Greetings from Sofia Train Station

. . . . . and thank goodness for internet after four days without radio, internet, and TV.

So here we are on Wednesday night, at 11:07 p.m. This is time that my computer has powered on since sometime Sunday afternoon around 4p.m. There is no internet available on the CROP farm here in some mountain village known as Jelen (pronounced Zelen in Bulgarian.) Currently this is being typed on MS Word. Tomorrow sometime you will be able to read this after it is copied and pasted onto the blog.

 So I arrived in this area on Sunday evening to come spend some time learning what this Permeaculture stuff is all about. I don’t plan on using this type of thing in my life one day, but there may be some useful elements to take from this very different style of farming.

Let’s go back to Sunday for now though.

Sunday evening: I took an early evening train out of Sofia to this little village area. The cost was about $1.50, for an hour long ride. This isn’t one of those fancy bullet trains. I wouldn’t be surprised if this train that I was riding dated back to mid-Communist era. I sat facing a lady and her child, or possibly grandchild, with the other one at my side. The two little boys tried to make conversation with me a few times, until I pointed to ‘ole Glory flying happily on the younger one’s t-shirt. Then the lady and the boys understood that I was American. The older brother asked my name, and so a moment or two later we were introduced to each other.

Sadly, I was to depart the train about ten minutes later.

 I pulled my wallet out of my shorts, and spotted two George Washingtons though. I handed each boy his dollar, and a quizzical look shot up on both of their faces. They said thanks, and I waved back to them as I prepared to depart with my duffel bag (aka body bag), and backpack. Surprisingly, as I stepped out of the train, I peered to the right and the boys were flailing their arms wildly. Perhaps that was the first time that hands were waved at me as I was exiting a train. 

My Sunday Evening with Ian

Now to the real fun!

I walked around this ghost-town looking train station and noticed a Mercedes pulling in to make some deliveries to neighbors, it seemed. I was looking for Ian, who was to meet me that evening. Walking around for about ten minutes, I started to wonder whether or not the Brit had received my last text message, stating my tardiness. Then towards one direction a scrawny gentleman, who did not appear Bulgarian, approached me.

“Are you John?” he says in his British accent.  I was relieved that this was the person I was meeting. So we decided to go have a beer, and eat some Bulgarian cuisine in the village restaurant. We got to talking for a few minutes, and were discussing languages, when he says, “well I thought you would have French as a 2^nd language being from Canada.” I was not sure if I was to feel insulted by that one or not, so I shrugged the mistake off, and explained that I am nowhere near from Canada.

It seemed that Ian had his computer stolen a few days ago, so he wasn’t even sure who I really was, with the exception of my first name. This little village seems to have quite a bit of drama of its own at the moment, and my ears were worn down from taking all of it in. A few kilometers later, and I came to the realization that this man may talk more than anyone else I know in this world. I have been around quite a few talkative people, but this dude tops them all. I have a feeling that the good Lord sent me to be a temporary pair of ears for the man.

 Now this place is four kilometers from the train station.  During that four kilometer hike, you are also climbing a few hundred meters too. Getting to this CROP farm was a hike that I had not been anticipating. Somewhere along the hike we met Maggie. Maggie is the donkey that Ian owns. The donkey is probably treated better than most people’s dogs are treated here. Maggie led us, if you want to call it that, up the hill and on towards the houses that make up this CROP farm.

I was shown to my guest house, dropped my belongings off and made my way to the main house. Though it was dark, we were both hungry, so Ian went to his garden to pick up some veggies to make us a salad, to go with some Turkish style oats for a late night snack. After pulling late night duty at the hostel, it was an act of God that I was able to handle this man’s talking to me until midnight. 

Monday at CROP Farm

Monday

On Monday morning I slept a little late, considering the little sleep attained on the previous night. I found the toilet, which was an adventure the first time. This toilet is referred to as an earth compost toilet. There is even a sign which states “We thank you for your poo and pee. It will be recycled and returned back to the earth.” Don’t worry there will be a picture of this thing very soon. There is also a solar shower here too. Ever wanted to shower underneath the stars? You would be green with envy knowing I have performed that act twice. 

