BasBasBas.com

Tag: Bulgaria

  • PhotoHunt: Beautiful

    Last year when I was working at the Bulgarian National Radio, they sent me on a worktrip to a town called Troyan. This town lies in central Bulgaria and is not frequently visited by tourists. I was told by the town’s tourist board to go spread the word, I also met the mayor, that’s how few foreign guests they get ;-). Besides work, there was also some time for sightseeing and we visited the church displayed in the picture.

    In general, I find most Bulgarian churches more interesting from the outside than from the inside, although my first encounters with the Eastern Orthodox interior of churches were far from boring. Check out the full album of my pics in Troyan.

    Have you been to Eastern Orthodox churches before? How did you like it? Ever attended a service and care to share how it differs from Protestant or Catholic services? Share now and leave a comment. 🙂

    If you have a wrinkled picture of your own to share and you’re a PhotoHunter, be sure to leave your name and a direct link to the post below! *

    Technorati: PhotoHunt

    Previous PhotoHunts.

    * No direct link or no PhotoHunt = delete.

  • Quick Update on Istanbul

    Excuse the Turkish symbols in this post. I have a lot to tell but lıttle tıme and I wıll revısıt thıs post later.

    It has been 30 hours sınce I woke up thıs mornıng. Last nıght I hopped on a bus to Turkey. Some observatıons:

    • As you’re nearing the border, Bulgaria gets more and more Turkish. You actually see Turkish characters like “ç” and “ı” pop up. Also the ınterıor of shops changes drastıcally. I’ve notıced thıs before when I went to Sandanskı, whıch ıs close to Greece.
    • The Turkish customs was not as strict as I’ve heard it was.
    • Turkish bureaucracy IS as chaotic as I’ve heard it was.
    • So are Turkish streets.
    • English… the unknown language.
    • Istanbul’s like a fairytale.
    • Living in a dorm sucks. Especially if you have to share your room with 4 people, your showers and toilets with 80 people and the only door that you can lock in your room is a closet door. Looks like I’ll be carrying my laptop around until I find an apartment.
    • Istanbul drıvers are very cheeky, but very polite at the same time.

    Anyway, I have to catch up on some Turkish lessons (missed 3 days). Will post something proper once I find a nice wi-fi connection. Lots of great stuff coming up though. When I went to Sofia I expected a place that was 10x more different than Holland. It wasn’t that different. But this place, oh boy 🙂

  • Off to Istanbul!

    I’m off to Istanbul today. It’s only been 6 months since I came back to Holland from Bulgaria where I lived for half a year. Now it’s time to get myself over to Istanbul for half a year of studying abroad. Since my girlfriend’s been in Holland with me for the last weeks and she’s from Sofia, we’re both flying to Sofia, Bulgaria tonight. I’ll be staying there a night and then I’m taking a 10-12 hour busride to Istanbul. Wednesdaymorning, I should be there.

    It looks like Wednesday’s going to be a bit crazy… Out of the bus, into the taxi. Out of the taxi, into the hostel. Out of the hostel, into the classroom for some intensive Turkish language courses. FIrst things first though, I’m leaving in a few hours and still haven’t completely packed yet, plus I need to get myself a new insurance for my stay abroad (but I know which to take, it’s just a matter of signing up). So I’m going to leave you like this. EntreCard users; I’ll try to drop back to the best of my ability, but the next days might be a bit chaotic, so I can’t promise anything. Keep dropping though!

    To all the people I know in Holland; I’ve had a great time… To the people I know in Istanbul; see you soon! 🙂

    Want to stay up to date on my life in Istanbul? Subscribe by RSS or click here for email updates.

  • PhotoHunt: Colourful

    I took this picture during my trip to Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria. I was having dinner on a terrace and this stray dog kept begging people for food, shoving its head through the fence and putting it on people’s tables. First time I really saw a stray dog like that, but during my five month stay in Bulgaria I saw many. It was also featured as photo of the day on the website of Radio Bulgaria (the international service of the Bulgarian National Radio).

    To see the whole album of the pictures I took in Veliko Turnovo, click here.

    Got a story to share about stray dogs? Your experiences in Bulgaria or Eastern Europe?

    If you have a colourful picture of your own to share and you’re a PhotoHunter, be sure to leave your name and link below! All PhotoHunt posts get Stumbled!

    Technorati: PhotoHunt

    Previous PhotoHunts.

  • PhotoHunt: Dark


    .

    This is the first instalment of , so let me just explain to you what it is. Every Saturday a theme is announced and on Sunday you post a picture from your personal collection that goes with that theme. Without further ado… here is my photo for this week’s theme: dark.


    .

    I took this picture in November last year when I was living in Sofia, Bulgaria. As I was walking home from work one evening, the city was very dark and extremely foggy. This created a rather eerie atmosphere and I decided to capture it. Check out the entire collection.

    Have a look at the other entries at http://tnchick.com/archives/1166.

