Friends in need are friends indeed :)

In that case the need was to drink some cocktails...
Thank you Reidi and Pe :)

Capturing the wind in a jar and putting it to good use

A great General Electric commercial for using the wind energy.
They have a whole Ecomagination website promoting "green" initiatives and products :)

My weekend in pictures: Saturday

Interesting food info in Borovetz

The Samokov hotel

The "You are not alone" campaign is well integrated in selling real estate

The jeeps for our extreme-safari

Picnic time ;)

Me (almost) on top of the world

The Bulgarian medics are at last back to Bulgaria

The Bulgarian medics that were imprisoned for 8 years in a jail in Lybia and accused for intentionally injecting the AIDS virus to Lybian children, were finally brought back home.
Everyone is happy and relieved, BUT...
There are some lessons to be learned by the whole 8-year ordeal. If these lessons are not learned, then the Bulgarian politicians will totally loose the credits of the people.
Lesson 1: In such a complicated diplomatic situation it is better to act early, not to wait 7 years and then start trying to do something
Lesson 2: You should be very, very careful with your media exposure and the campaign around "saving the prisoners". Do not allow some shadowy business structures to prevail and earn money on the misfortune of these people!
Lesson 3: Being in EU truly can save lives.
Lesson 4: Let's hope all is agreed with the financial side of the "freedom". I personally won't be very happy to understand that Bulgaria has to pay a compensation to Lybia and this will be calculated in taxes.

Finally, I really feel sad for the medics. Their lives are ruined, and what I really hope is they are not used as "media - puppets" and then - when there is nothing sensational about them any more - thrown away.

The police against Bulgarian bloggers

I never believed this could happen until it actually happened!
Bulgaria is a member of EU for 6 months now, it is supposed to be a modern and fast-developing country...but...obviously its citizens do not have freedom of speech.
Story goes like this.
The previous week there were several non-violent protests and flash-mobs against the decision of the Bulgarian supreme courts to allow building in the natural reserve Strandja. The participants were mainly young and well-educated people who did nothing but just showed peacefully their disagreement with the decision.
Then, suddenly one day, one of the active bloggers in the Bulgarian blogging community - Michel - was asked to go to the police station and he had to answer questions.
The problem was he had published in his personal blog information on one of the Strandja protests!
This is happening while only a week ago another Bulgarian businessman was shot in the very centre of Sofia. And the police is not working to find his assassin but is trying to scare people that openly state their position in their personal web-space.
Strange, ain't it?
Absurd!
Good thing is - the whole blogging community reacted immediately and for two days there were more than 100 opinions posted in the blogs of all this people.
The Ministry of internal affairs is still silent.
I would like to here what they want they have to say...

Folklore festival in the Sofia centre

Today was a really wonderful day :)
After the Trabi show, I finally found time to read some papers (yes, I am working at a newspaper, but rarely have time to red one ;)).
Then, with my collegue Assya (a very talented designer by the way)we went to a folklore festival organized in the city centre.
It was rather cool, there were groups from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Italy, Venezuela, China, Korea, Armenia.
The guys from Venezuela really made me go crazy. I just feel I need to learn Spanish and all kinds of latin dances.
I love salsa ( although in the last month I haven't been to serious with my salsa lessons).
Then, after Chambao and Belen Maya I got so inspired to start with flamenco.
And with Gotan project - tango :)

Anyways - the stupid thing about the festival was again the organization. First - mineral water was sold at a double price. Second - nobody thought that someone from the 500 people gathered around the park might need a toilet. Or a bench to sit.
I wonder when we will learn to do things in the proper way in Bulgaria...

Trabi's 50th birthday

Today I went to a show, celebrating the 50th anniversary of this legendary East German car - The Trabi.
For those of you that know something - no need to explain.
For all the others who are seeing that "thing" for the first time - Wikipedia has some interesting stories to tell.
Who said small cars aren't in fashion ;)

The power of beauty

Not quite fitting into the "beauty standards" of the age, I have often wondered how it feels to be really beautiful and exercise the power of beauty upon others.
And I really do not mean being sexy and using sexual power, although my suspicion is that is one of the main driving forces of the contemporary world :)
I truly believe that seeing beauty makes people better and more honest.
Yet, as God has not given all of us physical beauty - we should learn how to show our inner one (yep, my strong conviction - even the ugliest has some inner beauty). Of course - that does not mean not to take care of our appearance ;)
One good step from quite an unexpected side are the ads of Dove.
In the world of cosmetics, where everyone is flawless, every product makes you perfect and age and wight are the biggest sins, these guys have created some very nice campaigns to show that "well, not everything what u see is what u get" and "beauty is skin-deep".
Enjoy the videos and keep the belief that beauty can be found even at unexpected places :)

DOVE Evolution video

Dove True Colours video

Dove Pro-Age Video

The song that expresses my mood lately :)

Mika - Grace Kelly lyrics

In case you want to sing along.
Here is the video.

