Struggling my way home

I should have stayed in Varna and I got thousand proofs for that during my trip home. Starting with my night train experience described in another post, I had really the worst trip in my life. I had to reorganise my bags in the airport because my baggage was 21,7 kg and they wanted me to pay 40 Euros for that. Then they probably thought I am a terrorist because it took them about 10-15 minutes to check my passport in the airport. First a girl was looking at my passport as it was a lettuce, then she called some guy who took my passport, told me to wait and left for 10 minutes and only after that they finally gave it back to me and let me go. With my luck, I don’t know how did they let me to keep my toothpaste, but I had to try my bag with ryanair bag-size-check-box.

When I thought that finally I am in the plane and it will be ok, I noticed that the guy who was sitting next to me was terrified of flying. And of course there was no single free place in the plane. As a result I was able to sleep for only around 1 hour from 3,5 because he was pushing me all the time (not on purpose but because he was all shaking and breathing loud and I don’t know who is this cruel person that convinced him to take this plane, but he should definitely travel by bus or train). When I arrived to London at first everything seemed great (even though I received my bag with a label that it was checked by the security in Plovdiv... still thinking I am a terrorist?), I didn’t have to wait at the security check since they have a separate line for people with electronic passports, and since there are just few, it was really fast to scan my passport with a special device, show my face to the camera and go without any interaction with people.

I left my bag at the storage room and took a bus to Stratford, where I was supposed to meet with a friend of my classmate to get the keys from the apartment I was staying at. On the way my friend told me there is a landlord inspection and I had to wait till 8 pm to go there, well, ok, I went to meet with my cousin, whom I haven’t seen for more than 2 years and actually it was the second time in my life we met.

I got an illusion that things got back to normal when we went to Giraffe and the guy first told us we have to wait for the table 40 minutes, but then there was a free table for us in 1 minute. Well, probably the fact that I walked the main street of the area where my friend lives 3 times back and forward before I found the right turn doesn’t count, but next morning my adventures continued.

In the airport they checked me as I was a terrorist again, touching all my body and scanning my legs with a special device (do I need to mention I was the only person to walk through the scanner in my socks?) No wonder they gave me hot coffee instead of the cold one, I had to pay double for the storage of my bag because I came couple of minutes later than the 24 hours finished, and of course they wanted me to check my bag for fitting in the box again or make me pay 40 pounds. Trying to hold my feelings and strong desire to send them all to hell I just told them I’m not gonna pay a penny, put all my clothes on and jumped on my bag a bit.

During my trip 3 belts for my bags broke (having 2 bags and 3 belts there usually shouldn’t be any problem), I got a strong feeling some power wanted me to stay in Varna. You could get an impression I am really unlucky with travelling, which is totally wrong; this is why I am so impressed with the last 2 days of my life. I'm just amazed my bags weren't lost and I'm finally home safe and sound!

Marketing campaign for Bulgarian trains - travel with Bulgarian trains!

Having one of the worst trips ever I learned that one of the scariest things in your life could be being alone in a Bulgarian train at night. First of all, you don’t know who you will sit with. My great neighbour was drinking beer all night long and talking to me even after I told him 15 times that I want to sleep and because of the fact that he was so great, I was afraid to fall asleep, so I had to listen. Next is the complete lack of information. There are no announcements of stations, no “tabels” with the station names, no info about any arrival time (and if you bear in mind that Bulgarian trains are ALWAYS late, it’s even worse), you don’t know whether your station is the last one or if you can wake up in a different part of the country next morning.

In addition to everything mentioned above, I had an experience with Bulgarian train toilet. NEVER go to the toilet in Bulgaria train, especially if you are travelling alone. Being a naive girl who thinks that Bulgarian trains are similar to the old Russian trains I closed the door and next minute realised that I am trapped in a 1 sqm large smelly, loud and cold room, in the middle of the night, alone, with no phone. Trying not to panic too much and thinking what will I do if I have to stay there all night long and miss my flight; I was beating the door with my fists hoping someone will hear me. 10 minutes later I was rescued, but the impressions and emotions I got are priceless and unforgettable. If you feel like you are bored and nothing thrills you in your life any more, forget about extreme sports, travel with Bulgarian trains! A whole marketing campaign could be based on just my impressions J

Varna. Conclusion.

Rommies :)

It wasn’t always perfect, there were ups and downs, lefts and rights, mistakes and successes, it was different even though we spent all summer between Cubo and Piratite and all autumn between Bolla and Sea Wolf... This is how it should be and I didn’t regret a day I spent in Varna even though sometimes I wanted to be home really much. This is the life paradox – the more you travel and the more you live in different countries – the more pieces your heart is broken into. But these pieces don’t go into trash; they are safely kept in the hearts of those who gave you a piece of their own heart. This exchange is painful, but it brings a lot of happiness once the pieces are together again, even for a short period of time.

I’m trying to make a conclusion of what life in Varna gave me, but it’s difficult, since these 4 months were like a separate world, even though they finished very fast. It seems like last week I came to Varna airport not knowing anything that is going to happen next, being frustrated after Sweden, happy that I am going to see my Ivelina again and expecting new experiences.

