Saturday 4 September 2010

GREECE AND BULGARIA

HELLO! sorry i didnt post anything while i was away, didnt have a great deal of time on the internet, also i had nothing to post. what follows is not quite the photographic extravaganza that i posted up last time i travelled to these parts, for that reason. i had been there before so alot of things didnt strike me like they did last year. either way, there is still a nice dose of eastern european fashion, food and locals. enjoy.


i went for a shit at the airport and this was written in pen on the toilet roll dispenser. it made me laugh, of all the things you could write. ha ha. (for those not in the know, BBK is an abbreviation of 'boy better know' a grime crew/record label.)


first day tan/sunburn lines. after flying into sofia airport in bulgaria, we drove across the border to greece through the night. didnt get alot of sleep so we went onto the beach and chilled.



little messi doing his bit for foreign snacks.



this was one of the beaches in greece. i cant tell you exactly where i went because i really dont know. they were all like this though, really close to the shore and with umbrellas because it was hot. very very nice indeed.




valenas godmother was dead lovely and kept buying us ice cream. this was the best strawberry ice cream ever, pure juicy and delicious.


this was her funny shit lighter.


this was it for five days really, just chilling in 43 degrees sunshine on the beach. i read this months FHM cover to cover, and also a really good football magazine called 'when saturday comes', i strongly reccomend it.


some genius media in greece.


this was us crossing the border from greece to bulgaria. we drove for hours through the day and through the bulgarian mountains in the glaring sun. i tried to get photos, but couldnt capture the beauty on my phone. an honestly stunning view, this winding road; punctuated every 100 yards by gypsies at the roadside selling berries, jams and reserved stretched through massive valleys of 50 foot high pine trees for hours. it was lovely.

the first night back was valenas mum's birthday party, there were a load of valenas family and friends and we had a massive barbecue. after that a few of us went out to a club.

i had been banging the vodka very hard, and then when we got to the club we bought a bottle and me and valenas mate evo (pictured) battered it between us pure fast. this is us, both pissed out of our heads thinking its cool to sit-down-dance to living on a prayer.


"GET IT OFF!!! GET IT OFF ME! WHAT IS IT!?"


they have these street vendors that sell these kebab's that are 2 lev (about 80p). in the pitta you get chicken shish, little home made fried chips, peppers, cucumber, onion and tomato all with this nice little garlic mayo sauce. 80p. they are fucking massive too, honestly, i would live off them here, they are so delicious.


heinz exotic sauce. ooh lar-de-dah. one of the 57 varieties.


also we went away from valena's home town of plovdiv for one night to another little village that i cant pronounce the name of. it had mineral water spas dotted about, and there were people filling up bottles with this hot fresh mineral water. proper nice and refreshing to wash your hands under.


this euro-meat-head was living up to his name. we were buying some snacks from this shop, and this guy come straight in and went for the cold meats. he bought 1kg of salami.


i had to do it. i had to become a sophbecker. because we were only at that apartment for one night, i only packed a little carrier bag of things to wear. socks didnt make the cut, i just forgot... then ended up paying the ultimate twat ankles price that evening when i put my jeans on to head back out for dinner. sorry guys.

said dinner was fucking bollocks. i ordered grill chicken and chips with veg. last year, the veg we had from a couple places was off the hook, pure nice grilled peppers, onions and carrots. as we ordered i asked valena to ask the waitress what the vaguely described "veg" was. she replied not broccoli. me and valena looked at her and she just said "you know, frozen... out of a packet". i think momentarily she forgot we were actually paying for the dinner, not in a fucking iceland advert.
when the dinner come out the "grilled" chicken was beaten to a pulp, chewy and pink inside, the veg was cubed carrots and peas that was full of cold water from where it had not properly defrosted in the pan and the chips were oven chips that were full of warm oil. fucking discusting shit. good job it cost so little.

the next morning i got a little pikachu ice cream. i wasnt best impressed by the actual lolly. it was very nice though.

do you think this blog qualifies as a food blog? it seems to be the main thing in my life doesnt it? all i fucking go on about. i had a stranger message me telling me he has seen my blog and that i need to change my diet this week.


is this just me who has seen this? or is this a thing that we have over here that ive just never paid attention to? i hope im going to unearth this too. i took the raw talent of fluff and now look at it, its soaring.


we went to this gallery in a garden in the old town a couple times. first one was for a friend of valena's mum and godmum. the gallery owner takes a 30% slice of any sales and was a close friend of the 'artists'.
this had a lot to do with the exhibition being on, because her art wasnt upto much. i didnt get a picture, but basically her painting are all really vague, poorly drawn musical instruments and female figures and umbrellas and stuff painted in acrylics. she openly says she knocks out 40 "paintings" a month, and it shows. she was asking 400 euros for some of them. of her fucking little head.
the second exhibition was some guy, and it was a collection of his work from over the last 20 years. it wasnt outstanding, but there were elements that i really liked, he had a good use of colour and mark making.
in the photo above, the woman in the white top on the right of the shot was giving a little introduction speech on the opening evening of the exhibition. the man on the left in the black tshirts phone went off, letting loose this loud almost novelty monophonic ringtone. he didnt walk the call outside, (i was stood literally infront of the gardens entrance, 5 paces away from him) he just stood there and took the call, i few steps away from the woman, it was duuuuumb funny.


we went to see salt that night. its shit, in reality jolie would be dead 20 minutes in, but thats not much of a blockbuster is it?


they dont trust you in bulgaria. the cinema was in a mall and we left the the screen from a different door to the one we came in from. this was so people dont try to sneak back in and see another film on the free, but honestly, talk about extra. the walk went on for about 2 minutes through these never ending white coridoors.




hench slice of pizza is 1 lev (40p). NORMAL DAY


summer berries fanta world. bullshit flavour, 2/10.


water fountain in the park being used by well minded youths. i dont think you would get this in this country. i know its hotter over there, but still im sure it gets pissed in 64% of the time.


we had pure little coffee's, cakes, ice creams and that.

banana ice cream is one of my favourite foods.


their is your euro fashion. fish nets socks with some wedge heels to the office.


we went to this pizzaria one night too, and it was fucking amazing. everything was really really great. i had a small deep pan one with baaaare toppings on.


went go karting one night with valenas god sister tina too. it was sick, its so so cheap, like 4 pounds for 10 laps. when i went last year it wasnt times, but this year it was. i went on one time and got ok lap times, nothing unreal. so i waited a bit then went on later. after 10 laps, and ripping past these 5 bulgarian boyo's i got the 15th best lap time of the month.
buzzed out for about half an hour until i realised it was the 1st of the month.

this taxi driver had a magnetic arial and he had put a load of ring pulls on it. it was really good.


i packed my suitcase full of exports, honestly it was so so rammed with stuff, and i thought it was going to be well over the 20kg limit. fuck you rules, ill get just under the limiiiit.


back in leicester, and someone in mcdonalds had put a tenner into a little charity box on the counter. your mental if you do that, you know the employees just split it up between, zero africans get a look in.
CHEERS FOR READING, ILL POST SOME BULGARIAN GRAFFITI FLICKS TOMMOROW BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

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