Plovdiv - Day 104

Plovdiv is the second largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia, but it has a distinctly different feel. Whereas Sofia was designed as a capital city with all of its grandeur and authoritativeness, Plovdiv is more laid back and the Old Town area is spectacular. I realize I say this about many places I visit, but I can't help being romanced by well-preserved old buildings and cobblestone lanes. And the streets of old town Plovdiv are some of the most cobbled I've seen.

Getting to Plovdiv in the first place was an interesting experience. I inadvertently picked the Friday before a holiday weekend (5/1 is Labor Day) to travel, which meant horrible crowds. And what I thought was the bus station turned out to the train station next door, but since time/price is basically the same, I just went along with it. The bad news is the ticket office continues selling tickets for a particular train even after it has run out of seats. The trick is to buy a ticket with a seat reservation but really...how was I supposed to communicate that with the clerk? So I end up standing in the aisle for the two and half hour ride between Sofia and Plovdiv, but I was in good company. The good news is I met a really nice girl before boarding the train who turned out to be my little savior of sorts. She was traveling home for the weekend and offered me a ride to my host's shop after we got off the train. We weren't even in the same cart (she knew what to do to ensure a seat) and she found me after everyone got off - how sweet is that?!?

My host this time is a middle aged man who works in a Mercedez-Benz shop selling spare parts. One of my favorite things about Couchsurfing is you get to meet so many different people from different walks of life, and also experience some solid middle-class living. This guy compared to my last host in Sofia is like night and day. Veneta (in Sofia) would ask me at 9pm, "So what do you want to do tonight?" Zarko (in Plovdiv) basically ends his day at 7pm and his favorite part of the day is lying on the couch at 9pm watching TV. I can hang with both. It's a nice change after the midnight meals and late night concerts in Sofia. He's a very gentle soul though. The apartment is spotless, he re-peels potatoes after I've peeled them, and this morning I saw him ironing his t-shirt.

I forgot to mention he's a pretty decent cook and has exposed me to a couple of Bulgarian dishes since I've been here. Last night we made this bizarre dish of which I don't remember the name. It consisted of a whole plate of Bulgarian yogurt, couple of poached eggs on top, minced garlic, and topped off with melted butter and paprika. Who knew those things would go together and yogurt could be eaten as a meal? Speaking of, I've been eating a LOT of yogurt here - goodbye osteoporosis! Apparently yogurt originated in Bulgaria and it shows. Tonight actually, I had a yogurt soup called tarator. It's cold liquid yogurt with cucumber, walnuts, garlic and dill. Quite refreshing on a unseasonably hot spring day. We also pre-made moussaka last night and had it for dinner today.I got a tip from my Sofia tour guide on traveling in the Balkans. She said people are very territorial about their food and will claim something as their own. The polite and sensible thing to do is eat it, say it's delicious, and not debate its origins, because otherwise you will get into a fight. I always thought moussaka was Greek but of course I kept my mouth shut, except to eat copious amounts of Bulgarian moussaka.

Sofia - Days 102-103

I'm leaving Sofia for Plovdiv today, another town in Bulgaria. This little capital has really grown on me and I'm kind of sad to leave it and my host. 

Sofia has multiple museums and churches and cathedrals and mosques but really who wants to go from attraction to attraction all the time? In my three full days here I managed to not visit a single museum, and that's fine by me. I've been walking around the city visiting different shops, hanging out in cafes and bookstores, meeting my host for lunch and cooking dinner together. 

Yesterday, at the suggestion of my host, I did do something touristy and attended the Free Sofia Tour. I seriously think every city should have an equivalent. It's a non-profit organization staffed by volunteers who take time out of their schedule to guide people around. They don't skimp either, the tour lasted two and half hours! And I learned so much about the history (although I won't retain even 10% of what they covered) and factoids about the city. Sofia means wise but as the guide said, the city isn't wise when it comes to decision making. They have paved and built over the pre-existing Byzantine and Roman cities without making effort to preserve much of the remains. However, there are a couple of underground sections where people can walk on the original Roman roads and see the structure under the city. Also, the city is gifted with numerous thermal springs but unlike Budapest for example, there is not really a bathhouse. 

After the tour I met Veneta and went to a Turkish restaurant for lunch - a little preview of what's to come next week. It was amazing :) She's a huge Istanbul fan as well and has been several times. Then for dinner, we made empanadas for a Spanish themed party she's attending tonight. Sadly I won't be around to go but at least I got to sample the food. That was supposed to be dinner but based on my experience here, dinner usually isn't until 10pm so I ate a pre-dinner dinner snack around 7pm. Thank goodness I did because the empanadas took a lot longer than expected. We finally sat down to eat at 12:30am! But they were delicioso :) 

So now I bid farewell to Sofia and will take a short bus ride to Plovdiv. 

