Horseman Sunday Photos

I just felt like uploading some pictures of horses... So enjoy footage (or hoofage hahaha) from Horseman Sunday, one of my favorite new traditions in London which brings together religion and about 70 horses on a festive day for the entire family.

Sicko

Soooo the entire University is sick, pretty much.

The Flu.

the who?

Oh well, it's an annoying illness that lasts for several days, includes sneezing, coughing, sore throat and complimentary headaches. Also, you feel pretty down most of the time. And things that would normally make you happy make you feel .. well.. crappy :(

How would I know? I've got it too!! Gah...

And that is why I'm going to sleep now. Wake me up when tomorrow ends.

Signing out... Gotta catch my running nose.... :S (ha, lame joke!)

Time is a'flying

1 A.M. is approaching again.
My pastime: helping Gregory House solve his puzzling cases. I wish.... I'm no help at all - and he always seems to know the answer before I do. Impressive.

Today was an amazing day. Main reason would be the gorgeous weather outside! Imagine that, sunshine in London! A friend of mine and I are speculating a great conspiracy... I mean, come on, TWO sunny days in a row in ENGLAND??? We think they moved the island close to Spain or something. They did it while everyone was asleep (and to ensure that all people were sleeping at the exact same time, they released some sleepy gas into the air at night). Yeah, we know what's really happening. The world is full of cool conspiracies like that.

Anyway, let's not drive the sunny weather away. Let's accept its amazingness as is. I spent most of the day out and about Kensington Gardens (technically part of Hyde Park). It's interesting to go out in the park on sunny weekends because all of London seems to be there! And I don't blame them either... in a country where the sky is rarely clear, every speck of sunlight has to be absorbed! Among the crowds there were, naturally, tons of kids, all of which were shouting and screaming and driving me insane slowly and painfully :) Haha. No actually I was in such a good mood that I ignored them.

I love good, fun days like that. It was relaxing and productive at the same time (there's no better place to read research articles than the park). It made me miss Rex though....

Tomorrow's going to be an even more exciting day though! I will go to St. John's church north of Hyde Park and take photos of an event known as "Horseman's Sunday" when more than 100 horses are blessed in front of the church. It's a tradition going way back in time... I think it's going to be amazing!!! Perhaps it's the fact that there will be 100 of my favorite creatures in the world around the church! I can't wait! Will upload pics as soon as have them... :)

Sweet and Sticky (Literally) in Wembley

Probably everyone knows what I'm talking about at this point... Or if not, it's okay, it took me a while to realize why people found those two S-words so attractive and used them together all the time..

September 12, 2008

Wembley Stadium. Crowd. People. TONS of people! And among them, Rocio and I - shorter than the average person :)

It was a day to remember - the day Madonna was in town!!!! MADONNA!!! Aaaaah! Hehe, so much enthusiasm! I was seriously exhiliarated on that faithful day :) It took me a while to grasp the idea that I would be one of the lucky (hundreds of thousands of) people who witnessed Madonna on her Sweet and Sticky Tour of 2008! And let me tell you, it was worth it!

The concert was so impressive - everything from the stage and special effects to Madonna's constant dancing and running around the stage! It was a feast for the eyes! Only issue was, Rocio and I could hardly see a thing since we were towards the front-middle field part of the stadium; it would have been easier if we weren't super short... but what's a concert if you don't jump up and around all the time trying to spot the celebrity (aka a blurb on the dance floor).

It was crowded, stinky, stuffy, hot, hard to see, yet AMAZING nonetheless! It was a sweeeeeet experience and I'm so glad we did it!! Madonna literally passed her excess energy onto the crowd and everyone was dancing the night away!

I took some photos.. with my phone... which automatically makes them really crappy photos. Still, at least I have them for memory's sake... :) (Note to self: apparently in the UK they allow people to go to concerts with their cameras - whereas in Bulgaria it's pretty much illegal though that rarely stops people from taking pics at events).

Wembley Stadium with crowds headed its way

I know it's mean to say that, but those two were one weird couple...

The stage! One of the few decent pics I have... haha.
And of course, in the name of randomness, a pink umbrella (next to the huge pink 'M')

Yeah the guy behind me was a freak :P haha

Look!!! It's Madonna and she's jump-roapin'!!

And So the Year of School Begins....

... it's been over a week since classes started and let me tell you, we already have more than enough work to do. What happened to the transition from summer to school time?! Oh wait... there was none! It seems that all of a sudden we have to be on top of school work and all that jazz again. Sigh. And I'm still lazy. Not in the sense that I don't want to do things, but I still haven't gotten into the fast school pace. Although let me tell you, I'm already a pro at the no-sleep regime...

