From Plovdiv to Veliko Turnovo

Plovdiv is a really neat city in Bulgaria. Maybe neat isn’t the right word, it sounds a little 60's cliche, but I enjoyed my stay. There are a lot of remnants from the time of the Roman emperor in the city, and it was beautiful to see these remains next to the modern buildings. Plovdiv is the second biggest city in Bulgaria, and it is another city I could see myself living in; it is big, but not too overwhelming; cosmopolitan, yet ancient. All in all, an exciting city. It is also a college town, so there are a lot of young people in the city. I also like that there are less people that know English. I was able to practice my Bulgarian with the Plovdivians, and at one point, had a two hour period in which I did not use any English whatsoever.

Of course, at the hostel, English is once again the language of choice. There were people from all over the world, but once again the default was English. Our receptionist had an amazing grasp on the language, and working at a hostel must be great for language acquisition. I really like hostels, and am considering working at one in Prague. I’m not sure if I could balance school with the long hours, but it is a great way to meet people from all around the world.
I’m beginning to realize that Bulgarians are not very serious about their education. My friend Marjan said that when she went abroad, she enrolled in some classes but didn’t attend. Regardless, she was able to get a 5.5 out of 6 and pass the class. I’ve talked to Bulgarians who don’t take their education as seriously as it is taken in the US or Western Europe. For example, the hostel manager said that she skipped all of her classes that she wasn’t interested in, but it didn’t matter and she was still able to pass the classes. The style is quite different and a lot less effective. However, it is possible that they learn more about the subjects they enjoy... I’m not sure.
Yesterday, I took a bus, with my new Australian friends who are traveling Eastern Europe, from Plovdiv back to Veliko Tarnovo. The ride was gorgeous; we passed through the Balkan Mountains and the ride was very calming, though a bit bumpy. It took 6 hours, but when we finally arrived in VT, it felt like I was returning home. The town is still kind of weird since the departure of all the students at the seminar, but it is nice to be in a familiar location.

Stubbed Kids

Stubbing my toe on the cobbled street, I realized that I want to have kids one day. I shouldn’t have been wearing flip-flops, but as I climbed up a hill, I nicked the skin off of my big toe. It wasn’t that painful, but I didn’t want to have to deal with it. Obviously, I can clean a stubbed toe, but I wanted my mom to be there because she would do a much better job. Parents are so much more loving and caring, and my mom’s selfless love would have insured that my toe would not get infected. Right after these pangs of desire to see my mother, I realized that one day, I want to have such love for my own children. It came out of nowhere. I’ve always wanted to have kids, I think I’d make a decent father, but the feeling was so strong. I could imagine myself cleaning the toe of my small child, and it seemed like such a wonderful feeling. My friend Liza once told me a similar story. She was sitting on an airplane, and a boy was kicking the back of her seat when suddenly she realized that she wanted children. It seemed odd that such an annoying thing would make her want children, but now I think I understand. Everything about raising children is fascinating, and to be there and reprimand your child and clean his wounds and above all a kind of love that transcends all forms ... I’m curious if there were moments in your life where you realized that you wanted to have a child. Let me know, and don’t worry; I’m not going to have a child anytime soon.

After 5 Minutes in Turkey...

