That evening we celebrated a birthday at a bar in town. Isabelle turned 20 and as Leni and her boyfriend Vlado joined us, they surprised her (and us) with cake and chocolate. We had a drink, chilled out and called it a night at an unridiculous hour for a change.
The next day I could sleep in a little, because Mite and Isabelle had some stuff to do at the NGO’s centre. At around 12 I was picked up by Mite and we were going to have some coffee before our afternoon activity. This afternoon activity was something I’d been waiting for since the moment I decided to go to Bulgaria last year, so naturally I was very excited. In the afternoon, we’d be heading over to the Roma neighbourhood to visit the host family of one of the American girls, Alex. In this neighbourhood however, you are never left alone (that’s a positive thing), so I knew I’d see a lot of stuff I normally wouldn’t, or never have… and that there would probably be some great photo opportunities too.
Mite and I headed outside and saw a guy sitting behind a car. It was the crazy man we’d seen the day before as we were sitting outside a bar. The guy seemed to be completely in his own world, or even dimension, and today was no different. Mite asked for my camera and he managed to inspire me quite a bit. He knows no shyness and that’s the reason why he gets great shots. Definitely a motivation to get out of my own comfort zone. The crazy guy hardly noticed the camera and I wonder whether he had any idea of what a camera is and what was going on around him.
Later that afternoon we visited the Roma neighbourhood. It was quite the experience. I’ve often heard Bulgarians complain about the Roma, saying they’re dirty and their neighbourhoods are like landfills and though they might be right, I wonder if they cannot see the beauty that’s right there. A speck of mud on a flower does not destroy the flower’s beauty, the obsessive and judgemental mind does.
I’ll try to explain what’s not captured in the pictures, but then I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Entering the neighbourhood, as a group that clearly was not from around there, we drew quite the attention. Children loved the cameras and came to pose for us. We walked around and immersed ourselves in the noise and continuous chaos of the neighbourhood. It was great to have people from Alex’ host family as our guides, this made the neighbourhood and the people so much more accessible. Also, Mite and his colleague Leni have been working with some of these kids for years, so they too knew quite a few people there. It’s hard to put into words what the neighbourhood is like though, so without further ado, the pictures.
As said we visited the host of Alex who had a huge house. They lived in Germany for decades, working there to earn money and went back and built a house the size of a villa. After having some coffee, we were offered to come up to see the view from the top balcony of the house.
Following the Roma hospitality, we headed back to the city so we could all go to dinner. On our way back we visited a mosque which was still under construction. An interesting fact about the Roma people here is that a lot of them see themselves as Turkish and even speak Turkish. Some don’t even speak Macedonian. A fair share of them is also Islamic (evidently). Turkey won’t recognize their claims for Turkish nationality however.
As the sun went down and the evening stole the day’s presence, more new experiences awaited me.
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The second day in Strumica I woke up with a bit of a hangover. We all got up and I went along with Mite to bring Isabella to the centre of his NGO where she would go to work with other American volunteers and then the plan for Mite and I was to go for coffee. Once there, Mite was put to work, so plans changed. I was standing around a bit and a guy was hooking up computers, so I figured I’d help out a bit. After hooking up some computers, I went to find Mite who was in another room with the American girls doing some activities to teach English to Roma children.
They were busy with an exercise to write down three things about the first impression you had about a particular person in the room. The children stated some pretty sweet and funny things. After that we were put to work to make badges for ourselves with our name on it, but we had to draw something on it too. After that we did ‘Simon Says…’ to teach the kids some more English.
After this Mite and I went for lunch and got some of the biggest sandwiches I’ve ever seen.
We then met the girls in the centre who were done with work by now and Mite and Leni (who also works for the NGO) showed them the ways home. This was very interesting, because one of them was staying in a Roma neighbourhood. You enter quite a different place when you walk into the Roma neighbourhood; it’s like a village of its own and a very busy and noisy one at that. One of the girls was picked up by the family where she was staying and we were all invited to come around for coffee some time. This plan’s definitely on the table and I’m very excited about it.
We then went home, had dinner, chilled out a while and Mite and I went out again to meet some more of his friends.
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On Tuesday I spent some more time in Blagoevgrad and saw a little more of the town. All I really did was wander around a bit and occasionally sit down, have some juice and read Carlos Castaneda’s Teachings of Don Juan. Perfect.
I didn’t feel like walking around with my backpack in the sun (at the risk of melting!), so around three o’ clock I took a taxi to the bus station so I could catch a bus to Strumica. I walked into an office of the station and asked about tickets. They sent me to an office across the street from the station. This office sent me to a bus station next to the one where I was. It took quite a while to figure out where I had to take the bus exactly and I wasn’t really sure until I was actually on it. At ten past five, I was on my way to Strumica in a bus full of Bulgarians and Macedonians.
