Bulgaria P.S.

So, I'm fortunatelly back to Athens.

On the way back the Bulgarian customs officer turned out to be a young girl who spoke Greek fluently (that is, better than I do lol). Judging from her appearence, I assume she could be an ethnic Greek. Sitting in a Bulgarian customs booth. What an irony.

And of course she had more questions than the Greek customs officer did (who, this time, had no question at all). It is strange, usually you expect more questions when you enter the country than when you leave it. And questions are obvious: 1. Am I Greek? 2. If yes, than why do I speak Greek language so badly? 3. How the hell was I granted the Greek citizenship? Lol. But as my documents were OK, after examining them carefully she had no choice but to let me out.

But yeah, I really feel ashamed when I meet Chinese or Albanians speaking Greek fluently. Fortunately, here, in Greece, I can pretend being a foreigner lol. Unfortunatelly, outside Greece I often raise questions and suspitions with my not-so-fluent Greek.

In fact, only after becoming a Greek citizen I understood how many Greeks there are in European countries outside Greece. Even in Luxembourg I've seen a few Greek tourists. Hell, even after leaving the venue after the concert of Garbage in Groningen I immediately stumbled into three young Greeks riding bicycles and talking in Greek loudly. And when I stayed in Amsterdam, the receiptionist of the hotel turned out to be a Greek girl.

So, Greeks are everywhere.

But yeah, returning to this Bulgarian trip.

It turned out that while in Sofia I changed my € with an exchange rate of €1=1,860 Lev, in Plovdiv it was €1=1,950 Levs and sometimes even more.

Fucking shit!

As for the festival Hills of Rock, the rest two days were sunny and hot, with no rains, but the puddles and mud after the first day remained, and although there were clear signes the organisers of the festival tried to drain this shit out, it didn't help, and the field haven't become totally dry even on the third day.

And mosqitoes, yeah, fucking mosquitoes. Plovdiv has a huge problem with them, and mosquitoes repellents were even sold amongst food and bands' merch on the festival. HAven't ever seen anything like that lol.

Garbage's set was a bit shorter htat their solo sets in Groningen and Amsterdam. They played OHWIR without usual nostalgical introduction, the way they played in since 2012. Now it is no place for nostalgy lol. Shirley said that it was very ironical that they performed right after Children Of Bodom. Well, I've seen them performing in Samara in 2012 right before Алиса. For me, nothing will ever beat this amount of irony lol, even their performance right before Children Of Bodom.

But yeah, this is a usual problem with Garbage. They certainly can't be classified as metall, but they also can't be classified as bland pop either. So organisers of the festivals have to somehow shove their sets between alternative/metall acts, like in 2016 in Dortmund, when they performed after Powerwolf.

They played "Parade" again, like in Groningen and Amsterdam, and again it gave me goosebupms. What a great song, really.

What surprised me a bit was the fact that there were almost no people wearing their t-shirts. In fact, except for me, I've seen only one man wearing it. But Shirley said they haven't performed in Bulgaria for quater of a century. Quarter of a century, fucking shit! Yeah, they played one show in Bulgaria while on tour supporting their first album, in 1995 or 1996, and have never returned there since before this concert.

Well, at least they played two concerts in Bulgaria.

I doubt they played even once in Greece lol.

So yeah, the concert was OK.

As for Plovdiv, it also looks pretty OK lol. I visited their "Ancient Theater" (it cost me 5 Levs), walked through the city... Not than bad, really. Good weather and relaxed people. And figs and plums and cherries and mulberries falling everywhere and rortting in the heat and nobody cares except for flies.

And I've seen a dead hedgehog run over by a car. It is bad that it was run over by a car, but if hedgehogs live in the center of the city this city can't be bad.

And I've also seen a giant grasshopper, about 5cm long. And a few giant snails. And an alive rhinoceros beetle - for the first time in my life!

Yaeh, Plovdiv is a very green city. Much greener than Athens. Trees, bushes and parks are everywhere, we don't have such privilege in our marble jungles.

And it seems cleaner too, although, maybe, the residents of the city are just too poor to buy and throw away stuff extensively lol.

But yeah, it is a pleasant little provincial city anyways. And I'm a little bit tired of living my whole life in giant metropolises.

So I liked it.

A bit.

And Bulgaria isn't that awful, either.

However, yesterday in the evening I walked trhrough Sofia... In the dark.

And it seems like a giang poor village, with a few Moscow-like buildings and structures in the center.

Seems like they (or Russians) wanted Sofia to look a little bit like Moscow, bur all they could afford just a few buildings and streets in the center.

Outside it, it is just a village and it is nothing to see or do there.

But at least it is pretty cheap and relaxed and close to Greece, so I've seen many Greeks lol.

And at the Plovdiv central station I've seen a marble board commemorating the victims of "turkish terror" in the independent Bulgaria. It's funny, I've never have heard about such a thing before, but it seems it really exists (or at least existed). As I've said, Turks comprise about 10% of modern Bulgaria's population.

So yeah, Bulgaria is not very aesthetic, but at least it is pretty cheap, warm and green. And I like it. A little bit.

Greece, on the other hand, is much more expensive and hot.

For example, it is 34C right now.

Maybe, the ideal way of life is to spend summers in Bulgaria and the rest of the year in Greece lol. It seems ideal lol.

Besides, many Bulgarians speak Russian, so I had a chance easily surprise them with my Russian skills since I look nothing like Russian lol. It was pretty funny.

And Bulgarian language sounds like a mixture of Russian, Greek and German. And if you know these languages, life will certainly be much more easier for you lol.

And Germans, yeah, Germans.

Bulgaria still doesn't look too spoiled by mass tourism.

Or does it?

There is a Billa supermarket in the center of Plovdiv, and "dm" stores here and there (never before have I seen "dm" stores outside of Germany) and a Deutsche Bahn office in the central Sofia railway station.

And hordes of German tourists.

Seems like more Germans than Russian.

OK, I guess I'll have to end it somehow, so how about this.