The Art of Planning, Part Two

Back in February I wrote about the difference I had noticed between the way people plan in the U.S. vs. in Bulgaria. I can now add another "piece of evidence" to support the point I was trying to make back then. I was on the bus traveling from NYC to DC when I overheard the woman in the seat in front of me on the phone:
"I would like to make a reservation for 5 people for brunch on April 29th."

For a few seconds, I wondered whether I had heard the date right, but there was no mistake. She repeated it again, April 29th. I was almost dumbfounded... she was calling almost 5 weeks early to make a brunch reservation!!! (This took place on March 27.) I could understand this eagerness to put it on the calendar if the brunch was being organized for a large group of people. But, the group consisted of only FIVE people.

I thought about it for a little bit and then decided that I could excuse her way-over-the-top organization and planning with the fact that she was bored on the bus ride and just wanted to get things off of her to-do list. Anyhow, anyone else have possible explanations for why people in the U.S. plan everything so much more in advance than anywhere else in the world, it seems?

A Glimpse Through the Guggenheim and a Return to 15 Years Ago

On Monday, I decided it was high time I visited the Guggenheim Museum. I had been to New York numerous times but never gotten around to it. Well, despite the fact that the building was under renovation, and I didn't get to see it in all its architectural glory from the outside, the visit certainly was worth it. The biggest current exhibition was that of Spanish painters, from El Greco to Picasso. I had seen a lot of works by Spanish painters both at El Prado in Madrid and elsewhere, but I really appreciated the way in which the Guggenheim had arranged the exhibition. Instead of ordering paintings chronologically or by time periods and art movements, the museum had decided to break with tradition, so to speak, and had arranged the works thematically. Thus one could see Goya and Picasso side by side and pick up the similarities between their work which might otherwise go unnoticed by the amateur art lover (and which I myself would never think to explore proactively). Turns out, that although living in different centuries and embodying two distinctly different art movements, their work had more overlap than I ever would have thought. One could pick up just where Picasso had been influenced by Goya and other predecessors, for example. Just something I thought was worth noting.

And as if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, I also got to meet a middle-school classmate of mine I hadn't seen in 15 years. Funnily enough, he found me through this very blog and got in touch. It's amazing what Google and the internet can do for you these days. Who would have thought that after going to school together in Harare, Zimbabwe, we would end up meeting up 15 years later in New York City? Never in a million years would I have believed that. But, life is full of twists and turns and keeps us on our toes. I personally appreciate such off-course occurrences.

Anyone got similar unexpected "turn of events" stories to share?

New York City Highlights

It is funny to think that the activity I have undertaken most frequently since arriving in NYC is eating :). But from the celebration of my friends' marriage to trying out delicious cold and hot bars at Whole Foods (so-called organic food store that I used to frequent in DC and whose counterparts in NYC are three times the size) to cooking Bulgarian meals at my friends' place, I have managed to move от трапеза на трапеза (from table to table, as we say in Bulgarian). Yesterday though, we took an almost 3-hour long walk with Meggie (the recent bride) in Central Park--partly to take advantage of the sunny weather and partly to walk off all the Greek food from the previous night. Central Park is probably one of my favorite places in NYC--not only because it is one of the few (if not, only) green areas in Manhattan, but also because you can spot all sorts of activity there. From rollerskating/-dancing to children playing medieval knights, the summers make the park especially jam-packed with activity.

One thing I absolutely love about going out in NYC (and DC): no smoking in bars and clubs. After reeking of cigarettes and coughing my lungs out every time I go out in Sofia, places here seem like heaven to me. Well, I still prefer the party scene in BG, but the smoke-free element is definitely a plus here. Last night we went to Alphabet Lounge... quite a fun place in Alphabet City (a part of East Village in Manhattan) where I had to justify my return to Bulgaria to quite a few Bulgarians I was meeting for the first time and explain to the Americans what my job at home entails. For the first time in 10 years I was in the position of talking from the perspective of someone just visiting the States whose life is now in Bulgaria, instead of the other way around, and that felt good.

