October 2008

Sasha and I spent a great day in Plovdiv yesterday. We explored this beautiful city as tourists and we had a great time. We walked down the main street and then spend the rest of the day in Old Town. There is a Roman amphitheater that is still used for special occasions. We had coffee and Coca Cola in an outdoor bar overlooking the amphitheater.

We visited two museums, the National Historical Museum and the Etnographical Museum. Both are located in Old Town, in beautiful old Bulgarian houses. Old Town is in general very well preserved and restored. There are many paintings of the street views, we have one in our living room.

In front of the Etnographical Museum.

Saturday afternoon my plane landed in Sofia, and Milan and Sasha were there to pick me up from the airport. It's really good to see everybody again.

Our first dinner started with shopska salad and rakia, and chicken with a great side dish kiselo zele (one of my favorites). Kisole zele is pickled cabbage and it's baked in the oven with the chicken.

I slept in until 1.00 pm the next day; we had an easy day and spent a nice evening with Rangel, Iordanka and Renche.

The previous two times I was in Bulgaria in the middle of the winter; it's nice to see everything so lush and green now.

I'm on my way to the airport in a cab whose window almost fell out.

I'll fly to Atlanta and from there to Prague, Czech Republic. My original flight through JFK was canceled and I was not able to do my seat assignment online because of that so I hope I can make sure to get an aisle seat at the airport.

Update:

• Guus is happy with his aisle seat and is on his way to Prague. (2 days 5 hours ago)
• Guus getting worried about his seat assignment now: "eh, please come back in 20 minutes sir while I hold on to your passport and tickets" (2 days 5 hours ago)
• Guus just learned that the British Museum's exhibition on the Terracotta Army is coming to Atlanta in November (DC after that) (2 days 6 hours ago)

Today I am traveling to Bulgaria! I'm staying for a week with Milan and Nadia; Sasha has been there for a while now.

My original flight was through JFK, and left around noon, but two days ago that flight was canceled and I was rebooked through Atlanta. I certainly don't mind, since the layover in Atlanta is a lot shorter. It's the first time in a long time that I don't start my international flight with having to get up at some crazy hour. I had already taken a day off so I have plenty of time to pack my luggage and get ready.

Oh, I loves these debates! The long expected debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin was tonight, and I enjoyed watching it over dinner and a beer (tomorrow is a day off).

Ms. Palin did well, a lot better than in her interviews the last couple of days although she stayed really close to her one-liners and evaded a lot of questions. I'd say that Mr. Biden won the debate, on style and content, but as a blogger of The Economist put it, "Ms. Palin won the expectations game".

I just read an article about a planned resurfacing of I-40, the road I take to work every day. In April of next year they'll refresh the asphalt between 540 and the Wade Avenue exit. The same article mentions a very sensible change that's being planned for the Raleigh 440 beltway:

"The Beltline job includes plans to remove Inner / Outer Beltline signs that have confused motorists for years. Instead, the Beltline would be divided between east / west I-40, and east / west I-440."

That makes so much sense -- the Inner / Outer Beltline thing never really worked for me.