Conor's Corner: August 2011

Hello!

Ok, so I finally have time to post about the last month. Where to begin? Sooo much has happened over the last month that I have probably forgot quite a few blogworthy things but here goes it. I will begin where I left off in my last post. After my last blog entry, I took an overnight train to Kiev for a Russian Language Refresher. It was nice to see old friends from training (17 months ago! Wow) and to speak English in the evenings. This particular language refresher was more for the volunteers that are English teachers and I am a Community Development Volunteers but it was still good. They actually had us organize a musical in Russian and those of you that know me, know that that is simply not for me. I would have preferred more language classes and less nonsense. I didn’t learn much Russian but I had a great time. I was able to meet up with some friends in Kiev the weekend before the refresher and the weekend after. We had a great time in Kiev. We spend the evenings lounging in outdoor cafes on the main drag in Kiev just talking about life, Peace Corps, and Ukraine. Good times with good people.

After Kiev I made my way back to my site. I have been trying to start a new project all summer but it is almost impossible to organize anything in the summer in Ukraine. I have been trying to tell everyone that if we want to start a new project in the Fall, we need to start planning and writing the grants now so that we have the funds ready by the time the project starts. I met with my counterparts in my community and we decided to start a journalism center! I am really excited about this project. We have been working really hard writing the grant that is due next week (cutting it a bit close). I am just happy to have something to work on and a project in the pipeline. We will train some of the volunteers from the Volunteer Center that we started last fall on different topics of Journalism and have them write articles about volunteering, the community, and pretty much anything. Everyone seems to be very excited about the project so I really hope everything works out ok. We will partner with a Journalism club from the “Pioneer House” and have a representative from the local newspaper conduct some of the trainings. The participants (age 16+) will write articles, interview community members, take photos, design the newspaper, sell add space, and distribute the paper. It is going to be awesome – should start around February if all goes well. I just hope we can get everything ready in time.

I worked on the new project for a week then hoped on a train to Kharkov to meet up with my fellow travelers. I arrived at around 8 pm so we all went out for dinner and to explore Kharkov for a while until our flight at 3:30 AM. It was a very long day. We flew to Istanbul arriving at 6:30 AM and immediately caught another flight to Izmir arriving at 8:00 am then a series of busses to Selcuk 11:00 AM and the adventure began. We were all a little taken back by how outwardly friendly the people were. Don’t get me wrong, people in Ukraine are friendly however it is not common to express emotion especially around strangers so when people were friendly, smiling, and offering to help us with directions or anything else, we immediately were skeptical and thought they wanted money or something. This was not the case, people were just more expressive and friendly to strangers and not only in Turkey but in Romania and Bulgaria as well. We had a great time in Selcuk. It was a beautiful clean city full of history, ancient monuments/buildings, and great food. After we arrived, we browsed the bazaar before taking a FREE shuttle to our hostel a few kilometers outside of town. The hostel was amazing! Less than $15 buys you a bed, dinner, breakfast, and free use of a pool! It was great; we saw all the sights like the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, The Temple of Artemis, and explored the port city of Kusadasi. (There are a few stories I would like to post here but cannot so if you are interested, send me an Email). One day, we took a bus to the coast and received a few tips from the staff at the hostel about a private beach that is kind of hard to get to but very beautiful so we took a small buss outside of town and hiked down some pretty steep trails until we found the beach. It was beautiful! One of the photos posted below is from that beach. It was really nice to spend all day exploring and seeing the sites then taking the last shuttle back to the hostel for a free delicious dinner, to lounge by the pool, and to talk to all the other travelers staying at the hostel. There were people staying there from all corners of the globe, from every different background and they were all very friendly and great to talk to. After Selcuk we caught an overnight bus back to Istanbul. I didn’t sleep a wink but at least the bus had WiFi lol. That was an out-of-Ukraine experience for sure.