Why no sleep? Cause I have interesting things to do in the morning... eg going out to take photos of a fish market at 5am in the morning! Whoopey! I'm so looking forward to that! (not really haha) But as you can probably guess, I either have to wake up ungodly early in which case sleep becomes obsolete (I wonder if that's the right word...) altogether... or I go to bed at around 3-4am, just before the sun prepares to rise. I usually prefer the second option - spending all night with friends, having fun, chilling around London... sigh. Right now though I'm killing time till 5 am.

London life is full of happenings as usual. I can't complain at all! I've met tons of new people, explored new areas of the city, and slowly started laying the foundation for a brand new school year! I still have my little Starbucks addiction... :) Caramel Macchiato's are my weakness! As is chocolate anything! However, I am looking for balance this time around, so I joined the local gym too - mainly cause it has a swimming pool!! (and I love swimming so much!)

London weather... typical. Rain. Rain. Oh wait! Suuuun! No, never mind, rain again... It is slightly depressing coming from a hot Bulgarian summer... But I suppose that's the natural order of things.

I'm living by Earl's Court station again in a triple room yet with only one roommate! Rocio spends more time with her hubby Andrew at their place, so Jessica and I were abandoned in a way. The good side of this, though, is that there's plenty of space for guests to sleep in - a whole extra bed and an impressively large floor ;)

I am excited about classes this year, especially one which has to do with graphic design and advertising. It sounds very promising!

All in all, life is good, school is good, all is great! Wish you all the best as well!!

Back to School

Here I am, sitting in my little room in Richmond University, watching the cloudy London skies, wondering if I should be happy I escaped from hot, sizzlin' Sofia or miserable that there's no more sun here... :) Haha, you know how some people can complain about pretty much anything? Instead of being happy with what they have (ie some cool weather for a change), they'd focus on what they don't have (sunshine). Well, I'm not one of those! :D I'm going to accept the grayness outside and enjoy the fact that I'm chillin' with my computer and actually have the time to update this blog again.

I arrived in London yesterday after a fairly uneventful flight *yaaaawn*. There were some kids in the seats right behind me who wouldn't shut up the ENTIRE flight... while I would normally go ballistic and imagine violent scenes of kid-stabbing in my head (haha yeah right), this time I didn't even pay attention to them. Part of the flight I slept, the other - doodled (oh that's a good verb!), and read for a bit. Like I said before: UNEVENTFUL. Not even worth this paragraph.

Let me go back now, to my last weekend in Bulgaria. Now THAT was a great weekend! Saturday was family day and friends evening.

Family Day: The good old family lunch, complete with mega tasty bean soup, steaks, and salad... Mmm, classy! In the morning Mom and I went shopping and what not, which is generally a sweet way to start the day! :D Lunch, as I said, was delicious, and I got a chance to chat to my grandpa's for a while. Still, I was glad when the whole 'ceremony' was over cause I felt so sleepy all of a sudden. Quick nap, then WHOOSH out of the house I went (yay!).

I met up with a friend from high school, walked around Sofia, and then went to a club/bar called Mono. There I started a most incredible evening with the most incredible people in advertising ;) My friends from LBS and I had a couple of drinks, then an Olympic meal, and ... a few more drinks right before the finish line.

So at about... 4 am... I went to bed, only to wake up 4 hours later and start packing. Gives a whole new definition to last-minute packing :D Thankfully, all the stuff eventually fit in the suitcase (which weighed 32 kilos! Overweight, indeed, and very difficult to haul from bus to bus). After some extreme packing, there was yet another lunch, and then

ZOOOOOOOOOOM

flight time!

The morning was just a tad hazy.... MAYBE due to some sex (on the beach) I had the previous night :P

Oh, memories, how awesome you are!

And now I'm actually going to leave my room and go meet some people I haven't seen for ages!

Summer Reflections

See, I knew it before I even started this blog - I was not going to be able to update it regularly.. :) Hmmm... I guess that's the way things are.

Sooooo, in about 10 days I'll be back in dear old rainy London... :) I can't wait!! Well, actually let me rephrase that: about 2 months ago I couldn't wait to go back. Now I have a slightly different view on things... lol.

