Sofia, Bulgaria

Dear readers,

I was really dying for a chance to write about my trip to Bulgaria, which occured from July 23rd 2015 to July 26th 2015. I visited a good Bulgarian friend of mine from school in his hometown Sofia, and I made Bulgaria the 29th country, I've ever visited. My friend showed me his hometown Sofia and took me for a trip to Plovdiv (which I will discuss in an upcoming blogpost). Today, I'd like to write about Sofia.

Sofia

When I arrived at Belgrade International Airport, saying goodbye to my grandma, and went to the Business Class lounge, I went through all of the things I've heard about Bulgaria, from my friends and family in Serbia. You see, whilst in Prague, barely anyone has an opinion about Bulgaria, in dumbed down Serbia, everyone seems to hate it, because of a war that happened in 1912, and because the two countries fought on different sides in World War II. However, the countries are both closely connected with each other culturally, both nations are slavic and speak two very similar slavic languages (even though history loving Serbs will call Bulgarians turkic, since there is an ethnic mix of Bulgaria), both nations are mostly christian-orthodox, both nations had fallen under the rule of communism, both nations were occupied by the ottoman-empire, both nations (along with Greece and Albania) want a part of Macedonia and both nations are more or less closely connected.

The Parliament

My favourite building: National Thetra Ivan Vazov

Historic Roman Baths

So how come they hate each other? Well, the answer does not lie in the present, but more in the past. Whilst Bulgarians got over their past with the Serbs and actually like them (people were always very kind to me, when they found out I was a Serb), Serbs have a different approach, due to their pride on their history, they still did not forgive Bulgaria. Thus, when I was in Sofia, I was a bit sceptic, because of all the rumours I've heard. Instead, I was surprised, by what I had found in this wonderful city.

Bulgarian Assembly

Art Gallery of Sofia

National Palace of Culture

Sofia is relatively small compared to other capital cities in Europe, however it's really nice in the core centre. The old part influenced by a mix of roman, slavic and islamic-oriental culture is really interesting. Also, it's nice to have a church, a mosque and a synagogue, just a few metres apart from each other. The centre is amazing, especially the huge chruches, which literally overwhelmed me by their majestic beauty. As an orthodox-christian, I haven't seen such beauty in a long time. I also found out, that the saint Sveta Petka, on whose values my grandmother raised me, was in fact Bulgarian. So in some sense, I did feel a connection to the country, and on top of that add that I was with a friend, who's a local, and I can tell, that I got to know the city.

Sofia Mosque

Aleksandr Nevski Cathedral

Russian Church

Chapel of Sveta Petka

The rest of Sofia is kind of nothing special, because it's mostly huge socialist high rise buildings, which were built during the communist rule over the city. My friend lives on the 17th floor on one of those, which gave me the opportunity to stare at the city at any given time, all the time. I did make use of that, because Sofia has a really beautiful skyline, as it is surrounded by mountains and gives you the feeling of being in a large city, but at the same time, it feels like you're in the middle of the mountains.

The view from my friends apartment: City Centre

The view from my friends apartment: Socialist residential areas

Sofia now is booming because of the EU. Everywhere you can see EU flags and "funded by the EU" signs. The EU helped expand the Sofia Metro, build a new airport, a new railway station and is working on basically everything infrastructure. Basically, since Bulgaria entered the EU, the EU has been paying for everything, which makes Sofia so much more modern, than I expected it. I can't wait to see how this city will develop in the next few years.

EU funded metro line 2

Can't wait to go again,
Stefan.

The Southern Park. Probably the most romantic place for long walks.

Pride

Dear readers,

Due to the recent events in the USA, regarding the legalisation of gay marriage, I wanted to write a statement on the LGBTQ+ population and its situation around the world. I myself am gay, and wanted to say a few words about this topic, because I feel like there's a few things, that is not being properly said. Personally, I am happy for all US gays and their opportunity to get legally married, in the entire country, in each and every state. I am also happy for all the gays in the world, who live in countries, which have legalised gay marriage (France, the UK, Spain, Slovenia etc.) as well as for all gays in countries where the reigstered partnership is legal (Germany, the Czech Republic, Croatia etc.) and for all the gays in the world, who have an easy life, where they don't have to struggle as much with their sexuality.

I recently dated a guy with the perfect setting for his homosexuality. He grew up in a city, where it is completely normal to be gay, and where no one bats an eye if you hold hands with a person of the same, or the opposite sex. Often he would not understand, just how much I struggle with my sexuality on a daily basis, because even though I grew up in Prague and went to a German School with more than 40 nationalities reprensented, I still originate from Serbia, which is really conservative about the topic of homosexuality. I do not define that struggle as something that gets me discriminated on a daily basis, through verbal abuse or something similar. I more define it as a the struggle to find acceptance in a society, which doesn't grant it to me. And I can understand them, I can completely understand homophobia and the reasons, why people have something against the LGBTQ+ population. It's weird to some social standard, and as long as no one tries to educate societies on their own issues, those socieites are not going to change.