As we came closer to Sandanski, I recognized a particular road and I remembered it so clearly that I was a bit startled. It immediately recalled some more memories of the last time I travelled down that road – on my way to and from the Balkan Youth Festival last year.
After spending about 1.5 hour at the border, I arrived in Strumica at 9 o’ clock and was picked up by my friend Mite (also referred to as Mitko). He took me to his home and explained that he was going to be having another guest for the next 10 days due to his work for a local NGO. So one or two hours later an American girl named Issabella arrived who’d been in the Balkan region for a few weeks. We chatted for a while and after midnight Issabella went to bed and Mite and I went into the city. I was very curious to see what the town was like.
The town was swarming with young people. Apparently young people go outside every evening in the summer and hang out in one of the many bars, in the park, on the street in the center or at squares. I wish people in Holland would live a little bit more ‘outside’, but I guess it’s not in our culture.
We had a drink with some of Mite’s friends and I was introduced to a Macedonian drink called “mastika”. It’s a lot like the Greek ouzo, but there’s a clear difference. The taste of mastika is not as sweet and a lot more subtle. I heard a lot of stories about Macedonian history, Macedonia and the EU, Bulgaria, etc. Rather popular topics among intelligent young people in the Balkans. I’ve rarely discussed Dutch history or the EU with friends in Holland, only recently, because of my studies related to the EU.
Later Mite and I got some beers and sat at the central square in Strumica and chilled out a bit. Talked about everything. Around 4 in the morning we planted our asses in our respective beds and dozed off for a 4 hour nap.
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The next day I took the bus to Blagoevgrad. I wanted to visit a friend in Strumica, Macedonia, but because I couldn’t get a hold of him, I figured I’d play it safe and postpone the trip there, but at least move closer to Strumica instead.
The busride was amazing. Listening to Shpongle and my own psychedelic ambient/chillout set, I gazed out of the windows at the most fantastic scenes of nature. I sat in meditative position and I felt so at ease and ecstatic at the same time, that I was sad when the busride was over after two hours. I wanted more, but it was not to be.
I walked around Blagoevgrad for a while, because the hotels in the Lonely Planet guide were a bit expensive and I figured I’d find something cheaper. After a while I submitted to the fact that it was either going to be calling a hotel from the Lonely Planet guide, or walking around with my backpack in sunny and hot Blagoevgrad and eventually melting to death. I chose the former.
So I paid the 20 euros, but I had a great room and an awesome laundry service for what turned out to be E2.50. After a shower, I went out of the hotel and walked around a bit again. I decided to take a road up a hill somewhere and then I saw a muddy/sandy mountain road. I told myself to take it. I had been so happy listening to music and watching the nature from the bus, now it was time to go into it!
I started walking up. Started taking small paths, the smallest I could find… I went uphill, far away from the busy town. At some point I came across a deserted playground. There was a construction for kids to climb on which was submerged in plants. Then there was also the slide without stairs. Very spooky. My trip continued upwards.
I walked up and up, started sweating heavily, figured I didn’t want to waste another clean shirt again, so I took it off. Then at some point the slope was quite steep and I found it helped if I ran up at those parts, because of the momentum. Soon I was running happily around the hill while shirtless. Back to nature! Then I realized I knew nothing about nature, hills, or mountains, and I should be a bit more careful. This is when I stopped to consider if I wanted to go up further or not. As I was standing still I suddenly noticed a lizard on the ground next to me. I took some pictures from quite close, but then got too greedy with my space and it ran off.
I headed back down. At some point I decided to put my shirt on again, since I was getting closer to the foot of the hill and I was no longer sweaty. I put my shirt on and suddenly a bunch of goats come by, followed by a dog and half a minute later another dog and a goat herder. Awesome.
I went back into town. Went to the fancy place with the pretty people I saw earlier and had a great freshly squeezed melon juice. Then I got a message from Mite, my friend in Macedonia. Tomorrow at 5 o’ clock, I’d be taking the bus out of Blagoevgrad to Macedonia.
I took it easy that night and went to bed early; one hour after midnight.
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Pictures soon, I promise. Within the next 2 or 3 days!
As said in the last post, I got up ‘early’ (nine) on Sunday, to meet with Tsvety, my girlfriend. We chilled out a bit, I showed her the Art Hostel where I stayed the night before, and got my stuff to move to another hotel. On our way to the hotel, some woman at the other side of the street and about 20-30 meters away started shouting: “your bag! Your bag!” in Bulgarian. I ignored it, since I couldn’t understand it and didn’t get it was aimed at us, but Tsvety noticed it and turned around to see who was shouting.
