Posts Tagged ‘western europe’

What is it like to become a father in the Age of Coronavirus Pandemics – Our baby Dimitar is born

Thursday, June 4th, 2020

After a long 9 months finally on 12.05.2020 12 of May 2020 by God's grace our baby Dimitar was born. He born one day after Saint Cyril and Methodius feast in the Church on the Church Feast of Saint Ephiphanius of Cyprus, Saint German Patriarch of Constantinopol a fierce fighter for the veneration of Holy Icons, Saint martyr Ermogen patriarch of Constantinople (according to new style Calendar) and Saint Basil of Ostrog (in old calendar) . I always loved spring and especially month of May so I'm happy the baby born exactly on this month. For many 2020 broght the coronavirus pandemics brought a lot of pain and surely for us it brought an extra stress with all this mask wearing and super extra precaution measures everywhere and self-isolation but for me 2020 brought me a great joy and a good things in life, after we changed the rented apartment and we moved from Mladost 3 to Geo Milev (a district that is much more fitting my temper), now just 4 months later we have this greatest joy of having a son, something that many people dreamed all their life and suffered. For us it was about 6 years without a baby and the lack of a child in a family seems to extra strain situation. I do suffer and pray for all those people who can't have child and desperately want it and I hope God will bless many with the same joy in the coming years. I have to say having a baby fills up a great hole in the family and brings up new horizons for development of both families and the new born child. Most importantly a new opportunity is there for a new man to get into the kingdom of Heaven know Christ and hopefully end up in eternal blissfulness in Heaven with all the saints by the mercy of God. If you think for a while how all of us some time back in time were also a kid and how our mothers had many sleepless nights and feared for our health and well-being and how from a small baby we become a man who studied excelled in things, failed in others and have the opportunity and rationality to do complex things such as writting this article you get into the conclusion all this is hard to believe mind blowing miracle …

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Right out of Mother's Belly seeing the Light of the World for a first time – First Picture of the Baby before he officially had a name

Many people prayed for the easy birth of my wife as she is already 36 years old and in that years sometimes giving birth is dangerous and often many woman loose babies or are forced to be cut for the baby to be delivered from the belly with Caesarian section cut. Svetlana give a normal birth thanksfully and she delivered the baby for just 3.5 hours after she was accepted in hospital the previous day and doctors did an infusion of oxytocin  (a liquid hormone that doctors use to acccelarate the birth process when the baby was over carried just like it was in our case and in the case of many woman) – Svetlana overcarried it with 5 days.

After a long struggle with my wife on selecting the name, we finally named our new born baby Dimitar  born 49 centimeters / 2980 grams / Dimitar was named in honour of one of the most notorious and loved saints in the Eastern Orthodox world Saint Demitrius of Thessaloniki after a very long struggle to select the name as my wife Svetlana desired to name him Daniil (Daniel), a name which is also beautiful and belongs to the Prophet Daniel and Saint Daniel the Stylite. Svetlana had some weird ideas to name the boy Elijan (Ilia) as well as some other ideas for names like Andrei (Andrew) a very beatiful name belonging to Saint Andrew the Apostle who by the way preached on the Bulgarian Sea Coast according to Church tradition I was against not because the names are bad but because I wanted strongly to follow our well known tradition in Bulgaria to name the first born male boy after the grandfather in that case I wanted to name baby Dimitar firstly in favour of Saint Dimitar (The Myrh Bearer) of Thessaloniki to be the heavinly guide of the boy together with all the other saints under the  Demitrius / Dimitrius name as well as to venerate my father who is a very hard-working and patient parent even over the years with a such a wild child which I am.

Holy Relics of Saint Demetrius the Myrh Bearer in St. Demetrius Basilica in Thessaloniki (Greece)

Saint-Demetrius-the-Myrh-Bearer orthodox holy icon

Saint Demetrius killing Lyaeus the Glariator (depicting the spiritual destroyment of paganism by prayerrs of Saint Demetrius and a remembrance of fact that Christian Nestor killed much powerful Gladiator Lyaeaus who killed thousands of Christians on the Arena before by the all powerful prayers of Saint Demetrius)

I find worthy  to name a few of the other kid's heavinly prayer intercessors this is the well known Russian Saint Dimitrius of Rostov, The bulgarian saint Saint Demitrius of  Besarabia (an ex-territory of Bulgarian Empire) and Saint Dimitrij Donskoy, there is even more saints undet the Demetrius names canonized by the church over the centuries.

The name selection of a boy turned to be much more complicated than I thought and for anyone out there that has to go through the process of awaiting a new born I recommend you to select the name in advance as selecting the name after birth in negotiation with a woman who gave birth is a terrible and hard to bear experience as her hormones are making swing moods every now and then.

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Selecting a kid name in the past was quite an interesting process and there was various approaches here in Bulgaria, from naming the kid after a grandfather, grandmother to naming it after a big saint if he is born on a big saint's Church feast day for example if it is born on 6th of May (saint George's day) in Bulgaria it is common to name the kid Georgi or if it is Saint Cyril and Methodius Cyril.
Due to the fact the kid was born near the feast of Saint Apostole Simon the Zealot one of the names I suggested to Svetlana was Simon or Simeon even though that name was not my choice as a compromise that might fit us both. We had some discussion and we both liked the Kiril (Cyril) name, plus 11 of May was Saint Cyril and Methodius but I had an internal tension about it as we didn't have anyone in family called Kiril.