Reverse Culture Shock

On March 17th, after a two-hour flight, five-hour layover and a second nine-hour flight, I arrived in Washington, DC. No worries, I have not decided to suddenly leave Bulgaria :); I am here for two weeks to attend a friend's civil marriage and see friends and wander around the rest of the time. I was looking forward to visiting. Although I can't say that I have really missed the US, a feeling of nostalgia had begun building up over the past few months. However, almost as soon as I landed and overheard a few conversations in which "like" and "you know" were the most frequently used expressions, the nostalgia began to evaporate. Don't get me wrong. There are many things I love about the States--from the diversity of people to the abundance of all sorts of international cuisine, to the amazing landscape in some areas and the easy-goingness of most Americans when it comes to meeting new people. But, as chance would have it, even after only 6 months in Bulgaria, I was suffering from culture shock.

Everything seemed extremely BIG first of all--cars, buildings, roads, even the people, unfortunately. I also noticed some permanent level of stress.... at least in DC, even as I am on vacation here. Life seems more hectic and stressful to some extent. Case in point: I had sent an email out to friends and acquaintances here to get us all together at a bar on Tuesday night starting at 9 pm. Most of my non-Bulgarian friends told me they couldn't make it at 9 pm on a work day... that it was too late in the night for them (?!?!?!?) I was slightly confused. Needless to say, in Bulgaria people have no problem with going out any day of the week at almost any time of the evening. Just a difference that became apparent right away. People are too busy here... mostly with their jobs, and I can't get used to this after I started appreciating the fact that at home people really care about protecting their personal life and time.

A few other things that seemed odd to me were: 1) the large throngs of tourists wearing their tourist uniforms (khakis and white sneakers) getting on and off the metro in DC, 2) the overwhelming variety of products to choose from (whether food items at the supermarket or shampoo at the pharmacy), 3) the over-friendliness or zealousness of waiters and waitresses (normal when tips are your primary source of income). There are probably things I am forgetting right now, but I will post them later if they come to me. For now, just wanted to put down my first impressions, before they too get lost as I adjust back to US reality.

Yesterday I arrived in New York City. I am not NYC's #1 fan, but I still feel a sense of awe and amazement every time I see the NYC skyline at night... it always takes my breath away, and last night was no exception.

In the Remote Corners of Bulgaria

What started out as a weekend trip to Varna, ended up as an excursion through some places I had never visited and a return to some places I hadn’t been to in years. The impetus for the trip was to finally visit Lubo (friend from DC, originally from Varna, who has been in Bulgaria for the past 5 months) and to see Varna (where I had last been in 1997); the trip coincided with his birthday, so I really had no reason not to go.

After a 7-hour bus ride, I finally arrived in Varna. Lubo is currently staying at his family’s summer house, which he kept telling me is right on the beach...and he wasn’t exaggerating. You can literally hear the waves before you go to sleep. (For those familiar with Varna and the surrounding area, the house is next to the beach Kabakum at Pisatel.)

Saturday was the day for sightseeing in Varna. Given that I was there last in 1997, I could hardly recognize the city in some regards—lots of new buildings, expensive chains on the pedestrian street, etc. Lubo decided that he had to show me Galata—a suburb (if I can call it that) of Varna that lies across the bay from the city (see map below). Apparently from there, one has a great view of the whole city. So we went. The view was pretty good, although quite industrial…but what saddened us about the whole thing was all the garbage that lay strewn around almost everywhere you looked around the “viewpoint”—from plastic bottles to condom wrappers. I was afraid that if I looked hard enough I would probably see syringes and needles too. Not a pleasant thought.

Next, we decided to do more pleasant things—walk around downtown and to the Sea Garden (Морската Градина)—a beautiful park that runs along the shore. The Garden was by far the best park I have seen in Bulgaria up till this point—far cleaner and better maintained than any of the parks in Sofia. Plus, in some parts I had the feeling that I was in a botanical garden--the variety of vegetation was quite striking. We also had a laugh when we saw a sign “This is a quiet path for mothers with children”—very much in the vein of EU standards, etc. :)

