What's new about me these days

Hey friends,

Whata unbelievable series of posts today, hah! Yeah, there should be days for updating this blog, right ;))

Ya know, guys, after coming back from abroad, I decided to have 2 months of holidays on the sea side ;) For me, Varna is the best place to do it in the summer. But the relax was quite active including - sports, friends, clubbing, self-reflection, books, adaptation and preparation for starting a new job campaign. Wow, thanks God everything passed normally without problems :P ;)) With such a busy schedule... I even had the chance to make new friendships - with Bulgarians and foreigners. One of them - the Polish AIESEC intern Łukasz, I began to teach our language. Quite successfully I may say, just ask him if you don't believe :P

But apart from all these activities, I had a time to dedicate myself to one of my great passions - the photography!!! Thanks to a book about DSLR photography which I received as a birthday gift, I discovered plenty of new techniques and functionalities of my Sony Cyber-Shot Creative Style camera. This inspired me to invest a bit more into enhancing my photographs by buying filters for the lenses - UV, Neutral density and Polarizing ones, and a tripod :) Below you can see some examples about my recent work with them:

Wow, the sky is so blue, thanks to the polarizing effect :)

Light post in the Sea Garden

Great landscape with rich coloured sea

Super contract and rich colours

The warmness of the Neutral density filter

I have also found a great model for portraits photography - a girl with divine beauty, which makes me really proud and gives me the chance to improve my shooting skills, especially using the tripod and the reflectors for bringing more light on the face. If somebody is interested in these photo topics, we can discuss them a lot more in personal.

As I planned, on 1st of September I've started to look for my new job. The process goes slower than I expected but I won't lose my hope and believe that I will find the best job here - in the best city of Bulgaria - Varna! :)

These are the recent news about me. Btw, on Facebook I've created a new group - AEROSMITH! Fell free to join it if you like the band and be active in the discussions :))

See ya, folks,

Victor Tomov

Photos from my birthday parties

Why "birthday party" is in plural? Well... coz I celebrated the occasion in 3 parts - with my parents, with my best friends, with some of my good AIESEC friends. Here are photos from these events:

With my parents

My best friend Mitko, Mimi and me

Me, Melek, Vladi, Łukasz and Toshko, and ... the 12-old whiskey Chivas Regal

Photos: Victor Tomov

The end of my internship in Slovakia - the reasons

Hello dear friends,

As some of you may know, some of you may not, I terminated my internship in Slovakia in the beginning of July 2008. Here are the main reasons for my decision:
- total mismatch of the working conditions and the expectations according to the TN form - I was lied to completely during the interview;
- high level of exploitation - I was forced to work a lot of hours extra without being paid and I was manipulated, lied by the management to be convinced in doing so for the past 3 months;
- negative and aggressive working atmosphere that increased the stress on a very high level;
- work focused on hiding the true identity of the company most of the time and saying a lot of lies;
- the big manager of the department does not have even university degree, was thrown away from his University and tends to humiliate people in front of others with his aggressive verbal and physical behaviour;
- not an open-minded and free communication culture if a problem with demotivation arises and is needed to be shared;

After 3 month of compromises with my ethical and moral
values, and trying to adapt to this exploitative working
system in the company, I decided that I won't stand this
shit anymore and waste my potential for this bulk company
called Jacob Fleming. I quit the company and terminated
the internship!

When I came in Bulgaria, I had to realize another trick from the company - regarding the payment. I didn't receive the money for 2 of my commissions which finally showed again the morale of the story in Jacob Fleming.

I decided to share this with you after some time that I needed to reflect on the situation and the experienced I have gained at all. I've learned an important things - I should never compromise with my personal values&principles and let someone to exploit me in such cynic manner.

See ya in the next post,

Victor Tomov

Great picture - all good close friends together in our flat

Photo: Victor Tomov

Beautiful sunset in Bratislava :)

View from my flat :)

Photo: Victor Tomov

Photos from my BG night

Cool :) Finally some impressions on the BG night which I organized on my third week stay in Bratislava. There weren't many people but everybody enjoyed it so I am happy at all :)

A lot more pictures coming soon... ;))

See ya,

Victor Tomov

Jacob Fleming's interns and room-mates in a Thea House

All of us together (I wish this could have been happening more often) - Me, Erofili (Greece), Said (Turkey), Rafal (Lodz, Poland), Teodora (Romania).

Wow - nargile and Said - whata combination :)

Teodora - no comment ;)))

Getting ready for the cards game :)))

Photos: Victor Tomov

Fancy stuff from Bratislava :)

Thea house ghosts ;))

Cool shooting angle ;)

Bratislava at night :)

Some ghost interns ;)

Only the shit is standing still :P

And of course is forbidden for dogs :))

Photos: Victor Tomov

Pictures from Bratislava ;)

Finally, here are some interesting and attractive pictures made by myself in Bratislava:

This is the block where I live along with 3 more interns

Martenitsa in Slovakia ;)

Slovak Architecture style

Comenius University

Slovak High School

Photos: Victor Tomov

My free time life in Bratislava

Hello guys,

This story is related to the ways I spent my free time here in Bratislava.

The cool thing in the city is that there are lots of different opportunities to enjoy yourself according to your mood, sub-culture and current desire. So far I experienced the following activities:

1. Clubbing - mostly in the discos and clubs within the central old town area, such as:
- Sparx - definitely good place for pop and black music where there is enough space for dancing, not too big crowd, good air condition but too much the same stuff everytime.
- Charlie's - I went only once but I won't go there again. Not a nice place for me - mostly house and techno music, too crowded and smoky...
- discos in Mlinska Dolina (the local student town) - not good for me at all coz of huuuge crowd, entrance fees, bad air conditioning and so on.
- Manana - good place but I enjoy it only when I am with good company. The music is retro style so no doubts that I can get crazy on the dance floor.
- few more coming soon - DOPLER (the biggest disco in Bratislava), Harley-Davidson (cool hard rock club) and more ;)))

2. Pubbing:
- Slovak Pub - I love it, especially to drink there the typical Slovak Kofola! It's too popular and often visited so it's not the most creative place where you can go with bunch of friends but there I feel nice.
- cocktail bars - very expensive at all, just for relaxation, but nothing compared to our pride in Varna - PENCH's! :))
- Channel S - cool place but only when there is no Gay night! Don't ask me more about my experience with that shit there ;)
- Thea houses (Cajovn'a) - one of the coollest type of bars I've ever visited!!! Very popular in Bratislava. You go there for drinking only thea, eat cookies, smoke nargile, lay on the pillows or floor without shoes and talk with friends in a cosy relaxing atmosphere :)
- bar Lounge - cool latino place where I attended a crazy Latino party when I got my first real life lessons on the basic steps :) It's not hard but I'm not the most passionate latino fan ever :)) For a while I can enjoy it but for a whole night will be tough ;)
- others - hard to say something specific about them.
- coming soon - KARAOKE!!! