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.

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.

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!

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.