16 weeks later I am going home with completely different feelings. I know exactly what I am going to do at least next 8 months, my mind is more structured and organised, I am happy that I will see all my friends and family in Latvia, but sad, that I don’t know when I will meet again the people that I didn’t know 4 months ago and that became my family, and at the same time I am also happy about what these 4 months gave me.

Life, packed in two bags of 30 kg in total is complicated from time to time, but also exciting and I would never trade it for anything else. 

Latvia and Bulgaria

Bulgaria and Latvia are two similar countries, even though at first it seems that they don’t have anything in common. Both countries have people who want to live much better than the corrupted government allows, however in Latvia there are much more people who want to escape by going to England, Ireland and Germany. In Bulgaria people’s national conciseness is much higher and as a conclusion more people want to stay in their country even if it’s not perfect (does anyone know a perfect country? Even Norway was attacked by a terrorist, and the fact that he was Norwegian only made it worse). Another expression of national belief is the protests that I witnessed less than one month ago. Protests in Latvia also happen, but firstly they are attended only by few people and secondly they don’t have any effect on anything. I wish my country to wake up and to look at all the problems not from the position “I want to escape”, but from the position “I want to change it and I will”, however even for me while writing this post is difficult to imagine that something like that can be done.

Living in Bulgaria for me was great, as I felt the connection with the culture, language and people, the politics and economy doesn’t differ much from what I am used to and the climate was normally much better than in Latvia, however the 2 rainy weeks in October made me reconsider my opinion about the great Bulgarian climate.

It was really sad to leave, especially considering that the last couple of weeks everything was becoming better every day of my life, but life goes on and this page of my life finished. May be I will come back one day and I would really loved to, but life’s unpredictable and I cannot plan anything like that so far. So, keep in touch and thank everyone for everything! 

Last weekend in Varna

What can I say, my last weekend in Varna is oficially over. In one week from now I will be sitting at home in Riga, having home-made dinner from my grandma and sharing my impressions. It was a great weekend though, starting with Friday night at a nice place I haven't been at before - Underground club, where Clay was performing with some other guys (one was from Cuba, one from Bulgaria?). I tried playing darts for the first time in my life, met some nice people and eventually we went to Bolla (how come? we always end up in Bolla even if we say "no Bolla tonight", this is a magnetic place).

Managing the time

Hey guys,

I know you're all probably mad at me for not writing a lot, (I mean 1071 preview of 35 entries, it's like 30 previews per entry in average, no kidding), but it's only because I really don't have time to write in my blog these days. After we came back from Turkey, we only had 4 working days break and went for another trip, this time around Bulgaria. Finally visited the capital - Sofia and the old capital - Veliko Tarnovo. Well, in Veliko we have only seen the foretress and the place where we had lunch, but I must say the city is very beautiful and the view from the hill where the foretress is - is just amazing.
Sofia was better than I expected since for three months that I spent in Bulgaria I only met 1 person who likes the city and I thought it will be terrible, but actually it was kinda cool. I mean I wouldn't lie to live there, but it reminded me Riga a bit, just surrounded by mountains, bigger and with IKEA. However the bad part about Sofia was that we met thousands of people protesting against gypsies, and for me it was quite an unusual experience. I mean we don't usually have protests in Latvia and especially the rasist ones. Oh well, not my business.
Later on we went to an increadible place not far from Sofia, 1000 m above the sea level with population of 2,500 people, named Koprivshtica. The really generic Bulgarian village, however with an important role in history, since this is where the uprise against Ottomans started. (as I was told).
We spent 3 days in the car practically moving all the time and seeing something curious, thanks to Ivelina and Chris who planned this trip for Des and me and patiently were driving and telling us about the places. I will miss travelling with you, guys!
After that I finally had to start writing a huge paper for my university with the deadline of November 7, however I don't know where I have less time for that - here when I'm practically leaving or in Latvia - where I haven't been for a while...
Trying to write my paper I had to manage combining it with meeting with Pris who was with Des and me in Sweden in first semester, Zhuo, who was also with us in Sweden, but I never met her before and she only stayed in Bulgaria for 2 weeks and is forced to leave tomorrow, trying to spend some more time with all the other people and sleep somewhere inbetween.
Last weekend was a disaster since Autumn came too suddenly. On Saturday I went for a walk in my t-shirt and on Sunday I woke up in the middle of Autumn. from +24 to +8 in one night is too shoking for me, so the very first thing I wanted to do was make a lot of hot tea and never leave my bed. However need to get used to this weather as in Latvia it won't be better and it's less than two weeks left till I will meet with my home country after this long trip.
Lots of plans, no time and lots of work to do. That's the life I like.

Some updates

- Hey, how are you?
- Great.

