Sozopol and Sofia, Bulgaristan

All of my photos are on the Kodak, and I was not able to upload them in Grenoble, but here's a short update in words:
I took a night bus from Ankara to Istanbul, then a day bus to Burgas, and a local bus to Sozopol, Bulgaria. I arrived at 5pm, and wandered around town with a fellow backpacker from Argentina, Frederico who I met on the bus. We never found the listed youth hostel, but an old lady on her portch waved us in and let us stay in her house, filled with rooms containing twin beds, and extra bathrooms in the hallway, as if in this pretty seaside town, she does this kind of thing all the time. She spoke zero English, but we got on like a house a fire, and and she even did my laundry for a small fee.
I met up with my old friends Sonja and Joerg, German pals I met at TAMU, who now have a 20 month-old todler Jonas. It was so good to see Sonja and talk about life and urban planning stuff, and to see Joerg and her with a baby! I thought they were skillful, ready parents and managed the kid very well! So impressed! Solid rules for behavior and safety, but also lots of time at the playground, in the sand, reading and fun.
This part of the trip is going very fast, and is chock full. I was in Sozopol only 3 nights, then zipped off to Sofia for 24 hours to walk around, see gorgeous buildings, quickly replace my broken sneakers, and take a bus to the next place...

Wild Turkey

I ended up in the middle of the Ankara protests yesterday without trying.
I watched the news, but it's only in Turkish and it didn't show Ankara, only Istanbul and Izmir (I escaped the protests in Istanbul and Izmir, without trying). I asked at the hotel before going out for the day if there were protests, they said no, only in Istanbul. I went to the Archaological museum and the Citadel in a quiet part of town with.normal shopping and Saturday activities until about 4pm, then went to the subway to go see the last major monument, the big Kocatepe Camil mosque in Kizilay, which is south of where I was staying in Ulus, one of the largest mosques in Turkey and the symbol of Ankara. There were crowds in the subway, but it was Saturday, and the station agent sold me a ticket like normal. I got down to the platform and the train going North was crowded, with passengers crowding that side of the platform. When that train arrived, the air filled with a funny smell and everyone started coughing and covering their faces.
When my southbound train arrived, police appeared and told me in Turkish not to board, and to exit the station. I went up with everyone who was required to alight the train. The station agent didn't have any information about trains not letting people on and wouldn't give me my money back (I'm so damn cheap! It's not healthy). I didn't try longer than 30 seconds, it was clearly time to leave, and get fresh air.
I walked a couple of blocks South into Kizilay and found myself in the middle of the protest, which was thrilling. I took some video that's better than what's on the tv news here. I saw the hoses and teargas cans being launched from far away and up on an overpass. It just got shitty when the teargas blew in with the wind. It made me cough and made my eyes sting for a little bit, but nothing serious. I had a hospital mask and my mosque headscarf around my face. No harmful or long term effects. Other people had swollen red eyes and needed lemon juice. The crowd had an ebb and flow of movement of people and a varying of intensity of chanting, yelling and clapping. Some people had firework flares, some people had ski or swimming goggles and bicycle helmets.

Not many Turks in Ankara speak English. One guy in the street said "hey mister, I mean lady, where are you from?" Turks are basically white (not Asian, not Indian) but they can tell I'm whiter, Western European, or Swedish they guess. That guy thought the riots are good, the gov is too conservative, it's just a waste of money when they break glass bus stops, burn garbage and benches in the street, throw litter, break the windows of a bank, break windows on an abandonned police car... My response was that's the value of an urban planning charette, listening to what the people want/need, consensus. Plus what all that police manpower, tear gas, riot vehicles, trash clean up, ambulances and ER care all cost. That's the value of the Democratic process. That's what I learned in Turkey.

The coffee guy at the Istanbul bus depot had OK English. He said about the same thing. If people no like, they protest, no problem. Government is too conservative. You are city planner in America, you get consensus, that's good.

