Tag: Travel

Describe your most memorable vacation

~ Veselin ~ 13 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Describe your most memorable vacation.

It has to be my trip to Alaska, which took place in 2004 or 2005, when Bulgaria was not yet a member of the EU, and our passport strength was quite limited. At that time, I had never visited another country, and out of all the places in the world, I traveled to the USA, and from all the places in the USA – to Anchorage and Fairbanks. The trip was memorable enough that a photo from it remained a header of my previous blog for about a decade.

It had to be Alaska because my girlfriend went there for a work-and-travel trip and I missed her, so we had a vacation at the end of her work duties.

Things that made it memorable:

  • First visa, with the interview process and all the uncertainties around it
  • First airplane ride. I was dressed like for climbing the Himalayas because someone told me it would be cold on the airplane. It wasn’t. I probably smelled like a skunk
  • Excessive security checks. I was checked far too many times for a trip perhaps because of my Himalayan look. Have you ever seen anyone be checked at the gate past security? I was.
  • One of the legs got delayed for 12+ hours
  • Someone with the same last name told Delta they were me, got my ticket on the way back, and managed to change it to another location. This resulted in me flying first class (and sleeping all the time)
  • Saw glaciers, big mountains, big lakes, big cars, big plates with lots of food, and all you can eat buffet
  • Saw many drunks and experienced a culture of alcohol and weed

All of that doesn’t sound too exciting now that I’m older but it was a great adventure for my younger self. Basic things like airplanes, car rentals, motels, and diners felt like magic.

Barbican Centre

~ Veselin ~ 4 Comments

Barbican Centre is a collection of concrete high-rises and old blocks in the City of London I’ve never paid attention to. I watched a talk by Nickolas Means on Day 1 of LeadDev about the history of it, who designed it, how it was built, who built it, and the how, and whys behind a bunch of other things like roads and rails. The process was quite impressive and completely turned my view about it from “ugly” to “impressive” although not necessarily “beautiful”.

The architects and the city planners navigated complex constraints and built for success. For example, the main hall had to be dug deep into the ground because the planners realized a successful hall needed residing musical organizations, and the two willing to use it, needed a larger venue. So the engineers identified the constraint, found a solution (dig deep), and built for success.

The proactive requirements and constraints identification lasted many years but the final result stayed and became a landmark area. The approach was not different from what has to be done in the software world when starting a complex refactoring initiative, although in the software things need to move a bit faster. Perhaps that’s why some people in the code world like the title Software Architect 🙂

I personally find the Brutalism and the maze-like corridors overwhelming.

The best part of Barbican for me was how cars were hidden beneath. Also, the bar that filled quickly with well-dressed people after work. It radiates life, while many of the brutalist buildings in my country radiate decay with their rusty walls and old windows. This was also predicted – the builders used special stone in the concrete with less iron so that the concrete would last longer without looking rusty and old.

My favorite restaurants in Sofia

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite restaurant?

Sofia has many restaurants where you can sit, spend hours, and eat well. The city center is transitioning from an office center to a tourist center, with airlines delivering thousands of tourists every day. Consequently, as offices relocate from the center, restaurants witness a shift in their clientele from regular locals to ever-changing tourists. When a guest asks for a recommendation, we tend to send them to the slow and expensive places for the best experience. The reality is that it’s not where we eat. It’s more likely that you’ll find a Bulgarian having lunch at KFC or Pizza Lab than any of those traditional recommendations.

So here is my list of places where I actually like eating. All are either fast food or close to that. They’re ordered by importance, high to low.

  • Beshamel – a chain of small restaurants with cooked food. It’s fast food but not junk food. The kitchen is central so the food is the same at all of the places. Most of the meals are not far from what my parents would cook
  • BDS – a chain of fast food kufte/kebapche places. You can have Shkembe and Shopska Salad or the menu with 2 kebapche and experience the true Bulgarian cuisine
  • Ikigai – an okay Bulgarian edition of Japanese-style food. If you want ramen though, Umamido is a better choice.
  • Fabrika Daga – I eat sandwiches there but they have ordinary food. The food is hipster, with a lot of taste in everything. I enjoy that and am a frequent customer
  • Satsanga – the only vegetarian food I enjoy eating. It would be my top contender for the most delicious food in Sofia
  • Ribs Brothers – what the title says

There’s nothing wrong with places like Shtastlivetza, Mediterraneo, Pod Lipite, Victoria, Happy and so on that get traditionally recommended to visitors. However, all the places where I go are quick, you pay, get your food, eat, and leave. The food is fine.

I’d normally not take photos of my lunch but found these two, featuring Ribs Brothers and Beshamel.

St Alexander Nevski

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Whoever landscaped relied on flowers like their life depends on it.

I like the flowers more than the cathedral. Something with the symbolic around it doesn’t sit right with me. Perhaps it needs a couple of hundred years of service to get there. The nearby St. Sofia church looks much more authentic and comfortable. Like a place you’d visit for a holiday or an important life event or memorial.

The colours were pretty yesterday.

Castelldefels

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

The Catalan people know how to make you eat too much with the never ending flow of tapas and cheese. Bye, Castelldefels. I’m on a diet now 🥦

And yes, I had steamed broccoli for lunch.