Istanbul was amazing. I was there many moons ago with my Uncle and being there again brought back some good memories of traveling with him. We stayed at a hostel that was maybe 500 meters from the Blue Mosque. Excellent location to see all the sights. It seemed like you could walk 5 min in any direction and be blown away by an amazing sight. We visited a few of the big mosques, the royal palace, wandered around the city, got lost in the bazaar, and went to a dance show. I was especially impressed with Turkish food. One night we went to a restaurant on the roof of a building in a not-so-touristy area in downtown Istanbul and had amazing food, good conversation, and tried all the local beverages. After Istanbul, Laura and Lydia went back to Ukraine and Jessica and I caught a flight to Sofia Bulgaria. It was sad to say goodbye to Turkey and half our group but it was nice to be back in a former soviet country. Bulgarian has many similarities to Russian and I could understand more or less what people were saying and I could read all the signs. In Sofia, Jessica and I split up because we have different ideas on what we wanted to see and do. I was impressed with how developed Bulgaria seemed to be. The streets were relatively clean, people were smiling and friendly, and it was easy to get around. I took a walking tour of the city, ate a sandwich from Subway, and spent the night at a bar with some fellow travelers. I even met a PCV the works in Bulgaria. It was interesting to hear a fellow PCV’s opinions of the situation in Bulgaria however I hear that Peace Corps will soon be ending their operations in Bulgaria because they are too developed. Sofia was very interesting a full of history but like any other big city, they all seem to have the same flavor. I mean I ate at a Subway! It is hard to experience the culture of a country from the big cities so I decided to go with Jess to Veliko Tarnovo which is a small city of around 80k people in North Central Bulgaria. It was a beautiful city – I stayed at the “Hikers Hostel” which got its name because of the roads you have to climb to get there. It was well worth the climb though because it had a view of the castle and the city that was breathtaking. Veliko Tarnovo was one of the highlights of my trip not just because of the beauty but because of the people I met there. I was only their for 2 days and 1 night but I spent a lot of time with the staff at the hostel and some of the travelers that were staying there. During the day I would explore the town and the sights and at night I would eat with the people from the hostel. It takes a certain kind of person to want to see the less know sights and small cities. I met a young woman from China that has been traveling alone for over a year and a half. We talked about everything, we are both into photography, and we had a really good time just enjoying the view from the hostel. I took the photo of the castle (posted below) at night. The shutter was open for 6 seconds with a 5.6 aperture so it looks like day time with a bright sun but that was actually from 1 in the morning. The Bulgarians that worked at the hostel were also very fun to talk to (photo also posted below) and they had a nice Cocker spaniel that reminded me of my dog back home. We exchanged Emails and this time I hope to keep in touch. I left the hostel at almost midnight of the second day amidst a barbeque, karaoke, and some traditional drinks to make the hike back down into town to meet up with Jess (she was staying at a different hostel due to booking issues) and we took a taxi to a neighboring town in order to catch a train at 1:30 am across the border into Bucharest Romania. We played some Russian card games and had a beer at the train station while we waited for the train to arrive. It really paid to know some Russian when dealing with the train station people, the conductor on the train, and the customs officials. It would have been very difficult if we didn’t know any Russian. When we arrived the next morning in Bucharest, Jess continued on to Ruslov and I stayed in Bucharest for a couple nights before coming back to Ukraine. I had an enjoyable time in Bucharest though I was tired of seeing all the old buildings. To be honest, I travel more to experience the culture and meet people than to see the sights. My lack of planning usually works out great for me in terms of unique experiences and meeting interesting people however, this time it backfired. I had to be back in Ukraine by the 18^th however in order to do so, I would have had to take 2 overnight trains, a 6 hour bus, a couple marshrutkas, and a taxi so I decided to bite the bullet and buy a plane ticket back home. It was more money than I wanted to pay but it worked out in the end.

Well, I am back at site now and very busy trying to get this grant for the Journalism Center done in time so I need to go. I hope all is well back in the US.

Conor’s Noteworthy Noteables:

1. 1. More summer travels. Good travels with good friends: Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria. I learned that you can’t lump together all former soviet countries. They are all extremely different form each other.

2. 2. I bought some hot spices from the spice market in Istanbul! Everyone please welcome flavor back to Ukraine ;-) . I plan on giving some to all my Ukrainian friends.

3. 3. Heading to a PEPFAR conference on the 3^rd of September (Presidents Emergency Plan For Aids Relief) in Kamianets-Podilskyi! It will be nice to finally see Western Ukraine.

4. It is already getting cold here! I am not ready for winter.