First day of school

15th of September is one of the most organic unofficial national holidays in Bulgaria, together with 24th of May. It’s the first day of school, when we celebrate that our kids got one year wiser. 24th of May is the other one with similar gatherings. There were more parents and grandparents than children in the yard, lots of flowers, and some balloons.

Happy first day of school to us 🙂

Ferrari Testarossa

Back in the 80s, all the cars around were eastern block Lada, Trabant, Moskvich, Zaz, Gaz and such. People waited for 15 to get a Lada and then drove it like if it was a BMW. But the rotten capitalism had already started to penetrate the iron curtain and we had access to Turbo bubblegums, which came with tiny collectable images of fancy cars.

Image 51 was Ferrari Testarossa, the most wanted Turbo bubblegum car. It was rarer than the rest, and had the highest max speed for any car under number 120, if I remember correctly. 40-ish years later, I finally had the chance to see it in person.

I randomly visited a car show for vintage cars. Had no clue it’s a car show, it looked like a protest from a distance. Even when I got close to it, it still looked like a protest because I approached the from the eastern side, dedicated to old soviet cars. It turned out to be a show, had some really nice cars, many people, kids, and good mood.

Sharing a few more cars that got my attention. Fiat 500, Peugeot 404, Citroen DS, and a modernized 1930s Slate President Studebaker.

The show had cars I didn’t realize now count as vintage, like mid 1990s BMW and VW. I even spotted a nearly 30-year-old Golf 4.

Nicholas Eames in Sofia

Nicholas Eames, author of Kings of the Wyld, came to Sofia for the Alley of Books. The official meeting with him was yesterday but I couldn’t make it. Thankfully, I managed to catch him at the booth and got an autograph 🙂

Friday evening was a great moment to visit the book fair. Many tents had writers and small queues with readers, waiting to get their signatures. I recognized a few names. I also and increased the my book harvest by two more books. My little kid got a hardcover version of Emil i Lönneberga, and my father got a history book.

I love the book fairs. Even if I don’t buy anything, they’re still usually great.