And to my fellow expat bloggers who are reading/viewing this…please do something similar! I’m very curious to see how you’re living! 🙂
BasBasBas.com is about my life abroad. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul, Bulgaria and travels in the region, but like to ponder about the future also. If you’d like to stay up to date, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates in your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter.
When I got back to Holland I first moved back to my parents but really want to live in my old city, Utrecht, again.
How I Got There
I looked at a few places online and replied to some, was invited to one. They were renting out a furnished room for 5 months, since one of the guys was moving abroad for his study. I figured I’d take the offer and just find something new in the summer – but it turned out I was moving to Istanbul, so everything worked out perfectly.
How I’ve Lived There
It was an all-male house and in the half year I lived there I lived with Remco, Niels, Jurre, Tim and Pim. It was an all-male house with a nice living room and everyone had quite spacious rooms. The bathroom and kitchen were also quite big. This is the only time I’ve lived in an all-male house and I never expected to enjoy it like I did. After this place I moved to yet another all-male place…
Well, not really Turkish prison, it was a state dormitory in Istanbul and one of the better ones. It just wasn’t for me though.
How I Got There
I decided that in Bulgaria I didn’t get the culture shock I anticipated, so I decided to take it one step further. The language course I was taking housed me in this place for 3 weeks. I couldn’t wait to find my own apartment.
How I’ve Lived There
Well, I got some flu from the climate change, so I spent a lot of time near the toilets, which were not European toilets, no they were holes in the floor, with a little tap for water and a little bucket to use for washing your ass… with your hand. There were no power outlets in the room, so I had to go to communal study areas to charge my telephone or to use my laptop. There was also no wireless internet, but there was an internet cafe in which I spent quite a lot of time. See the video below for my impression of this place:
There were some fun parts. Every morning I’d meet with the international students for breakfast and we were off to the language course and in the evening we’d often leave the place to go have a beer somewhere. It was nice, but it still sucked. More than Uilenstede. Much, much more.
I got in touch with an agent and looked for a few flats. We were in a rush because we had to move out of the dorms, but plans fell through and in the end we couldn’t finance the flat we found. I got to work with some friends at my university and called a whole bunch of places, but with no luck. I ran into a Danish guy I knew and he gave me the card of his landlord and told me the guy had more places. I then called him and he said “ok, can you meet me in 1 hour at the Starbucks in Moda? Ok, bye”. Well, I rushed my way to find the place, since I had never been there before. I found it on time and the guy showed me three affordable apartments. I said I’d probably be interested in one of them and the guy immediately gave me the keys. I told him I’d have the rent in a week as I needed to find some flatmates, which was no problem.
How I’ve Lived There
I found 3 flatmates; one from Germany, one from Italy and one from Poland. 2 guys, 2 girls. I figured it would work well, however I should have listened to my feelings when getting my flatmates in. There was one person that didn’t sit too well with me from the beginning, but I ignored my gut feeling, because I really needed to fill the flat up and let this person in. Because of this, I could never really feel at peace or at home in the apartment, which was a shame, because it was in a beautiful location. Looking back, I also realize I had a slight culture shock and it was hard to deal with that if there’s no place where I can really be at ease and feel at home. Also, just when I arrived I got some stomach flu – maybe because of the change in climates – and it stayed with me for about 4 months (maybe it was stress though). It was a great half year though, living in Istanbul. I had a really light schedule in university and had plenty of time doing things that really mattered; like developing my knowledge about topics I’m interested in and networking with people there – oh and of course hanging out with fellow students.
That’s it. Part 3 soon… Including a video of my newest apartment here in Sofia, Bulgaria! 🙂
BasBasBas.com is about my life abroad. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul, Bulgaria and travels in the region, but like to ponder about the future also. If you’d like to stay up to date, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates in your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter.
He had some interesting things to say, like his principle of Music Like Water, which states that in the next few years, users will be paying a tax in some way to collectively license musical content. I had a talk with him for about 25 minutes which I posted on my thesis blog.
If you want to have a listen to it also, you can download it as an MP3 or use the stream below.
Sounds like a title for a memoir, but it’s not. Ever since I started studying in Amsterdam 4 years ago, I’ve been on the move a lot. The longest I’ve lived in one place since then is about 11 months I believe. This is an overview of the places I’ve lived in, at home and abroad, and the people I lived with.