Baby-Dimitar-doctor-checks-heart

Heart works perfect Praise the Lord ! 🙂

Finally my wife stepped back and she agreed to write the name in birth register the name Dimitar so now the kid in his Birth Certificate  is Dimitar Georgiev Georgiev.

Giving birth in Pandemics prevented me to be able to go and see the child until the day he and wife was discharged from Sofia's Maichin Dom University's hospital as clincally healthy.
Please excuse me if I'm turning your attention from the common IT themes Religion and Philosophy which I talk about but I thought putting a few lines for a life changing event as a baby birth is important for me personally to organize things in my head.

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The little Big Man

The stress around the baby born is always a big deal both for the mother and the father. But in my case thanks God I was relatively calm. The feelings in the days around birth for the father are quite extreme of course and perhaps this is why many fathers drink till forgetfulness after the baby is born. This however was not the case with me, even though due to the spiritual hardships I have a drinked a couple of beers overall I stayed sober around the birth and right after it before the baby came home.

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In front of the Prayer Chapel in Maichin Dom (where yearly the Patriarch of Bulgaria Neofit sanctifies the place with Vodosvet (Sanctification of the Water)

Talking about taking the baby I'm thankful to my dear Friends Angel / Krasimir his wife Irina and Mitko Ivanov, who were the only person to kinda of support me and come for the official dischargement ceremony in hospital. I had to organize a couple of things for the dischargement pay the bills currently in Maichin Dom the overall birth expenses for doctors, midwives, hiring room expenses (for 8 days hospitalization) was lets say normal 1345 LEVA  (~ 700 EURO) much lower price than in other non-government funded hospitals in Sofia like Nadezhda  where it would have been about 2300 LEVA, this is of course higher than social countries of Western Europe like Germany where a normal state funded birth would cost something like ~ 350 – 400 EUR but still very cheap if Compared to United Stateswhere a good orchestrated birth costs something like 25 to 30 000 USD.
As I heard from wife the birth experience she got was of course harsh but this is normal for the first baby where the levels of stress and uncertainty is absolutely unbearable for the your unexperienced parturient mother.

I have to express my sincere thankfulness to the great Head Doctor Miss Ivet Raicheva thanks to whom my wife succeded in normal birth and we have a healthy baby.as well Doctor Nikolay Gerdzhikov from Hospital Second Baby Specialized Hospital Sheinovo who  break off the amniotic fluids baloon of my wife to accelarate the overcarried baby timely birth, as well as all the pregnancy tracking doctors of UMBAL Nadezhda (A Hispital for Woman Health).

Just like I thank warmly to all the people who have given us baby clothes, baby car chairs, subtrates, carriage cangoroos and all kind of baby toys and equipment useful in raising the baby as well as all the friends who helped with advices during the pregnancy and many hardships in this 9 months before baby come to earth and after that. This are Mitko Paskalev, Mitko Ivanov / Anastasia, Krasimir, Hristina, Father Stoyan and his wife Yanna, our godfather Familiy Galin and Andrea, uncle Emilian, Vasil Kolev, Father Flavian and all others who helped us with warm prayers and good words during the hardships of pregnancy during the Coronacrisis.

Due to the Covid, every time I had to go to the hospital to bring my wife food, pampers, fruits etc. was only possible to be delivered by a medicine personal (with a small treatment fee) as entrance of externals like me was not possible.

I did not have the chance to go inside the hospital's 12th floor to pick up my wife with the baby due to the COVID-19 Virus, hospital entrance was only allowed to the parter stage and only after they check your temperature with an electronic wireless gun-like thermometer headed right in your head …
I had to then wait with the few bouquet of flowers, chocolate candys and alcohol to hand in to the main degenerating doctor which in our case was Ivet Raicheva, I have to kindly thank this professional woman for doing all the best for my wife in assisting her in birth and succeeding in a normal birth process which in our age is quite rare about at least 80% of woman give birth with a C-Section.

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Friends and Brothers / Sisters from the Church Angel, Krasi, Irina and Mitko Ivanov

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Krasimir and Irina

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In front of Maichin Dom Me seeing my boy for a first time !

After Svetlana was accompanied in the entrance stage with a medicine worker, we made the standard few remembrance pictures on the floor and infront the hospital and on a Volkswagen Taxi headed home with the baby being in fear for the baby in every car bump.

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The great joy of blessing to be with your Son for a first time

Once Dimitar was already home we rejoiced and placed him in his already prepared baby crib and left home wife for 40 minutes together with the baby and went out to for a quick treat for friends who were so kind to come for the baby.
The routine afterwards is expected as to every new born, a lot of breast feeding for wife, adaptated milk sometimes, changing pampers, baby bathing every day, swinging, singing songs to calm him down when he songs etc.

Baby-Dimitar-selected/Baby-Dimitar-Svetlana1

The responsibilities for the father of course suddenly rise as you have to be a products supporter as your wife is quite weak over the 40 days after birth, you have to clean, buy food or prepare something to eat, prepare her a breastfeeding teas, confort her and calm her. But the overall it is clear that the woman becomes much more stable version of herself after the birth she starts thinking more to the ground and dream less in fantasies as the baby helps her better see the reality and learn to sacrifice more.

