BasBasBas.com

Category: leisure

  • Party time in Taksim

    Yesterday night we met up with a ‘bunch’ of Erasmus students (30) in the Taksim district of Istanbul for a night out on the town. My roommate and I headed from our dorms to the park, where we went into a cable lift over the park towards Taksim. Once there, I was amazed with how modern everything was. What a lively district! I’d been wondering where all the cool, young people hang out in Istanbul and this is one of the places.

    Taksim’s main square is a popular place for big public events such as New Year’s Eve celebration and parades. It used to be an important center for demonstrations also, but after a few incidents in the sixties and seventies the Turkish government decided to introduce a ban on these demonstrations on the square.

    After meeting up with a few fellow students from Poland and Spain, we decided to head out and grab a bite. We headed down İstiklal Caddesi (Avenue) which is Istanbul’s main shopping streets and is visited by over 3 million people per day during the weekends. In the sidestreets there are many bars and restaurants, but the area also has a lot of other sights to see which you can read about on Wikipedia.

    After having some food, we walked down one of the streets and came past a Nargila place. This traditional waterpipe has been a very important element in the social life of Turkish people over the course of history and they are smoked to socialize. One Nargila, five teas and a water only cost us 11 lira total, which is around 6 or 7 euros. Great stuff!

    Then we headed to a bar about which I won’t speak, because the best thing you can do is just head over to the area yourself one day and explore all that it has to offer. It’s incredibly vibrant, even more so than what I’ve seen in cities like Paris or London!

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  • Monkeys and grasshoppers!

    Last Thursday we decided to go to a park near Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, called “Apenheul“. Literally, this means “Monkeyhill”, but I like to refer to it as Monkeyland. Before I continue and tell you about the monkeys, I’d like to direct your attention to the pictures above.

    Yes, it is what it looks like. I ate grasshoppers. Since they were fried they mostly tasted like… fried stuff, but I have to say it wasn’t bad. For €4.- we got a portion of about 6 grasshoppers so I suppose they’re supposed to be eaten as a delicacy. I expected a lot more and when I saw the plate with just 6 grasshoppers I felt disappointed and relieved at the same time, as you can imagine.

    Time for some monkeys now. I went to the park with Tsvety, my girlfriend, and Petar, a Bulgarian student and friend of mine who lives here in The Netherlands.

    One of the first types of monkeys we came across is this beauty at the left. The monkeys in this park are not in cages, but instead have their own areas or, if they’re dangerous (like gorillas), their own island. So most of the monkeys you see can be just a meter away from you (3 feet), or less!

    On the Monkeyland map they write down the feeding times, which is a particularly special time to go and have a look. You’re not allowed to touch or play with the monkeys, because they want them to be as ‘wild’ as possible instead of them being used to human contact. Yet the most fascinating time to see them is when they’re in contact with people.

    This doesn’t go for all the monkeys though. They have a group of bonobo apes, which are, I believe, the lifeform that’s closest to human beings and watching them is just fascinating. They are so man-like in their behaviour and movements. It’s almost like it’s people dressed up as apes.

    I think we as human beings are very arrogant to think we are much more than these apes. Go to this park and have a look at the human behaviour in there. We act like animals, pushing each other to be able to see more, cutting in line at the food places, mimicking our fellow Earthlings. 😀

    I’d like to leave you with some more ‘family pictures’. Enjoy!

    And finally our decapitated delicassy 😉

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  • Checkmate.

    Some of you might know I have quite a bad SoapBoxxer addiction. Well, I was just having a discussion and it offered me a good opportunity to flex my wit muscles / muscles of wit, whichever you prefer. The conversation went as below.

    Topic: Holland WILL win it all (Eurocup)

    Patofeo2: they won’t
    Spartz (that’s me): I doubt it, but odds have gone up considerably.
    Patofeo2: I have a feeling czech rep. will win all
    Spartz: Get real.
    Patofeo2: What’s the wager?
    Spartz: five!
    Patofeo2: please write the team you think will win. That way I can talk shit to you when they loose 😉
    Spartz:Czech Republic
    Patofeo2: u bastard!

    Checkmate. 😉

    .
    UPDATE

    Looks like i can relate this post to Turkey after all. Turkey just eliminated the Czech Republic from the Eurocup in the most spectacular fashion!