Really, there are always some negative sides in life, but in general everything is going great. Last weekend we went to Istanbul and I just cannot describe this trip, because my emotions are so huge, that there are no words to include all of them. Firstly, it was great to meet erasmus people with whom we spent half a year of our lives in Sweden. Secon, the city itself is the most amazing and increadible city that I have ever seen and could ever imagine. And now if you mix this, add +27 degrees weather, amazing food, increadible culture, lots and lots of fun and multiply by 100 maybe you will understand how I feel about the trip to Istanbul.
And tomorrow another trip is waiting for us, but this time around Bulgaria.
And I have only 3 weeks left here in Varna, after that I am going back to Latvia to continue my studies.

Today I understood one thing, that was missing. There was something missing in the air, in the environment, in things around, and it was yellow leaves. I mean, it's quite strange for me, from the one hand, it's still warm weather, so the trees are green and everyone is still wearing flip flops, but from the other hand I know that it's been already one month of autumn, and for me autumn is scarf, coat, and long walks in the park, full of golden leaves. II'm not sure how is it going to be here the following three weeks, but I know that when I come back to Latvia, there will already be no leaves on the trees, so if trees will not start becoming gold urgently I'm gonna miss my autumn this year. Even though it's not my favourite season, it still feels strange.
However, life still goes on the way it wants. Neighbours are still being assholes, work is still being a bit stressfull, free time is still being too short to do everything. And in this context I already need to start thinking about studies and meanwhile planning meeting with my friends in Latvia after I come back. First weekend is already fully-planned and I am even already planning a small trip to Lithuania after coming back, since I promised my friend in Vilnius to visit her in November. Actually, usually autumn is quite a melancholic season, but it seems to me that this year there's no time to be melancholic.

Varna in September

So far, I love Varna in September. I must say it's much better than any of the Latvian cities in September. And there is number of reasons for me to say that.

Latvia, not Lithuania. (almost "Istanbul, not Constantinople", if you know what I mean)

I personally think, that confusing some things might be even worse, than just not knowing, because when you confuse them it means that you don't know a ship neither about one, nor about another. this is why i wasn't really good with dictations at school, as in my opinion writing the other word instead of requested one shows that you are twice as stupid.
I got used to the fact, that when people ask me where i am from and i say Latvia, they usually don't really know, what the hell is the country named like that and where is it. but when the following conversation happens, it is just pissing me off;

- where are you from?
- Latvia
- Aaah, Lithuania, cool. 


if i know something about people, they tend to confuse Austria with Australia, Syria with Serbia, Sweden with Switzerland and things like that. and from all these countries Latvia and Lithuania are probably the most similar, I mean Latvian and Lithuanian are the only two languages in the Baltic group, the countries are at least neighbourts and the economies are similar, however still, they are different. and even though I have 2 really close friends in Lithuania and I like this country, when people ask me to say something in Lithuanian, well... i say some words i know in Lithuanian, but then i want to punch them in their faces. sorry guys, but those are kinda basics, at least to know the names of the countries in Europe... and our flags are completely different. well, actually our flag is confused with the Austrian one sometimes, but that's another story...

Bucharest trip

Few words about our trip to Romania – it was amazing, day and night comparing to what I was expecting. The image of this country that we have is really bad and completely wrong. All the people I know think about Romania as an a bit creepy developing country (how did they even get to EU?), with 99% of population being gypsies, creepy buildings everywhere, rubbish and graffiti on the streets, dogs that attack people and people that are not educated at all. In reality it is totally wrong. Like totally. If I didn’t know that I am in Romania (ok, not really possible to wake up somewhere not knowing where, but let’s imagine that), I could assume that it is Belgium or any other European country. 

Long week - longer weekend

Trying to pack my backpack, but it's hard, even though I have quite an experince in packing... Why I am packing? Well...

The day September 6 is a very important one in the history of Bulgaria. It is the Unification Day of Bulgaria with Eastern Rumelia (Southern part of Bulgaria) in 1885, separated in 1878 by Berlin treaty and given to Ottoman Empire with partial autonomy. However 7 years later brave Bulgarians finally got their territories back and are celebrating this day since then. For us as foreigners here this means two things - we are happy for our friends and we have one more day free. This is why this week we are working Monday to Saturday, however Sunday to Tuesday having 3 days holidays.

Loud birds vs partying neighbours

What do you do, when you start hating your neighbours? It's fine to be sleepy in the morning because of the party that you attended the night before, but is it ok to be sleepy because of the neighbours partying every night 2 floors below? Don't think so, however, I really don't know what is the best solution in this kind of situations. In my opinion, calling the police is the last thing to do, as no matter how much you want to sleep, it cannot compare to the problems the other people might have. However, when we had not even a party, just a bit more people than usual having some beers and talking even without any music, our neighbours called the police at 1 am. Now there is a party second night in a row and no one seems to care.
If I would be Bulgarian, probably, I would go downstairs and asked politely to be more quite, however being a foreigner makes is a bit more difficult. Yes, I am sure they speak English, or even may be Russian, however talking to drunk people at 1 am in English might be not the best solution.
Tomorrow I am going to write them a letter... But so far even my earplugs aren't helpful... Wish me luck.

