Tag: Sofia

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”.

April 7, 2008
Great quote from Kotler

At the press conference here in Sofia, Kotler answered the following upon being asked by a journalist whether he had ever made any statements in his books which turned out to be wrong over time:

Well, I would sound arrogant if I said I never made any mistakes…
and I’d be foolish if I told you what they were..
So I really can’t even think of an answer for the question.

November 16, 2007
Philip Kotler in Sofia, seminar and press conference
Two things:
1. I’m extremely busy, so this post will be short;
2. I’ll be able to go back to my marketing professor in Holland, after my placement, and tell him I had breakfast (or high tea) with Kotler.
Yesterday as I went to the Philip Kotler seminar I spoke about earlier to interview some of the participants, I was invited to stay and witness the seminar in the afternoon. Sweet.

Note: you can use these pictures IF you include a link to this website. Do NOT infringe copyrights. I will find out.

Then today I went to the press conference, which turned out to be in the panorama restaurant of the Kempinski hotel here in Sofia. Very good service from the personel, as can be expected in a classy hotel like the Kempinski. It was just a round-table setting, everything was translated to Bulgarian also (to my annoyance), but it was pretty informal and comfortable to ask him a question. Also got a Bulgarian translation of Kotler’s book “Lateral Marketing” signed by him. Sweet. Maybe some day I’ll be able to read the book. More content another time, have to get all my stuff through to the radio first. Can’t post any real data on here before then. I’ll make sure to post the links to all the material as soon as they’re up on the Radio Bulgaria website.

Oh, go check out my Photoblog, it has updates!

Notice there’s no picture for today yet. That’s because I’m joining a journalist from Hristo Botev to the CD presentation of the Bulgarian Pop Idols winner. We’ll see what’s more interesting 😉
November 15, 2007
Thomas Was Here

FUCCCKKK. Was I knackered yesterday. Only word I can use without adding more obscenities so early in this post. Let me run you through what happened. I have to be a bit brief, because well… I don’t remember everything, but most of it I do. Secondly, I can’t really be bothered to, because I’m in the middle of making a new mix. So let’s get started shall we 🙂

This is where concerned parents or other family members stop reading.

Day/Night 1
Thomas arives at the airport. At some point he calls me and asks me where I am… At international arrivals of course. Turns out I had to be at terminal 1 and not 2… Got a taxi. Found him. Went home. We drank Rakiya until 3 or 4 in the morning. I went to work only half an hour late.
Day/Night 2
First we went to one of my favourite bars in town: Bilkova Apteka. Ran into James, Pieter and two Belgian girls who were visiting the latter. We said goodbye, went to a restaurant… Decided to go to one more bar and have a cocktail… Decided to go to one more bar and have something stronger… You can guess what happened. Let me tell you anyway.

We were standing at a table, minding our own business after getting ripped off by the bouncers. Some waitress comes up to us… asks us if it’s okay if a group of Bulgarian guys come and stand at the same table. Sure. The Bulgarians come, introduce themselves… start buying whiskey bottle, after whiskey bottle, after whiskey bottle. We went to some ‘chalga’ (popfolk) place afterwards. Thomas and I got bored quick (I think). We went home… The next day I was only 1 hour late for work. But completely DEADDDDDD. Oh, and I found out that I took pictures of the Iranian embassy. Sweet.

Day/Night 3
I already told you I was dead. Went home after work. Slept. Then we went to a restaurant at about 9.30. Still didn’t feel very good. Didn’t really expect to go out. Then we listened to some music at my place… Chilled out… Went out anyway at around 1. First Chervillo. Nothing going on there. Then to Yalta. Great success!

Saw Sebastien Leger, GREAT DJ. Check out some of his productions here. Basically, we partied until 6.30. Drank a lot of whiskey. Party, party, party, party.

