Most of our closest friends and relatives already know why, but some people still might wonder how come they can not see us on the streets, in parks and pubs of Sofia. And there is very simple reason for that- we live in Stuttgart, Germany now. I was hoping we would be able to announce this earlier, but there were so many things to do last few months and blogging was not in the "top 100 things todo" list lately. Now, after 5 months of coordination, negotiations, organization and 2 months of adjustments here the things are getting back to normal and I hope I will be able to pay more attention to our humble corner in the virtual world. I am not a big writer anyway, but at least will try to express our impressions with pictures as much as possible...

Known primarily for its Monday market, the name of the capital of Tajikistan "Dushanbe" is derived from the Tajik word for Monday and grew out of the village located in the Hissar valley. I arrived in Dushanbe on 16th of September with Tajik Air. Despite of warnings about Tajik Air, we had no big problems and I think it was a good flight. It is better to confirm that you will be on the board at least one time though.. just in case, since they might decide not to let you in. I bought visa on the airport and 20 minutes later was in the hotel. Tajikistan is not well supplied by hotels and most of them are of old-fashioned style but in general they are clean with friendly personnel. That was the case with us- Kayon II was not the best hotel I ever stayed, but since I suppose to be here just for two nights and considering it's good location, I think it was acceptable. Thanks to Denis (born and raised here) I had a chance to try the local food and to spend few good evenings with him, Jeff and Mavlet. Unfortunately, because of my schedule, I had no chance to visit some of the sights of the town. May be next time...

Flying from Dushanbe to Bishkek was not a big challenge, although with Tajik Air again. It was a small plane, but the flight was very pleasant and comfortable. After a week on the road, though, I started to feel the tiredness already and I am really glad that we had reservations for Hyatt- it was just what I needed at that time. I am glad also that we found a very good restaurant nearby, "Four Seasons"- excellent food and excellent service. Since we were very well prepared and experienced already for our meetings here, we had more time for walks and shopping... It was a good trip- long and difficult in some moments, but full with impressions and I hope sucessful. I am facing 6 hours flight from Bishkek to Istanbul now, then another 7 hours at the airport and will be home around 1700.. and will finaly see my beloved princess and my little joy Zhizho...

I never been in this part of the world so far and I have to admin- Astana is one of the most original cities of the world. For 10 years it has been the capital of Kazakhstan ("Astana" is the Kazakh word for "capital city"). It has approximately 800000 residents (officially) and it seems that everybody is engaged with constructions. There are a lot of new buildings and it looks there will be a lot more. Some of them look very strange and futuristic, though, as if from a widly exaggerated science fiction movie or from my son's construction set. The pride of the city, though, is the Baitereck Tower. I was told that there is an excelent view from the upper level, but unfortunately I could not see it since the tower is closed now. I was also told that there is a stone cast of the President's hand in the rim of the cup. You could place your hand in the open hand of the President and if you make a wish, it might be fulfilled. It is very expensive, though. I was charged 2000 KZT for a beer in my hotel, which is ~16 USD. I think this is the most expensive beer in my life so far. They said a dinner for two in an average restaurant with a good service will cost me 300$. Of course, I have no any intention to prove or disprove this statement... Next stop- Almaty, then Dushanbe, Tajikistan...

I have not had vacation last 10 yeas, not counting the week right after the wedding, of course. Then we went to the Southern Black Sea and we had a great time. This time we decided to go to the Northern Black Sea. I booked a private house near Golden Sands few months ago. It had hall, kitchen, 3 bedrooms, garden, all kind of facilities and since, because of Zhizho, we wanted everything to be very close to the convenience at our home, we thought that might be a good choice. Also, since it was Zhizho's first trip out of the town (we were not sure how he can handle the long trip) we thought that it might be good idea to split the journey and make a stop somewhere on the middle of the road, spend the night there and then to continue to the sea. So, on Aug 31, after the lunch we loaded the half of our house on the car and started our adventure... It was a good journey, Zhizho handled it very well, we were all in a good mood and arrived without a big troubles in Arbanasi , where we were going to spend the night. Overall, it was OK, but there were a lot of mosquitoes that night. I was not that affected by them, but Zhizho had about 30 hits, Velina had a few too. On the next morning we continued out trip and around 3 o'clock we reached our final destination. The house was almost as we expected to be, but the beach was not that close as we thought. There was a lot of space for Zhizho, though, to run and play around and he seemed the happiest person from our group. There were very enjoyable moments (most of them pictured by Miglena) in the house, on the beach, during the walks in Golden Sands and Riviera Holiday Club and despite some personal issues and my professional engagements, I think it was a great time. We learned a lot and we are more confident now, Zhizho saw the "big water" and had a lot of fun during the entire trip and I hope we will be able to organize more events like this in the future. On the way back we decided to make it all at once- we left on 8th of Sep around noon and were back home the same evening. I will be on the road next few weeks, but will take all picures with me to stay closer to my treasures- Zhizho and his lovely mother. Of course, some of the pictures from this vacation were uploaded on the site as well.

• I had to spend some time abroad last few months. Was in Stuttgart and Zagreb in June, came back for a while in Sofia and went to Kiev for two weeks. Although, I was just for two days in Zagreb and had no enough time to look around, I was very pleased by this town and may be I will come back some day, with the family, to feel deeply the atmosphere of Zagreb...
• Zhizho turned a year on 7th of July. He also had his first hair cut a little bit later. I would like to say that he is pretty stable on his own feets, but in fact it will be more correct to say that he is like a little hurricane- you can't stop him running around. It is amazing how he grows, every day, every hour. Few days ago he started with his attempts to eat by himself, which will be the next challenge in his life... and a big challenge for us as well...
• My brother and his family were in Bulgaria for vacation. Unfortunately, there was no time to see them as we wanted to, because of the hot weather, our schedule with Zhizho and their plans. We spend few hours with them on the Sofia airport, just before their departure back to US. May be next year we will have more time... or might visit them? We will see...
• We are planning to spend some time on the Black Sea at the beginning of September. For Zhizho that will be the first trip out of the town, for all of us it will be a big adventure, but we all hope that we will have fun and will enjoy our holiday together. In any case there will be something to talk about when we come back...