Georgi-Baby-Dimitar

Let God bless and protect Dimitar by the prayers of the Holy Virgin Mary Theotokos and All Sains and help him in all the hardships from the cradle to a fully grown and wise man that he'll become one day by God's mercy!

Into great depression – What is like to live in the Balkans?

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

I'm so depressed these days that I'm trying to write something decent here but everytime I try I do stop and delete all I have written and start from scratch again.
It's terrible, I believe everyone have this days and they're so dark that even the smallest ray of light is gone somewhere…

The causes for depression are multiple, I know we're entering into the season period and that could be a factor, but truly for a long time I haven't felt that bad and I really cannot find the true cause. It's like hunting the unexplained.
Being a citizen of a countries on the balkans brings a lot of questions which cannot get answered. Why we the Balkan and more specificly most of the Orthodox Christian countries are suffering so badly and economically in constant crisis and recession?
From a material perspective Bulgaria is one of the worst countries one can live in, we the people on the balkans are chronically depressed and it really seems like a downward spiral
We've been gone through so far, when I was a child we were teached in the spirit of communism and a believe in a hard material realities.

Communism has taught us we're all fleshly brothers and we should live in groups and stick to the group, now as the democracy come it's on the contraty, we're being constantly re-taught that we should leave behind the group kind of thinking and all built from communism destroy it all and build the new society… We're told by individualist nations like USA and Western europe that the only thing for the good of a person is to (get an absolute individualistic life and only exist for the greater goodness of each ones self as individuals..

As with everything the Balkans are notable for being a very unordered place. Living here is like living in chaos…
The social security policies here are not working, the jurisdiction is working on behalf of the rich, the police force is seriously disfunctional and easily bribable. Put next to all this shit a high levels of unemployment and a lot of unhappy depressed people crawling around the streets and you get the picture …
As a normal consequence most of the young people have entered a dark ways of alcoholism and hard-core nihillism.
There are high level of people who are oriented into the new dark realities of Metal or underground music.
Each philosophy that is being put in from the west is being adopted here and being multiplied million times and mostly the bad things are being adopted and less rarely the good ones…
It's so mixed up that nobody can explain why it is happening as it is here.
I really am trying hard to convince myself for a years now that it is worthy to live here but the more I live here in Bulgaria the more I see all is getting worser than getting for good.

I wonder for how long it will go this pointless way, we the balkan people are living in ruins literally.

The only light we still have is the Church, but very sadly most people has left behind the faith and prefer to follow the fake American dream than to obey to our old ways and traditions.

Globalisation has entered in the Balkans in a full-force and is destroying our ancient culture and traditions and building the fakeness of the coca-cola culture that most of the people prefer to adore nowdays …

Bulgaria's population is mostly based of old people and we're a dying nation, if a miracle doesn't happen then we definitely will be gone.

Psychological instability and the gap between desire and reality

Wednesday, August 7th, 2013

sad reality - bulgarians see no future, protests in bulgaria are the least people can do

I'm in Sofia just for a few days and I'm stunned how expensive is life here if compared to people's revenues. I think it is almost impossible to live normal live in Sofia with money lower than 500 eur. I'm here for a  4 day with my Belarusian girlfriend and I'm trying not to spend too much and already spend about 200 EUR. This makes 50 euro per two person a day and this is just for going outside public transport Metro, Buses and taxis. This makes about 50 euro per day or 25 euro a day required for person to live normal (not at all luxury life) … It is no strange that people are protesting for already about 50 days here in Sofia and that Bulgarians are heavily drinking and smoking and don't want to work. Our Bulgarian nation is depressed and there is a good reason for that. We are forced to live almost like animals. There are no money for renovation the buildings, no money to eat properly, young people's morale is totally messed up for the reason culture here is almost dead or even the one that's left is heavily  connected with godlessness, sexuality and consumerism. It is no strange our structures politics and infrastructure here is so messed up. It all starts with people's messed heads and all this gets materialized in our daily lives … Money are the main aim of living of young people and life here is made in a way that you have to only strive after money and for money you should learn to do anytihng … I just don't understand how we ended up here, its quite a pain especially as I lived in end up communistic Soviet time sand I remember people was not so much after money as there was money for normal almost middle class life in Socialistic Bulgaria … There are plenty of knowledgeable people in my dear homeland. Plenty of brilliant and good people but most emigrate for the reason here conditions of living has become extremely abnormal. Truth is European union totally smashed us. With all this shop chains in Western model like Lidl and Billa  made just to collect even our last money and the lack of industry, if something doesn't change ASAP we will simply be cleaned up of the face of the world or at least noone will stay in this country. There are plenty of emigrants already, the problem is even in western europe and most other countries there is big problem with unemployment so even if we Bulgarians try to go out we can't find job. I know this post is a big rant but I feel sad for my beautiful homeland. We have one of the most beautiful natures in Europe, we have Sea Beaches and Mountains, we have culture of 15 centuries and own well developed language. But it seems we're loosing our identity day by day. Almost everywhere you go you hear some music in English – even though most people in Bulgaria do not speak decent English and are far from understanding music in English I more and more think there is almost straight logic information in English. Most song lyrics are just fractured and incomplete or messed up, mostly speaking about evil than good. It is tragedy how young people spend there time here in Bulgaria for nothing hanging in pubs and bars spending money for alcohol and cigarettes trying to waste themselves for the only reason they see no future …
 