Monday was a day of plums, plums, and more freakin’ plums. I jarred plums, cooked plums, preserved plums, and even ate a few plums. I felt as if I was eating some syrup on some hotcakes, only the hotcakes were non-existent. All this work was being down on the outdoor wood burning stove. I have spent maybe half of my week around this darn stove. Pine cones are very useful when it comes to lighting these fires in the stove. We ate some kind of soup to go with some Nan bread for supper. Of course the man talked and talked some more that night.

When one looks in the dictionary and reads the word frugal, there may very well be a picture of Mr. Ian. His electric bill each month is usually $13. This is a man who has hitchhiked numerous times from his homeland in England, to his home here in Bulgaria too. We have discussed his penny pinching methods that he used when working as an English teacher in South Korea too. Permeaculture is all about self-sustainability, hence the frugality.

Maggie the donkey did assist us later that evening as we went to the forest. There is an area that locals use to get the wood that they need during the seasons.  Mr. Talker spent so much time talking, and talking that we kind of arrived as the sun was going down. Chopping wood in the dark is not very exciting, especially when a neighbor approaches you in a not so kind manner. I was sawing a pine a little too close to where his kids were sleeping, so one could imagine the anger he was expressing. Thanks to Maggie we were able to get some good wood hauled in that have helped us over the last few days.

I showered a little bit later, and it was then that I realized I put in a good twelve hours of work. The description on the WWOOF website stated that most people work six to eight hours a day. Oops. Back to the shower – cold, strange, a little uncomfortable and just plain odd. Outdoor showered aren’t too bad if you are at the beach and you are just rinsing some sand off. This one though, takes the cake. The picture may do it justice, see for yourself.

Random places around the city

Since I'm off to the village in about twelve hours, I thought I'd post a few more pictures of Sofia here. These are just some random shots that I took today. I haven't used my new camera since I've been here, so I felt the need to break it in.

                                       Men are always playing chess here at a local park

                                      Played with this dog a few days ago. . . super animal

                                       Nevsky Cathedral

                                     National Theather

                                     Facing away from National Theater

                                                  Russian Orthodox Church

From the Protest Site

The following pictures are from the site where the citizens of Bulgaria have ended their protest marches every night for the last 50 nights. As of yesterday, August 2, Parliament took a holiday, as did many of the protesters. There are still a few dedicated locals still camping out on the site, and educating others on the corruption on this local government.

I desperately would love to dedicate a blog post to the protests, but I am without proper tools for such a post at the moment. In other words, I am just going by what I have read online. The friends I have here have not really made any mention of it.
Enjoy the pics though.

                                         many a night these people have camped out

                                      That's a lot of protestin'

                                     I'm pretty sure the sign means October in Bulgarian

                                           The sign reads No Mafia

                                           Good photography

                                       Always need a cross

                                    The culprits behind the corruption on top 

40 people, 7 Rooms, 1 Hallway for sleeping, 1 Bathroom . . . . . and a YANK

Special thanks to the person who gave me this idea, as I was griping about the fact earlier.

First of all, I am going tomorrow to a place known as CROP Farming Center, in a small village an hour away from Sofia. (CROP Farming Center). I've been working here in a hostel for the last few days. The manager pretty much put me and a fellow named Marc in charge for a large majority of the days, while he was working in his other hostel.

Currently this hostel is "under construction". Quite a few elements are missing to even make this a basic hostel. Those elements would include TV, Internet, Kitchen, Lounge room, enough beds, and well, enough places to use a toilet, as well as take a shower.

This time of the year in Europe, all parts included, is called the high season. All of the hotels and hostels in this city itself, have been completely booked all week. Deaf Olympic Games are adding to the business of the normal high season as well.

For those of you that don't understand how backpackers roll, I'll explain a little tidbit here. So these guys or girls will come rolling in with backpacks loaded down with about 50 pounds of clothing, that are about three or four feet long as well. Usually they will take a bus or train from country to country. Many times they will arrive in that country/city without a reservation for a hostel/hotel. Many times they will journey all around various hostels trying to find a bed. Said backpackers are types that will go down to the grocery stores, and find food to bring back to the hostels. These are people that I would call professionals at being frugal.