Office things (good and bad)

Everything cannot be totally perfect. Even in our office there are drawbacks, even though I wouldn't want to say anything bad about it. It just seems rediculously stupid how people are fighting for the chairs. The fact is that there are couple of "better" chairs and the rest are just regular ones. And people are stealing the "better" chairs from each other. And this is not the whole story yet, they are putting the numbers on the chairs to recognise "their" chairs. When I came to the office, I had a "better" chair by defaul, but then someone put a number on it and it doesn't belong to me anymore. The problem is that at 16.30 the two shifts are changing, but for us it is about the time of making follow up calls to the clients. Do you think it's possible to hear anything oer the phone when there are twice as much people as there should be, all of them are talking and the chairs are rolling back and forward? I really don't want it to sound that way, but it's true, even our office is not always perfect.

Societies

Society is what makes people. Literally. First, outside of society people become animals. Second, because of the society people become what they are, because they want to be the same or completely different, depends on their value system.
In marketing this is known as "reference groups" -which is a person or a group of people that significantly influences the individual’s behaviour by providing standards or norms by which consumers judge their attitudes and behaviour. In real life it is know as opinion of the others and it's not a secret, that in different groups we behave differently in order to show that we belong there. Sadly, it will never change. Luckily for them, there are people who feel comfortable in almost every society. Me, I don't feel comfortable when I meet crazy people, because I never know what to expect, but luckily this doesn't happen too often.

1 year and 8 days

It's been 1 year and 8 days since I left home and went to Sweden for 5 months, then decided to stay in Sweden 4 more months, than went home for a bit and finally I am here in Bulgaria. 1 year and 8 days. But my home is where I am, so I can't say that I miss home, I miss my family and friends, it's true. 

Today I saw pictures of new arrivals in Kristianstad. It feels very strange now, especially after I've seen the picture of the house that I lived in and the window of "my" room was open... I'm wondering who lives in this room now and how are they dealing with the broken window... At least there's no more knoking sounds in the heater and ventilation, that took me 4 months and a lot of nerves to get rid of. (thanks wonderful organization "Krebo", we will NEVER forget you). 

Movies

Being addicted to the cinema, in Latvia I used to go to the movies at least once a week. Not talking about visiting 2-3 movies per day once a month when our great cinema (where one guy was shot dead earlier this year) had promotions and you could get to a regular movie for 1,5 euro. We had 4 cinemas in Riga when I was leaving one year ago, I think now it is 5 or may be 6, need to check it.
Being addicted to the cinema I was writing a business plan for a new one in Riga as my course work in university on my first year of studies. I even have my favorite one - called Cinamon and it's situated quite far from the centre, which makes it less attractive for the others and more - for me. Other advantages it includes are the unbelievably comfortable chairs. I have never seen such chairs anywhere else in my life. Last summer I used to come there after work, taking a seat at around 5th row (so that the 5-6 other people in the room are behind me, so I don't see them and I feel like we're alone - just movie and me).
And then... it all changed. I went to Sweden, where the regular ticket was around 10-12 euros, the cinema smalland far away and the website of it totally useless. So for the last year I've been to the cinema 4 times ("Black Swan", "Burlesque", "X-man" and "Hangover II") and I really miss it, that's why the mission I set for myself for the next free day is to go to the cinema and to see everything that they will show me there. (but not more than 3 movies, or it willbe overdose)

Two-day-holiday

Mission for the weekend:

-          To spend time with parents

-          To spend weekend outside of Varna

-          To get tanned

-          To eat pancakes that remind of childhood

-          To find something in the Golden Sands that is exactly like 10 years ago

-          To learn some new Bulgarian words

Mission completed!

Identification?

Let's start this with a quick question to my Latvian friends - how many of you have your personal identification documents with you EVERY TIME you walk out of your home? I think, if we really ask everyone, the percentage will not be high and it will mostly be people who have driving licences and people who smoke and need to show documents to buy cigarettes. I say "personal identification documents" and I mean driving licence or passport, because ... wait ... in Latvia we DON'T have ID. And I think we're the only country if not in the world, than in Europe for sure.

Life mixture

When you work with computer 9-18 five days a week, you don't really want to spend more time with it at home. It's better to spend this time on something much more interesting - especially if it's your summer time in another country. That's why I didn't write in my blog for such a long time, even my parents are already a bit mad at me for not communicating with them, but who can be mad at me for long? :)
Life in Varna is going pretty well, we finally went for sushi with Despina, I finally bought myself a paper notebook (thanks Peter Vassilev for showing me the book stores :) ) and don't have to write my thoughts and poems on random pieces of paper that I loose afterwards. I was sick for 2 days at the end of last week and spend my Friday night with theraflu and hot tea with honey and lemon - works every time. And on Saturday my lovely Despina made a dinner for me. It is soooo nice when someone is taking care of you, thank you darling! :)

Sea

Because the sea is changing constantly - 
every next wave is different from the previous.