In the Istanbul bus depot, safe and sound, surrounded by old Bulgarian traveling men. On my way to Bulgaria to meet my German TAMU MUP friend Sonja, husband and todler. I have lots of old friends and babies to visit on this part of the trip. Every other shop in Turkey sells wedding dresses. White, gold, seafoam, salmon... lots of tuille, miringue, sequins, feathers, ribbons, glitter, beadazles, tacky stuff. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something: "dress like a fairy swan sparkle princess more often Karen!" and spend more time with kids, like my friend Jana's little boy. Jana calls me Auntie Karen :)

Ankara grab ass

Some dumb young guy in a plaid shirt grabbed my ass tonight when I was out walking around with an icecream cone after dinner. I was walking inbetween 2 buildings from one well lit, busy with people place to another, and he just spanked my toosh! And he didn't walk away! He kind of lingered like he had just said a polite "hello". I yelled "NO!" and punched him in the back of his shoulder. I started yelling in English that he shouldn't be doing that. He wandered slowly away, not understanding English, only slightly annoyed that I hit him. Then, an old man came over to me, who spoke no English, and asked me what happened. I made a hand gesture so he would understand that the guy grabbed my ass. He went looking for the guy, who was 25 feet away, chillin on a railing. When I pointed him out, the old man went after him, and he bolted. There was a foot chase, and after a couple of minutes, the nice old man came back winded, and empty handed. I explained that I at least got one punch in. "Bang!" He said that was good. I thanked him and we wished eachother a good night.
Otherwise, Ankara is a good city.

A blurb about mosques

I'm thankful to Istanbul for making me comfortable with mosques. For some reason, all the Buddhist temples in Asia were no nig thing, but mosques are more controversial or charged with stigma. I suppose "comfortable" isn't the right word, since most religious things make me uncomfortable, but I went inside several mosques, one durring prayer time, I wore a scarf on my head as if I knew how to do it, and I was equally uneasy as in a Catholic or Jewish or other equivalent place of worship. The Blue Mosque was a let-down because the carpet was red, and sticky with such high traffic. This was the only mosque with cover up clothing on lend, and with an employee blatantly asking the tourists for a donation, in English, on the way out. I much prefered the New Mosque, the smaller and delightfully empty Nuruosmaniye mosque, and the exquisite Suleymaniye mosque. The women have a less nice, rear area separated by a lattice partition where they pray, the men have the whole floor underneith awe inspiring domes and chandaliers suspended by long cables. Kneeling, bending, the main guy does some chanting, sometimes beads are involved. No big mystery.

Nobody´s business but the Turks´

Istanbul ıs so cool!! It´s clean, has beautıful archıtecture and water all around, hılly wıth lots of trams. It remınds me of San Francısco! I realızed rıght away that I´m not used to seeıng so many whıte people everywhere, and I really need to let my guard down wıth men on the sıdewalk. Here they just want to say hı and help me when I´m lost, or get me to eat lunch ın the restaurant where they work. The people have a normal level of frıendlıness, there aren´t 100 tuk tuk drıvers buggıng me to take a rıde. It´s peaceful and delıghtful. I walked all the way from the Taksım area where I´m stayıng (whıch has an awesome uphıll tram car wıth kınd of a crooked platform) all the way down to the rıver and to the Old Bazar on the other sıde. I bought a scarf so I could go ınsıde the mosques (fırst tıme ınsıde a mosque!!). I don´t lıke the scarf one bıt, but the ınsıde of the mosques here are so beautıful. Everythıng done ın blue! Blue tıles and blue carpet. Tomorrow I´ll vısıt the Blue Mosque, whıch must have even more blue! Sorry for the weırd characters. The Turkısh keyboard ıs dıffıcult to use, wıth punctuatıon ın the wrong places, letters lıke thıs (çöşğü) and no dot for the letter ı.

Darjeeling

Everyone says they like Darjeeling, so don't let my weary traveller, spoiled brat bad attitude ruin it for you. I only like it a little bit. Concrete jungle, crowds, dirt, rubble, water and power shortages, bucket shower, squat toilet, damp laundry, and the normal chaos of India aside, here's what's good about it:
The temperature is nice and cool, while the rest of India (ROI) is a hot mess. There are many friendly travelers at the $2/night hostel and I see them every day. It's always nice to have good people to eat dinner with, and breakfast, and often lunch, too: young kids from Canada, Germany, Australia and an Irish guy on break from teaching in Ahmedabad; an aspiring buddhist writer from Oregon with big blond dreadlocks and a ginger beard. Two old kermudgeons from France and Norway. And a 50 year old gal from Maryland/California bay area with a screw loose... she has her 1997 abnormal brain scan image ironed on to several black teeshirts and hoodies she wears everybday, and is always on a rant about the terrible state of the US debt, federal budget, and how bad Obamacare is.