The part that is the big bummer, is when the owner of a hostel is very FRUGAL, and wants to save his money on construction. Therefore you have a hostel with 40 people, 7 rooms, and 1 Bathroom. I did forget to mention there is also 1 YANK, that kind of got on my nerves a little today.
You should have heard him spit his game about being from Upper Manhattan to them Frenchies (my name for French people, not meant to be offensive)The Frenchies were very kind and accommodating though as Marc, Mikhail, and I built the bunk beds to go in one of the rooms between 7pm and 9pm this evening.  Today's guests hail from Spain, France, USA, Germany, Holland, Italy, Turkey, and Hungary.

There is also Marc from Luxembourg too, who I have been working this week. He's pretty worn out from being on night duty all week. That's the reason that I am awake at 3:36 am. Anyway, here is a little tidbit about what Marc is doing right now.
Marc's journey

                                                      The one bathroom

                                           at least there are two sinks

                                           shower is in the same area as toilet and sink #2

                                          my bed is the one with the computer
                                        That folks is how I've been rollin' this week

Very Unsurprising Fact

As I have been in the city of Sofia now for 14 days of my life, I have noticed some different occurrences. One fact that shocks me on a daily basis is the amount of women that smoke. My best friend sent me a message saying Bulgarian women are rated as the 5th most beautiful in the world. A large portion of these women are just naturally, naturally beautiful.
Countries with the World's Most Beautiful Women.

Now to the bad news though. Every day as I admire these ladies (honesty is the best policy), I am discouraged by many of them. Why might I be discouraged? Well I am appalled at how so many of them put certain white things in their mouths. Some people call them cancer sticks, some may call them lung killers, some may call them cigs, or we can just plain call them cigarettes.
Countries with heaviest smokers

Since I don't know the language here very well, I don't charm the ladies anyway. Every time I see one smoke however, I kind of turn my "Tower Charm " down a good bit. So yes, that last line was a little blurb, to make you think I was here in Sofia for other reasons. We all enjoy a good bit of eye candy every now and then though. Agreed? Yes, of course, is what you are thinking.

I am going to dig deeper on this whole smoking issue. Cigarettes are super cheap in this country, which is one reason people may smoke. Even large numbers of teenagers seem to be getting an early start though as well. I do believe economic status may play a factor as well.

 Having lived in Korea, and having visited Vietnam, I did notice large numbers of men that smoked. Vietnam's economy is a little closer to that of Bulgaria. Vietnam is 56, while Bulgaria is 74
.(List of Countries by GDP South Korea though, is number 15. So I don't think there is much connection to the economies, but it may have something to do with historical factors.

I'll check on those historical factors, but interestingly enough all three of these countries have been suppressed for some period of time in history. That much I can remember from travels in all three places.

Vietnamese women and Korean women do not smoke nearly as much. The Korean women hide or try not to be seen in the act of doing it. It is almost compared to someone walking down the street with their shirt off in that land. Those two things are just about unheard of.

Based off of my experiences in Korea the women spend way too much time putting stuff on themselves rather than putting bad things in themselves. I will argue that they are not as healthy as people would perceive them to be. All 'dem fried foods they put in their bodies can not be that beneficial to their health.

So their really is not a purpose to this piece that I have written at 2:40 AM, while listening to the sounds of a garbage truck, and doorbells (having to let people in the hostel).

I will do some research into why all these Bulgarians smoke though. Being number five in the world in that list is definitely not something to be proud of.

I do recall the women in Korea that were shocked of the fact that I did not smoke. It is a big social thing to smoke, smoke, smoke and drink, drink, drink on that peninsula. Many men that I exercised with would even go to a smoking room inside the health club locker rooms.
 No wonder they exercised for such a long time at the pace of a snail.

Anyway, this started out as a piece on Bulgarians and their smoking and has now just turned into some guy rambling on and on and on. This is one reason I will be going to graduate school soon.