My days are dedicated to my work, my evenings are dedicated to the sea. I love living in Varna and one of the reasons is that the city center is situated on the sea coast. Riga is also sea-city, however I need to spend 1 hour in the bus to get to the beach from my place and 40 minutes from centre. Here I can go to the beach just to read a book, as I did it on Sunday, listening to some music in my headphones. But when I came there, the waves were so huge and it was so amazing, that I just needed to share my feelings with someone and called my mom despite the price for international calls.

Babylon

Despite the fact that it's been three weeks since I came to Varna, I still don't really know the city. Moreover, we have our own names for some streets, like "Big Road #1", "BR #2" and "BR #3". Today I stepped just a bit outside of the usual walking zone and first thing I found was a book store with books in Bulgarian, English and Russian. Finally bought "Generation P" by Pelevin, that I tried to find in Riga, but didn't succeed. I think I need to explore at least couple of streets every day, there's still a lot of interesting stuff, that is out there somewhere.

Pirates therapy

No, George, you don't need to take me to Pirates every day in order to make my mood better :) thanks though.
I got lots of feedbacks on my last post, mostly asking to have less negative, however there was also one that said that if there will be more negative, I will not have internet and electricity, quite terrifying.
Anyway, might be that I overreacted a bit and showed the situation worse than it is.
In general, everything is positive, or at least can be seen like one, just need to see the right angle.
Too tired to write more, but... Pirates yesterday till 3am after volleyball, discussions about everything, it really helped a lot, I am ready for new impressions and new events to write about.

Bulgaria VS Sweden

They're asking me, how is Bulgaria? I'm saying - great. They're asking me - better than Sweden? I'm saying - different.
Sweden is more calm, more stable, better in financial and social aspect. It's a good place to settle down after 30 may be, or even later. To get social benefits, stable salary and buy a Vovlo or SAAB.
Bulgaria is more unstable in financial and social pert of life. For example, if such thing as Gini index is saying something to you, then you can compare. Bulgaria - 33,5, Sweden - 23 (Latvia - 37,7), and it's just one of lots of numbers.
BUT. As I mentioned before, at the end of the day, it's all about people. And despite the fact that I am not really religious, I like that Bulgaria is orthodox, I like that they have Cyrillic here and that the language is quite similar to mine. It makes it closer to my mind. And I like that people here are more opened, more friendly and as I also already mentioned, seem more happy. Swedish people are depressed. They are robots at daytime and stupid drunks at night. Of course there are exceptions. And of course there are less problems in Sweden. So all in all, I can't compare, it's just different.

Smile :)

First of all, I would like to say that it's been 16 days since I started this blog and it's been 380 previews in this time, not counting mine. Plus the fact that some friends ask me to write more often, and some friends even tell me that they don't feel like I am far away, because they read my blog all the time and feel like I am near. This means a lot to me and makes me want to write more, but I don't have much time after work and try not to spend it in front of computer, I have enough of computer time at work. Anyway, thanks for reading me, read me more! :)

Happiness and sadness

Airports are places where happiness and sadness are walking together. Airports, bus and train stations, harbors. One of the saddest moments this summer was one month ago, June 18, when Lena and Vlad were leaving to Ukraine after spending a week in Riga with me. This summer 4 of my Erasmus friends visited me in Riga, but I wasn't so sad about Aida and Evelina, because they live in Lithuania, and I know that it takes 2-3 hours by bus to see each other. Erasmus is the best and the worst thing in life. It brings people together, and takes them apart. It's the second thing in life where happiness and sadness are walking together.
Then - really sad moments at the airport in Riga, when my grandparents were sending me off to Bulgaria and my friend Alenka, who works at the airport was following me to the gate.

Then - really happy moments at Varna airport, when Temelko and me were meeting Despina. While we were waiting for her, I saw a little girl, around 6 years old. She just arrived with her mother and her father was meeting them. They needed to wait for their bags, but she was so impatient, that she left her mom to wait for luggage and ran to her dad. We remembered the words from one movie that "airports have seen more love than other places", don't remember the exact quotation...

not always perfect

Stress. No, a bit of stress. That's what appeared in Varna last week. That's why there were no posts for almost a week. Well, it can't be perfect all the time, life is not a fairy tale, I hope you all know it.

It all started Wednesday morning, when Lali sent invitations to the party to ALL the company. All of it. Not only Varna office, but also London, Barcelona and Copenhagen. So all day at work was dedicated to making a list of first 20 people who answered her e-mail, in order to not to destroy the apartment that the company is paying for.  But it didn't really help. Well, the party was good. There was no music, no dancing, just drinking sangria and talking, but at 1.30 am our neighbors decided that they can't take it any more and called the police. When police came, Despina and I were closed on a balcony and that's why our guests didn't believe at first that the police actually came, but when they did, all became quite, some people went downstairs to talk to the policemen and after we just went to the beach, being already not 20, but around dozen or even less. That could be it, but it was just the beginning.