Chilling out

This weekend I really felt the summer for the first time here in Sofia.
I mean summer in its "chill out" sense.
I listened to nice music - Arabic chillout, Gotan project and Chambao.
I read two e -mails - from Emo (who is in Dubai) and from Mimka (that one reminded me so much of my visit to Krakow). They made me happy :)
I made a small present to a friend.
I met some friends and we went to the wonderful places like
Coffee house where I drank delicious Ice-vanilla.
I drank Mojito in the late afternoon.
I went to Mediterani and sat there, on the leather sofas, in the coolness of the cellar, listening to relaxing music.
I strolled to the park (Borisova garden) and walked barefooted on the grass. I found a bench and sat reading there. I was observing the people. Writing. Listening to music.
I went to drink mint and sprite with some friends at a very nice part of the park - Lodki. It was as if the time had stopped and I was not quite sure we are in Sofia, actually.
Then I took the long way home with Mitko. We walked for about 30 minutes through dusky and almost deserted Sofia boulevards.
Amazing :)

Meet Danny Ocean :)

Freedom of speech in this blog

You might be wondering at the strange post and who is the girl at the picture and why is the picture mutilated like that.

The answer is simple:
I consider this blog my own space and I do not accept anyone, even closest friends to censor it.
My feelings are really very positive, but one cannot accept me to agree to remove a certain picture from here just because "I do not want my picture to be on your blog".
Or at least - demanding in this manner is not the right way to do so.
How about politely explaining why you wouldn't like your picture to be there (is it insulting for you?) instead of just giving orders...
I removed the picture from this post, as, however furious I was at Zayo qualifying me as childish etc. and no matter that I really feel that she acted very agressively in this case - I still respect her.
I hope she will not protest against the other picture I put in the post, anyway...
If she does, I will be careful not to put any picture of a friend here.
Problem is, I still do not understand what the problem with the picture was:)

Robert Downey Jr.

The city I live in...

...is unfortunately NOT the city of angels.
It is called Sofia, and it is dirty, packed with agressive people and...
did I mention that it is sometimes very very hard to cross the street there.
Please, do not watch the video if you are very sensitive.

The sea, the sea ...

I am ashamed to admit that form my long 25-year long life, I have never been in Burgas, actually, only passed through there.
So, when Maya (or Zayo, as most of us know her) asked - is there anyone who wants to come to Burgas with me - I was the first volunteer :)
So, here it was - my first visit to the Black sea coast this summer.There is such a strange rule - whenever you live near the sea - you almost do not notice it, you take it for granted, when you are away - you miss it...
We took the Friday 4 o'clock bus, and because not all of the road is a highway, reached 6 hours later.
Zayo's parents were, of course awaiting us, her mum, a very nice woman had prepared us a dinner.They made me the impression of very hospitable people and huge fans of sun-bathing - went to the beach at 8 in the morning every day.
Saturday was a fully scheduled day - we woke up, had a nice home-made breakfast and went to the beach in Sarafovo, which seemed to be nicer than the one in Burgas. We stayed only two hours or so, and it was not quite sunny, yet at the end of the day I felt I was a bit sunburnt.


After the beach, I managed to convince Zayo to go to the city centre (she didn't want to, cause all the people were dressed up and they would stare at us as we looked like idiots in our beach-wear. Well, anyay, who cares?!).
We walked on the beach and I had a few of these precious moments when I just stared at the magic waves and the sky, breathing the fresh air and feeling in a completely parallel Universe.
Then we had lunch-o-dinner with Zayo's cousin who seemed a cool guy and gave us very useful instructions on where to drink what.

The evening was committed to drinking sexy-named cocktails (Sex on the beach, Falling bikini, Double orgasm were only a few of the names) with Zayo and Kateto (who was so much sunburnt, that you could easily fry an egg at her leg). Marvelous!
We went to the beach to check how people were preparing to meet JULY MORNING. I expected more people, gathered around huge fires, drinking beer and playing the guitar. We saw mostly drunk teenagers and a few enthusiasts that seemed to carry the hippie spirit in themselves. I felt so grown up and out of space. For the first time I wished I was 15 again (when I was 15 I actually was thinking like a 30 -year old, but that's another story).
The moon was a perfect circle.
Strange, tempting.
Bitter yellow.
We sat for a while, listening to the music from the nearby disco.
Then we just went home.
Sunday was devoted to the beach again...then a quick nap. I awoke as if awaking from a nice dream. I had to be back to reality.

One more bit of the real me stayed on the bus...I read Haruki Marukami's "Sputnik, Sweet Hart" - a very nice book on love friendship and loneliness.
We are all metal pieces circling the earth in their own orbits. Sometimes we meet for a while. Then we part, without promising each other anything.
Some of us come back.
If they have the guts to do so.