My last full day in Turkey was a day of walking. After breakfast, I had to buy a bus ticket to return to Bulgaria, and the walk was an hour to get to the metro, and from the metro, 15 kilometers to the bus station. This part of the city is not even at the end of the line, but only half way out on the metro. I can only imagine how gigantic this city; and we only stayed in one section (Sultanhamet).
After buying the bus tickets, which were pretty cheap, only about 25 US Dollars, it was a long metro/walk back to the old center. However, I saw more of the city, and one of the most fascinating parts of Istanbul, and any big city, is just watching everyone else walk by. I could spend a whole day just people watching, but unfortunately, when you have such little time, you have to spend it touring the city itself. Marjan and I decided we wanted to see the Asian part of the city, and we took a boat across the Bosphorous strait, but by the time we arrived, we were so drained that we decided to take another boat to the third ‘section’ of town that was closer to our section. I can say that I have been in Asia, but it lasted for only about 5 minutes. Regardless, the distinction between Europe and Asia, as we have discussed so often in political science classes and history classes, is random anyways in its geographic limits, so I’ll just say that I have been traveling through Eurasia.
When we got back to the European side, we wanted to walk up a hill to look at an impressive tower. After the climb, we saw more of our hostelites, which was a surprise, given the size of the city, and we all headed to what is known as either the Spice Market or the Egyptian Market. It was an enormous, underground market filled with, you guessed it, spices from all over the world. It smelled delicious, and I wanted to buy everything, but I knew it would be silly to lug it around Eurasia. Instead, I was content to buy a Turkish coffee maker for the great price of 4 dollars, and I am excited to add this device to my kitchen.
The shopkeepers in Istanbul are unique. In other cities, I am only approached by vendors when I show interest in a good or a restaurant. It has been completely different here. Everywhere you go, people try to persuade you to come to their café or look at their goods. At first, it was amusing, but near the end, it just got annoying. When I am not hungry, I don’t want to hear about how good your kebabs are, and when I’m poor, I don’t want to buy a Turkish rug. They are hospitable, though, and we were invited to sip Turkish tea while perusing Turkish scarves and chatting with the vendors.
Turkish tea is ridiculous. They make it sound like it is something special, but it is just Lipton tea. I am not kidding; they don’t even try to hide the fact. They just hand you your hot water with a Lipton tea bag and call it Turkish tea. I didn’t think that Lipton sounded very Turkish, so I wikipediaed it and sure enough, Lipton was created by a Scottish man. Post offices are also really hard to find in Istanbul. I bought some postcards, but didn’t send out a single one, because I couldn’t find a place to drop them off or buy stamps. I’ll probably just end up delivering the cards by hand. By the way, if you ever want to receive a post card, send me your address and maybe you will get one!
Last night was a night of packing and saying goodbye to the other people at our hostel. I met some interesting people, mostly Australians, and it is weird to think I probably won’t ever see these people again. I will probably stay in contact with one of the Aussies, and maybe can visit her in Australia, but the others will just be small memories of my travels. One of my favorites was a woman from the Basque region in Spain who had been traveling for seven years. She gave me a lesson in using vosotros and conjugating commands in this form because we don’t study Spain Spanish in highschool or university. We also chatted some in Spanish and I was surprised to discover I can hold a conversation in Spanish.
This morning was a rush as we finished packing and took public transportation to the bus station. We made it on time, however, and our bus was brilliant. It was like a plane, but roomier. They even served food. The time flew as I continued to read Marquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera”, which has been a great, but somewhat disturbing, read. The only annoying part was going across the border, which took an hour and a half, but now I have two more interesting passport stamps, so I won’t complain. Marjan and I split up in Plovdiv; I am now staying in the Traveler’s Hostel and she is at a friends. It’s kind of nice to be alone, but my stomach is growling and I’m not sure if I want to go out to eat by myself. Regardless, I should head out, and get something done!
Ciao,
Mark