Darjeeling is so cheap! The big bottle of Kingfisher is only $2, most meals are $2. A small pot of awesome Darjeeling tea is 75 cents at Gelnary's, the cool cafe that has free wifi and yummy banana nut bread! It's hilly and fun to walk everywhere. The toy train is historic, awesome weird and fun.
Otherwise, I'm just taking it easy, waiting to leave for Delhi by train on Monday (fancy 3A sleeper for $30, and the ticket agent informed me that "you will get the food!"), arriving on Tuesday, and flying to Istanbul on Wednesday (layover in Doha)!! Excited! Looking forward to seeing some of Turkey, and meeting my TAMU German friends Sonja and Joerg in Bulgaria! Yay!

Bhutan

2 fast-pased weeks in Bhutan!

Bhutan is good, but because it's in Asia, it's wierd...
It was good to see my friend Cheku from TAMU. He and his well connected friends (one other went to a&m, too) took me to an awesome fortress 2 hours away at the confluence of 2 rivers, and out to an expensive restaurant where we drank several beers and carried on. It was fun. Another friend of his was single and he took me out to dinner on a date (been a while!), which was fun and wierd. Men wear the traditional Gho, so I was in pants, and he was in a kilt/skirt/jeddi robe (women wear a "Kira", kind of like a 2 piece kimmono). Bhutanese men have nervousness. The guy works for an NGO as kind of an urban planner, on water, sanitation and poverty reduction projects. It was nice to click with him, albeit for a short durration. I also think maybe romance and such is largely a Western concept.

I also spent an afternoon with Cheku and his 2 visitors from the World Bank, here on a poverty reduction tour. We picked them up at their hotel, the fanciest in Thimphu, at $300 a night. I had to tape my mouth shut.

Otherwise, for the first week, I spent time at home with my friend's wife, 2 kids and awesome Nanny, Pema. It felt good to sleep in the same house for longer than 2 nights in a row! Pema never goes out, since she started as the Nanny 9 months ago when the baby was born, so I took her and the baby to town. I bought her some things (a watch, tampons, paper, pens, fleece sweatshirt...) And some yarn. I taught her how to crochet and she really ran with it! Now when she's stuck at home, she can make stuff. It's cold here, even in May, and June is monsoon. It's like Oregon, never hot I guess. I feel bad for Pema, they never give her time off, or let her use the computer. I set her up with gmail and facebook, took and uploaded photos for her. She didn't even know how to use the mouse or scroll down on a page. She's 18! Her English is decent, which is remarkable. She's a cousin from a remote village and they send her family money, in lieu of paying her directly. I suggested she ask politely for a small allowance, and for a second set of everyday clothes, ask Cheku to teach her more on the computer, teach her how to drive, etc. She is very shy and lacking in confidence, poor dear.

Town is cool. Clean, polite, awesome buildings. Stray dogs are calmer because they wear themselves out barking all night. Lots of drunk but harmless men (alcohol is a problem, like w/ native americans), but only on Sunday.

I've been to a second house, also belonging to college educated government officials, and both don't have: water all the time, hot water heaters that work, a washing machine (that works), an oven, a working bath/shower, a table and chairs for meals, or heat.
There are lots of buckets, scoops, heating elements that dangle in buckets to make hot water, huge plastic basins full of wet dirty laundry and detergent, wet bathroom floors. When a big blanket gets washed, it is placed in a heap on the toilet so it can drip before hung outside on the line. Kids bathe once a week. Drinking water has to be boiled.
I'm surprised I didn't get sick.
I'm looking forward to comming home, doing laundry in a machine, getting a running water hot shower (not just a washcloth wipe down).

I went all the way to the East side of Bhutan by bus over several days. I saw gorgeous mountain scenery. I visited some of Cheku's friends in Trongsa, a hillside town with a huge Dzhong and middieval type tower museum. I went on a day hike down to the river an up on the other side to the Dzhong viewing area. I visited a town called Bumthang, which reminds me of Alaskan village (tv show Northern Exposure). I got a ride from a Monk all the way to Mongar, a cute remote town with a big soccer festival for children the day I was there.

A common mural near building and home entrances is an ejaculating fallis. I think it represents a hearty welcome and perhaps stamina. Wow.