Cities, rooms

Cities are live organisms. They live together with all the creatures that they consist of, but they do not die, when they are left alone, they just sleep and wait for their time to come.
It's very important for a person to have a good relationship with the city. Have you ever noticed, that in some cities you feel better, than in the others? That's because of the "alive" factor. It is the same as with people, we cannot have perfect relationships with everyone, sometimes we even cannot explain, why we don't like someone.   That's what cities do. They either like or hate you.
Actually, the first time I really noticed this phenomena was just last year, when we were traveling with my friends and one of them - Lara, really felt like at home in Brussels,  whereas for all others from our company it was just a regular popular city. Then, when I was in Stockholm in March this year, I felt the same. It was the second day of our stay there when I was walking alone in the streets without any particular purpose and started feeling like if I would live here, I could walk on these streets every day.
The opposite side of this phenomena also happened to me in Sweden, when we were in Malmö. The city just didn't like me. All day I tried to find some connection, but I just didn't feel comfortable at all, even though my other friends were trying to convince me that I am just making that up.
This might sound a bit crazy, but only until you feel it yourself. That's why I was really nervous when I was coming to Varna. I was afraid that the city and I will not find the connection and I will not feel comfortable here. But after 1,5 weeks here I must say that my worries were unreasonable. It seems to me that the city and I are doing quite good. I enjoy walking the streets, I love the sea and the beach, I got lost only once and only for 5-10 minutes.
Unfortunately I cannot say the same about my room, even though I really like it, the furniture, the colors, the shape, may be I just need to spend some more time at home, as I am always running somewhere... Because I wake up almost every single night without any reason. Then I fall asleep again, but still it's making me a bit upset.
The human's factor is really important at both old and new places, but no matter how good and friendly people are there around you, there's no way you will feel comfortable, if your surroundings don't like you. Just need to find a way.

Shopping in Varna

Girls need a lot of stuff. That's obvious. Really a lot. And 20 kg that you can carry in a plane is obviously NOT enough for 4 months. So, today after work Despina and me went for shopping. Well, I must say - it was fun.

Varna Mall - a lot of shops, lots of them are present in Latvia as well, but lots of them I've seen for the first time. Since we were late from work today (as we started with the follow-up calls to clients and for both of us it's really stressful task, which we must manage, so we stayed later), we only had 2,5 hours for shopping, but it was enough for us to spend all the cash we had with us, and even more (Desi added 10 EUR in the last shop, luckily they like EUR).
What can I say - I finally have a hat, long skirt, pretty dress and some other stuff.
The last shop we visited was the one with unique clothes, made by a friend of a sales lady and looking really nice. Well, that's the one where Desi made "bazzar" and we got 20% discount for our dresses. Can recommend that one for some friends and may be get some more discounts. :)
On our way back we came out of the bus on the right stop, but went in a different direction,so got a bit lost, first time I was lost in Varna, but realized it after 10 minutes, went back and found the way. And afterwards scared Lali, as we decided to try our door bell and she said that it sounded like a fire alarm :) But at least now we know that it is working.
Ahh, also good news for me, as I've found the shop where I can buy myself a camera. Not for 465 Leva as I've seen before, but for 399 with a charger and SD card for 4 GB included. Really happy, hope to get it by next week!

Impressions from the weekend

It's been 9 days since I came to Bulgaria, and those were saturated days, I must say. But it's not a report, so I am not writing the chronology of events, it depends.
It was 7 days and some hours since I came here when I finally got to swim in the sea. During rock concert that was happening just on the coast. It was second time when I was swimming at night and first - at night in the sea. The water - amazing, the impressions -amazing. Rock concert - really nice. Btw, still waiting for the pictures :)
Beach in the center of Varna - overcrowded. Didn't notice that there are so many gypsies here until we went to the beach. They are strange, sitting in their clothes on the beach, all guys having a tattoo on the right arm. But they seem more socialized here, than in Latvia. In Latvia they sit in their parts of the town or selling cigarettes near to the bus or train station. Here they go to the beach.

Varna aqua park

BBQ - a lot of people met again, a lot of names that I am trying to remember. But the good thing is that there are 3 people named Geogre, 3 people named Nikolaj and 1 - Marina (same as my mother), that makes it a bit easier. :)
After bbq - beach at night again, but different, far from center and all the clubs - quite, just people from the company, some beer, conversations, bonfire.
Aqua park - too much sun, too red skin, too lazy, - enjoyed.
This could be the summary of my weekend.

Busy days

My eyes are really shutting down now, but I need to share my impressions and experience about the last two days. Firstly, the days are really saturated now. Like really.