Ohrid/Sofia - Days 99-101

Thank goodness I was stranded in Ohrid for another day because the last day was the best yet. The sun finally decided to be less timid and made a full appearance - what a difference it makes. At the suggestion of the guest house owners, I took a local bus to a monastery called St. Naum about 30 km from Ohrid. The ride itself was along the lake shore and and up into the mountains, so naturally really scenic.

The monastery itself was beautiful but the location was absolutely ideal. Right on the cliffside by the Albanian/Macedonian border, it overlooks the length of the lake with Albania on the left and Macedonia on the right. And if you look behind, it's yet another snow-covered peak. Plus the grounds were inhabited by a dozen or so peacocks, a couple of which were quite the showmen. I'll post pics on Facebook later :)

So that evening, I made a second attempt at catching the bus to Sofia - success. 7 pm departure, midnight border crossing, and 4 am arrival (which is really 3am Macedonian time). At least they make the border crossings here relatively easy compared to the ones in Africa. The passengers get to stay on the bus while the border patrol comes on and collects everyone's passport. Of course there's always the occasional luggage check where people have to get off and open all their belongings.

I made it to my host's place around 5:30am after waiting at the station for the public transportation to start running. So it's back to couchsurfing. This time my host is a Bulgarian girl named Veneta and she is hosting with a young daughter. Now I generally trust people and will totally host when I get the opportunity, but hosting with a child is a whole other story. I assume you have to be really really selective and careful, and she told me she doesn't generally host men or even couples, but there are evil women out there too! But I'm grateful that my profile seemed legit enough for her to trust me and let me into her home.

Sofia is a small capital city and the center area is compact enough to walk everywhere. It has a quirky mix of Ottoman and European architecture and some parts of the city are so ornate that it feels like you're in Paris, except without the sky high prices and snobbery. Bulgarians are really friendly and whoever said that no one in the Balkans speak English totally lied to me. When I first arrived, I asked a local guy (at 5am) how much the ticket for the bus costs and if any exchange places would be open at that hour. He said "Not at this time," gave me 1 Lev and said "Welcome to Bulgaria." :)

Yesterday I explored the city by myself and met up with my host after work for a walk and decided to try to sneak into a Brand New Heavies concert. I had no idea who they were but why not? First attempt totally  failed, but second attempt was a breeze (much like the bus to Sofia). Turns out the Brand New Heavies is a jazz/funk group from the UK and they were quite good. Not really my cup of tea, but for a free concert it was appropriately entertaining. I was also witness to some of the most passionately awful dancing I've ever seen in my life. I can't even describe it...sort of like Austin Powers stepping on hot coal and getting bit by fire ants.

By the time I finally got home around midnight I was pooped. So today I slept in and spent a better part of the day at "home" online - checking email, writing this blog, sending out couchsurfing requests, and applying for a couple of jobs. Tonight I'm meeting Veneta again for dinner. 

Ohrid - Days 96-98

I was just thinking how I had so little time in Ohrid when I missed my bus to Bulgaria tonight... 

Let's backtrack 3 days to my bus ride TO Ohrid. After searching high and low for a morning bus from Tirana, the earliest bus I found to Ohrid (not really, but a town nearby) was at 4pm. The bus company claimed it would arrive at 7:30pm but alas it was closer to 9pm when I was dropped off by the side of the road. The one thing that I try to avoid is arriving in a new town after dark. So I was really in an anxious and foul mood when I arrived in Struge, a town about 12 km from Ohrid. The travel gods must have sensed this because everything turned out to be smooth sailing. I walked to the gas station nearby and the girl just happened to be getting off work and taking the same local bus which goes to Ohrid. And then another woman on the bus helped me communicate the guest house address to the driver who dropped me off almost literally at the doorstep. This is the first time in a long time that I'm not Couchsurfing. Feels a little weird to be actually paying for accommodation haha but I must say the privacy is a nice change. Can't wait to go back to CSing though. 

Ohrid is a little resort town and quite popular with the Macedonians and neighboring countries as well. What more can you ask for than a pristine lake with snow-capped mountains in the background and narrow cobblestone alleyways in the city center. The city is built into the side of a hill so exploration comes with a lot of ups and downs, literally. Again, the theme of my time in Macedonia (much like Albania) is "Don't Rain on My Parade." I'm just complaining, it really wasn't too bad - mainly just passing rain clouds. 

I was meant to leave tonight on the 7pm overnight bus to Sofia, Bulgaria, but someone missed their bus. I even left myself plenty of time and casually strolled into the bus station at 6:30pm...or what I thought was 6:30pm. Turns out my cellphone clock was an hour off and I was 30 minutes late. I'm still mystified as to how that happened. Earlier in the day I even checked the time again the big "official" clock in the town center. *sigh* So it's back to the guest house for another night and another day in Ohrid tomorrow. 

Tirana - Days 94-95

Tirana has turned out to be a lovely little city and I´ve ended up staying here longer than I had "planned."

