Woah, I haven’t written anything for quite some months.
Where to start… well, the GPU of my laptop burned down in the beginning of January and it has been back to Bulgaria for repairs already twice. Looking on the bright side – I read 5 books since then!
Anyhow, as the title is “Lots of traveling” – here it is: I went to Frankfurt for a weekend to visit an old friend. That city is cool. I haven’t really seen skyscrapers in live before. It’s astonishing.
Next stop – ASOT (A state of Trance) concert in Utrecht, Netherlands. This is the biggest Trance music event in teh world, with DJs like Armin van Buuren, Dash Berlin, Aly and Fyla, etc. So, I met with couple of friends from Denmark there, and it was dancing, jumping and going crazy all night (literally… for 10 hours) at the concert. Next day we went to Amsterdam but we were so crushed that all we did was sitting and waiting for our trains in a cafe.
Then comes the festival in Cologne. It sort of the festival in Rio (it is also at the same time of the year), but of course not that big. There was a parade and everybody is in costumes. And I literally mean everybody. Just imagine – the streets of a 2 million population city filled with all kind of weird dressed people, all drinking and having fun. I have seen on TV (or whatever) massive parties on streets, but this was live experience! Famazing! Then we joined a moving cart with sound system and a DJ on the cart, going through a park, then crossing the streets, etc. and 200+ people just following the cart and dancing… wat?! I am coming back for this festival next year!
Without even noticing – it is Easter holidays time. What to do? Why not go do some snowboarding… Went to visit a good friend from university, in Budapest, and then hopped with her bro and sis to the Alps. I have always wanted to set foot on a glacier, to learn how to snowboard properly, and to do winter sports during the spring. Well, I did all of these things simultaneously! We went to slopes which are 3000m above sea level. There is snow all year round! Good thing I am longboarding, so it was quite easy for me to get up on the snowboard and get moving with it properly. Anyhow, a week long vacation of hanging out with a good friend, snowboarding on the top of the world, and eating homemade Hungarian food.. wohoo!
Okay, going back to Amsterdam (for 4th time). It’s the end of April and it’s the first King’s day (used to be Queen’s day before). Long story – short, them Dutch people do a massive celebration in the name of their king (or queen). Resembles the festival in Cologne, but all the streets are orange and there are much more drunk people, kind of messy and stuff. If it’s your first time in Amsterdam – don’t go on that day, you’re not gonna have a good impression of the city.
May was a month of in-Germany-traveling – some castles, some rivers, some lakes, that’s all. But June… oh, June… Here we start…
But June… oh, June… Here we start…
In the beginning of the month the company sent me and Simeon to an international PHP conference in Berlin. Got moving on the train with 250 km/h (cool story, bro)! First time on a conference, omg, that stuff is cool, omg, free bags, free t-shirts, omg, so much foodz, so many nerds around, wtf am I even doing here, I don’t understand what is that guy talking about. That was more or less a wrap-up of the conference. But we learned some interesting stuff about different technologies, ways of securing the software we write and most important – got contacts of different companies for possibilities of doing our BSc project with and maybe future career. Also, being the smart person I am, I asked my boss to get the train tickets for couple of days before the conference, so we can also treat ourselves with an excursion through Berlin. This is the most alternative city I’ve ever seen. You gotta visit it!
Then a week of work and it’s time for… Paris. You know, the usual stuff – Versailles, Eiffel, Napoleon mausoleum, gardens, wine, cheese, saucisson, more wine and cheese. It was my first time staying over at a hostel. Gosh, I love staying over at hostels while traveling… I have read on forums and stuff, that you always meet those cool people in the hostels, but I never really imagined it will be so damn true. We met a girl from US (hi, JPEG
), who had almost the same sense of narcissism and sense of humour as me and my buddies (the narcissism part is important ), so we spent a great day of walking around together and… I love randomly meeting people from different countries! Oh, btw, when we arrived to visit the Eiffel tower, it was all blocked by police and stuff. Turned out that Obama, Putin and queen Elizabeth were paying a visit to the tower right before us. Luckily we arrived right when they were leaving, so the guards removed the stop-lines and you could see like 100 people running towards the cash-desks to get as in front as possible of the line for tickets. Then it was more wine, trying to crash some random private parties around the center of Paris… yep.