My first travel post on this blog was about Moscow and that was for a reason. I love Russia, and I am fascinated by that country. I wanted to get to know the city, the politics, the people, and understand them, and not judge them. I feel like, if one does not judge, one will not be judged. Most people who hate a specific group, don't even have a reason for it, but are instead tought into it by their parents. In each society there is one unpopular group that is being hated. Whilst in Western Europe, most people accept the LGBTQ+ society, they don't accept Islam, whilst in Islamic countries, they accept other religions, but don't accept the LGBTQ+ society. Whilst in Russia, gays get beaten up at times, in my country (Serbia) and my other country (Croatia) national tensions against each other are building up again. There will always be hate around the world, and for it to stop we must set an example. How can the LGBTQ+ society ever be accepted, if we keep on discriminating those, who discriminate us? We're going in circles over here.

In my life, I have managed to explain to people that alternative sexual orientations are normal and are something that one is born with. Since I move around all kind of societies in the world, especially ones that are not always tolerant, I've learned how to talk to people in a way, that makes them understand that my sexuality, does not offend their beliefs and cultural values. It's difficult to tackle the topic and speak to people about it, and many gay guys I know lose their nerves fairly easily when confronted with homophobia, whilst the key to peace is diplomacy (if used correctly, and if it's not corrupted like most politicians, but that's a story for another time) and understanding. We live in a diverse world, so whilst we promote diversity, we should embrace it, instead of rank it.

Think about it, Stefan

School

Dear readers,

As of June 10th 2015, I am officially no longer a student at the German School of Prague, since I managed to successfully graduate it. I find the feeling of graduation to be rather special, and something, that I can't really find the words for to describe it, because it's a mix of emotions, ranging from extreme happiness to lifetime frustration, as an important chapter of life, comes to an end.

After graduation, I watched most of my classmates chant happily, that they will never have to go to school again, and that is was so horrible going there every weekday at 8am. I admit, it's not a pleasant memory, getting up at 6am every morning, rushing to leave the house, only so you can be the zombie with earphones in, whilst commuting by underground in crowded trains. However, in the end, school is not a bad place to be. Compared to what probably expects me in life, school was nice and enjoyable, and even though I'm glad, that I can move on to university, I will still miss the carelessness of the organization of my day, because I had a regular routine.

As I am writing this, I begin to realize, that many of people I used to see on an everyday basis, will no longer be part of my life. I'm sure that I will stay friends with my current friends as much as I can, but no one of us is staying in Prague, as most of us will move to Germany, as our school hands us a German diploma, and not a Czech one. So, the new life I'm about to start is going to be a life, without my friends around, and if I ever want to see one of them, I have to go see them, or they'll have to go see me. That is a painful thought, considering the fact, that we once used to see each other on a daily basis.

I remember my first day of school fairly well. It was fairly painful. It was at a Czech public school, which I hated the entire year. I cried, I hated it, the kids hated me for being a foreigner (as I'm from Serbia) and some teachers even downgraded my marks, for not speaking proper Czech. The fondest memories I have of that year are my class teacher, who was really kindhearted and always fair, and a girl named Kristýna, who was my "crush" at the time. We always got along really well, and she was kind of the only friend I had.

However, luckily I mastered the German language well enough to be put into the German School of Prague in year 2, saving me from endless terror and putting in a school, where I actually had friends, and was not discriminated for being Serbian. Up until year 5, I was a part of the group and always enjoyed my childhood at the school, for it was the best I could ask for. As I got into years 6 to 9, socializing became more difficult for me and I was the outsider in the group most of the time. This was mostly due to the divorce of my parents and my personal struggels regarding my sexuality.

Years 10 to 12 were my glory years in school. I successfully (at least at my school) came out as gay in year 10, started working on various projects of my own and participated in as many classes as it was possible. I saw my grades improove in those three years and a range of successes. In year 10, I started my Serbian language class, which then got a confirmed trip to Belgrade, we were only 6 on that trip, but it was still a once in a lifetime experience. Except fot the fact that 7 of us did the same thing in year 11 again, gaining more attention from the school and support from our fellow teacher. In year 11, I also discovered MUN and I was part of our schools MUN team for two years, visiting three MUN's whilst at it. In year 12 I started my most ambitious projects, with the introduction of the regional conference for student body presidents of German Schools. A very good friend of mine from the German School of Belgrade helped me launch the project, and so we did. In Belgrade, we met with Warsaw and Zagreb and their representatives, and had the first successful confernce. A week later I was sent to Budapest to present the project to the principals of 12 German Schools abroad in Eastern Europe, by far my biggest success.

Now, I leave this part of my life behind, and look forward to new horizons, new challenges, new topics and new opinions. I have time to travel more now, and more time to write for this blog, and I expect to post more frequently and write more texts about more topics. I'm preparing, so hang on, please. I promise, that it'll be good.

I wish all of you a happy summer! Stefan.