Temelko asked me to write about the love and the airports in my post, but I need some inspiration for that, so this what my next post will probably be about. Airports will be just mentioned one more time in this post. Tuesday night I had a status on Facebook, that was saying: “Meeting, greetings, airports. Totally happy.” And I got a comment from Ira, who works at the airport in Riga, asking, how is it possible to be happy about airports. Of course, it was just a joke, but still, finally meeting my dear Despina after almost 2 months made me feel really happy. So the last two days we are a complete team finally, and I need to say that I think that we are good. I mean, I am not the one who can judge how good we are at work, but outside of the office – totally crazy. We already made up lots of nicknames, we’re laughing all the time about stupid stuff and I think people will soon start recognizing us on the streets. For example today we were going to the office and discussing, which excuse should we use if we get late – say that we got lost or that we were fixing our hair, and we couldn’t decide, which one is more stupid. J

Day 5 - International communication

Ice-cold frappe is just the
 right thing after work :)

Did you know that there is a rule in Bulgarian National Bank, that the minimum period of time you can have your account there is 6 months? And that you need to close your account in person? Well I also didn't until today. Stupid bureaucracy. As far as I remember my friend Lara still has an account in Swedish bank, even though she left Sweden in January and isn't going to come back in nearest future. :) Well, at least I have a Bulgarian phone number now.
Also today I finally started doing something useful - answering the clients and searching for the proper keywords for the websites. Of course only after I was fully instructed by my great colleagues Daniel and Temelko ;) It would be boring to describe my working day, as it is only interesting for me, so I'm just gonna say that I met a Russian guy at work today. Not Russian-speaking, but actually Russian, that was kind of nice. Although I speak Russian at work every day.
Another good thing that we did today - we made a table on our white board for writing. It consists of 6 columns, but only 5 of them are filled so far, as Despina is the one who is going to fill in the remaining one. So, you must be curious, what is it about? Well, that's how we are learning languages. As at least 4 of those are used every 5 minutes. So now in addition to English, which we already know, we are learning Russian, Spanish, Bulgarian and French. In just couple of hours we're going to the airport to meet Despina and it will be her first working day tomorrow, so she will add Greek to the table too. This is one of the many-many reasons that I like about my work. We're not only working there 9 to 18, we're also having great conversations, jokes, coffee and learning some useful stuff.
So now I am excited about meeting with Despina, as I haven't seen her since the Check party right before I left Sweden, May 14, and also everyone in the company is asking me about her, so tomorrow there will be a lot of new impressions.

Day 4 - first working day

Today I had so many information coming to my head, that I forgot my charger at work, so I am listening to the music on my phone in order to save battery and be able to write a short post about my first working day at First Online Solutions Ltd.
What can I say - it was really great. The day started with a meeting, where I needed to introduce myself, and even though I knew I am new at the company, I didn't expect that, so I was a bit worried about that part. Then all the other people told about what they are working on and how is it going. Daniel got an FC Barcelona cap as a present for his birthday and for good work, and Temelko got Messi's T-shirt and Captain's arm bondage.
Later on I started with revising the material about Internet Marketing and got lots of explanations regarding this topic and the general idea how does the company work and what do the people do and how, as well as looked through some of the company's websites. Today I didn't do any actual job, as I need to learn some stuff for that, but I am looking forward for starting really working.
Even though I was mostly reading and talking today, it was still kind of exhausting, so the only thing I could do  after work was cooking. I made a soup and it was first time I was actually cooking in Bulgaria. It is nice, as the kitchen is well equipped and the food is cheap. Lali and I had a dinner with watching stupid videos on the Internet and monkeys climbing the trees on Animal Planet. I think that was exactly what I needed - a calm "family" evening. And since my PC is going to turn off, I am going to read my book now.
Лека нощ!

Day 3 - rainy day

My third day in Varna was rainy and it changed all my plans. That's why instead of going to the beach we went to a shopping mall with Ivelina and Chris. The shopping mall is "the biggest in Bulgaria", according to Ivi. It has 5 levels, a big parking place and of course a huge variety of shops, lots of which could also be found in Latvia.
What is so special about it? Well, in Latvia we have at least 3 shopping centres situated directly in Riga's city center and here in Varna there's not that much space in center to build supermarkets and shopping places. That's why.

On my third day here I can finally say that there are also couple of things that I am not happy about. For example a huge amount of homeless animals. We also have some of those in Latvia, but mostly cats and much less. In Varna you can see cats and dogs everywhere and it is really sad in my opinion, as they look really sad and even sick.

Well actually the dog I met during my walk among the seaside wasn't that sad, it even played with some rubbish it found, like an old ball. Which brings us to a next point: pollution.
Latvia might be even more polluted, I don't really know about that, but seeing with my own eyes how dirty waters from seaside bars and restaurants go directly to the sea in places where people spend their vacation makes me forget about my Swedish lecturer's in Environment and resource economics words that there should never be extremes and there must be a balance between pollution and its abatement.

But so far those are the only disadvantages I could find and it's good that I found those, as nothing could ever be perfect and I will be happy if those will remain the only black stains. All in all it is a really nice place, with beautiful nature that reminds me about my childhood.

