Safe Sofia, having rattling good time, Nancy
People have begun to wonder. If we’ve moved yet. If we’ve arrived in Sofia. If so, how things are there. If we’re alive. If we have internet. If there are dogs sleeping under cars here at all. We’ve been extremely busy during the last several weeks, but I’ll take a few minutes to put some minds at ease. Yes; yes; fantastic; mostly; yes (fast!); and boy howdy YES.
We made the trip itself much more quickly and painlessly than expected, just a quick 12 hours in the car which the boys hardly even noticed, sleeping as they did through Croatia and Serbia. The terrain just before leaving Serbia to cross into Bulgaria was especially dramatic and rocky and gorge-y and more so thanks to the gorgeous dawn which lit it. Our introduction to Sofia’s traffic was a bit overwhelming but we managed to navigate to our destination without hitting any horses pulling sofas, and then began the process of settling in. This continues to occupy our energy. The truck hauling all of our crapola arrived 24 hours behind us, by which time we’d gotten settled into our new apartment on the southwestern side of Sofia. By the evening of our second day here the move was complete but for unpacking. This last step we expect to be complete by 2010.
It’s hard to put our first impressions into words. Despite the scant 12-hour drive, this is certainly a very different place from the one we’ve just left, and some of the contrasts are not so favorable. We’ve traded Alpine order and cleanliness for a Balkan chaos that can be overwhelming. We could give you directions to our flat using certain salient mounds of rubbish as landmarks, for example. The sidewalks are heaving and crumbling but they are also carpeted in the plums, apples, and peaches which drop from the fruit trees that grow like demented, benign weeds in every patch of earth not supporting the concrete slab apartment blocks that sprout rust-streaked satellite dishes and enormous vines sagging with grapes in equal profusion. The first thing a western eye will notice is a certain casual squalor (if not the creative approach to the left turn), but the vibrancy and warmth we’ve seen in just a few short weeks balance out that surface roughness. The people, the food, and the commitment to children are the things that have struck us most favorably. All the people we’ve dealt with since arriving have been open and helpful in a way that we’d forgotten existed. Just our nearest supermarket has a range of food we could only dream of (and often did) in Slovenia (and at prices we can actually afford). Alek’s nanny, Baba Sofia, promises to be fantastic, and Adam has already been over for a tour of his kindergarten, just a short walk across the extensive playground behind our block, and he’s getting excited. We dropped off his poop samples today, so if everything comes out clean, he’ll start getting socialized in just over a week.
We are home in Sofia. It still feels a bit unreal. Of an evening Magda is likely to say to me, “Where do we live now?” and I’ll reply, “It appears that we live in BULGARIA.” It’s still very new, and it’s certainly different, but it feels right.
Now we just need a few minor alterations to the site’s layout to reflect our relocation. Expect those around the time we finish unpacking.
Any other questions?
All I hear about Bulgaria is the Rose Oil. The Rose Oil that comes in thimble-sized containers which, in turn, are contained in ornately decorated wooden containers, complete with wooden screw-on caps.
Do these things exist or have I been a victim of pre-All-Wall-Fall-Down propoganda? And the smell coming from the vial? Is it so soothing that the ..the concrete slab apartment blocks that sprout rust-streaked satellite dishes and enormous vines sagging with grapes in equal profusion.. seem like just another piece of evidence of paradise?
I’m sniffing over at this end…..
Comment by DarkoV — Tuesday 19 August 08 @ 21.48 MDT+2.00
Dobre doshli! It’s great to hear your first impressions. And now I’m all nostalgic.
If you enjoy the mounds of rubbish now, wait until you see your first flaming dumpster of the winter!
Comment by juliloquy — Tuesday 19 August 08 @ 22.00 MDT+2.00
Them’s some damn fine lookin’ rasps!
Welcome back to the tube system! Lovely prose as usual. Even so, we’re thirsty for photos. Don’t forget to stand next to the piles of rubbish for scale.
On a more sombre note, on behalf of Spain, I would like to apologize for nearly killing your prince the other day. What do you expect when your name is “Car damn”?
Comment by Erik R. — Tuesday 19 August 08 @ 22.17 MDT+2.00
“…wait until you see your first flaming dumpster of the winter!”
Fantastic.
I’m so glad you guys have resurfaced and even more glad to hear about the dogs under cars. I always wonder about that.
Comment by jane — Tuesday 19 August 08 @ 23.12 MDT+2.00
Very exciting.
Also, yes I was wondering about the site name, now that you no longer technically live on an isogloss (or do you?)…
Comment by simon — Tuesday 19 August 08 @ 23.16 MDT+2.00
I think the sgazzetti household will always be an isogloss. If only a very short one from the fridge to the sofa.