Beatuiful Coptic Orthodox Church hymns – Coptic Orthodox Church one of the most ancient Christian Churches

Tuesday, November 27th, 2012

Coptic Hymn – Hos Erouf

A curious custom of the Coptic Church is the liturgy that prays and sings it in Coptic, the original language of ancient Egypt. The Church keeps alive the language of the pharaohs, which was written in hieroglyphics, hieratic and demotic and now a modified version of the Greek alphabet, Egyptian written in Greek and demotic (the Copt) was gradually being forgotten, lost ground to the Arabic and thus became incomprehensible. However, the Coptic Church preserved the ancient Egyptian language by tradition thanks to its rites. The video shows images and also religious Copts of pharaonic Egypt, the Copts are the descendants of the ancient Egyptians who have become Christians

O lord Jesus help me.coptic hymn – An coptic hymn in arabic language (not coptic) with english subtitle

Coptic orthodox St Mary Hymn

One can see the Roman Catholic influence on some of the shown icons. The music however is simply terrific!
The Coptic Christian spirituality can be felt. It is well known fact from egypt a lot of monks has spread Chrisian faith in Western Europe.

Je Nai Nan Lord have mercy, coptic orthodox hymns جي ناي نان, ارحمنا

Oh poor Christians of our age we are. We have no love we have nothing.

Coptic Orthodox Hymn: The Virgin M.A.R.Y العدرا م ر ي م (English Subtitles)

"O Sing Unto Him…" Coptic Orthodox Hymn

Blessed is He (Evlogimenos Palm Sunday Festal Hymn English) – Orthodox Hymn (Coptic Rite)

I live in the Netherlands, here people are slowly forgetting their faith who made them what they're now. The state of Christian Church is so weak. We have no prayer power. We walk sick, we don't live like brothers, Oh Lord help us and re-unite your sheeps and put us back in your farm. Lord Have Mercy, Lord Have Mercy, Lord Have Mercy

Coptic Orthodox Hymn: Aripsalin – آربصالين O sing unto Him who was crucified, buried and resurrected, who trampled and abolished death, praise Him and exalt Him above all. Take off the old man, and put on the new and superior one, come closer to greatness of mercy, praise Him and exalt Him above all. + All you Christian people, the priests and the deacons, glorify the Lord for He is worthy, praise Him and exalt Him above all. + Come to us O three children, whom Christ our God has lifted, and from the Devil has delivered, praise Him and exalt Him above all. For the sake of your God the Messiah, the Giver of all good things, come unto us O Hananiah, praise Him and exalt Him above all. O Azariah the zealot, morning and noon and the evening, glorify the power of the Trinity, praise Him and exalt Him above all. + Behold Emmanuel [our Lord], is now in our midst O Mishael, proclaim with the voice of joy, praise Him and exalt Him above all. + Gather now and persevere, and proclaim with the priests, bless the Lord all His works, praise Him and exalt Him above all. The heavens declare the glory, of God until this day, O you angels whom He has made, praise Him and exalt Him above all. Now all you powers of the Lord, bless His honored name, O sun and moon and all the stars, praise Him and exalt Him above all. + And also you rain and dew, sing praises unto our Savior, for He is the God of our fathers, praise Him and exalt Him above all. + Glorify the Lord O clouds and winds, together with the souls and the spirits, O you cold and fire and heat, praise Him and exalt Him above all. You also nights and days, light and darkness and lightning, glorify the Lover of Mankind, praise Him and exalt Him above all. You trees and all that springs on the earth, and all that moves in the sea, mountains and the forests, praise Him and exalt Him above all. + Praise without ceasing, the Lord the King of the kings, O you rivers and seas, praise Him and exalt Him above all. + And we also seeing them, let us say with all these things, bless the Lord all you birds, praise Him and exalt Him above all. O snow and ice, cattle and wild beasts, bless the Lord of lords, praise Him and exalt Him above all. Bless the Lord as befits Him, and not like the heretics, all you sons of men, praise Him and exalt Him above all. + O Israel offer before Him, honor and glory in a joyful voice, all you priests of Emmanuel, praise Him and exalt Him above all. + You servants of the true God, the souls of the righteous, and the humble and the charitable, praise Him and exalt Him above all. God my God is the One, who saved you from danger, O Sedrach Misach and Abednago, praise Him and exalt Him above all. Hurry with great haste, O you righteous of the Lord, and all the creatures He has made, praise Him and exalt Him above all. + Coolness and repose without ceasing, grant unto all of us, that we may joyfully proclaim, praise Him and exalt Him above all. + And also Your poor servant Sarkis, make him without condemnation, that he may join all those and say, praise Him and exalt Him above all.

Constipation God’s punishment for our gluttony – My thoughts on Spiritual Reason for Constipation

Thursday, November 29th, 2012

Constipation God punishment for our gluttony, God's judgement on man
Some people might argue me but recently and over the last years, I had thoughts over the  so common nowadays problem of constipation. I think constipation  is God judgement on our increasingly gluttony self-love instead love for others, ungodliness  and our multiple sins.