The first place I moved to is probably the most dreadful, although some people like it there. It’s a student campus just outside Amsterdam in the suburb town called Amstelveen – although its residents would prefer me to call it a city.
How I got there
I was living with my parents and every day I had to take the bike to the busstation, the bus to the trainstation, the train to another trainstation and a metro to the stop at my university. Meanwhile I was going a little crazy at home, with two parents and two other brothers and all three of us were getting a little too big to stay under one roof… So I convinced my parents that I could do much more homework if I lived by myself, closer to school and after a lot of dinner conversations dominated by the topic, they agreed. I arranged the housing via my university and a little later… I was moving into this flat on the first floor (not the ground floor).
How I’ve Lived There
I made sure that it at least looked like I was not being lazy and scored a 100% for my first university exam which was in Global Marketing. Besides, I didn’t have internet in my campus room, there was no student internet cafe, so there was not much to do besides reading, studying, sleeping, eating and playing a game every now and then. The communal kitchen sucked, and I tried not to go there. I hardly met any of the other people living in my hallway. Two nights a week I was awoken by the couple upstairs having their nightly pleasures. I went to my parents every weekend and took my laundry with me… Partied it up in my hometown and went back to Uilenstede. There was a lot of green around though and it was a great area for running, which I loved to do back then. I read a lot about Buddhism and even though I disliked the place, the loneliness pushed me to start my spiritual development. I think I also had a girlfriend back then who lived in the south of Holland so I spent quite some time with her also – missing a bunch of classes, but it didn’t show in my school results.
I had a bedroom/studyroom/livingroom, my own bathroom and a hallway with a big closet. Kitchen was shared, but I had my own cooker and fridge in my room. I also had a microwave, which I used, a lot.
When I could terminate or extend my contract after half a year, I knew there was only one way to go. Terminate that sucker Arnold Schwarzenegger style! So I moved back to my parents and looked for a new place for a while. I was looking in both Amsterdam as well as Utrecht, one being the city where I studied and the other being the city where I had most of my friends. By train, they’re just 25 minutes away from each other. That looking for a new place for ‘a while’ turned out to be 2 months; because it can be really hard to find a place in those two cities.
How I Got There
A friend told me about a friend of his who was living in a studenthouse and they had a room that was freeing up. I went there and both myself and another girl were clearly the contestors for the room, as far as the students were concerned. Their landlord however, had placed two people in their house, one being an alcoholic who had his wife and children walk out on him and the other was a 35 year old unemployed Arab guy who barely spoke Dutch. They decided to go for some quiet girl and they would not have it any other way. The friend of my friend (Marc) apologized to the girl and myself and said he knew another house in that neighbourhood where two rooms were freeing up and he would try to get us in there.
A few days later I was once more sitting in a living room full of students and we talked and all of us tried to show the best side of ourselves. After a short while the people that were living in the house left the living room to discuss who they liked most. They came back and both the girl from the previous time and myself were picked. Hooray!
How I’ve Lived There
I had a tiny attic room, but when it was time for signing the contracts the other girl told my landlord that it turned out she could not terminate her previous contract and she left. I then got the slightly bigger, but still very tiny attic room (more later). We then had to pick a new candidate for the other room. We had a few girls come by… Two girls were absolutely awful, so we decided to call someone else who reacted but didn’t show up and beg her to please come by. She came in and we immediately knew she had the place. I lived there for about 1 year and I saw many people come by. I moved in with:
Jesse, Jaap, Ruud, Iris and Rosa and the girl we picked was called Ayla. We lived with 7 people and shared one toilet, one shower and one kitchen. Then people started moving out and within half a year I was the last one left with a whole bunch of new people: Laurens (for 1/2 months), Petter, Dani, Laura and Wieger and one more girl whose name I can’t recall.
In the end it was perfect. The fire department came by and determined only 5 people could live there. It was Petter, Dani, Laura, Wieger and me for quite some time and we all became good friends. The house was in harmony. Then we got the bad news: the landlord was selling the house, we could either move to another house of theirs or find something for ourselves within a month. I said bye to my tiny attic room with just 2 square meters where I could stand up straight and a very low corner where I put my matress to sleep, my bedcave. 🙂
There was the occasional coffee smell in the neighbourhood since there’s a coffee factory right next to it.
