Category: Memories

The Goblins Return

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

Found this gem on Facebook. Fresh humor on yellow pages that barely hold. I enjoyed it very much. Not sure if it can endure another read without starting to fall apart. But the book was cool, well written, short, and brought me good memories.

I finished the monumental Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo yesterday and my original plan was to blog about it today but then I read the above book to fix the my tastebuds. The Goblins deserve a post, and the Six of Crows can be left to less critical book bloggers.

I let my guard down during my vacation

~ Veselin ~ 13 Comments

I had an awesome 2 weeks off and it felt awesome, I wish my vacation was longer. However, watching the health app, it’s full of red flags everywhere.

🔴 Made on average about 3K steps per day during the 2 weeks 📉, with a decrease in all activity and calory metrics
🔴 Ate more meals, more each meal, and less healthy food each day, often with beer, ice cream, and fries 🍺
🔴 Gained 2-3kg 👻
🔴 I find it harder to make myself walk and climb stairs now that I’m back

Looking back, what did I do wrong?

The food in Greece, Spain, and generally all restaurant food in vacation destinations is tasty, the portions are big, and it’s full of fats, salts, and sugar. Unlike brunch places in Bulgaria that feed office workers, tourist trap areas feed tourists who only eat there for a short period. They are not incentivized to sell healthy food but rather to make guests pay more. Also, it’s hot, and hot encourages ice cream and beer. Hard to avoid that or is it?

My biggest wonder from this year is what happened with the steps. I went down from 10k to 3k. Why? Not sure. Living in a small village doesn’t leave that much room for walking but ours had a long beach alley. Walking was possible. I slipped somehow.

Petralona

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

The Petralona Cave is a nice place to visit in Halkidiki. We went there on a hot weather day rather than on a rainy day, which was the original plan. The kids wanted to see a Minecraft cave and didn’t want to wait for the rain. They were right, it didn’t rain.

I’ll bring them to a wilder cave somewhere in Bulgaria.

Sozopoli

~ Veselin ~ 7 Comments

We spent some of the hottest days of the year in Halkidiki. It was a nice break from the routine and the kids enjoyed it. The water was great this year. The area around Nea Kallikrateia is rural, with endless beaches, beach houses, olive trees, abandoned lots, and tavernas that offer grilled food, eggplants, and zucchini.

The only hiccup was when I took the wrong road to a restaurant and the car got stuck in the sand. I tried digging out but it didn’t work and needed to be towed out. Another car got stuck in the same place the moment I drove out. The driver didn’t see me waving at them to stop. We dug them out, and this time waved harder to prevent a third car from entering the sandy road. That evening we couldn’t reach the restaurant but had an off-road adventure.

R.I.P., Lubomir Nikolov

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

The Bulgarian writer Lubomir Nikolov, also known as Kolin Wolumbury (Колин Уолъмбъри), passed away yesterday. He translated The Lord of the Rings into Bulgarian and wrote the first local gamebook – “Fire Desert”, leaving a mark on many who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. He also read one of my books when I tried writing, provided feedback, and encouraged me to continue writing.

Rest in Peace, Kolin.

I’m glad I attended one of his last book signings.