Running!

Been running a bit. Explored a new park this weekend and although it's a little bit further away, I like it a lot better than South Park. Less people and more trails.

I would have taken more pictures this past weekend, but it was raining too much. Good thing I plan to retire these running shoes in Sofia before I leave.

These two stray pups were not happy about the rain either.

To get to the other park, I do have to cross several multi-lane roads. Luckily the first two have tunnels. And yes, everything, I mean everything, has graffiti on it!

I love running on the soft trails rather than pavement.

There are so many trails, I'm really surprised I don't get more lost. 

And sometimes you come upon something like this..creepy and cool at the same time. Just abandoned in the middle of the park.

  

I know you won't be as excited as me, but I visited a wastewater treatment plant today

[Warning - do not view before eating]

While in Dimitrovgrad for a meeting with the Deputy Mayor and his staff, they offered to give me a tour of their wastewater treatment plant. Who could say no to that?

This plant was built in 2010 and they are very proud of it. As they should be, it's as state of the art as any new plant in the U.S. and has tertiary treatment.

Initial screens - the output 

 There were three sizes of screen - the above two removed larger things, and below smaller

Fats, oils and grease skimmers

Aeration basins

The treatment plant's next door neighbor - a fertilizer manufacturing plant

Discharge before sedimentation basins

Sedimentation basins

Sludge digester, they use the released methane to power the treatment plant

Pumps for the sludge digestor

Belt filter press for sludge dewatering

They currently landfill their sludge

My tour guides

Dimitrovgrad

After my overnight in Gabrovo, we headed to Dimitrovgrad for a meeting with the Deputy Mayor and his staff. And then a tour of their wastewater treatment plant (see separate post about that HERE).

Here's the municipal building where my meeting was.

Yes, that's a basket of Easter eggs out front, since Easter in Bulgaria was the following Sunday.

And there was a little free library out front! But not an official one. 

Folks I met with (Deputy Mayor in the middle with the gift bag).

After the meeting, I had a little time on my hands before the treatment plant tour, so I got to walk around downtown.

Did I mention that Dimitrovgrad was a planned communist town?

There were remnants of its former life.

There is always lots of park space in every town I've visited.

Big grand buildings, to make you feel small (at least that's what I was told).

 And, um, this was just too weird not to share. It was in a kids playground behind the municipal building.

(if you can't read the bottom, it says "My name is Buggy Fon Baraba. I'm a monster, but I'm a cowboy too!")

Oh, and to get to Dimitrovgrad from Gabrovo, we had to cross the Balkan Mountain Range. This is what the GPS showed for our path. What a fun ride. Glad I wasn't driving!

Gergini and Gabrovo

I had the opportunity to go to the monthly board meeting of the association I'm working with here, as well as their first annual meeting of their new Solidarity Fund. The Solidarity Fund is a great idea. Municipalities (which are like states in the U.S.) can chip in money to a fund that will be available to these paying members after a disaster occurs. The money is meant to cover immediate expenses, since even in Bulgaria it takes a while for the government money to come through. Now if only my presentation about my program in the states, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, inspires them to start something similar to help with disaster prevention projects...

The association has a training center in Gergini, which is a very small village outside Gabrovo.  The facility was initially funded with money from Norway, but was expanded and renovated with USAID funds a few years ago.  It's a pretty nice facility, with a hotel, cafeteria, and even a guard pup. Although she was too sweet to really be a guard dog.

Here's the entrance to the training facility.

The main entrance. The cafeteria was off to the right.

The rest of this building was the hotel.

 The other two buildings on the property. My meetings were in the one on the left.

Sign recognizing USAID's support.

The Solidarity Fund Annual Meeting. Several of these folks were mayors or council members of municipalities. I gave a short presentation about disaster prevention and my program, the DWSRF.

The Board Meeting. I think all of these folks were mayors. 

Of course have to show what the afternoon treats were.

And the vicious guard dog...

...who I of course made friends with during the break between meetings

I got to stay the night in Gabrovo since I had another meeting the next day a few hours south (in Dimitrovgrad). This is my first, and probably only, overnight in Bulgaria outside of Sofia.

Here's my hotel, which was very nice. It was 50 leva for the night and that included breakfast (so about $30).

Although my room was a bit turquoise! 

 My view:

Scenes from the walk to dinner...

 The famous clock tower of Gabrovo. Hard to see the tiny clock on the right just above the stone portion. The clock still measures time precisely ever since 1835.

Night falls on another day...