  • Black Sea Coast: Nesebar

    As we got to Nesebar, we were a bit confused where to go. Everyone got off the bus at the beginning of the town, so we did the same, but we didn’t have a clue where the centre of the town was. Immediately an old woman comes up to offer a place to sleep and we take it.

    A few hours later we’re ready to go and explore Nesebar. As we head out, one of the first things we come across is… a horse.

    Hooray for Bulgaria. Anyway, we continued down the streets of the new town towards the old town. Once you get close to the old town, you’ll start seeing an increasing number of tourists, tourbuses coming for day trips, boats and harbours… and sea!

    Tsvety at the harbour

    To get to the old town you have to walk over this dam built in the water. I suppose Nesebar used to be an island. It has 3 millenia of history behind it, which is slightly noticeable because of old ruins, but recently tourism has been on the rise and with the growth of the beach resort Sunny Beach (Slanchev Bryag), Nesebar seems to be getting swallowed by tourists. Not really my thing, I prefer to explore a bit myself. Therefore for food and shopping, I found it better to get out of the old town and into the new town, which was slightly more Bulgarian.

    Since we were told there are no good clubs in Nesebar, we went for a night out to Sunny Beach and see what all the fuzz is about… See if it’s really a unique place in Bulgaria. And it was…

    It’s not Bulgaria. If you want to see Bulgaria, don’t go to Sunny Beach. If you’ve been to Sunny Beach, don’t tell people you’ve been to Bulgaria; you haven’t. You’ve been to Sunny Beach, which is interchangeable with any extremely touristy and club-filled town at the Spanish coast.

    Having said that, it’s an interesting place of modern architecture. Wealthy Bulgarians (some of them undoubtedly involved in the mafia) build huge palaces in honour of… err.. themselves probably. These palaces are beautiful and it’s no wonder so many tourists are willing to pay big bucks to sleep in Bulgarian mafiosi’s penis extensions.

    The clubs… they’re decent. At most. The first we went to was called Lazur… and it was like high school, but with a LOT of alcohol. Kids dancing like it’s the first time they’re in a club, etc. We left soon and found a slightly better club where a waitress tried to rip me off, so I’m not even going to mention the name of the club. Actually, I will… Don’t go to Mania.

    We got a taxi back which was 30 leva (15 euros), but because of my girlfriend, who’s Bulgarian, we only paid 15 leva (7.50 euros). Pretty expensive for a 5 minute ride, especially in Bulgaria, but oh, I forgot… Sunny Beach is NOT Bulgaria.

    At the place we were sleeping, we discovered some kittens the next day and took some shots of them. They seemed to be rather sick though, so we kept a little distance. The pictures worked out well though. Click to enlarge.

    Click here to see the whole Nesebar album…

    After Nesebar, which is definitely a place to have seen in Bulgaria, we went to Sofia, where Tsvety did her things and I did mine for a few days. Then we both got on a plane and went to Holland. Time to show Tsvety where I’m from.

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

  • Black Sea Coast: Sozopol

    As I arrived in Sofia by bus from Macedonia around 8 in the morning, I was seriously considering skipping Sofia and just heading into the first bus to the Black Sea coast. I had told my girlfriend I’d be back in Sofia though and when I realized I’m too sweet to be a total dick, I let the idea of going straight to the coast go. I checked into the Art Hostel in Sofia and met up with Tsvety, my girlfriend, later that day. I think I must have told her about 20 times that she should come to the coast to me and she told me she’d have to see how her parents felt about it an equal amount of times. After all, she’d be coming with me to Holland for one month in just one and a half week time.

    The next day I got the news… Yes, we were going to the coast together. That evening we met up at the central bus station in Sofia to take a bus to… Sozopol.


    View Larger Map

    We did some basic planning and online orientation to see what hotels would be good there. Tsvety printed a map and marked the hotels on it. This was only to be used in worst case scenario, because generally Bulgarian old men and women offer quarters (kvartiri) to travellers for really good prices. As soon as we arrived 3 or 4 elderly Bulgarians gathered around my girlfriend and I and started promoting their place and telling each other to shut up. This was all happening in Bulgarian and since I had just fallen asleep at the end of the busride, after 4 or 5 hours of restlessness, I was in a very confused mindstate. One of them won, apparently, and I followed my girlfriend and him up a hill. He presented our room which was very clean and we crashed and slept ’til noon(ish).

    The next day we went to the beach at the new part of town, since that was closest to our place. Sozopol is split into two parts, the old and the new. The best about the old part is all the old buildings (plus the only place with WiFi I could find was there (the bar’s called Lipstick)), the best about the new part is the strip with bars and restaurants along the beach.

    We spent the first day exploring the new part of town and looking for wireless internet in the new and old part, since I had a conference website to do some work for. It took hours (literally) to find a place with wireless internet and once there I got to work. Tsvety walked around a while and took some more pictures. After that we went back to the hotel to change clothes and head out to the beach. Finally! However I’m more of an eater than a beach person, so we soon repositioned our asses from beach to restaurant.