In the Land of Hookah and Belly Dancers

The past two days have been a whirlwind of sights. After visiting the Hagia Sophia and the Grand Bazaar, I went out to a bar to smoke some hookah with Marjan. There is an entirely separate hookah culture here in Turkey. We had a variety of flavors to choose from, but decided on mint. I think that most flavors have kind of a similar taste, but the mint left our mouths feeling somewhat clean. I enjoy hookah, but only in small doses. It makes me feel light-headed, which I think is more because of lack of oxygen than the nicotine. It creates an interesting atmosphere, however, when everyone is outside smoking a different hookah. We met some Australians at the table right next to us, and they invited us over. We all shared our hookahs and I was able to taste some more flavors.
All this walking had made me very tired, and I went to bed very early on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, we woke up early to head to the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace. The Blue Mosque was fascinating, and calming. The outside is fantastic, and the inside is quite humbling. Marjan had to wear a long skirt and a shawl, I had to wear pants, in the horrible heat, and we had to take off our shoes, but these conditions added to the atmosphere. The interior is decorated with various patterns, and there are not any icons. It is an interesting difference between Christianity and Islam and it creates a different effect in the mosque. I wish that people were not talking, and I would like to return when there is a prayer and silence in the mosque.
After the quick visit, we went to the Topkapi Palace. The entire palace is gigantic, and we were able to see various jewels, armories, chambers, etc from the time of the Ottoman Empire. The amount of wealth was shocking. The jewels and gifts that the empire had received were gorgeous and one can imagine the empire in its glory. The visit lasted for about three hours and I was just one of thousands of tourists. This city in August is definitely a city of tourists. I walk around and see more tourists than Turks. It is fascinating to try to guess where people are from by observing the way they behave and the way the dress, and then try to place their language. The number of Australians in Turkey really shocked me; it seems that every other tourist comes from down under.
All this walking made us hungry, and we went for a quick lunch. A common meal here is the chicken doner, which is similar to Greek gyros, but with a different type of bread, and different spices and vegetables. Of course, this city has many different cuisines, but I have been trying to try Turkish food, but it is hard to do when I am watching my wallet.
After a good four hour siesta, I went for a walk with Marjan next to the sea. Once again, most men would stare at Marjan because of the way she dresses. However, we have become more used to it, and we normally can stare down rude glances. The sea is gorgeous, and I wish I had enough time to go to the sea and go swimming, which would give me the possibility of escaping from the oppressive heat. However, it was getting dark quickly, and we wanted to return to our hostel.
Last night, our hostel had arranged a night of Turkish belly dancing. I thought there was going to be an entire show, but it ended up being one woman. It was interesting to see this part of the entertainment culture, but we were disappointed. The woman wasn’t the greatest dancer, and instead of creating her own show, she asked members of the audience to come up and join her in the dancing. It turned out I was the first member she asked, and I went up and shook my booty and I felt like I did a decent job.

It was much more interesting to watch people to try to copy her moves than watch her dance.
It seems like a contradiction within the culture that they have this form of entertainment. The woman tend to wear a lot of garments on the street because of their religion, some even wear full burqas, but they have these very sexualized dances with very exposed bodies. These contradictions seem to riddle the culture here in Turkey. For example, our hostel owners are Muslims, but they are often drinking alcoholic beverages which is forbidden in Islam. Of course, it is easy to see these contradictions from outside the religion, but I am sure that I contradict my Christian beliefs often with my everyday actions.

