The Graduate

Today, after 2.5 hours of sweating over linear programming and multiple regressions, I left the exam room overwhelmed. The Last Day of Bachelor. Four years, many countries, hundreds of faces and places. And now its all over and everything must start anew. And there will be twice as many people and places.
I can't forget that night in my first week in Breda, when I just met my roomies, we had dinner and watched The Motorcycle Diaries and The Beach. And we talked. I think it was those people who inspired me to travel the world and visit all these places that I've been to. Looking back and remembering them is enough to push me away from the Earth and head for Pluto. And they are also all over the place. London, Colombia, Italy, Spain and I don't even know where else. I know I will see you again. Soon.
Tomorrow, I am heading down south – my first crossing of the Equator and entering the Southern hemisphere. I have always wanted to visit Bali. Since the 6th grade Geography class. I will tell you all about it in about 20 days.

Summer

How is this for a summer:

Macau-HongKong-Singapore-Jakarta-Bali-Jakarta-Singapore-HongKong-Macau(bummer)-HongKong-Kuala Lumpur-Amsterdam-Breda-Bruge/Antwerp/whatever-Brussels-Sofia-Svilengrad-Plovdiv-StaraZagora-mountains-beaches-Varna-Razgrad-someplaceinRomania-Svilengrad/Plovdiv/(.....)/Sofia - Brussels-Breda -(?)- Edinburgh.

Damn.

Examined life

Record Club: Songs Of Leonard Cohen "Stranger Song" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

More Leonard Cohen covers by Beck and crew.

The Brian Wilson Syndrome

There are songs that you listen to over and over again, but every time the cords, the voice and the lyrics will reveal new layers of meaning. My day seems incomplete if I don't peel at least one of the layers of Surf's up. I peel it, look at it under a magnifying glass, dump it in the trash bin, all proud and contented, only to find it smiling back at me from the headphones.

HE:

A famous visitor dropped by last night and left a bagful of confused fragments in my dreams. We had a party in the woods and slept under the trees with giant gerbils and dark-red foxes. Our pillows made of autumn leaves. Our covers – fallen branches.
His face is real, his voice is famous. People pay money to see him live. He would cynically represent our generation, he would criticize, mock and preach in songs and poetry. And there he was last night, quiet and transformed, covered with the dew, pine cone pieces in his honey-colored hairs.
A symbol of youth and freedom.
There were other people too, and they were spinning, their spirits above the ground, their lips touching when there was nowhere else to go. In the woods. And under the branches.
I often wonder if you dream of somebody so intensely, is that somebody may be dreaming too?

Young Pilgrims

A night-life story.
A night out in Macau starts around 9 in the shared flat of exchange students. Everbody brings drinks and you end up trying the famous students' specials- cheap beers and wines, plus some vodka and whiskey (ridiculously cheap in Macau). Conversations are school-related, travel-inspired and my favorite “How do you say that in your language?”. Really boring commercial music is coming out of lap tops, but we always have fun and end up wasted before even going out. That's the point, I guess.

Second stop is, naturally, the 33 - the classical low-budget drinking spot. Basically, it is a shop with a bunch of chairs outside, right on Hookers' Street by the water. You can enjoy racial diversity down there, with the beautiful Taipa skyline in the background. Exquisite.

Then we walk to MGM Grand, because a night out in Macau is impossible without at least one fancy casino name on the menu. The MGM Lion's Bar is flooded with the same boring commercial music mentioned one par ago, but the live-band makes it better. Recently, they have started playing some Kings of Leon, so it is not all that bad actually. It is weird when you realize that one year ago you were drinking with some hippies in the park and now you are in a first-class Las Vegas casino with a caipirinha in your hand. Life is just one unpredictable piece of work.

So after the casino it is time for some clubbin', right. Well, not much choice in Macau to be honest, there are two or three clubs open until the morning – Cubic and D2 (and D3 but I don't know many people who have been there). The chosen spot is normally Cubic, and for some reason I always end up having loads of fun even though it is the may be lamest bar in the world. The drinks are free, the ladies are not, the music is crap, but still.

This basically sums it up. If you can still walk and talk after this, 7/11 is is open 24/7 and the rooftop hammocks await patiently.

Bukowski

These two babes and Hank Chinaski have just found me sitting here on my own with a bottle of wine. The exact dose of literary genius for times like these. Wild, vagrant and genuine.

Happy Birthday, Anchettt!

Честит рожден ден, Анииии!
Пожелавам ти луда Холандска година, много колела, бири, и мъже с червени бузи (?!)!!!!
Обичам те, и дано скоро успеем отново да празнуваме рожденните си дни заедно!!!!
A kiss for Ani!
A Special dance for Ani

The Drifter

Talking about bumming in Bali, Indonesia.