Comment by Erik R. — Wednesday 20 August 08 @ 01.08 MDT+2.00
Yes, me too! But how would we ever find you?
So glad you are there and settling in, talk to you soon.
xox
Comment by gaoo — Wednesday 20 August 08 @ 02.02 MDT+2.00
Wait, WHAT is that title of your post? Is it from a movie?
Comment by gaoo — Wednesday 20 August 08 @ 02.07 MDT+2.00
I was wondering, too. It’s all so romantic and glamorous. We just don’t have rubbish piles like that here in Idaho.
Comment by jdog — Wednesday 20 August 08 @ 07.25 MDT+2.00
I am now extremely excited about seeing my first flaming dumpster of the winter. Maybe I will roast chestnuts over it.
Thanks, Erik, for alerting me to that bit of news. I have missed pretty much everything that’s been going on in the world over the last month, and it’s important to stay abreast of the doings of one’s new country’s dethroned crown princes.
The rose oil thing is news to me. I’ll keep my nose to the ground.
The site’s name will remain unchanged. There are isoglosses aplenty not all that far from here. The Bulgarian/Romanian one up on the Danube is pretty intense…
The post’s title comes from a silly, silly novel.
Comment by sgazzetti — Wednesday 20 August 08 @ 09.01 MDT+2.00
do you have any store with chinese food? :)
where are photos?!?!?!?!
take care…
Comment by aniah — Wednesday 20 August 08 @ 09.10 MDT+2.00
Happy birthday, btw. I would have sent you a present, but I don’t know your new address. :-)
Comment by Erik R. — Wednesday 20 August 08 @ 11.52 MDT+2.00
So John, all the best for the Gazzetti family from us! :-)
Good to hear from you, and keep us updated, y’know, when you finish with the unpacking and stuff.
Comment by Carlitos — Wednesday 20 August 08 @ 16.34 MDT+2.00
Oh – and did you get to meet Petya and Kyle before they left for the States?
Comment by juliloquy — Wednesday 20 August 08 @ 21.17 MDT+2.00
Hooray! Looking forward to hearing more about the new world.
Comment by Martha — Thursday 21 August 08 @ 16.12 MDT+2.00
What did the kids think about a new “house”? Maybe you mentioned that somewhere and I missed it.
We will be upgrading our house in the next few years and I always cringe when Josh says things like, “Daddy, I love this house. I don’t want to ever move.”
Comment by Alan — Friday 22 August 08 @ 14.17 MDT+2.00
1. Photos. Yes indeedy right away, unpacking be damned.
2. I have a million questions, but something tells me that the majority will be answered in due time.
3. Flaming dumpsters: I’m among the throngs who can’t wait.
Comment by SquamLoon — Monday 25 August 08 @ 00.11 MDT+2.00
Maybe this makes me a bad person, but after reading the comments, particularly Erik R’s, I looked up this Bulgarian Prince, Kardam, and he’s Prince of Turnovo, and it strikes me as kind of odd that he’d be in an accident where a CAR TURNED OVER. I was relieved to see that he doesn’t have a younger brother named Busdam, Prince of Undera.*
Anyway, glad to hear the move has gone well so far. Looking forward to reading more!
By the way, I will soon be posting pictures of “Star Anis” toothpaste. Yes, that very fortunate typo was on the packaging! “Made with real anis!!!” Yesssssssssssss.
*Tasteless, anglocentric joke. Sorry.
Comment by Roo — Monday 25 August 08 @ 17.00 MDT+2.00
Wow. I never made the connection of anís to being a humorous orifice. Next time I’m sucking on some black liquorice, I hope I remember to chuckle.
Comment by Erik R. — Monday 25 August 08 @ 23.42 MDT+2.00
You are featured on Five Star Friday:
http://www.fivestarfriday.com/2008/08/five-star-friday-edition-21.html
Comment by schmutzie — Friday 29 August 08 @ 21.42 MDT+2.00
Yay!
Canadian comments are the best, eh?
Comment by sgazzetti — Saturday 30 August 08 @ 20.25 MDT+2.00
Congrats on the FSF fame! Twas a swell post.
Comment by Erik R. — Saturday 30 August 08 @ 22.06 MDT+2.00
They start kindergarten at 3 in Bulgaria? Holy crap.
And could you please start blogging regularly again? ‘Cause even though we’ve never met and you have absolutely no obligation to me, I miss teh blog.
Comment by Kate — Sunday 31 August 08 @ 11.40 MDT+2.00