Sunday groceries. Clearly not the same type of Sunday shopping we did in Connecticut.

As we were going along, I stopped and watched this guy for a few seconds. Basically what he does is takes one of the chickens behind him, puts it through the machine in front of him, and serves what comes out on the counter in front of you. Amazing! Shocking! I had to have a picture. So I raised my camera - a bit shy because lots of people there don't like having their picture taken - and he put his hand up towards me. I'm thinking he's telling me to bugger off. But actually he was waving to the camera! Maybe I'm not the only tourist horrified to see this going on right on the street?

Here's a bunch more pics, too many good ones to miss out!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZMnLlm1atGWU&notag=1

Next blog stop - last week was skiing in Bulgaria! Oh! And my dates for India are settled - first week of May!

Cheers!

Dan!

P.S. The top two pics were taken by Dave with his fancy camera. Man he's good!