I'm deriving this conclusion from my personal experience with constipation, every-time I over ate forced by my gluttony (partially forced by the over filling from everywhere with marketing to eat),  I get constipated. Constipation is one of the worst experience one can get and probably there is no person on earth who didn't experienced this in a stage of his earthly life. Probably half of the world is suffering from this terrible problem at least few times a year, where the frequency of constipation around people tends to be increasing with every consequential year.
Most of people from western world countries are in a number of times suffering more compared to less developed countries.

Main reason for increased constipation percentage in the western world (in my view) is the bad quality of half-artificually produced vegetables and fruits. Many of which grows as you should know grows in laboratories like places in order to do a cost saving for the companies. Due to the marketing hype and fuzz that took over westerners, many as a trick use the "green product" labeling just to make you convince their product, where in reality the product is far from green.

I think, God allowed the poisons which we hold in our hearts to materialize in our food as a punishment for our lack of repentance.

The hyper consumption that is ruling over western europe model is trying to spread itself in the less developed countries as well, while maybe a  billion of peoples all around the world are on the edge to die from hunger. In the west all businesses are trying to restructure themselves to more green friendly / (more green), whether parallel with that the same 'environment concerned businesses' are stimulating people to over consume through their marketing departments. Tell me isn't that one huge hypocrisy? How comes on one place a company talks about any efficiency if its fruits are inefficiency (over consumption)?

In the past days people consumed much less than today and less varied foods, still most of them were more heatlthy and many of them lived to an older age compared to know (this is a fact that one can learn not from the fake company statistics on the internet  trying to all the time show that the age barrier is increasing, this can be learned from our grandmothers and grandfathers and a bit of staring into history).

"Seed Companies" like Monsanto are already dominating the markets and killing the little farmers, so every next day, less and less of original God blessed plant seeds is left on earth. And even those who still are trying to be individual middle and little farmers are forced to buy already a genetically or hybrid modified seeds so a lot of the grown vegetables or fruits  is not grown through God blessed and given original food fondamential but some kind of 'human laboratory altered' plants. Most people and companies doesn't care if the seed is blessed or not by God or what kind of seed or food it is due to the fact they have long ago rejected God and do operate all their life with no God in their mind, but with the only goal for more and more pleasure and self-fulfillment of interests. It is sad really our bodies are constipated but it all starts from our soul constipation, we don't develop our souls in God's knowledge of good but advance instead in the "constipation" of  evil.

But constipation is not so bad in reality and it can be seen as a blessing from God as all pain makes us re-think over life and our deeds. Thus I believe though many might argue me, Constipation is just another of God's innumerous mercies over man to turn us to repentance and prayer.

But I think still there hope as long as each of us tries to be good or develop for good and pray to God, I believe all can be changed our soul and body constipation can be removed through God's power and mercy – only we have to strive for it ….

 

Trip from Sofia Bulgaria to Minsk Belarus through Warsaw and how to issue VISA for Belarus

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

 

I had to travel from Sofia to Minsk to be a guest to my beloved girlfriend Svetlana, thus I needed as cheap ticket as possible to reach there. Sofia Minsk is not very common destination especially in Winter, Spring and Summer, because Summer Tourist season is not still opened. I checked for all possibilities to reach the capital of Belarus. Since Bulgaria is in European Union and Belarus is in alliance with Russia and Ukraine. Bulgarian and rest of EU citizens need to issue VISA for Belarus, just like Belarusian citizens needs to have VISA for their summer holidays in Bulgaria.

In order to reach Belarus, I first needed Приглашение / Priglashenie (Invitation) from Belarusian citizen. My beloved girlfriend Svetlana issued one for me and sent it via Belarusian Post Services. In order for VISA to come over post it took about 12 working days. Once I had the Invitation in my hands I had to go to Belarusian Embassy, bring invitation, fill up some documents and pay VISA taxes which as of time of writing this post costs 60 EUR for issuing one person private VISA.

Application of Priglashenie I received over post looks like in picture below:

To have the VISA issued I had to bring my "Red" International (Foreign) Passport to Belarusian Embassy together with Recent Photos of mine. In Russian Embassy in Bulgaria photo is made and paid directly in Embassy with Belarusian Embassy this is not so, so I had to manually take new photo and bring those photo to embassy, I learned that first time I was in Embassy.

Photos had to be in special format (size) a bit different from the standard for accepted for most International VISA photos – at least this is what I was told in Studio where I went to make Photos. A note to make here is Belarus has only one embassy in Bulgaria located in Sofia and as far as I researched though Russia and Belarus are in union it is not possible to issue Belarusian VISA in Russian Embassy in city of Varna or Plovdiv.

Once photos were ready I bring them together with my Passport and had to leave them in Embassy. My visa was issued to be maximum of 90 days but unfortunately I could make it only for 45 days, because my International Passport is expiring in August and there is a rule that you cannot have the VISA issued for date longer than 3 months until Foreign Passport Expires. You can find website of Belarusian Embassy in Bulgaria here. Application form to print and fill in and hand in Belarusian Embassy for request of VISA is here.

Contact information of Belarusian Embassy in Bulgaria is:
 

 

Postal Address of the Embassy:

1505, Sofia, area «Reduta», «Nikola Karadjov» str. Building 3

Phone: (+359 2) 971 95 28, 971 71 31

Phone/Fax: (+359 2) 973 31 00

e-mail: bulgaria@mfa.gov.by

To issue me VISA I had to leave my Foreign Passport in Embassy and took it back after about 1 week and half (10 days or so). Issued VISA is not on a separate Application like VISAs for Dubai for Example but is directly sticked inside Passport;

Issued Belarusian Visa for Bulgarian citizen specimen I had my VISA issued for 45 days starting from 1 of April (as filled in app. form), ending in 15 of May.