I had an AMAZING summer!!! What made it one of the most memorable summers ever? For the most part, my internship! It was a super fun month! I miss everyone so much! Not only did I gain a lot of invaluable work experience, but I also found new, incredible friends - people with a hilarious sense of humor, awesome characters, cool life stories, and positive outlooks about the world. They may be a bit stressed out at times, haha, but either way I couldn't imagine my summer without them :) Hence I'm slightly sad now... It's bittersweet. I feel like working at the agency where I took my internship... I feel like hanging out with those folks all the time... I don't want to go back to London yet, especially considering how many friends are not coming back....

On the other hand, I'm so psyched about this semester... I want to travel, take animation courses or something, meet new people, etc, etc, and of course keep up my GPA haha. Many goals, many plans.... Some will work out, others won't, but it should be fun anyway...

Only I'll miss my colleagues from the summer. I can't stop thinking about that. Ah, I'm so easily attached to people :) And I'm a fiery Aries as we all know... :)

I love everyone I love!!! :D

Well, I'm in a little internet cafe in Greece .. it's weird cause I know it's Greece, but there are tons of Bulgarians here. Gah, annoying! Hehe. I love my country woohoo!

Alright I'll end this now... :) It was fun but I need to go to bed soon... I'm an addict.. sigh... And I shouldn't use 'but' so often, but who cares... :D

Busy days!

Whoever said that summer is The Time to Relax... was clearly from another world. In our world, every summer is just as busy as the rest of the year. At least that's how it works in my case :) My internship is great! I love it! I don't want to quit cause I have lovely colleagues, challenging tasks, and generally a pleasant activity to kill my spare time.

Of course when I get back home from work, I only want to walk my doggy maybe, go do something like acupuncture or what not, and then slouch in my chair, in front of ze PC, just staring at the monitor, watching movies or something. Not the most thrilling thing to do, but it's a good way to counteract the bubbly atmosphere at work :)

You know what's weird though? TIME FLIES!!! Seriously! By the time I get back home (considering I finish work at about 5 pm) it's already 7-8pm, and then by the time I realize I have something to finish up that night, it's midnight (like the time right now)... and then, by the time I get to do something, it's tomorrow. How sad. Why is it that time flies!?

How is it possible for me to be at the end of my internship when I barely started 'yesterday'? Hmmm... well, at least I know in about a month I'll be off to LONDON!! :D Woohoo! Not too psyched about the rain and cold, but still- can't wait to see all my friends.

Aaaaah... after that sigh I'm back to work.. sort of. I have the problem of thinking too much and acting too little. Or so I think....
:)

Goodbye for now!

Having a BLAST!

6:30 a.m. Approximately 3 and a half hours after I entered sleeping mode. I'm still dreaming something, when all of sudden I hear a muffled bang - at which the windows in my room shake a bit.

It's gloomy outside. My first thought - sending panicky notes through my body - is that lightning hit my computer! (which has happened twice before and dear Pesho survived both strikes) Then... I see that the comp is fine, then hear a second, quieter boom (more like a bass thud).

Nothing interesting... I chose to sleep some more. Eventually, at around 9 I wake up, almost late for work! I jump in the shower, and as soon as I get out, my phone rings - Mom calls from our little village mountain house. "Are you okay?" she asks me... "Uhm. Yeah. Why wouldn't I? I'm late, but okay still."

Apparently it was all over the news this morning - around 1500 tonnes of random military gun shells, missiles, and other ammo EXPLODED in a military warehouse near the Sofia airport. There are no victims, though a lot of material damage has been done to the surrounding villages.

See.. I missed it all! I had no idea what was going on. I basically heard the explosion at 6:30 but thanks to my calm nature and innate ability to sleep through anything (= laziness too), I didn't even bother checking things out.

Everyone else though seemed to be panicking more or less. At the office everything was hectic today! People were jumpy and aggressive - like they were about to go off any minute now :) And to top things off, there was an earthquake in the afternoon - a very insignificant shake of the ground, but enough to spark off more panic and paranoia in Sofia's citizens who thought there was yet another explosion.

Yep, I had a blast today!

Seaside Fun!

The Black Sea. Sounds like something off a pirate movie :) But 'tis just our local body of water.

I don't like our seaside mainly because of construction works that have taken over the entire coastline. Also, the Black Sea water is just that - black and polluted to a greater degree than, let's say, the Mediterranean Sea.

But still, I'm here, at our lovely seaside. And can you guess what? I'm lovin' it!! We are in the southern part of Bulgaria with my parents and some friends who own apartments in this cool new mini-village. It's very well built overlooking the sea from an elevated post on several cliffs. There are apartment buildings, a hotel, 5 pools, a spa and relaxation center, and the BEACH right there! (well, right down the cliffs, but still pretty close).