    Turkey last night made history in the most dramatic fashion imaginable by overcoming a two-goal deficit to emerge triumphant in their winner-takes-all Group A showdown with the Czech Republic.

    Jan Koller and Jaroslav Plasil had put the Czechs on course for a quarter-final meeting with Croatia, but Turkey discarded the script in an unforgettable final 15 minutes with three goals, including two from Nihat Kahveci, to progress to the second stage of a European Championships for only the second time.

    Telegraph

    Fucking awesome! Since I’m going to Turkey this September, I’m rooting for both Holland and Turkey! It’s great to see ‘my teams’ book succes :smile:

    Turkey 3-2!
    Picture: Telegraph

  • What a music… a recollection

    Miro, a friend I made in Bulgaria, just sent all his friends on Facebook (including me) a dedication via a particular application. Apparently his song “What A Music” is now uploaded in there and while listening to it again, I realized just how much that song reminds me of Bulgaria.

    I met Miro in the middle of November. Asya (sorry if it’s misspelt), a colleague of mine at the National Radio, gave me a call one day that she said she was still going to take me to a party. I had no recollection of this, but then again, when I met her at the Balkan Youth Festival, days were long and nights were drunk. She told me there was a CD presentation of the winner of the Bulgarian Pop Idol in a club in the centre and asked me to come along. I hesitated for a second, then told myself to just say yes. So I did.

    We arrive… free booze! She runs off and starts talking to people and I’m kept busy with people who talk to me because I’m not from Bulgaria (and because they’re just as drunk as me, from the free booze). At some point after the CD presentation, Asya gets us into the ‘artists’ area and I meet some of the people there. They are getting restless and want to have a party somewhere. Asya leaves. I was told to come along, because it was going to be fun. Obviously, I was intimidated, so I went along – I would have rather been responsible and go home of course. Who likes parties anyway?

    So uhhh, the next day I wake up with a massive hangover. Pictures I don’t remember, business cards I vaguely remember, and random entries in my phone. Names with no numbers, just the letter ‘E’ with a number. You know those nights where you’re too drunk to type the name and then in your mind you go “fuck it” and tell yourself you’ll just remember it? Yeah. You won’t. If you’re too drunk to type… you’re too drunk to remember. And also, you might take pictures of the Iranian embassy on your way home.

    I remembered one business card that I got belonged to the producer of the CD of the girl who won. I was a bit intimidated… It’s not every day that I get the contact cards of a ‘celebrity’. If I think back to my thoughts at that time, they’re a bit ridiculous, but make a good story. So I think I emailed him or called him, I don’t remember. Added him to Skype and it turned out his studio was right around the corner from my apartment. Literally, not even 2 minutes from door to door. He invited me and I came over. He showed me his studio and his pride. We maintained our connection and were hanging out about once a week, I guess. One of the songs he let me hear when I first came ’round to his studio (correct me if I’m wrong Miro) is ‘What A Music’, the track I was just sent on Facebook.

    Those times were strange. The Pop Idol party, sitting at the same table as Philip Kotler at a high tea-styled press conference with a panorama view of Sofia, meeting my current girlfriend… but also Sofia getting colder and the weather getting harsher and harsher. It was a moment of highs and lows, which makes the highs even more magical as they already were. And that’s what this song reminds me of. The song has a magical sound to it and reminds me of the magical times I had back in Bulgaria. Therefore, without further adue, I present to you the video of my friend Star Tattooed’s ‘What A Music’. Dedicated to everyone I met in Bulgaria!

  • What’s up?

    Hey, figured it’s about time I give a small overview of what’s up with me. A couple of things.

    • Doing a project on International Affairs Representation (lobbying) for university. Very interesting. Looking at all that the IUCN organisation has to offer on their website. What a great organisation!
    • For the same course I’m going to Brussels for a field trip on the 27th of this month.
    • Got a potential marketing/sales project coming my way. If I decide to take it on, I expect I could make about two thousand Euro with it this summer. Which would be great, because I’m broke now. Looks like my interest in internet marketing and entrepreneurship is finally manifesting itself in my day to day reality, right?
    • Looking for a job doing some promo-work (like handing out samples and stuff) for a while, so I can make some money. Or maybe doing work at the homes of elderly people. Although I’m not sure if it would be productive to invest my time in that instead of the above project. Probably smart to have an extra, small income stream though.
    • Figuring out when I’m done with the semester and when I can fly to Bulgaria to go see my girlfriend!
    • Figuring out when I would probably be broke and have to fly back to Holland…  together with my girlfriend… to show her Holland. First time she’ll be in Western Europe. Culture shock :shock:
    • Applying to a Turkish language course at the end of August and beginning of September.
    • Getting my stuff handled with Yeditepe University in Istanbul, so my Erasmus exchange will start smooth. Or at least smoother than when I went to Bulgaria last year.

