Category: media

  • Strumica – Roma’s and Sandwiches

    The second day in Strumica I woke up with a bit of a hangover. We all got up and I went along with Mite to bring Isabella to the centre of his NGO where she would go to work with other American volunteers and then the plan for Mite and I was to go for coffee. Once there, Mite was put to work, so plans changed. I was standing around a bit and a guy was hooking up computers, so I figured I’d help out a bit. After hooking up some computers, I went to find Mite who was in another room with the American girls doing some activities to teach English to Roma children.

    They were busy with an exercise to write down three things about the first impression you had about a particular person in the room. The children stated some pretty sweet and funny things. After that we were put to work to make badges for ourselves with our name on it, but we had to draw something on it too. After that we did ‘Simon Says…’ to teach the kids some more English.

    See the pictures of the children in my Picasa album…

    After this Mite and I went for lunch and got some of the biggest sandwiches I’ve ever seen.

    We then met the girls in the centre who were done with work by now and Mite and Leni (who also works for the NGO) showed them the ways home. This was very interesting, because one of them was staying in a Roma neighbourhood. You enter quite a different place when you walk into the Roma neighbourhood; it’s like a village of its own and a very busy and noisy one at that. One of the girls was picked up by the family where she was staying and we were all invited to come around for coffee some time. This plan’s definitely on the table and I’m very excited about it.

    We then went home, had dinner, chilled out a while and Mite and I went out again to meet some more of his friends.

    If you wish to stay up to date about my travels, you can subscribe by RSS or email.

  • Pictures up now!

    The bird from our hotel (read here)

    The lizard on the mountain (read here)

    See the Bulgarian photos so far here and the ones from Strumica here.

    If you wish to stay up to date about my travels, you can subscribe by RSS or email.

  • Holiday!

    Yay!

    Going on holiday very soon. Took care of everything I wanted to take care of before I left. Now the plan’s to meet up with one more friend for an hour or so, go buy some more travel accessoires, get my ass over to Anton’s house to sleep there and get on the road in the morning.

    I’m travelling with Anton’s mom and her boyfriend and we’re going by car… to Bulgaria. It’s going to be quite a trial, since I don’t like heat, cars, or waiting, but fuck it. It’s also an adventure. Maybe. Anyway, turns out we’ll be coming through Novi Sad, Serbia, where I have a friend that I met at the Balkan Youth Festival (BYF) last year. Then going to Sofia, Bulgaria to visit my girlfriend. Then going to Strumica, Macedonia to visit another friend I mate at the BYF.

    All the way down there, the landscape can be a lot like the picture below, so I’m really looking forward to submerging myself in the unknown again. 🙂

    Then it’s back to Bulgaria, where I will finally see the Black Sea coast! I’m (more or less) packed and ready to go! Here I come. 🙂

  • Hilarious Censor!

    This is by far the funniest video clip I’ve seen in a long time! Get ready to laugh your asses off!

    The Count Is Censored

  • The Orange Dream

    Holland clears the field after losing to Russia

    It’s over. Done. During the qualifications, Dutch coach van Basten got a lot of criticism, but when the Euro 2008 was there, he amazed everyone. Fans, being skeptical and pessimistic about the Dutch team’s prospects, partly because of Holland’s spot in the ‘group of death’, were surprised by the team’s great victory over France. Hope grew, orange fever exploded and increasingly people started talking about Holland’s chance to take the cup. As Holland had another convincing victory against Italy and beat Romania with a largely substitute team, sky seemed the limit.

    Will they win? Will we finally do it? Will this be the team, the combination, that we will speak about for generations to come?

    It was not to be.

    Russia played a great match and simply did better than Holland. No luck, no referee mistakes, they were simply the better team of the match. Holland created some hope in the second half by scoring an equalising goal, but this hope soon faded as Russia’s team clearly had more energy left in overtime. It’s the end of Marco van Basten as coach of the Dutch team, the last time goalie van der Sar played for the team (one of the greatest Dutch football players ever, in my eyes), and it must be bitter for Boulahrouz who is mourning the death of his child that was born prematurely last Wednesday.

    This means there’s only one thing left to do.

    Root for Turkey!

    Turkish team cheers after win

  • Brussels Trip

    Bouwe, Jouke and I visited Brussels last Wednesday. Got up early, got into the train… and off we went. Not much to report. We basically walked around until our legs were hurting, sat down, had some Belgian beer and then continued walking again.

    At the end of the day we visited Antwerp which was a very pleasant place and one for me to check out more thoroughly in the future. Anyway, I took a bunch of pics, click on any of the thumbnails below to go to the photo gallery. 🙂

    Click here to visit the Picasa photo album…

  • NO TORCH IN TIBET!

    Just one month left!

    Torch scheduled in Shannan Diqu on June 19. Then in Tibet’s capital Lhasa June 20-21. It would be a disgrace if we let this happen! Speak up, speak out! Watch British Channel 4’s documentary “Undercover In Tibet”.

  • 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!

  • 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.

Related Posts Widget for Blogs by LinkWithin