Welcome to Plovdiv!
Bulgaria's second city, Plovdiv, is a worthy rival to Sofia, the country's capital. About an hour and a half ride from the airport we had a bus waiting for us and Belorussian Team who arrived at the same time. The first thing we were told by our trusty Bulgarian guide was to NOT leave anything out of sight, or you won't see it again!! So I took that advise to heart and made sure I tied my hands to my fencing bag. The weather was surprisingly pleasant, I'd say roughly 10 degrees and mainly sunny most days...so out came the flip-flops and many confused glares from on-lookers who quickly realized I was from Canada! Arriving into the city centre of Plovdiv, a modern town they call it....to what standards I wasn't sure....is a huge square. The square leads to Freedom Park, and its fountains and coloured lights are the main attraction to the crowds and the daily promenade. There are worn out old cobbled alleys and wondering streets that don't exist on city maps. Astonishing Roman theatres and architecture to discovery and distinctive Mosques that attract most visitors. In some ways it reminded me of typical European small towns, but in other ways it was also new and like an untapped centre for travel.
We spent the first day just walking around and exploring. Funny, the first thing I really noticed was how much the Bulgarians were passionate about their jeans....and stylish ones too. Armani, D&G, Diesel....the hole sha-bang!!! So, when in Rome......we found an under-cover jean dealer who apparently had the hippest jeans in town....for cheap....what a deal, or should I say what a scam?! I guess its all about the moment. You're there, in the basement of an old stone building, he can't tell you where he got them but the price seems right....? Anyways, that was the days story, and plus we got some sick denim too!!!
The first day of March in Bulgaria is called Babu Marte day - which means welcome March - a traditional celebration welcoming in Spring. So everyone gives out red and white bracelet's with blue beads in them. The more you get the cooler you are, kind of like a Mardi Gras thing with the beads around your neck except you don't have lift up your shirt to get them!!
Thursday, we were invited to spend the morning training with the Korean and Chinese Teams at the Bulgarian National Training Centre. A National Training Centre, in Bulgaria we thought????? Well, there is one but its nothing more than just an abandoned old warehouse space with no electricity and colder than a fridge. You can see in the picture that the pistes are nailed to wood planks to prevent getting wet from the leaking roofs! Kyle, Philippe and Nicolas are having a laugh about it, Michel is still injured with his back and didn't come on the trip.
The competition went OK. I did much better in the pool round beating out Medina from Spain and Suelez from Venezuela and an unkown Bulgarian junior. Ended up 3-3 and happy. Except for when a German junior, Klebes, knocked me out of the round of 64's. My next steps are to concentrate more on how to construct a 15 touch bout. Its much different than fencing a 5 touch bout....got some work ahead of me.
The team event was good, but inconsistent. We all had good bouts and bad. The hardest thing for us as a Team is to all be "on" at the same time. How do you do that, especially when there are four of you fencing? Anyways, we keep our ranking of 10Th and the US, who fenced better than us are still at 8Th.
Oh, funny...in a restaurant on Friday night two young girls sitting behind us turned around, as they heard us speaking English, and said.."you're obvious Americans?" How typical, we thought. They had been there already 2 years as part of the Peace Core. We chatting for while but decided to leave it at just that!
Another interesting aspect about the competitions is that they've introduced 'slow motion replay' for the judges. A screen sits in front of the referee which, after each point, plays the action back so he can see what happens. NOT GOOD!!!! It ended up that the referee's were only looking at the screens and not the fencers. Plus, when watching a fencing match there is a certain tempo that you see that happens in 'full speed'....and a different tempo that is created when watching it in slow motion. So there were a lot of mistakes made, many unhappy fencers and of course three days of red cards given out to yelling competitors. We'll see what happens with that in the coming months. Check out the video system picture above.
As you can see, there are a bunch of photo's.....the competition hall and Team Venezuela, our corner store which sold only liquor, cigarettes and drinks, the cobble stone street our hotel was on, the restaurant in the square we ate at everyday (talk about cheap food, I was paying no more then $10CAD for a full meal) and finally my artistic photo-craftsmanship taking a picture of myself...!!
Didn't get a chance to party too much on the Sunday night....our bus for the airport left at 2:30am..... so I had to leave the club and my friends early. I hear they went until 7am....oh well, next time. Next trip won't be until May, so until then CIAO!!!
We spent the first day just walking around and exploring. Funny, the first thing I really noticed was how much the Bulgarians were passionate about their jeans....and stylish ones too. Armani, D&G, Diesel....the hole sha-bang!!! So, when in Rome......we found an under-cover jean dealer who apparently had the hippest jeans in town....for cheap....what a deal, or should I say what a scam?! I guess its all about the moment. You're there, in the basement of an old stone building, he can't tell you where he got them but the price seems right....? Anyways, that was the days story, and plus we got some sick denim too!!!
The first day of March in Bulgaria is called Babu Marte day - which means welcome March - a traditional celebration welcoming in Spring. So everyone gives out red and white bracelet's with blue beads in them. The more you get the cooler you are, kind of like a Mardi Gras thing with the beads around your neck except you don't have lift up your shirt to get them!!
Thursday, we were invited to spend the morning training with the Korean and Chinese Teams at the Bulgarian National Training Centre. A National Training Centre, in Bulgaria we thought????? Well, there is one but its nothing more than just an abandoned old warehouse space with no electricity and colder than a fridge. You can see in the picture that the pistes are nailed to wood planks to prevent getting wet from the leaking roofs! Kyle, Philippe and Nicolas are having a laugh about it, Michel is still injured with his back and didn't come on the trip.
The competition went OK. I did much better in the pool round beating out Medina from Spain and Suelez from Venezuela and an unkown Bulgarian junior. Ended up 3-3 and happy. Except for when a German junior, Klebes, knocked me out of the round of 64's. My next steps are to concentrate more on how to construct a 15 touch bout. Its much different than fencing a 5 touch bout....got some work ahead of me.
The team event was good, but inconsistent. We all had good bouts and bad. The hardest thing for us as a Team is to all be "on" at the same time. How do you do that, especially when there are four of you fencing? Anyways, we keep our ranking of 10Th and the US, who fenced better than us are still at 8Th.
Oh, funny...in a restaurant on Friday night two young girls sitting behind us turned around, as they heard us speaking English, and said.."you're obvious Americans?" How typical, we thought. They had been there already 2 years as part of the Peace Core. We chatting for while but decided to leave it at just that!
Another interesting aspect about the competitions is that they've introduced 'slow motion replay' for the judges. A screen sits in front of the referee which, after each point, plays the action back so he can see what happens. NOT GOOD!!!! It ended up that the referee's were only looking at the screens and not the fencers. Plus, when watching a fencing match there is a certain tempo that you see that happens in 'full speed'....and a different tempo that is created when watching it in slow motion. So there were a lot of mistakes made, many unhappy fencers and of course three days of red cards given out to yelling competitors. We'll see what happens with that in the coming months. Check out the video system picture above.
As you can see, there are a bunch of photo's.....the competition hall and Team Venezuela, our corner store which sold only liquor, cigarettes and drinks, the cobble stone street our hotel was on, the restaurant in the square we ate at everyday (talk about cheap food, I was paying no more then $10CAD for a full meal) and finally my artistic photo-craftsmanship taking a picture of myself...!!
Didn't get a chance to party too much on the Sunday night....our bus for the airport left at 2:30am..... so I had to leave the club and my friends early. I hear they went until 7am....oh well, next time. Next trip won't be until May, so until then CIAO!!!
posted by Mark Peros @ 2:48 PM
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