I managed to get out of bed earlier this morning. I took a few magical photos while the smog was still fresh.
This is the church, the tourist magnet of Sofia. It shines.
A hidden garden behind Tzum. The building on the left was the shopping mall of the communism period. You couldn’t do much shopping in there before 1989 but it was a good walking destination. You could watch things that you’d never buy.
Very different protests, mostly against the Pig and the Pumpkin, but also the Euro. The migration to the Euro is glitching right now. I hope it goes well.
Veselin.blog 
I heard you talking about the Pig. What’s the Pumpkin?
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The 3-times prime minister and leader of the largest party, Boyko Borisov – the Pumpkin. He was very charming as a 40-year-old but is now old and ugly. Old people vote for him because they remember his good years, when he built highways and didn’t tolerate much corruption. Now his party is trying to be Fidez, thankfully failing. The biggest problem with him is that he allied with the Pig.
The Pig is the bigger problem because he combines exceptional wealth with a solid grip on the judicial system.
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Does he buy the judges? Is there no separation between the branches of government? We take that for granted, even as our political parties try to eliminate it. We forget what it means when 1 entity controlscall. Hint: it’s not good for you and me
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The pig somehow manages to control the high level of the judicial system, in particular the prosecutor general and the supreme courts. We have multiple cases of trials against political opponents, most recently the mayor of Varna spent 6 months in jail. The pig also controls the national TVs.
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🚫🐖
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I’m not up to date on the whole Euro transition. Sounds complex and confusing to me.
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Yes, it is scary, and the society is not entirely happy about it. I know it’s for our good but am still scared about it and gives me nightmares.
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If I understand the basics, currency is changing over to the EU. That would disrupt everyone and business. I hope you and the country doesn’t get the bad end of the stick. There’s no fair way to roll that out. I would be scared to. What is the advantage of the change?
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No currency exchange for tourists, no need to have two bank accounts and pay two monthly fees (one in Bulgarian Lev and one in Euro).
The downside is that the system of the currency board that legally forces the government to only spend money that it has ends.
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The latter sounds bad!
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Maybe, maybe not. Who knows. We’ll see. The world is so rapidly changing and that this change is just a drop in the ocean.
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When is the switch schduled to happen?
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You compose your photographs so well. You catch and smoothly take the eye around. The resolution of your work is terrifically clear. I hope the use of the Euro smooths out for, you know, living with it.–Christopher
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Thanks a lot, Christopher!
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#2 is a really nice photo. I like the line “while the smog was still fresh”
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Thanks a lot!
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