Once having the VISA, the next question come what will be best way to travel from Bulgaria to Belarus. I did quite a research on this topic until decide with what to travel. There are 3 variants (bus, train or airplane). Distance between Belarus capital Minsk and my hometown Dobrich is only 1508 KM. Sofia is a bit far so distance Between two capitals is 1870 KM.
I call to check for bus price as I saw on the Internet some offers to travel with bus and though it seemed to be most cheap about 250 euro (two way ticket) after calling the agency contact found on the net, they told me this bus line is closed (probably working only in Summer because of the bigger number of Belarusian tourists travelling to BG). Option with train was also impossible for the reason Train line
Black Sea Coast -> Minsk operates only in Summer for months . (June – August).
Hence the only way to ravel left was by plain. I checked on Plain tickets and some recommendations on cheap ways to travel to from European Union to Belarus.
My first idea was to fly from Sofia to Lithuania Capital Vilnius and from there to take bus to Minsk as bus goes to Minsk for 3 hours or so. I checked low cost flights from Wizzair as I always try to fly with them for their cheap prices but unfortunately they don't have destination Sofia -> Vilnius. I checked other companies for same destination and found only tickets from LuftHansa, the ticket however was too expensive and I had to change two airplanes something I very much wanted to avoid, cause I hate so much the airport Laggage checks / Scanning moment. Two way ticket to Vilnius costed about 400 EUR with taxes and included a flight trhrough Vienna airport or through Germany and included few hours waiting on airports which doesn't sound well at all. I checked then the variant to fly to Kiev but again it was very expensive plus Ukraine is not in EU and thus I didn't wanted to risk. Though officially as I've red Bulgarians are permitted to travel and stay in Ukraine without VISA for 90 days period I didn't wanted to try my luck. Other option was to fly from Sofia to Minsk using 1 airplane change in Vienna or Moscow. I contacted airport in Moscow to ask whether I can fly Sofia -> Moscow -> Minsk with my Belarusian Visa but unfortunately to fly through Moscow Scheremetyevo I need a transit VISA which costs some money and moreover Scheremetyevo is enormous airport and I guessed it will be hard for me to orientate there and will bring me too much stress. Third variant which I liked best was to Fly from Sofia -> Warsaw and from there travel by bus to Bus Station Dworec Zahodnyi (West Warsaw Bus Station) and travel with Bus international line Warsaw -> Minsk. I decided to stop on this option and reserved fly ticket Sofia -> Warsaw. Flight date was 20th of Apr 14:40, ticket reserved with Polish Airlines (LOT).

Departure was from Sofia Terminal 2 – in Sofia we have two terminals (The Old one Terminal 1 and new one Terminal 2). All times I flight so far from Sofia airport was from Terminal 1 so this time it was my first time from the bigger and much newer and modern Terminal 2.

Sofia International airport Bulgaria newer Terminal2

My dear friend Mitko (Nomen), leave me by his car to airport and then I checked-in.

Sofia airport SA logo and building Terminal 2

I could bring up to 20 KG with me, ticket costed 326 EUR because I reserved it a bit late (8 days before flight), moreover Sofia -> Warsaw is not very common flight destination from Bulgaria, as not much of Bulgarian citizens live in Poland.