Sunday was when the more interesting part of the trip took place. We decided to head north and drove all the way to Krapets (which is located less than 20 kms from the Bulgarian-Romanian border; see map). It is a pretty uninhabited and wild place—although there is a campground, it is frequented mostly by surfers who go there for the day to take advantage of the wind. It was refreshing to see a beach without all the development around it, as has become the norm along the Black Sea coast. This really seemed like a forgotten place—road filled with potholes, derelict development projects left standing from Communist times, herds of sheep and cows…Upon leaving Krapets, we decided to drive south along the road closer to the coast and stop at Kamen Bryag (literal translation: Stony Shore). I was curious to see whether anything had changed there since 1996 when I spent part of my summer vacation at a friend's house in the village. The landscape driving south was interesting in and of itself—we passed few cars, and around Shabla/Tulenovo, instead of trees or bushes, the landscape was littered with huge cylindrical tanks/cisterns used to hold extracted oil (this is one of the few places with oil and gas reserves in Bulgaria). However, it seemed that most cisterns had been lying there unused for years and had become so much a part of the landscape that it would be hard to imagine the area without them. At Kamen Briag, we stopped and took a walk along the plateau up to the cliffs, checked out the "eternal fire" (a flame that "runs" on natural gas coming up from the ground and, therefore, hardly ever goes out) that gathers everyone vacationing at Kamen Briag during the summer nights for food, drinking, and songs. Nothing much had changed in the village, except perhaps for the construction of a few new houses. The landscape of cliffs and sea amazed me yet again, and I was thankful that this place had not fallen prey to the developers (at least, not yet). A little further south from Kamen Briag lies the archaelogical reserve "Yailata"--home to ancient settlements dug straight into the rock. I had never heard of this place before. It is hard to imagine who and how actually created this settlement, which includes a fortress, facing out to sea.

Upon leaving Kamen Briag, Lubo said that we absolutely had to stop at this mussel farm near Kavarna, called Dulboka. Supposedly, it is the best place to have mussels in the region, which are actually "reared" onsite. A turnoff on the road to Kavarna and a steep road took us down to the shore and the farm and restaurant. We tried 4 different dishes with mussels (including stuffed cabbage leaves with mussels :) ). Needless to say, they were all delicious. We even saw that there was a mussel dessert on the menu as well but decide to skip it in the end. And by the time we were done eating, we already had to rush back to Varna and the bus station so that I could catch my bus back to Sofia. (Which I almost missed since we arrived 5 mins after its departure time; somehow though, as luck would have it, the bus hadn't left yet because they couldn't start the engine. Well, 10 minutes later we were on the road, and made it back to Sofia incident-free. Guess it was my lucky day. As I told Lubo, програмата беше пълна (translation: we had a jam-packed schedule).

Some photos follow below; click on the image for an enlarged view.

Krapets beach

More of Krapets beach

Rural scenery :) (notice the kites in the background)

Kamen Briag (above and two photos below)

Yailata Archaelogical Reserve (above and below)

Lubo and some strange vegetation

Flowers Flowers Everywhere

Since yesterday evening Sofia has turned into a flower city--make-shift flower stalls have sprung up all over the city center and in pedestrian high-traffic areas. The reason? It is the 8th of March, International Women's Day, which is very much celebrated in Bulgaria. Having missed this day in its full glory the past nine years, I am almost taken aback by the "massiveness" of it all. People are buying, giving, carrying flowers (the most popular being hyacinths, tulips, and daffodils) almost everywhere you turn, and the sunny weather is contributing to the beautiful atmosphere.

I think this is one of the nicest traditions we have and I am not saying that only because I am a woman. It is also far less commercial than Mother's Day, for example. There are no ads running for weeks about how you are supposed to buy diamonds for the woman you love, etc.--the stuff that used to make me sick to my stomach in the States. Flowers are more than enough :). Curiously enough though, the first International Women's Day was celebrated in the States, but not much seems to have remained of that tradition over there at present.

So...to all the women out there: Happy Women's Day!
And to all the men: Love the women in your life!

Carrots and White Horses

Whenever I have gone out to bars/clubs in Sofia, almost a time hasn't gone by without the presence of the following two things:

1) Carrot sticks dipped in lemon juice. They are served at the tables/bar together with the mixed nuts in most mid- to upscale locales. (I haven't seen that practice anywhere else outside of Bulgaria... might be a good suggestion for the oh-so-health-conscious Americans next time I am in the States :)) ). Anyway, they are pretty delicious I must say.

2) The song White Horse (by Wonderland Avenue). I think I will forever associate summer 2006 and the months that follow (until the new summer hits come out) with this song. I don't like it all that much, but if I don't hear it while out, I almost start having withdrawal symptoms :). (Sidenote: This song is actually my favorite from the summer 2006 dance hits, but for some reason it's not quite as pervasive in my mind as White Horse is.)

I write this now because both of these statements were confirmed again last night.