Further East

The train to Istanbul was fantastic. Although it was quite small, and it seemed like the there were a lot of shady people waiting for the train, our compartment was nice, and we shared it with a couple from Paris. Whenever I am on a train, I think of the Polar Express, which reminds me of my childhood and Christmas. It makes me want to sip some hot chocolate, but the worst part of the train was that it was too hot, and that probably would not have helped.
I left the station at exactly 20:01, the train stopped for about 1 minute and we had to all scramble on, so the sun was setting soon into our trip. It was fantastic to watch the sun set behind the Bulgarian mountains, and the lull of the train, which I love, soon put us into a deep sleep.
At 2 o’clock, I woke up to a sharp rapping on my door. It was the passport control, which I expected, so I gave the lady my passport. After about a half an hour she gave me my passport back and we passed the Bulgarian border. However, passport control was not over. After another half an hour train ride, we arrived at the Turkey border. Everyone had to leave the train, and we had to get in lines to get visas depending on what country we were from. For some reason, the French and the Germans did not have to pay for a visa, but I had to pay 15 Euros for a visa, and my Belgian friend had to pay 10. The numbers seemed sporadic, but I think they charged the most to those who could pay the most. I found out later that the Canadians had to pay 40 Euros. So I guess I shouldn’t complain. The process seemed really disorganized, and we didn’t leave the border until 5 AM. That’s right, border control took 3 hours. I went back to sleep afterward, and when I woke up, the scenery had changed.
Although it wasn’t completely different, Turkey looked dryer and flatter. At first, the country was not exciting, but as we got closer and closer to the city, the landscape became quite interesting. There were a lot of suburban developments, but they were colorful and gorgeous. It took quite some time to get into the center of Istanbul, but I was shocked by how beautiful the city was. I never knew how big Istanbul was, but I’ve heard that it is quite wide and the population is gigantic. It was quite a trek to go from the train station to the hostel, but the sights were fantastic. Our hostel is really near to both the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, and our street is full of other hostels. It is like a smaller international world, and it is quite fascinating.
My hostel is a good price, about 13 dollars a night, and I have some interesting roommates. There is an Australian, a Korean, a Romanian, and some Canadians. The hostel isn’t the cleanest, but it is a nice place to sleep. If it wasn’t for the heat, it would be quite comfortable, but the heat is getting quite oppressive.
After Marjan and I settled in, we went for a quick lunch. The food is similar to Bulgarian, but I’m sure there are differences that I will notice later. I had a delicious salad, the best I’ve had in Europe, for only about 3 US Dollars. After lunch we headed to our first national monument: the Hagia Sophia. Although it has been a church and a mosque in its long history, it is now a very beautiful museum. I learned about the history of the site, and then toured the building. It is massive, and I couldn’t get over how it was built in only six years. It creates a beautiful sky-line, especially since it is right across from the Blue Mosque.

Afterwards, Marjan and I walked to the Grand Bazaar, which is the biggest covered market I have ever seen. Everything is gorgeous and brilliant colors, and it was unlike anything I have seen in my life. I could spend hours buying many souvenirs and presents, but I had no money. If I ever go to Istanbul again as my sole destination, I am sure to buy a lot of textiles, clothing, and jewelry.
The behavior of the shop-keepers also surprised me. I had expected them to be rude, and not like the number of foreigners. However, they were all very helpful, and didn’t mind that I was just looking or that I wasn’t interested in their goods. They just wanted to show us their wares, and didn’t push them on us. It was refreshing, and a pleasant surprise. In fact, the entire city surprised me. It is a lot more Western than I thought it would be, and it feels like it would be a more appropriate member of the European Union than Bulgaria or Romania. The city is quite cosmopolitan, clean and it feels very safe. The architecture is beautiful, and it is great to hear the call to prayers throughout the day. Even though it is a predominately Muslim state, they respect the way I dress and I feel like I am safe as a Christian. It seems like it would be a great place to study abroad.
The one thing that bothers me, however, is the way they treat my travel friend Marjan. She was dressed as a typical European, and every man would check her out. Often, they would also have a lewd comment, and it was quite annoying. Sometimes, I pretended I was her boyfriend to try to make it stop, but that didn’t seem to help either. I think the difference in culture comes from the fact that hardly any women are out on the streets. Mostly men are working at the shops, and the few Turkish women we see tend to be wearing hjabs, and when men see women that are less covered, they get excited. Buy covering up Turkish women, it is almost a self-fulfilled prophecy; women that aren’t covered up bring out the worst in men.
Regardless of its faults, the city is fascinating, enormous, and I won’t be able to see everything that I want to in three short days; that being said, I should probably get off my computer.