Sofia airport courtesy Terminal 1

The ticket included also a meal and cold-drinks so this also added a bit to high ticket price. Flight was on a very little airplane and though scheduled for 14:40, flight was late and we were in plain about 14:50 and airplane take off around 15:00. By the way the airplane was the smallest one I ever traveled with so far with, very very small one. I think the pilot  was quite professional or the reason was the small plane size but anyways the landing was amazingly smooth. In Warsaw the airport is maybe a bit bigger than Terminal 2 but in general it was easy to orientate take luggage and go out very quickly. The luggage come quite quickly I had to wait for it only few minutes. Then I went directly to bus station and rided on BUS number 175 (there is second possibility to take bus 188) both go to Dworec Centralni Avtogara (Central Bus Station). According to prior instructions I red on the internet it was said to go to bus station Pomnik Lotnika. I tried with this but unfortunately the information to go down on Pomnik Lotnika and took bus 523 is obsolete now. And in order to reach Dw. Zahodny you need to go directly to Dw. Centralni with bus nr. 188 or 175 and then go through a subway on left side and wait on bus station for bus nr. 123 or 125 (not sure the exact nr.). Then Dw. Zahodnyi is only 6 / 7 stops away, I asked some people in English and thanksfully some Polish speak English or at least I can partially understand what they say because their language is close to Russian and Bulgarian. BTW it is very interesting for me as I can understand plenty of what is written on small shops in bus etc. On Dworec Zahodniy Avtogara stop after going down from bus I had to take left direction and in 2 minutes walk it is the West bus Station. There I asked on information if they can give me information whether there is bus Warsaw -> Minsk. The man in kiosk was not speaking English but fortunately he speaks Russian, so I was able to understand I should go out of bus station and stay on the left Pilon waiting for Bus Warsaw -> Minsk. Bus came in 18:30 just like written on the Internet the Bus company was called "ВизитТурс / VisitTurs". I had 1 hr and half to wait for it cause was little earlier on Bus Station. The Platform Nr. Bus stopped is Platform 10.
Just for info for otheres who like to catch such bus on the Internet I read there are bus-es traveling to Minsk  every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in times varying from 18:30 / 19:00 / and 21:00. While waiting for the bus I meet two ppl from Kazakhstan waiting for another bus for Vilnius and had a good chat with them about situation in Kazakhstan  and Bulgaria. I took also a quick meal – from bus station on price even cheaper than Bulgaria (about 2.5 leva – 1.25 euro). In bus all was fine, they took my luggage I placed myself and waited to issue me ticket. I didn't have Zloty (The Polish currency) in me and only euro and at first the bus driver was not happy with that but then he agreed I pay in euro so all went fine. The bus had 2 or 3 quick 15 minutes Rests. Overall travel with Bus from Warsaw Minsk took about 10 hrs, because of some delay and while checking documents on Belarusian Border. As it is normal with crossing Borders by Bus they checked our documents twice once on Polish Border and then on Belarusian one. After crossing Belarusian Border, right after entering the Border Control Police man give me a tiny application form to fill in with information about my stay in Belarus. As well as I had to go to one small kiosk to create Insurance for me (Insurance for month costs 12 EURO). Making the policy took only few minutes, then we had to go down from Bus with our laggage and we waited on a queue with rest of Belarusians to check our documents. This took about 40-50 minutes. Thanksfully all went normal we were back in bus around 3:00 and arrived in Minsk about 07:00. I didn't have Belarusian Rubles (RBL) so I had to change to take a taxi. I asked one person with my bad Belarusian, where from there is a Change Bureau and on my way to it met another Belarusian who was calling for people looking for transportation to some street in Minsk. I spoke a bit with me and offered to change my EURO, changed me 20 euro for 200 000 B. RBL. He was kind enough to call for me a Taxi. He said I should wait for his friend who will bring me to the address I was looking for. I went to a car which was not officially a taxi but just a guy who will bring me to the destionation. In 25 minutes time was to address ul. Kalinovskogo, Dom (block) 93, apr. 43. Here in Belarus all was new for me. My first impressions were Traffic Lights which were unusually thin if compared to ones we have in Bulgaria and rest of EU.

Minsk unusually thin Traffic Lights picture / Unique Traffic Lights

On my way to address I was impressed by a big magnificient Orthodox Church in construction.

orthodox church All saints cHRISTIAN church in construction Minsk Belarus and wooden orthodox church

I was also striked that everywhere all advertisements and everything was in cyrillic. Some in Russian and some in Belarusian Language. Something noticable was also the street was very clean, the construction of most of Buildings were in style of communist countries with (Panel Blocks) just like it used to be in BG when we had communism.

Minsk Panelnij dom panel block Minsk - typical construction for Minsk remains from Communism

Тhough newer constructions looked very modern and very much imitated constructions from Western Europe.

Minsk ZamyK Trade Center Korona one of most modern Minsk Buildings

Something else noticable is here they continued building using (Block Panels) many buildings as I can see some buildings still in construction. It was clear that the city has good infrastructure (transportation system), much better than one I expected as well the country has a functional economy. Bus-es seem like very much a copy of Bus-es in Holland, actually a lot of the things I saw in Minsk seem like copying Holland and Germany.

Minsk transportation by Bus Maz bus

On my way I saw plenty of University buildings, clear sign that education in Belarus meaning education here is on good high level. The most impressing building I saw so far is the building of Minsk National Library.

New National library awesome building Belarus Minsk

Unquestionably this is amazing construction, I had the opportunity on my first day when in Belarus go there and see the old books stored. Amazingly there are books ancient books starting from 10th century onwards. Most of the books were Church books, Ancient Gospels, Faith Codexes plenty of artifacts. There were of coursesome books remains from communism. Something noticable in Minsk is the amount of policy probably in number of times more than in countries in European Union. Since I'm few days already in Belarus I had the chance to see Minsk's Metro which is probably one of city's attractions. In general the Metro was quite cool, there are plenty of communist slogans and statues remains but it looks normal and almost modern.
The feeling in Metro Station is very industrial, as even from going inside the Metro Subway there is a thin smell of machine oil 🙂

Minsk Belarus Metro transportation Uruch

The metro is accessed by using electronic access card similar to old bank (tape cards). Using Metro and bus inside Minsk is very easy. The city is a strange combination of modern culture with communist spirit remains. Though the city is enormous (2 000 000 million population), all seems very relaxed compared to Bulgaria for instance. As far as I interacted with people, I can say people are kind and helpful and very hospitable. A lot of people in Minsk as far as I can see are religious and civilized. Though I've heard people talk about information eclipse in Belarus, I've seen plenty of people who dress very modern like in western countries. I've seen plenty using E-books, Pads and various tech gadgets so it seems technological development of Belarus is on a normal European level. In general what I see here seems much better than what I expected priorly. There is plenty of more things to write which I will probably do in coming days. So far I hope this little article will help someone who needs basic information on traveling from Sofia to Minsk.