    The next day I got back to work at the bar. At the end of the day we walked around past Sozopol’s port and had dinner at a sea food restaurant. For the first time since becoming a vegetarian last November, I ate an animal. Mussels, to be exact. Only a few, since Bulgarian mussels don’t come close to Dutch/Belgian ones 😉 Never decided to completely stop eating fish though, it just turned out that way. That night Tsvety got rather sick from the chicken she ate (or maybe the mussels) and we spent the night at home.

    See the whole album on Picasa…

    We stayed one more day in Sozopol and then we took the bus north to Nesebar, for some more Black Sea coast time! More about this soon.

    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.

  • Blagoevgrad – Bas the Nature Boy

    The next day I took the bus to Blagoevgrad. I wanted to visit a friend in Strumica, Macedonia, but because I couldn’t get a hold of him, I figured I’d play it safe and postpone the trip there, but at least move closer to Strumica instead.

    The busride was amazing. Listening to Shpongle and my own psychedelic ambient/chillout set, I gazed out of the windows at the most fantastic scenes of nature. I sat in meditative position and I felt so at ease and ecstatic at the same time, that I was sad when the busride was over after two hours. I wanted more, but it was not to be.

    I walked around Blagoevgrad for a while, because the hotels in the Lonely Planet guide were a bit expensive and I figured I’d find something cheaper. After a while I submitted to the fact that it was either going to be calling a hotel from the Lonely Planet guide, or walking around with my backpack in sunny and hot Blagoevgrad and eventually melting to death. I chose the former.

    So I paid the 20 euros, but I had a great room and an awesome laundry service for what turned out to be E2.50. After a shower, I went out of the hotel and walked around a bit again. I decided to take a road up a hill somewhere and then I saw a muddy/sandy mountain road. I told myself to take it. I had been so happy listening to music and watching the nature from the bus, now it was time to go into it!

    I started walking up. Started taking small paths, the smallest I could find… I went uphill, far away from the busy town. At some point I came across a deserted playground. There was a construction for kids to climb on which was submerged in plants. Then there was also the slide without stairs. Very spooky. My trip continued upwards.

    I walked up and up, started sweating heavily, figured I didn’t want to waste another clean shirt again, so I took it off. Then at some point the slope was quite steep and I found it helped if I ran up at those parts, because of the momentum. Soon I was running happily around the hill while shirtless. Back to nature! Then I realized I knew nothing about nature, hills, or mountains, and I should be a bit more careful. This is when I stopped to consider if I wanted to go up further or not. As I was standing still I suddenly noticed a lizard on the ground next to me. I took some pictures from quite close, but then got too greedy with my space and it ran off.

    I headed back down. At some point I decided to put my shirt on again, since I was getting closer to the foot of the hill and I was no longer sweaty. I put my shirt on and suddenly a bunch of goats come by, followed by a dog and half a minute later another dog and a goat herder. Awesome.

    I went back into town. Went to the fancy place with the pretty people I saw earlier and had a great freshly squeezed melon juice. Then I got a message from Mite, my friend in Macedonia. Tomorrow at 5 o’ clock, I’d be taking the bus out of Blagoevgrad to Macedonia.

    I took it easy that night and went to bed early; one hour after midnight.

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

    Pictures soon, I promise. Within the next 2 or 3 days!

  • Sofia revisited

    As said in the last post, I got up ‘early’ (nine) on Sunday, to meet with Tsvety, my girlfriend. We chilled out a bit, I showed her the Art Hostel where I stayed the night before, and got my stuff to move to another hotel. On our way to the hotel, some woman at the other side of the street and about 20-30 meters away started shouting: “your bag! Your bag!” in Bulgarian. I ignored it, since I couldn’t understand it and didn’t get it was aimed at us, but Tsvety noticed it and turned around to see who was shouting.

    We turned and there were three gypsies behind us, one closely inspecting her own bag and saying “huh? My bag?” Then they crossed the street and went away from us as fast as possible. Close one. Nobody in Holland would shout through the street if they thought someone was about to get something from your bag. Well, very few people at least.

    Then we got to the hotel. At some point we had a visitor, a small bird, which we took some pictures of. I’d post the pictures, but I appear to have forgotten the cable for my camera, so I promise to show them later. Hopefully before the end of the week.

    Then we went out to the park, where they would be showing the Euro Cup finals, but there were also two stages with live music before that. Got to see Eli, Boriana and Annie again, also met up with Bobi, Mitko and Ivan. Ran into a French guy I met while I was living in Sofia also.

    Watched the game with Mitko and Ivan, then afterwards stayed at the park for a while and drank a beer. On my way back to the hotel I saw about ten honking cars with Spanish flags being waved. As I looked at the number plates, turns out they were all diplomats’ cars. Festive people, those Spanish. I wonder how the Dutch embassy employees would have acted in Sofia, had Holland won the Euro Cup.

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

Related Posts Widget for Blogs by LinkWithin