    That’s about it. If you think you can help me out with any of this. Please contact me.

  • Eco-Idea: Solar powered Bit-Stage

    Yesterday was Liberation Day in The Netherlands. Because of Liberation Day (or ‘Bevrijdingsdag’ as we call it), there a lot of free open-air music festivals in parks all across the Netherlands to celebrate our liberty. Since the weather was awesome and there was free live music, I had to be there. The coolest thing I saw at the festival in Utrecht was not any artist in particular but this thing:

    Solar powered Bit-Stage

    What you are seeing right here is a DJ booth, including 4 speakers with good sound, on a car, all powered by solar panels! What a great eco-friendly idea! I like going to free parties, but often wonder about the effect or impact all these parties have on the environment. Especially parties in forests or in nature attended by a lot of eco-loving people. It always seemed a bit hypocritical to me to claim to love nature, yet cause such ecological ruckus.

    This stage offers what seems to be an ‘eco-friendly’ option for parties and quite possibly carbon neutral. I also found two videos of the stage live in action yesterday at the festival. You can choose either funky or Balkan.

    Apparently the car’s batteries can also be charged by pedaling. Cool!

    More info here.

  • Bulgaria – the first 3 days

    Wow! It’s good to be back in Bulgaria.

    The weather, apart for the rainy Sunday, is just great! Very sunny, rather warm.

    Day 1 – Saturday

    This day started with me getting up at 2.45 in the morning. Awesome. My dad drove me to the airport in Dortmund, I boarded a plane that looked great from the outside, but it was like the 80’s on the inside (and it’s the inside that counts). Oh, and it was looaaaded with Bulgarians. As soon as we departed we hit the clouds and after a few minutes it was just the plane and the sun. Wow! 🙂

    I arrived at Sofia airport around noon and met up with Tsvety, my girlfriend. For the first few minutes we couldn’t stop hugging. We tried, but within a few seconds the clutch of our arms returned and we stood there for another few moments. After getting some cash from an ATM we took a taxi into the city and waited in a coffee bar for the lady who would show us our apartment for the next 10 days. The first Bulgarian coffee was a bit strong (especially compared to the water-with-coffee-taste I drank at the German airport), but I’m getting used to it again. We got a call from the lady. Were shown our apartment and stayed in the whole day, because I was dead tired.

    A friend of mine would be DJ’ing at a party in the center that evening and somewhere deep down, I knew I couldn’t miss that party. He didn’t know I was in Bulgaria and it would be a great surprise for him if I suddenly showed up. Especially considering the fact that he simply ‘knew’ that there’s three thousand kilometers between us.

    Soooo, we dragged ourselves out of the apartment, without having slept and went into the center. As I entered the club I immediately saw my friend, with his back turned to me. I walked over to him and then looped around him so that I was standing in front of him. I looked at him with my “hello!” face, but without saying anything… He gave me a blank stare for a second (my hair is longer and I have a beard thing going on now) and then out of this blank stare came an intense expression of enthusiasm! “Bas!” He grabbed my hand to shake it and hugged me. Simultaneously. He was very glad to see me. The extra sleep deprivation was definitely worth it. I saw his set (good job, mate!) and stayed around for another an hour or so, but then around 3 o’ clock I decided that it was really time to go home and catch some sleep.

    Great day.

    Day 2 – Sunday

    It was rainy. We stayed in. Watched a film together. Good times. 😎

    Day 3 – Monday

    Then today we went outside and I saw Sofia again as I saw it in the summer, but a bit colder. Very sunny day, nice and warm. We sat in the park for a while, took pictures, walked around some more and had lunch. Sat around some more in the sun. Just enjoying each other’s presence. Then Tsvety headed home to see her parents for a while and I gave a call to a couple of friends, Miro and Vassy, and made appointments to have dinner with them very soon. As I was walking home I got into the same mood I had when I first came to Bulgaria: don’t sit inside the apartment. Soooo, I grabbed my laptop and a book, went to a coffee bar around the corner, wrote a blog post, and pressed “Publish”.