It is curious that Bulgarian and Belarusian people have common root as Pre-historic Bulgarians used to be one nation with Pre-Historic Belarusian. Similarity is visible even to now as there are plenty of common words matching or very similar between Bulgarian and Belarusian. More over later from 9th to 12th century Bulgariaused to be Empire and spread near to territory of Belarus. Similarity between Bulgarians and Belarusians is also visible even in country flag colors and country names Bul-garia (ar) / Bel-arus (ar). Even on a country flag level we share the same colors (white / green / red) in different order.

bulgaria national flag similar to Belarusian (white, green, red)

Bulgaria National Flag

Bulgarian national flag similar to Belarusian (red, green, whtie)

Belarus National flag

As a conclusion I should say Belarus and Minsk looks like a lovely normal modern country no matter the bad rumors we hear on the news that they're communist or ruled by a (Dictator) President Lukashenko. Oh one last thing, if you're in Belarus try to avoid to speak bad things or jokes for Lukashenko. As far as I heard there is plenty of tab devices virtually everywhere. Speaking against Lukashenko or the government might lead you to problems with Militia (Police) or even send you in Jail 🙂
 

Color Psychology – Color Mind Programming or how big companies boost their sales and make up your mind

Thursday, June 21st, 2012

Colors Programming Color mind Programming, how big companies boost their sales and make up your mind

As I've pointed earlier there is plenty of "secretly" kept and less known by public research on how colors influence us daily. The biggest companies are heavily taking advantage of what is found and known for colors impact on our minds (psyche). Actually there is a whole branch in psychology which deals with impact of colors perception on us.Besides companies, many modern governments are well aware of the many facts on how citizens percept colors and use this in color 'installment' in government offices and government institutions.

There is no universal knowledge on how colors completely affect us as every human on earth is very unique and saying this or that color has this or that impact on indivirual or group is not 100% accurate. However there are general traits nowdays formed especially with globalization and unification of TV ads and big companies corporate image, a unification started on how different nationality people perceive colors.

Nowdays in developed countries there are more and more people who perceive certain colors in similar fashion. Therefore every serious top marketer should carefully study colors and their relation with ancient time people believes and understanding on what each of the 'rainbow' colors symbolize. Most likely because there is no completely unified understanding of colors between various individuals may companies like Google and Microsoft started using all the rainbow colors in their basic company logos and branding for more on this topic please check my previous blog post Color trick Microsoft and Google use to keep their users loyal

Another large industry area, where color programming is very heavy is Computer and Video Games. You certainly still remember large portions of the games like Sega’s Sonic the HendgeHog or Mario Super Bros. or even the old arcade machines with games like Punisher or Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Street Fighter etc.
All this old arcade games have a big portion of Color programming embedded in and this is one of the main reasons we remember them for a long time and playing them evoked such a strong feelings in youth.

This trend of using colors to make up our minds is being observed for many other physical goods as well as is starting to get more and more heavy adoption by websites branding on the internet.
Actually those with most succesful businesses on the internet have already integrated some kind of color programming scheme. An example for this would be the Internet top domain names seller GoDaddy. The have adopted a green scheme as a primary color combined with some other ones to create in the customer a feeling of ecology, naturality, peace and solitude.

The study of color programming is one major field to be known by anyone truly willing to understand why certain big store chainslike Carrefour, Lidl, Billa, MediaMarkt – in western europe or TechnoMarket, TechnoPolis (MediaMarkt copied tech equipment by shops here in Bulgaria) are decorated inside the way they are. I personally didn't like the concept of color programming since from Spiritual point of view it is a big evil. Trying to manipulate people perception to do something you would like to in general is very evil from spiritual point of view. A mixture of rainbow colors in a natural environment for example flowers in the wood or wild mountain place is one thing, but making it artificial and placing it in certain pre-desired order is totally another. Besides that the colors in the natural environment are natural and therefore the impact on us even if colorful is very much better than if it is done with a certain intention like in the big supermarkets stores, fast just food companies – McDonalds, Burger King etc.

The research on color mind influcence – Color mind programming is a controversial science. Nowdays many big businesses however use this as a granted science, even whole business sects with some mambo-jambo believes universities, children garden and schools in modern countries have employed the use of some type of color programming aiming to influence their pupils, students (organizational members – you call it).
Color mind programming and heavy use on advertisements on the TV, the Internet, Stores and mostly everywhere are however starting to took their tolls. The high increase in mental problems and dumbness in developed and some undeveloped countries as well as the increased number of people who go insane because of too much color programming is reality. The believe that mental programming is one of the ultimate tools to influence somebody and push him to do things you want like consome more of a product or generally consume (buy) more goods creates another severe issue it makes people to constantly over-consume (eat more than the body needs) and this increases the number of over-consumption evoked diseases …

But color programming doesn't stop with just the material (physical) surrounding world it is a concept highly employed in online based marketing. Online business is seen on so many top used websites, social networks like take for instance (facebook). It is so spread that even the software primary vendors like Microsoft, search engines Google Inc. have already heavily employed the color programming as a basis of their products.

There is another reason why most vendors nowdays issue their physical or 'virtual' products so colorful using all the colors of the rainbow. The reason is the fact that as a kids through animation, cartoons, toys and surrounding environment we have been exposed already even from our very youth age to a kind of color programming through kids toys we've been given by our parents). Hence the young years color programming became a basis for a future time color programming. The colorfulness of our kids years are already sub-consciously stored in our minds, so almost naturally there is a feeling of joy to pop-up once we see something childishly colorful.