Day/Night 4
Needless to say, by now we were fucked. I think that day we got up around 3. Went outside. Had breakfast. Walked out of the restaurant and it was already getting dark. Shit. We chilled out at my place and went out to Club Pulse. There was a minimal techno party, but it was rather psychedelic. Haven’t really heard this type of minimal before. Pretty cool. Met up with Bobi, the DJ that took me to the psytrance party on Rila. After drinking a Shark (Bulgarian Red Bull) at about 2h10, I got a rather upset stomach and really wanted to go home before going to another club. In the end we didn’t go out anymore. Probably for the best.

Day/Night 5
We woke up and were still feeling very poor. Figuratively, because Bulgaria is cheap. Had a rather interesting experience at a very Eastern-European public restroom. I went in (upset stomach), took some toilet paper from the “Pay Now Please”-lady. Went to the toilet. Discovered the first one I picked didn’t have a lock. I looked around… None had. Fuck it. I picked another one anyway. So when I was about done, after having to hold the door closed with my arm the whole time… (stop reading now, skip to the next paragraph) I decided that to wipe my ass, I would have to find a new way to hold the door closed. I got up, leaned against the door. I coughed. Then someone walked over to my door and started pushing it. I pushed back and said “Ne”, which means “no” ;-). Well, obviously this guy wanted something because he started whispering some shit in Bulgarian while he kept pushing the door. After about 5 seconds he stopped. I finished up, got out. There he was… waiting for me it seemed. He said goodbye to me in Bulgarian… Then said something else. Instead of ignoring him, I asked him if he spoke English (I was so tired, I had no clue what I was doing really). He held out his hand to introduce himself… Damn. I shook his hand. His name was Vladimir. My name was Bas. He said goodbye again, walked past all the empty stalls and entered the one I came out of. I washed my hands. With a lot of soap.

That night we went to meet up with James, Emil and Pieter and had dinner with them. After that Thomas and I went to an alternative bar in Studentski Grad and saw a Bulgarian band called Wickeda and the Whiskey Avengers from San Francisco. Had a lot of fun and drank a lot of whiskey again.

Day/Night 6
Today we got up at 10am and went to Vitosha mountain, just outside Sofia. Well… that’s what should have happened. Instead, we woke up at 11. Looked outside. Didn’t like the weather. Told each other tomorrow is another day and went back to bed. I sent some people in Holland a card. By this point the whiskey had gotten to our heads (even though I hadn’t drank any that day) and we thought we were VIP’s. We went to a bar and had cognac and a cigar.

We then proceeded home, because we didn’t want to be home late again. Thomas wanted to go to Vitosha the next day and I had to go to work… Alright, one more bar then. Two big whiskeys… At some point Thomas went to the toilet. I decided to talk to the first person on my right. I started talking to a brown-haired girl. About 10 seconds into the conversation (or maybe 3) the girl told me she knew me… Uh oh. So I went “Ohh!” but had to swallow the “now I see”… So I went quiet… and asked her from where. She told me and then I remembered. The protest for Burma I organized. Cool.

We stayed around for a while. Were introduced to a bunch of people in the bar since it was somebodies party. Went home late, again. Watched a film. Fell asleep on the couch, I think. Next day: probably half an hour late for work or so.. Don’t remember.

Day/Night 7 — Thomas’ Last Night in Sofia
We had to party. Of course. So we went to Studentski Grad. Went to a club called Jim Beam and got drunk again… on whiskey of course. I don’t think there’s much substantial to add. Except that Thomas didn’t manage to get a bus to the mountain and was followed around by stray dogs in a suburb of Sofia.

It was a very good day 🙂

Adios Day!
Lost the count and can’t be bothered to scroll up. This day Thomas got on his airplane and flew back to Holland.

The end.
Maybe you can imagine now how I feel. I feel pretty good since I finally have some time for myself. Working on a mix which will be up soon. Enough typing, enough chatting. Leka vecher i priaten hlob.

Check out the picture gallery on Picasa.