  • The Usual

    When I came back from Bulgaria, I got drowned in school work, so the only thing I’ve really done besides that is set up this website as a continuation of the former one. Although not officially, yet. The course I’m doing is about the evaluation of internal communication processes and what’s most exciting is the lecturers involved; Dr. Guido Wolf, from the conex. Institute, and Dr. Nina Schuppener, from Hering Schuppener. It almost feels like it’s the first time I’m actually learning something in my university, or at least motivated to learn something.

    Anyway… I just spent four days in Germany, meeting students from the University of Duisburg/Essen, and setting up a way to start working together to analyze the internal communications of one out of four selected companies. The group I’m in was assigned to carry out a rather specific research with a big, German energy company. Very exciting!

    This Sunday I’m playing a couple of DJ sets at the DUPLO Festival in dB’s, Utrecht. There will be six bands performing between 3 in the afternoon until 10 in the evening… Between the performances, I’m taking care of the music and I have a set of an hour at the end (unless everyone leaves of course). To check out some of my work, go here.

    I should also be writing an article for Rethos.com, a website with articles dealing with activist and ideological topics, which will probably be about an organisation an acquaintance of mine has set up, called Live-Build. Keep a close eye on my Twitter updates if you’re interested.

    But for now…

    Flyer duplo festival

     

    Be there, or be square!

  • Is it too late to say Happy New Year?

    Okay, it’s been a while. Actually, it’s been three weeks. The longer I waited with posting, the more I had to tell, the less I felt like making time to tell all of it. This kept looping and looping, until now. I present to you…

    .
    Three weeks of Bas – in bullet points
    self-indulgence
    • Bouwe & Roos arrived at the airport only 45 minutes late. I say only because a lot of flights were canceled or had 4 or 5 hour delays. On Christmas eve! How cliché!
    • Needless to say, there was a lot of partying and playing around. On the second day of Christmas we went to a restaurant and as we were walking home I said “I have to show you guys a really, really bad club. It will be funny.” We all had a beer… then we decided to have another and move to the dancefloor. Two or three beers later we were talking to some Bulgarian guy who invited us to some party on New Year’s Eve. As we were getting our coats, ready to go home… a friend of him came up and said there was a drum ‘n bass party going on in some club and if we wanted to come. Fuck yes. We get to the club, club closed. We go to another, club closing. The Bulgarian guys and girl knew one more place that was open… it was called Kama Sutra and it was a stripclub (original name though). We decided that Christmas is a good time to visit a stripclub for the first time in your life so we went there. It was rather boring. We never spoke to those Bulgarian guys after that.
    • The next day, completely hung-over, we went to mount Vitosha. Took some great pictures, check it out.
    • We celebrated New Years Eve at a club where they didn’t bother stopping the music for a countdown. I left the club at 7 though, so apparently the party was not so bad… after all.. there was drum ‘n bass (and hardtechno… oh, and friends).
    • Then I decided to show Bouwe & Roos Plovdiv. This time around, it was snowy!

    Okay, so what else?

    • I have stopped using MSN Messenger. See you on Skype!
    • I have started updating my Photoblog again.
    • I have installed PeerGuardian and found out everyone’s watching me.
    • I’m still a vegetarian.
    • I’m getting more serious about DJing. I’m playing in Utrecht on the 24th of February. Details to be announced!
    • I’m looking for a place to live in Amsterdam. If someone knows a really good deal in Utrecht, tell me.
    • Radio Bulgaria interviewed me. Check it out here!
    • A Bulgarian national newspaper named Trud interviewed me. I’ll put the article up when it’s published.
    • Radio Sofia interviewed me. I have no record of this.

    Expect updates to be more regular from now on. I’ll be busy here though since it’s my last weeks in Bulgaria and I mostly want to spend time with the people I’ve met here.

  • Xmas Gifts

    If anyone feels like doing something special for me this Christmas, please do me a favour and get me a gift here.

    Now that’s a special gift.

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