Nightlife in Varna

So, in Sweden we went out at least 2 times a week, sometimes even 3. That was the time when my partylife started. We will see how it is going to be here :) In Sweden we went to club (Bånken) at 10 p.m., had a beer or cider there and then partied (12 p.m. - 3 a.m.), at 3 a.m. it was closed. In Varna I just came back home and it's 6 a.m. now. First we went to Cubo bar at the beach, the one where we were also yesterday, then we met some Bulgarian people there and this is how it went: Lali spoke to a younger one in English and I spoke to older ones in Russian, as Russian is more popular between older people here, who were obligated to study it in USSR. So, these people recommended us two nice clubs in Varna - Xtravaganzza and Copacabana. 5 leva entrance to each   (2,50 EUR or 1,75 LVL), which is extremely cheap comparing to Sweden (100 SEK = 11,50 EUR = 8 LVL). Well, what can I say, nothing can ever compare to Bånken. Xtravaganzza is a nice place, when you stand on some kind of balcony, you can see the waves just almost under you, it's situated in old hangar for a plane and is really nice, but you really need to like the kind of music they play there, which is some kind of mix of Turkish and pop music.

Xtravaganzza club

Anyway, we stayed there for around half an hour and went just across the street - to Copacabana, where they played more popular music, and there were also a lot of old and famous songs, like "It's my life" by Jon Bon Jovi or "Wonderwall" by Oasis, and the one that surprised me the most in a good way - "Nas ne dogonyat" by Tatu. I mean the original one, not the "Not gonna get us" version, and it was really fun to hear it.
The people: The people in clubs are much nicer here, than in Sweden (I compare nightlife here to nightlife in Sweden because I go out in Latvia really rare). If they accidentally touch you or bump into you, they smile and show that they are sorry, but in Sweden it is normal to bump into each other and go. Well, I didn't meet many Bulgarian people in clubs, but for instance the Turkish ones were really annoying. "I love your eyes, they are so beautiful" c'mon, at least be more creative, I heard better ones :)
The drinks: Cubo bar at the beach - beer or Jin Tonic - 3 leva (1,5 EUR = 1,05 LVL), both clubs: beer - 5 leva (2,50 EUR = 1,75 LVL).
The birds are STILL being loud, but I am too tired to hear them.

Good night!

Day 2 ctd.

So the birds are still going crazy, but I hope that I will eventually get used to it, otherwise I will need to wear earplugs to sleep :) And meanwhile I am trying to memorize some words in Bulgarian. It seems easy, especially when I read (although even then some sentences don't make any sense), but when they talk, I can just catch some words that are similar. Well, I will have a lot of practice tomorrow, as we're going to the beach with Ivelina and her friends. Plan for tonight? No plan yet, just to go out to eat somewhere and then we will see.
I'm really happy that I came here on Friday afternoon, as I have weekend to have a look around and then I will start my internship on Monday, otherwise, my thoughts would be too distracted.
Today I had some memories from childhood floating in my mind, like when I saw the "train" near the beach, or when I had my pizza with cheese (which was amazing, by the way - the best pizzas I've ever eaten were in Bulgaria), and there's going to be more. It's really hard to get used to the head thing, I mean that here they turn their heads up-down to say "no" and right-left to say "yes", this is really confusing, especially when you don't know if they're doing it naturally or trying to do it like you are used to, so it's better to say with words "net" and "da".
While I was walking in the afternoon, I ran into Temelko and Damien, well, actually they ran into me, as I was looking around and didn't see anyone, so we had cold coffee and chat and afterwards Temelko showed me a normal supermarket, around 15 minutes from my apartment. Finally I saw a normal store :) By the way, even considering that the prices here are much-much lower, than in Sweden and a bit lower than in Latvia, I already spent a lot of money on "i-don't-know-what", so I need to remember that my scholarship is also lower here :) Also Bulgarian sounds a bit more rough than Russian as they have less vowels in words.
We're all here waiting forward for Despina to arrive, but due to strikes in Greece this might take longer, but we hope for the best.
So, this is it for now.

Day 2

It's +27°C in my room and +48°C on the balcony, I am eating Bulgarian cherries and listening to birds singing. It's my second day in Varna and so far things are going pretty well. The only bad thing is that I haven't seen my dear friend Ivelina yet, but I hope to go to the beach together tomorrow, so it should be perfect then. :)
Yesterday at around 10 p.m. Lali and I were sitting at the beach and just enjoying everything. It was actually only second time for me when I was at the beach at night, and yes, here at 10 p.m. is already dark in summer, which is unusual for me, as in Latvia there are the shortest nights now. There were couple of moments which I cannot describe with words, like when at night I was at the beach and walked near the water, or when I was walking in the city center and suddenly saw the sea. Here I understood that in Riga I live too far from the sea. I need to spend one hour to get to the beach. Here I need like 2 minutes, not more. And it's amazing...
Yesterday was a busy day, I had two planes with half an hour interval, I woke up at 6.30 a.m. and I had really a lot of information at the same time. Today streets finally started making a picture in my head and I started understanding which way I need to go to get where I want, but I still need map to make sure that I am following the right direction. The simplest tip was the one that Lali gave me - if you go up, you go to the center, if you go down, you go to the beach. It's really easy, and it's working :D
So, I am going to explore the city now.