Then again a week of work and it’s time for… Morocco! It was legen… wait for it… daaaaary! I loved the trip! At the airport in Dusseldorf we met a Mexican guy, super cool dude. He was going to Morocco for a 2 weeks language course at a host family, but he was going some days earlier just to travel a bit. He had no plans and didn’t book any hostels, so we took him with us! It was a super great decision, because knew some French – to get around when we needed to ask the locals for something and he is a great company! We helped him with getting ideas of how to propose to his girlfriend and picking a ring and stuff. Maybe I am going to party at a wedding in Germany in the following months. So we arrived in Fez – spend the evening and the morning there. Walked around the Medina (medina is the old part of the cities in the Arabic countries – those narrow streets, with square houses where you can jump from roof to roof, and where people are sitting all around the streets, selling goods and stuff). The hostel was super-mega amazing and beautiful in that Arabic architecture style. Again, we met some super cool people in the hostel and traveled to the next city with them. Then in Meknes – same story – interesting Medina, snake charmers, palms… We had dinner for 7 euros for 4 guys. Amazingly cheap! Then we moved to Rabat on the next day. It is on the coast of the Atlantic ocean. So the moment we arrived in the hostel – we threw our stuff in the room and went to the beach. Of course, we were the whitest individuals on the beach, so we attracted quite some attention. Later in the evening we did surfing. WOW, that stuff is good! Then we went back to Fez and spent 1 more night there. Met some ppl from US, UK, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Denmark (I practiced my Danish a bit ), Canada and Hungary, Colombia, Spain, Germany… how cool is that?! Drank some beers with them, a dinner out, watching the sunrise at the top of one of the highest buildings in the Medina.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot – we had a guided tour in Fez. The guide was not a normal, trained guide or smth. He was just a local guy, called from the hostel. He was getting angry at us for asking him questions and all this stuff. But it was cool – we did get the REAL Morocco experience – not some tour where the guide is just smiling and telling you everything is pink and roses, but instead we got stories about homeless dogs, saw all the smelly parts of the city. Went to a concert of typical modern Moroccan music – bunch of guys “playing” and making the beat and all the sound with their mouths, one guy playing on a drum and one guy singing. And then you just shake yourself, in the rhythm, as if you’re under the influence of drugs or smth. Morocco is cool! Next time I’ll visit the desert, though.
Now AGAIN a week of work and it’s time for… Moscow! Yep, I am going to Moscow for 10 days in the beginning of July.
But we learned some interesting stuff about different technologies, ways of securing the software we write and most important – got contacts of different companies for possibilities of doing our BSc project with and maybe future career. Also, being the smart person I am, I asked my boss to get the train tickets for couple of days before the conference, so we can also treat ourselves with an excursion through Berlin. This is the most alternative city I’ve ever seen. You gotta visit it!Then a week of work and it’s time for… Paris. You know, the usual stuff – Versailles, Eiffel, Napoleon mausoleum, gardens, wine, cheese, saucisson, more wine and cheese. It was my first time staying over at a hostel. Gosh, I love staying over at hostels while traveling… I have read on forums and stuff, that you always meet those cool people in the hostels, but I never really imagined it will be so damn true. We met a girl from US (hi, JPEG
), who had almost the same sense of narcissism and sense of humour as me and my buddies (the narcissism part is important ), so we spent a great day of walking around together and… I love randomly meeting people from different countries! Oh, btw, when we arrived to visit the Eiffel tower, it was all blocked by police and stuff. Turned out that Obama, Putin and queen Elizabeth were paying a visit to the tower right before us. Luckily we arrived right when they were leaving, so the guards removed the stop-lines and you could see like 100 people running towards the cash-desks to get as in front as possible of the line for tickets. Then it was more wine, trying to crash some random private parties around the center of Paris… yep.Then again a week of work and it’s time for… Morocco! It was legen… wait for it… daaaaary! I loved the trip! At the airport in Dusseldorf we met a Mexican guy, super cool dude. He was going to Morocco for a 2 weeks language course at a host family, but he was going some days earlier just to travel a bit. He had no plans and didn’t book any hostels, so we took him with us! It was a super great decision, because knew some French – to get around when we needed to ask the locals for something and he is a great company! We helped him with getting ideas of how to propose to his girlfriend and picking a ring and stuff. Maybe I am going to party at a wedding in Germany in the following months.