Not sure how I found out, but I was informed of a place that rented out rooms in an old office building. It was going to be demolished some day, but until then, they got a permit to let people live in there. So they built a bunch of student rooms into the building and moved in 240 creative people. I contacted the foundation that was running it (Stichting Tijdelijk Wonen) and could move in one or two days later.
How I’ve Lived There
This must have been one of the best times in my life. I had some friends living in the same building and two of my friends moved in a little bit later. I only lived there for a few months, but it was great. My room overlooked a small canal in front of the building. Oh and my room was pink.
I had a lot of fun, a lot of nights sitting in my room with one of my best mates Bouwe, drinking some beers, listening to music. Besides my computer, the most used item in my room was my microwave/oven (in the evening for my meals, in the morning for my bread), closely followed by my bed. I really loved this place, it was excellent. Showers were shared and so was the kitchen, but there was a lot of space and the people living there were cool and progressive. How progressive they were I found out once more through Googling the address… Turns out there was a Foundation for the Development of Lesbian Culture housed in the building.
After four months or so, I moved to Sofia, Bulgaria for the first time and had to say goodbye to the building. It was being torn down 2 months later, so I would never see it again. 😥
Well, it didn’t hurt for long, since I was moving abroad and was so enveloped in this new place that I forgot all about my life back in Holland.
How I Got There
This is a long story, but in one sentence, I was inspired by the Balkan music one afternoon and decided to go live there. When I got there I got into contact with an agent who showed me a few flats in the center of Sofia and I picked my favourite.
How I’ve Lived There
Oh how I hit the jackpot. For the same price as all those places above, I got my own big living room with a kitchen, a bedroom and bathroom… Everything was included! Tables, chairs, couches, TV (which I never used), well, everything. You can have a look at it in the video below.
I lived by myself for the first time since Uilenstede and this time I LOVED IT! I was mixing a lot of music in my living room, eating at restaurants in the area, partying a lot, and working a lot. I had a great time that half year, which led to me moving back 1 year later.
Which I will post about soon… in part 2 🙂 What are the coolest places where you’ve lived? And the strangest? Leave your story in the comments or post about it on your blog and leave the link here.
BasBasBas.com is about my life abroad. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul, Bulgaria and travels in the region, but like to ponder about the future also. If you’d like to stay up to date, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates in your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter.
A few weeks ago the Bulgarian psychedelic trance community, OUIM.org, celebrated its 5th birthday. They invited a bunch of great progressive psytrance DJs like Vibrasphere, Sandal Wood, Kalumet, Kliment and there were also some harder sounds from Bulgaria and Macedonia (see it here). Well, I went there and made a video… so without further ado, I present to you………. ME!
BasBasBas.com is about my life abroad. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul, Bulgaria and travels in the region, but like to ponder about the future also. If you’d like to stay up to date, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates in your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter.
I’m working for a record label here in Bulgaria, working on the internet side of things, mainly promotion;
I’m doing an assignment for a political party here and helping them out with their internet campaign, since the parliamentary elections are coming up;
I’m making videos for SpinEARTH.tv – although haven’t finished any recently… Actually, I attended a show and accidentally deleted the video I made there. F!!K!
I’m going to be speaking on a conference about self-development and social psychology in Prague next month and brainstorming about what I want to say. I want it to be groundbreaking and paradigm shattering!
On top of all that, one of my best mates visited me for 7 days last week annnnddddd we saw the sun come up quite a few times.
Will resume a more regular blogging schedule soon though. 🙂
BasBasBas.com is about my life abroad. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul, Bulgaria and travels in the region, but like to ponder about the future also. If you’d like to stay up to date, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates in your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter.
I’m sure I’ll offend someone with this; good. This needs to be said and people have to start becoming aware of this. The following is possibly the biggest hurdle for the Bulgarian people and it needs to be discussed.
A few months ago I was on Bulgarian English-language news website Novinite.net, where I often got into discussions with other readers through their commenting system. One day one of the people argued that foreigners that come to live in Bulgaria must be the lowest of the low in their country. Why else would someone move to Bulgaria? Most of the commenters on the newsportal are Bulgarians that have moved abroad, mostly the USA. They are very hateful and find reason to despise just about everything. They point: the corruption is the fault of them, they hate parties on both sides of the political spectrum, except for the extreme right-wing party Ataka. It’s like they’re reading the news just to get an affirmation that their move abroad was a good choice. These people are among the most negative Bulgarians I’ve come across and they mask their own insecurity and feelings of inferiority by pointing, pointing and pointing.