Packing Again

It seems strange to be packing again. It feels like I just got to Bulgaria, but the seminar is now over and tomorrow I will be heading to Istanbul with Marjan, who I met here in Bulgaria. We are spending one last night in Veliko Tarnovo, but the atmosphere here is totally different. There are no longer people strolling the halls, doing homework in the common room, or even trying to have conversations in broken English. Regardless, I keep imagining that I will see people in the hallway who I know have gone; I think that it will be good to leave Tarnovo. Although I had a brilliant time, this chapter seems to have ended.
One of the most interesting aspects of this seminar, for me, were the differences in culture. Most people were from Europe, but there were also people from China, Korea, India and the United States. Most people were very educated, and this led to some interesting conversations. I often had discussions with people about the culture in the United States. People would usually say that there is no culture in the United States, that we are too young of a nation. But I think that this statement is pretty ignorant. Our culture is a huge mix of various historical traditions and this mixture creates a unique culture that can be found nowhere else in the world. For the night of the nations, where every state did something cultural, we were trying to decide what we could do to portray US culture. Everything we thought of seemed to have derived from another culture. (Except for singing songs from Pocahontas, but we didn’t think that that would be appropriate) Similarly, at the international music festival two weeks ago, the representatives from the US did traditional Irish dancing. But this hodge-podge of cultural doesn’t negate our cultural being. Instead, it gives us a unique cultural perspective. We can embrace a variety of food, dance, and traditions. I know that when I go back to Boston College, I am going to go to Bulgarian Folk dance nights in Cambridge, and I think that mom will be able to drag me to her international dance class. I can enjoy sushi or Mexican food any day of the week. I can put clogs under our Christmas tree even though we aren’t Dutch. It is a fantastic place.
People in Eastern Europe have also been more racist than people in the United States. I know we still have a lot of problems with racial issues, but we live in a society that has integrated many races. I was talking to a Serbian the other day and he was saying how bad it would be if African Americans became the majority of the population. I was shocked; he thought that they were a lower caste, and that if the population distribution changed, the US would fail. It was as if he thought that only a state run by ex-Europeans could continue as a functioning state. People also look at the Roma (or Gypsy) people as an almost blight on society. I understand that there is a huge historical tradition of marginalizing these people, but Europeans continue to say that the Roma refuse to integrate into society, while it looks like the Europeans haven’t made this integration easy.
I find it fascinating, and scary, to talk to people from countries farther to the East, like Serbia and Armenia. Some of these countries have such nationalistic beliefs, that it helps me understand the Balkan Wars and Armenia’s continued dislike of Turkey. By talking to other people, I can, albeit subjectively, learn history from a more personal aspect.

Accents

I’ve noticed a huge difference in the way people react to hearing their mother tongue spoken with an accent. The connection makes sense, but it is quite interesting regardless. While we hear people speaking in English with an accent quite often, I think other nations are not used to the butchering of their language. I don’t think I ever correct foreign people’s pronunciation of words in English. I am just quite happy that they are trying and can normally understand what they are saying. In Prague, I was rarely corrected, but most of the time, they understood what I was trying to say without correct pronunciation. They are so used to foreigners, that I think they are just surprised to hear Czech coming out of our mouths. In the countryside of the Czech Republic, I am corrected and they don’t really understand if I mispronounce words. This feature seems to grow stronger the farther east I travel. In Hungary, citizens would not understand unless the word was correctly pronounced. I did not even try to speak Hungarian. In Bulgaria, everyone in the program corrects poorly pronounced Bulgarian. I know that it is a learning environment, but they seem to guard what would be the purity of their oral language quite often. When we are chatting in English, everyone mispronounces words, but the students from BC don’t really notice and don’t really care. It is really highlighted in names. Lots of people have very difficult names to pronounce in English, and are often angry when they are mispronounced. I never correct the way my name is pronounced, even though they don’t really do the English swallowed “r”.
I am so lucky that I speak English. It is the default language here (if Bulgarian fails). Other than a group of Russians, the second language tends to be English. Bulgarian classes are swell, and I really feel like I could learn a lot of I stayed here for a whole semester. However, I am quite excited to return to Prague, and continue my studies at Charles University. I am going to miss the Slavic alphabet, but I can’t wait to get back to ř.