Yesterday (4/18) was international museum day, and instead of saving something like 20 Euros had I been in Paris, I saved a whopping $2 and visited the National Museum of Albania for free. The most impressive thing was probably the massive communist themed mosaic on the exterior of the building...

Other than visiting the hand full of attractions in the city, I have been living quite a "normal" life. Sleeping in a little bit, talking to the girls at the flat, watching movies on their laptop, spending time in cafes, and even cooking on occasion. I can´t believe it but I actually miss cooking! Right now I´m sitting in a little cafe with a borrowed laptop where the z and y are flipped so I end up typing things like thank zou and reallz and backspacing more times than I can imagine. The cafe culture here and in Greece (and I imagine other European countries) is infectious and most are filled with people inside or out depending on weather. As a result, I end up having somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 coffees a day. And as a result of that, I´m always hungry and the plethora of street food available is really dangerous. Just yesterday I was eating a piece of tiramusu by the articial lake of Tirana as dozens of joggers passed by. Classic...and no I don´t feel guilty!

On a more serious note, I feel compelled to tell the story of Besa, one of the CS hosts. She was born in Kosovo and her entire family went to Germany when she was an infant to seek asylum while the Serbs were slaughtering the Albanians in Kosovo. Fastforward 16 years when the German military busted into their home at 4am to deport the family back to Kosovo. Can you imagine being forced to leave everything familiar in an instant at the age of 16? And this was moving from Dusseldorf to Kosovo, where their home was dilapidated and left unattended for 15 years. Plus she barely spoke Albanian. There are too many similar and much more tragic stories, but for me it´s another example of human resilience.

Tirana - Days 92-93

Obviously I made it to Tirana. It wasn't easy let me tell ya.

Lefkada to Tirana is about 450km, depending on which route you take, but via public transportation it took me 11 hours to get there. Kostas actually saved me a lot of trouble by driving me to Preveza, which is a town about 30 minutes away. Bus from there to Ioannina, bus again to the border town of Kakavia, walk across the border/checkpoints, minibus to Gjirokaster, minibus to Tirana, 30 minute walk in the rain to my host's apartment. Done.

My host this time is a girl named Nevila. She grew up in Tirana, teaches German at the Goethe Institute, and lives with two other girls from Kosovo and Austria. It's really nice to be surfing with girls again - hallelujah. I didn't realize it but my past 6 CS hosts have been guys, and the most recent one could really be counted as 5 guys in one since I was with his friends 24/7.

I had somewhat of a negative perception of Albania before I arrived. There are many Albanian immigrants in Greece and the Greeks are generally complaining about how they're bad people who steal, cheat, etc... I also heard the same from the Italian when I was studying abroad there years ago. However, my short time here has been nothing but positive. I asked about 8 people for help with directions last night and all but 1 were super helpful, or as helpful as they could be. One elderly man even walked with me for almost 15 minutes while sharing his umbrella. Plus, the general population here are pretty photogenic. The girl next to me on the bus looked like she stepped right out of a fashion magazine, and of course my first thought was "I wish Kostas and his friends were here to ogle."

The country is geographically beautiful, especially the southern part of the country. As I was crossing the border, there were snow-capped mountains and villages built in the foothills. My minibus to Tirana departed from Gjirokaster and I now wish I had spent a couple of days there. Today, I've been walking around town today and Tirana is not a large city. The central part is pretty compact and is a stereotypical post-Communist city. There are the quintessential communist block apartments and the large square in the center of the city with municipal buildings surrounding it and a large statue of some former hero in the middle. In the case of Tirana, it is Skanderbeg. I actually feel a familiar kinship with the Albanians because walking around certain parts of the city reminds me of my childhood growing up in Shenyang (except there are no Asians).

And things also became much more affordable.

Lefkada - Days 90-91

Still in Lefkada :)

My little travel delay turned out to be a blessing because I was able to spend Easter with a Greek family and experience the traditions. I felt guilty for intruding on their family holiday but they're so warm and generous that I felt totally included.

I went with them at Saturday/Sunday midnight to church to bring back the holy flame. I think (if I understood them correctly) the flame is from Jerusalem (maybe the Church of the Holy Sepulchre) and brought to Athens by plane and then distributed throughout Greece. Just about the entire town was out with candles to bring this flame back to their homes. Afterwards, we supposedly broke the fast by eating a soup with lamb innards.

Kostas and his friends went out drinking at 2am and I decided to pass. Call me a party pooper but I just wasn't up for the banging music, smoke, and communication barrier. They came back at 7am :)

Today we visited his cousin's family for some more lamb and innards - this time roasted over coals. The entire town was roasting whole lamb and firing off guns when it was ready to be eaten. Other than that, we did more walking, biking, and scouting for girls...

Tomorrow I'm going to attempt to make it to Tirana, Albania via a series of buses.