Bulgaria Trip Diary
"Yummee... A Purple One!"
Day 1
Every July 1st
a lot of people gather on the beaches (and other places) around Bulgaria to
watch the sun come up while listening to July Morning! I have seen film of this
and it´s really quite…. emotional so I am happy to be a part of it this year.
The celebration actually happens all over the country but since we can´t be in
many places at once we´ll be doing it here in Kavarna this year…. Maybe they
could try a webcast or something because I also found out that it happens in
just about every part of the world where Bulgarian people settle!!
Who knew, all
those years ago on the Sha Na Na tour bus, that this song would be used like
this?
Varna and its
little sister city Kavarna are in Bulgaria…. on the Black Sea coast, just across
from Sochi, Russia. I am on my way there to hang out with John Lawton for almost
a week, do a bit of singing and playing and recording, catch some rays and try
to get to know the country, its music fans, its food and its people as much as I
can! I have no other reason to be there, but first I have to get there.
It wouldn´t be
like me to digress, so I will…. Have you noticed what balls-out liars the modern
media are? They sit there in judgement, pointing their fingers at
corruption everywhere and they won´t even disclose their "sources"! They scream
about a "lack of transparency" in government and corporate boardrooms, whilst at
the same time speculating (as only they can) by the use of un-named sources,
usually "speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to
speak to the media".
So… two good
reasons to name them then…. One, to enable the words the media claim as facts to
be verified and two, to get them fired for breaking their employer´s rules!
Do these people actually expect us to take them seriously? Oh well, I have
much more important things to do but it´s really hard to type properly in the
cramped quarters of a modern "low-cost" aeroplane where they have crammed in as
many seats as possible for obvious reasons.
You may
well ask…
"for all of his bitching about airports,
aeroplanes and airlines, why does he keep doing this?"
And the answer
would be that if I didn´t do it, I couldn´t bitch about it and share all of my
positive thoughts with you!
Anyway my dear
hapless readers…. We are, as I said, off to Bulgaria this weekend. Bulgaria is a
country that has just over 7 million people, has been variously owned by Turkey
and Russia and is held by gravity just to the north (or is it south?) of Romania
which is where my maternal great grandparents are from!
And you may
say…..
"any
idiot can get that information from Google"
But my point
is, why would you do that when this idiot has already done it for you??
And Google doesn´t know about my maternal great grandparents either … at least I
don´t think so!
Alberto
dropped me off at the airport and I was lucky to be able to use my Air Berlin
silver card to avoid the ghastly queues that the ordinary people had to go
through. I was tired after getting up at 05:30 so I just sort of "siestad"
my way to Berlin and there I had to change airports. Time was not an issue but
the weather certainly was. I had left Spain in 27 degrees, headed for Varna
where it was about the same. Berlin was 16 degrees and raining.
A taxi sounded
like a good idea….. So, 30 kms and €45.00 later, I was at Schönefeld
airport and forced to deal with some fatally flawed German engineering!
Now… those of you that know me (yes… both of you) know that I am a huge fan of
German engineering and that I have greatly respected the quality of the BMW,
Mercedes and Porsche cars that various banks bought for me to give to my
ex-wives over the years, but this particular airport has "moron" written all
over it!
I was about to
fly with a highly suspect operation called German Wings… the name just doesn´t
fill me with confidence… and in order to check in we had to form a line and this
line was long enough to stretch back through the automatic doors and onto the
outside sidewalk!
This is okay if you want to smoke while you wait but I can´t believe they didn´t
see this coming!
("There
he goes again, bitching about airports" "Yeah I know, I
think he´s finally losing it…. Too bad")
So now here I
am, on my German Wings flight. It´s not too bad but it is late, although
I suppose that could happen to any airline. Can´t complain… could always be
worse…..
("You´re
right…. he really is losing it" "Nah… I think not… I
think the red wine is working!")
I am awake now
and I am aware of what you have been saying about me! But I just had the
most incredible cup of coffee…. How do I know it was incredible? Because it was
€2.60 (about $3.30) that´s how!
We are now on
descent into Varna and I can scarcely wait to see what joy this brings… talk to
you later.
John and Iris
met me at the airport, along with various Bulgarian people whose functions I
have not yet figured out but we went straight to dinner and met the Mayor of
Kavarna and other dignitaries, accompanied the whole time by a TV camera crew
who, for some reason I will probably never understand, have decided to make a
documentary of this whole thing!
The food
was okay, the wine was decent and the price was right but I was tired so I was
happy to see my apartment and even happier to see my bed!!