The best part about it all: ALMOST NO PEOPLE! No crowds, no annoying kids circling around their plump Russian moms lol, no "towely" beaches instead of sandy beaches... True bliss! Free brunch, wireless internet at the hotel and all that jazz! :D How can I not be happy?

And the sea is so pretty! Unbelievable! I've never seen it shine in that gorgeous turquoise tint.... Attached are some photos. Enjoy!

Some sunflowers along the way...

The view from our friends' balcony.

It is necessary for every Martina to have tried Martini, right? :) Background=the sea.

I was climbing some cliffs and saw these flowers which looked nice with the blue sea behind.

Mom and the sea. It was THAT blue, legit, no photoshop used ...

Off to see the sea...

Just passing by to say that I'll be off to the seaside for the next few days, so no updates from me, sadly... Not that I've been terribly good at updates this past year, but oh well ... :)

Mom and Dad are going with me, and we'll be swimming around the southern coast of Bulgaria - visiting some friends and what not. I'm looking forward to it because I haven't touched salty water since... I don't know, since last May *May of last year*.

YAY Swimming in the sea!

Will keep ya posted... :)

01:59

Once again the wee hours of the morning are slowly beginning to wallow in.
What happened to sleep? Why am I skillfully avoiding this activity of complete rest? Hmm. If only I knew.

I got an inspiration - to draw. And I thought I was inspired to use water colors, but it turned out I was in the mood for dry chalks as well... You never know. Well anyway, here are the two little pictures I drew in the last hour or 2...

Andalusian horse head, Water color

Arabian foal, Chalk

Lusitano stallion head, Chalk

Summer so Far...

It's been a month since I arrived back in Bulgaria.
And I miss London. I missed it SO MUCH, every day! I was bored, annoyed, nostalgic - all because I had left the safe confounds of my Earl's Court flat and Richmond University and had entered my 'home country' where life had changed... I mean, of course I was so happy to see my family and friends (the few friends I have roaming the streets of Sofia), but I felt lost in a way... I had been missing from Bulgaria for months - time during which everyone I know here changed, and everyone's life developed - and I missed it all... My life was back in London. Not here.

And then thankfully, I got a bit of London here - a good friend from Richmond (Kevin) and his friend from high school (Melissa) came to Bulgaria for a week. We had an amazing time exploring the country and generally sleeping and eating... I was so happy during that week and all my nostalgia disappeared ...

(in front of the amphitheater in Plovdiv)

... only to reappear after that, stronger than before! Sigh...

I also saw my dear friend Cynthia - almost a year after I last saw her on NYC ground :) Such lovely memories...

And last, but certainly not least, I got together with my best friends - Misha, Katya, Iliana, Dessi, Vessi, etc, etc, etc... Sadly not everyone is back for the summer... but we'll have to manage somehow...

As my lazy days rolled on, I thought it would be smart to take up random activities such as tennis and my most favorite thing in the world- horse riding!! :D I still haven't done as much riding as I hoped since my membership card expired and I have to get a new one... But I went to an international FEI Show Jumping event in Sofia and took some pictures (you can see more photos on my photoblog martynikphoto.blogspot.com (go-go self-promotion;))
Now I'm busier than usual because my lazy days turned to business days. I'm doing an internship which takes up most of my day and leaves little time in the evening to drive around and do whatever I want to do. It's great, I love it! (of course) For now, I'm stuck in Sofia for good, though I have random little getaway plans for the near future... Will let you know what happens...

And once again I realize that one of my greatest flaws is that I plan too much and don't do it all.. :) Weeeeell, one day I'll be good at planning everything perfectly (always leaving space for unexpected surprises though)

Bye for now! I'm sending you all lots of love!!

Time for another blog...

Summer time.
Sizzling streets.
Sun is out, 24/7 (it's actually 23/6/08).
Sofia is hot. Everyone is sort of mad... :) I guess the heat waves don't really appeal to Bulgarians that much, especially to all those individuals who cannot go swim in the sea but are forced to drive around Sofia all day - to work and back, to the mall and back...

And in that atmosphere (talk about a lack thereof), I sit at home (currently at work) and think. And since my thoughts are no good if they're just in my head, I've decided to start yet another blog and let you all know what's happening inside, around, and over my head...

So hopefully I will be able to keep you up to date with my random adventures, just like old times. After all, blogs are fun and I miss having one. Hehe. Therefore now I have a total of 6 blogs, 2 or 3 of which I might actually update... lol. Efficiency at its best :P

Yes, as of today, I will spend my online time writing blog entries too, not just stalking individuals on Facebook (bless Facebook by the way).

See you soon!