So we arrived in Fez – spend the evening and the morning there. Walked around the Medina (medina is the old part of the cities in the Arabic countries – those narrow streets, with square houses where you can jump from roof to roof, and where people are sitting all around the streets, selling goods and stuff). The hostel was super-mega amazing and beautiful in that Arabic architecture style. Again, we met some super cool people in the hostel and traveled to the next city with them. Then in Meknes – same story – interesting Medina, snake charmers, palms… We had dinner for 7 euros for 4 guys. Amazingly cheap! Then we moved to Rabat on the next day. It is on the coast of the Atlantic ocean. So the moment we arrived in the hostel – we threw our stuff in the room and went to the beach. Of course, we were the whitest individuals on the beach, so we attracted quite some attention. Later in the evening we did surfing. WOW, that stuff is good! Then we went back to Fez and spent 1 more night there. Met some ppl from US, UK, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Denmark (I practiced my Danish a bit ), Canada and Hungary, Colombia, Spain, Germany… how cool is that?! Drank some beers with them, a dinner out, watching the sunrise at the top of one of the highest buildings in the Medina.Oh, yeah, I almost forgot – we had a guided tour in Fez. The guide was not a normal, trained guide or smth. He was just a local guy, called from the hostel. He was getting angry at us for asking him questions and all this stuff. But it was cool – we did get the REAL Morocco experience – not some tour where the guide is just smiling and telling you everything is pink and roses, but instead we got stories about homeless dogs, saw all the smelly parts of the city. Went to a concert of typical modern Moroccan music – bunch of guys “playing” and making the beat and all the sound with their mouths, one guy playing on a drum and one guy singing. And then you just shake yourself, in the rhythm, as if you’re under the influence of drugs or smth.
Morocco is cool! Next time I’ll visit the desert, though.Now AGAIN a week of work and it’s time for… Moscow! Yep, I am going to Moscow for 10 days in the beginning of July.
Now, some words about work…
Work is as usual. Last months were mostly maintenance of the features that we were developing in the last months of the last year. I developed a giant part of one really big feature, together with one ex-colleague, but she left, so I and the main dev are the only ones left here who are really into this feature and of course I get all the workload about bug fixing and maintaining. We’ve got 5 new software developer interns and 1 business administration intern. The business one is 50/50 Serbian/Macedonian and the dialect from the region where I am from in Bulgaria is the same as the Macedonian language – so I speak with her without problems. Simeon doesn’t understand us sometimes, but that’s fine. I kinda feel like home sometimes in the office, because of speaking the same way as I would speak in my village with my grandparents – like a redneck.
Two of the new interns are in my team. I am being kind of a coach to them – answering questions, helping them when they are stuck on some task, etc. Feels nice to be superior to someone. I am also doing reviews of their code, before it gets to the main developer for final review.
Work is as usual. Last months were mostly maintenance of the features that we were developing in the last months of the last year. I developed a giant part of one really big feature, together with one ex-colleague, but she left, so I and the main dev are the only ones left here who are really into this feature and of course I get all the workload about bug fixing and maintaining.
We’ve got 5 new software developer interns and 1 business administration intern. The business one is 50/50 Serbian/Macedonian and the dialect from the region where I am from in Bulgaria is the same as the Macedonian language – so I speak with her without problems. Simeon doesn’t understand us sometimes, but that’s fine. I kinda feel like home sometimes in the office, because of speaking the same way as I would speak in my village with my grandparents – like a redneck.Two of the new interns are in my team. I am being kind of a coach to them – answering questions, helping them when they are stuck on some task, etc. Feels nice to be superior to someone.
I am also doing reviews of their code, before it gets to the main developer for final review.
Wheeew… that was one damn long post… see you in a month!
P.S. pics of the trips will follow soon.
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