During my time in Bulgaria, I spend quite a bit of time looking out of our apartment window down to the busy street below. While Marta is out doing her research or visiting old friends and I’m left alone, I often find that the window is a great option when I need a diversion from my own work. I find the daily human drama that plays itself out in the chaos below me endlessly fascinating.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might remember that an early winter ice storm in the St. Louis area knocked out our power for six full days last December. After our power was restored, I did some complaining about the old power infrastructure in our area and the 55% rate hike imposed by Ameren on their customers in Southern Illinois.

Six months later, I’m having a bit of a laugh at myself as I look out my window at some of the wires strung around our apartment building. The first picture is of a lamp-post across the street and to the left that is moonlighting as an impromptu hub for telephone and cable television wires. The second picture I took this morning is of a young man climbing a rickety ladder to string yet another wire on the lamp-post just a few yards out of my window. The third picture shows a lovely tree just to the right of my window that also carries its own array of wires.

Without going too deeply into social commentary, I find that this industrious and ingenious system provides wonderful insight into the strange duality of this region. Bulgaria is a country of contrasts, on one hand a member of the European Union and on the other a place where the old Balkan tropes manifest themselves in a variety of ways.

Regardless, these pictures make my complaints about Ameren’s old infrastructure seem just a bit silly.