November 9, 2007
Young idealists… (Free Burma protest in Sofia, Bulgaria)

Well, it wasn’t big.. but at least I did something. The protest had 8 participants, but it’s probably the biggest protest the Chinese embassy has ever seen here in Sofia. As indicated earlier, I decided that it would be a good idea to get red flowers, because I had a feeling our presence would not be very strong. Turned out to be roses, because they were the closest to maroon red we could find. So we went to the Chinese embassy and went onto the steps to place the roses. Immediately a guard came out to ask us what we were doing, tell us not to take pictures and wanted to know if we had any permit to be protesting… Come on, it’s just 8 of us placing roses. So the only picture I have of us at the embassy is 1 second (literally) before that moment and you can see it at the bottom of the post. We stayed around for about half an hour, seeing if anything would happen. We saw some Chinese employee of the embassy looking at us and making a few calls. After a while we decided to leave the rest of the roses for the embassy employees with a note that said “For a free Burma”. Then we left.

If there is anyone from Bulgarian protest groups reading this, or has any experience (and knows how to get a permit), please contact me.

Representing France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, the UK and Bulgaria.

Oh, and I realize now that i could use my contacts at the radio and TV next time. Great!

This proves that everyone can do at least SOMETHING. And it can be fun, I met two new people through it. STUMBLE IT to spread the world!

October 6, 2007
Protest for Burma, Sofia 2007

Since nobody is taking the initiative, I will. In the hope that people will find this post through Google.

This is the plan!

If you care about the situation in Burma at all… Please do the following.

Go find the Chinese embassy (search: China Embassy on Google Maps), and lay a maroon-red flower there. Preferably between 2 and 3pm today (but if you read this too late, any day will do – I plan to do it once every few days).

Why maroon-red? It’s the colour of the robes of the Buddhist monks who were imprisoned, tortured, mutilated and killed in Burma.

Why the Chinese embassy? They’re Burma’s main ally… THEY can do something about this situation, but so far haven’t.

Why only a flower? Because of the small scale of participation. If we can’t organize a mass of people to come together at the same time… Let’s at least do something.

The people in Burma were killed and abused while the world was watching. They’re blood’s not only on the junta’s hands, but on the hands of all who failed to act to prevent it. So please, do something!

If you’re interested in setting something up, please email me at baslife (nospam) gmail – com

Some news just got out: Injured protesters in Burma are being burned alive!!

October 6, 2007
When will I sleep…

What a weekend… I met up with Mitko, the Macedonian graffiti writer I interviewed at the Balkan Youth Festival. He stayed at my place for a couple of days, starting last Friday. I hadn’t really rested well, so when we went to a drum ‘n bass party at night, I was already pretty tired. About the drum ‘n bass scene here… Man, do they like loud fking drum ‘n bass. I love it too, but when I came in, they were playing loud already… There was no build-up or -down whatsoever. Bad DJ’s. Besides that, everybody was on drugs and they overused the stroboscope which is VERY annoying in an overcrowded room. Very dissapointing, I hope to see better drum ‘n bass parties here, since I heard Sofia has a good dnb scene, but I spoke to some people there and they told me that this is basically the average dnb party in Sofia. Utrecht 1 – 0 Sofia.

The next day we got up waaay too early (somehow we had managed to find our beds at 7am). We got up at about 11, so we were both pretty tired. I met some cool people though, friends of Mitko (he’s lived in Sofia for three years). Basically, we chilled out the whole weekend.. On Sunday I had a couple of hours alone, so I cleaned my whole apartment… you know… vacuum cleaning the carpets, moving around tables so I could place another carpet (it’s getting really cold here), cleaning bathroom sinks, toilet, putting one of those soap dispensing things in my toilet (how ‘burgerlijk’), making my bed, doing the laundry, wiping down my tables, doing the dishes, putting things in closets and drawers instead of having them laying around everywhere…

Then in the evening I got a CD of a local psytrance duo called Asoma. They’re really great producers and since they’re Mitko’s friends and he’s coming back in Oct/Nov, so I suppose I’ll be hanging out with them.

I’m just balancing on a very bad cold though, so today I’ll set out to buy at least a scarf and candles, and if I see anything good: a coat. Because I did not take one here.

September 24, 2007

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