Many people I meet have trouble understanding why someone from Holland would ever move to a country like this (twice!) and even bother to pick up a few words and sentences. To me, Holland is organized, linear, and everyone stays in their own bubble. To some that might sound appealing, but to me that sounds boring – and on top of that, the weather’s always shit. I went to Bulgaria to taste a little more of life. The food is better and more authentic, the people are not emotionless robots when they’re working, and they worry a bit less about their time. Whereas in Holland people look up the exact times of the bus and try to be at the busstop the minute before the bus comes, here people are more likely to simply go to the busstop and wait. That’s what I like, that’s why I’m here.
But why I really believe there’s some type of underlying inferiority complex in the Bulgarian society is the expressions of powerlessness people give. They feel their vote won’t change a thing, they feel it doesn’t matter who they vote for, they feel corruption can’t be solved….. They feel completely powerless to change anything about Bulgaria. That’s why I believe this is a more important thing to handle than fixing corruption, the justice system, or anything else. People have to believe they can make a difference; and then they will. The state of Bulgaria is improving, but slowly and with a determination to make a difference, from person to person, this process could speed up ten-fold.
People need to stop pointing at politicians, politicians need to stop pointing at each other, companies should stop pointing at politicians and politicians should stop pointing at companies. We ALL live in this country and we ALL want to have the best we can get; every time you point a finger, you can also pick up some of the litter on the streets and make a real difference.
Life’s not perfect people, nor will it ever be. Stop expecting to get something great, while you don’t believe other people deserve something great to happen to them. You are part of those other people, we are one society. Now stop pointing or holding out your hand and DO something. Anything at all. Make a difference today.
BasBasBas.com is about my life abroad. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul, Bulgaria and travels in the region, but like to ponder about the future also. If you’d like to stay up to date, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates in your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter.
I posted about this before, but they wanted me to make a shorter version, so I did. It’s a lot better I think. Have a look and get to see a more vivid version of me (compared to the ‘writer’).
Do you live in Istanbul and are you interested in getting into music shows for free, in exchange for making similar 2-4 minute videos? Email me at and I’ll get you in touch with the right people.
BasBasBas.com is about my life abroad. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul, Bulgaria and travels in the region, but like to ponder about the future also. If you’d like to stay up to date, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates in your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter.
Sofia is covered in snow once again, so Tsvety and I decided to make a small snowman on my balcony. I’m looking forward to the spring though… Enough of this snow, I want to be able to sit on my balcony and chill out properly. 😎
How’s the weather over at your side of the world?
BasBasBas.com is about my life abroad. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul, Bulgaria and travels in the region, but like to ponder about the future also. If you’d like to stay up to date, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or get email updates in your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter.
For a while now I’d been thinking it would be kind of cool if there was a Tweetup in Sofia, especially after all the Twestivals in 202 cities around the world. Well, a fellow Sofia resident, @brainpicker, contacted me with the idea and now it’s finally going to happen.
It will be held on the 24th of February in a bar/club called Hambara, which is a very special location. It’s located at ul. 6-ti Septemvri 22, just behind restaurant Zion. You can recognize it by a wooden doorway in the alleyway behind the restaurant; the door’s unmarked and you have to knock (more here). Would love to see you there at 9 o’ clock in the evening!
So if you’re a Twitter user in/around Sofia, then come to the meet up. Help spread the message and use the hashtag #hambara09.
When I got back to Holland I first moved back to my parents but really want to live in my old city, Utrecht, again.
The first place I moved to is probably the most dreadful, although 
When I could terminate or extend my contract after half a year, I knew there was only one way to go. Terminate that sucker Arnold Schwarzenegger style! So I moved back to my parents and looked for a new place for a while. I was looking in both Amsterdam as well as Utrecht, one being the city where I studied and the other being the city where I had most of my friends. By train, they’re just 25 minutes away from each other. That looking for a new place for ‘a while’ turned out to be 2 months; because it can be really hard to find a place in those two cities.
I’m sure I’ll offend someone with this; good. This needs to be said and people have to start becoming aware of this. The following is possibly the biggest hurdle for the Bulgarian people and it needs to be discussed.
and I’ll get you in touch with the right people.
For a while now I’d been thinking it would be kind of cool if there was a Tweetup in Sofia, especially after all the 