................
By the end of the day... our little clique are all really knackered, so we decide to turn down an excursion to Dobarsko before we go for dinner. Instead, we head for a sauna and a swim before we get a taxi to Bansko for dinner at night.
The taxi takes 30 minutes to arrive, by which point I've told all the Billy Connolly jokes I can remember.
It puts us in good mood, and we're ready to rock by the time we enter the Mehana. We're a little worried about being late, but 30 minutes late seems to be early in this country.
The Mehana is a traditional Bulgarian Tavern/Pub. As we arrive, the staff come alive. A small band starts to play traditional music. It's great.... wild and fast, some where between folk and jazz. It's almost impossible to work out where it's going to go next... they are going full whack... They don't seem to realise that there is only six of us at the moment... we try to explain, but it is impossible. We give up and sit outside with a cold beer...
After about 20 minutes the tour bus arrives and people pour in....
We are soon sitting at the the table drinking melnik wine and tucking into a Salata... Tonight is a traditional culture night so we are introduced to a new Bulgarian custom.... Rakia with the Salad:
It's a little warm.... but we drink it anyway... The good thing about Rakia at a conference is that anyone who isn't from Eastern Europe or Russia(or anyone with sanity) takes one sniff of it and decides that they wouldn't put it in their car, never mind their mouth.... It is extremely strong, but it's one of those drinks that tastes fine after you've had a few... i.e. once you've burned the taste buds off your throat, the taste doesn't seem to bother you. Most people leave it sitting on their table.... more about that later.....
The band have not stopped.... literally.... if anything they've got faster.... I don't know if they drink rakia while they play, but if they do, the music is so random structurally that it sounds like they are falling down stairs while they are playing.... it is full of energy and bounces around..... I know some of the songs from last years wedding, and some of the songs sound like(or are) music from the Serbian films Underground and Black Cat White Cat:
Our Serbian and Romanian guests know some of the words, and the party is getting going as we tuck into various meats and salads... There are six of us. Apparently when a Scotsman says six it sounds like Sex("Can I have a Taxi for Six" becoems interesting) , this coupled with the Italian fondness for describing things as "Magnificent" means we are the "Magnificent Six". Comparisons to Enid Blyton go unnoticed:
"lets have a spiffing time with lashings and lashings of rakia"
After dessert(Banista), some of the Bulgarians at other tables have started to follow the band and dance one of the dances I know from the wedding.... I'm for a bit of that.... we join in. The music gets faster.... and faster..... and we go round and round in a kind of side on conga while doing a dance step that's very Scottish country dancing.....
We weave in and out of tables.... dance outside... back in... more weaving... faster and faster...... People are starting to drop out.... I learned from last time that this dance is longer and gets faster than you expect..... with a couple of Rakia refuels, I manage to stay to the end..... The Rakia is readily available, as no one at the other tables drank theirs. I'm sure it's not a connoisseurs drop, but it does the trick.
I think some of the more conservative conference goers are a little perplexed, but when in Rome..........
From now on, the dancing doesn't stop.... we drop in and out of various dances and there is singing and generally a lot of fun.... When we don't know the words(which less face it, is quite often), we use the Billy Connolly Generic drunk singing form:
Ser-i-bee
[Three word Phrase]
Ey- di-faw
[Another three word phrase]
I knew it would come in handy......
The night seems to draw to a close far earlier than we wanted it to.... we were just getting started. When they tell us to drink up and get on the bus, we decide that we will investigate Bansko to see if we can continue the party.....
After a last rakia to keep us warm on the road, we say "Leka Nosh" to the bar staff and head down the road...
We get outside.... it's dark, but it doesn't look like the centre... There's the summer remains of a river running down from the mountains to our left... We walk along and follow the directions we were given to the centre... I'm a little concerned, as we are walking along dark, empty streets with the vague aim of heading right at some point.
We head along a reasonably main street and find what appears to be the centre... It;s completely dead, but there is loud music eminating from a little place called "Club with no Name"
The Serbian guy and I are a little concerned about our safety..... We can;t see in the club, but there seems to be no other chance of getting a boogie. I phone the Bulgarian Bride, to ask her how dodgy Bansko is..... The answer... Not at all...
We head inside. It;s clearly not dodgy.... dodgy would require other people to be there. There are few other patrons, but we do have a Bar Girl, Bar Security and a DJ. We get a Zagorka from the Bar Girl:
We start to dance to the really really bad music that is blasting out of the speakers... It;s really loud, and all non distinguishable Bulgarian pop.... This goes on for a little while till the beers are finished... we ask the barman for more. He motions to the Bar Girl who is over at a table doing homework with a friend. 15 minutes later when she's still not returned, we ask if the security guard if he can give us a bottle of beer from the fridge.... The answer seems to be no.....
We dance unfuelled for a while longer until the bar girl returns...
Half way through our second beer, we decide that we've had enough of the music and drink up... we are just about ready to go when from left of field the DJ pulls out a class... "I want it all" by Queen:
It;s as if he sensed that we were going to leave. Having not heard a familair note in the past hour, we go wild.... There's jumping... There's Hair..... There's Air Guitar.....
We leave on a high and fall onto the street to source a taxi....
The only person on the street is another Security guard for the club... I ask if he speaks english.... but to know avail....
Taxi... sesh..... Hotel Katarina......dobri.....Kartof...... netika..... it's not going well in Bulgarian. Luckily he hears some Italian and becomes pretty animated... A taxi is negotiated in Italian....
A taxi arrives... it;s the same taxi that we took to the Mehana, which makes me think that there is only one taxi in Bansko outside of the Skiing season. When the taxi arrives, we are told that 6 of us can't go in the taxi, as it may cause problems with the police... The security guard will have to drive us in his car. I have the feeling this "Favour" is a deal between him and the taxi driver to charge us double... but we need to get home...
The car journey is good fun...My italian isn't the that great... but it appears he has a knowledge of numbers... basic conversations and almost every swear word in the language... why he has this knowledge, I still don't know.
When we get back to the hotel... we are not the only ones still awake.... The Canadians with jet lag seem to be living on Canadian time and ignoring time zones. We share a few single malts until its about 4.30 and head to bed.......
I can tick off Bansko as a city I've been clubbing in........
No comments:
Post a Comment