We turned and there were three gypsies behind us, one closely inspecting her own bag and saying “huh? My bag?” Then they crossed the street and went away from us as fast as possible. Close one. Nobody in Holland would shout through the street if they thought someone was about to get something from your bag. Well, very few people at least.
Then we got to the hotel. At some point we had a visitor, a small bird, which we took some pictures of. I’d post the pictures, but I appear to have forgotten the cable for my camera, so I promise to show them later. Hopefully before the end of the week.
Then we went out to the park, where they would be showing the Euro Cup finals, but there were also two stages with live music before that. Got to see Eli, Boriana and Annie again, also met up with Bobi, Mitko and Ivan. Ran into a French guy I met while I was living in Sofia also.
Watched the game with Mitko and Ivan, then afterwards stayed at the park for a while and drank a beer. On my way back to the hotel I saw about ten honking cars with Spanish flags being waved. As I looked at the number plates, turns out they were all diplomats’ cars. Festive people, those Spanish. I wonder how the Dutch embassy employees would have acted in Sofia, had Holland won the Euro Cup.
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After a few hours sleep on Wednesday night, I got up quite early on Thursday to take care of some final preparations for my trip to Bulgaria. In the evening, I went over to Anton’s place in Amsterdam to watch the Russia match, but also because he was my ride to Bulgaria. We watched the match, stayed up way too long (I ended up sleeping only an hour and a half), and had some interesting conversations. The next day I got into the car with Anton, his mom and her boyfriend Plamen, and we got on the road. The plan was to drive halfway down Europe, sleep a bit, then drive some more, since Plamen was the only one who was driving.
What a trip. We came through Euro Cup hosting Vienna at night, passed Budapest in Hungary, then in the morning crossed the border of Hungary and Serbia. I had slept maybe half an hour since we took off, so when we stopped in the north of Serbia for breakfast, I had slept about 2 hours in the last 48. I was over it though.
The north of Serbia by the way, or at least the part we came through, was rather dull. Huge farmlands, very vast; enough to feed a nation. Later as we passed Belgrade, the scenery got more interesting as we went through a very mountainous area on our way to Niss and then the Bulgarian border.
As I arrived in Sofia, I felt a bit at home immediately. At least more at home than I feel in Amsterdam or all the places we passed on our way to Bulgaria. I got out, said goodbye, and then went to the Art Hostel, because I had heard some good things about it. Turned out to be a fun choice. Coincidentally it is right across the street from my girlfriend’s old high school. Which is exactly where we met later in the day. We chilled out a bit, had to get a bit used to each other again, since we hadn’t seen each other in three months.
After having dinner and relaxing a bit, she went back home and I went to the hostel. I was still not really tired, so I decided to have a chat with someone the first opportunity I had. I suppose I was lucky, because I don’t think I could have found a more interesting person to speak with in that hostel. Ended up chatting ‘til 4 o’ clock, then got up at 9 again, because I couldn’t wait to see more of my girlfriend :-). 7 hours of sleep in 3 days? More than enough!
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Currently in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria looking for a cheap hotel.
So much has happened already. The 36 hour ride to from Holland to Bulgaria, via Germany, Austria, Hungary and Serbia. Seeing many of my friends again, my girlfriend, and arranging to visit a friend in Macedonia. I’m definitely keeping myself very busy. I plan on writing in detail about more or less every day so far, so subscribe to the RSS feed or to the email updates if you want to stay in the know
More soon. Probably better to secure a place where I can sleep tonight first
Going on holiday very soon. Took care of everything I wanted to take care of before I left. Now the plan’s to meet up with one more friend for an hour or so, go buy some more travel accessoires, get my ass over to Anton’s house to sleep there and get on the road in the morning.
I’m travelling with Anton’s mom and her boyfriend and we’re going by car… to Bulgaria. It’s going to be quite a trial, since I don’t like heat, cars, or waiting, but fuck it. It’s also an adventure. Maybe. Anyway, turns out we’ll be coming through Novi Sad, Serbia, where I have a friend that I met at the Balkan Youth Festival (BYF) last year. Then going to Sofia, Bulgaria to visit my girlfriend. Then going to Strumica, Macedonia to visit another friend I mate at the BYF.
All the way down there, the landscape can be a lot like the picture below, so I’m really looking forward to submerging myself in the unknown again.
Then it’s back to Bulgaria, where I will finally see the Black Sea coast! I’m (more or less) packed and ready to go! Here I come.
This blog's about a 22 year old International Communication Management student from the Netherlands and his experiences of going to and staying in Istanbul, Turkey for half a year. Enjoy the read; enjoy the journey!
