The last week has been a bit intense. Finishing up in London and getting rushed onto this job very last minute was... rushed. And this job (doing geotechnical borings in farmland for what someday will be a US Army base) has been very poorly planned in many aspects. And given the job is in Bulgaria, it's kind of like being thrown to the wolves. But still in a fun way.
Getting a rental car and leaving the airport here is a challenge. You leave the airport and there are two choices for directions, but no signs. Ummm... thanks for that. And even if there were signs, they'd probably be in Cyrillic. And then I get onto a fairly major road, but still no signs that provide any indication as to which direction I'm heading or anything. And of course since everything was rushed I had no maps and the map Hertz gave me only had the downtown core and didn't show the airport. And unlike every Hertz rental in the US where they try to push GPS units on you, Bulgaria doesn't have them. Lovely. Anyway, I somehow made it onto the highway I wanted, and despite not really getting the road signs, I did the 3 hour drive to Sliven without too much incident (arriving at 10PM, 4 hours later than planned thanks to snow in London).
Sliven, it turns out, is a very nice city of ~100,000. My hotel is I think the nicest hotel in town and right in the central district on a park and pedestrian street. Lots of shops, cafes, outdoor restaurants, etc. And a very cheap place to get my US cell phone unlocked and a new battery for my old cell, which has a Bulgarian SIM in it (it's free to call me, but costs to for me to make calls, so ask for my number if you want to call). Here's my first Sliven photo taken from my hotel window...
The work has been slow, but also what I was expecting. In 4 days, we've accomplished 4 meters of hole. Everything from the driller (my subcontractor) showing up with a drill rig & crew that they has been in turn subcontracted (subcontractor to the subcontractor). And then they don't have the right equipment, and then this breaks and then that and.... well, let's just say we're working the weekend and it's 11AM and I'm doing a blog in my hotel because we're waiting for a part... The work was supposed to be 5 holes up to 25 meter each to do geotech properties and sample collection, but rock is very shallow and most holes look like they'll just be a few meters. Anyway... here are a few photos of the crazy looking Russian drill rig, the hired band of Gypsies (that show up in their horse drawn cart) digging a mud pit and some random rock / soil photos:
I had an interpretor for the first 5 days, but now I'm on my own. Was kind of nice having someone to hang out with while we did nothing. Milkana knew some neat little towns with little restaurants up in the mountain villages and we had a few 3 hour lunches and such. I really wish I had taken my camera for some of these places as they were incredibly quaint. Life is rough... but now I'm sort of working.
Work will go for at least another week. I'm hoping to be done by next weekend and I don't fly out till the following Wednesday or Thursday. Which will give some time to go to the Black Sea? Turkey? Greece? Bucharest? Serbia? Maybe a road trip to all of them? Will all depend on when the work finishes and how burnt out I feel. And on the 23rd or 24th I fly to Bangkok to catch up with Michelle on the 26th and head down to Ben's wedding in Phuket. Then back to London on May 12 I think, but that's still weeks away. Anyway, that's what I'm up to... Hope all are well everywhere!
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