Go East... where the skies are blue

Back from a very relaxing weekend in Hungary. Where the sun was shining, birds were singing and the rivers were getting dangerously full.

They call it "little Danube"

In that street is the house where Sándor Petőfi lived when he was in town. We like to call him "the Hungarian Botev", and respectively Botev is "the Bulgarian Petőfi"

 

 The place where Peter's father goes fishing. He is one of those passionate fishermen that don't miss a day. And if it's freezing outside, he just makes a hole in the ice.

Poppy Flowers

Che cantare?

This song is on the radio and it brings back memories.

For the first time I heard it on the bus travelling to the airport in Vienna. We were leaving and it was a sad good-bye, with tears falling down...

Another memory - a completely different environment. I was in a cafe in Lugano with friends laughing, having fun... and then this song again! I had to find out who was singing.
I tried to ask the waiter in English. No success.
I asked the girl if she spoke French or Spanish (I had French and Spanish speaking friends there).
No.
I tried body language. She thought I said the music was too loud.
No, no, no...
Then she remembered Roberto working in the kitchen spoke some English, and went in looking for him. After a while she came back alone. No Roberto...
German?, I asked hopeless...
Oh, yes, another waiter knew some German.
The German speaking lady did not look very happy she had to deal with me but she was helpful. She took me to the player, took out the CD and showed it to me. Mystery solved!

As broken as this sounds, it would have been so easy if I had just remembered two simple Italian words that I know: "Che cantare?"

The Birds of Venice

I am just back from a long weekend in Venice. The city is impressive and many things have been written about it. One of the things that I will always remember, however, are the birds of Venice.
Not the pigeons (that are obviously not that many as they once used to be). As it seems I didn't even make a picture of them.

And not so much the seagulls (I expected a more numerous population - after all it's sea all around).

...but the little sparrows. They were always impatiently waiting on the side for you to finish eating.

And immediately recognized the moment to attack.

And I never saw a sparrow alone. They were flying around in gangs. And as soon as one spotted food, the rest joined quickly for the feast.

second attempt at skiing

Another blue slope for the records...
And after skiing jagermeister and chocolate cake... and a deserved beer for the instructor!

packing again

...my clothes all over, drying... and just noticed, rose all over...

my first ski vacation

Yes, that was my first attempt at skiing. It was not that bad actually. At least I enjoyed it... and the falling was not that bad either. Not too often and not too painful. And on the third day I managed to ski down a blue slope!
Staying in the queue for the lift was a bit frustrating, but the rest was quite a fun.
The evenings too. We found a karaoke place with the friendly name Friendly Bar. Needless to say, the people were very friendly and willingly let us sing our hearts out...

From Helloween to Christmas

Yes, it is almost that long since I've posted here. And because most of this time passed in travelling for me, I decided to share a few pictures from the places I've been to.

Stein am Rhein, a small town in Switzerland, close to the German border, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon

Walking down from Mount Rigi

A very typical autumn day in Zurich

Sunset in Lausanne after a very sunny day and a looong walk

For the football fans it's clear - Munich. It was a great feeling to be one of the 69,000 people watching Bayern Munich vs. Eintracht Frankfurt live!


And besides watching football, I spent quite a lot of time walking along the snowy streets of Munich... Christmas is almost there!

...just go, go, go

And I went - an unexpected but long-desired vacation...

Los Banditos and our little red car

We tried two beaches every day and this one turned out to be our favourite. When we were tired with exploring, we just went there again...

Memories of a Hot Sunday

It is getting colder these days. OK, colder means less than 30 degrees C, but still, in a very nice and subtle way autumn is sneaking in. The nights are cooler... The sun shines with a kind of yellow light, or maybe it's the brown-red leaves of the chestnut trees filtering it...

The pictures are from a family trip to Batak - a beautiful lake in the Rhodopi mountains.

Travelling Around

Here are some pictures from my recent trips.

The Balkan mountains first. A friend got married in Arbanasi - a village close to Veliko Tarnovo. The celebrations lasted almost a week. A great wedding indeed.

Barbecue in the rain - the after party.

The wedding present - magnolia grandiflora, which is already growing in the garden.

On our way back to Plovdiv we stopped to gather some herbs.

And a few days later another mountain trip. This time in the Rhodope Mountains - my favourite part of the country.

The house of my Grandmother's Grandmother now belongs to another family, and the new owners take good care of it.

I would walk any distance just to enjoy this view.

tango

It has been long since I last showed some of the postcards I received.
This one I love. It is from a dear friend who keeps on sending postcards from the places she travels to. It is on my desk and I am so used to it that I don't even see it.
Lina from linaphotography recently visited our office and made some great pictures of all the details she found interesting. Thank you, Lina, for opening my eyes again!

On this rainy day...

...I need to remember that the summer is almost here.

The pictures are from a recent trip to Greece.

back on track

I haven't written for quite some time here. OK, no excuses now. We have just started a company blog mosaicafe.com and I've put some effort in there. And since Bulgarian is not among the most popular languages, we also write in English.
Then I had a week off visiting a friend in Switzerland. Now I am back - on- and offline.
Happy spring!

early sun and sea

Back from a short vacation at the coast. Not very typical for me, this time I was early in the morning at the beach, missed my breakfast to be there as early as possible.
Could see the white-grayish colour of the sea changing to green-blue later in the afternoon.
Enjoyed the warm water with no people around, and the presence of the local dog - my only companion at the beach.

Merry Christmas, Springtime!

I spent the last few days in Bansko for a training. As weird as it may seem the whole Christmas decoration was there in the hotel - in the lobby, in the restaurant, everywhere. I wanted to ask the receptionist if there was a special reason for that but then I somehow got embarrassed. In fact, I thought she might get embarrassed by this question...

OK, maybe the hotel people tried to disguise spring but you could feel it was there. It was sunny, and warm, and getting greener with every day...

On our way back to Plovdiv, as we approached the valley I asked the guy that was driving to stop somewhere close to a beautiful blossoming tree, so I could hang my martenitsas. We saw a swallow and two storks along the road, so I could finally do it. Great!
I don't know why from all the trees the driver chose the one that was right after a curve. I imagined the driver of the other car passing by saying to himself while watching me hang my martenitsas - each one on a separate twig, "Poor guy - risking his life because of this stupid cow."

On this picture I can clearly see the martenitsa I got from Aunt Paunka and the one from Michaela.

No matter what people in Bansko think, "Good bye, Christmas! Hello, Springtime!!!"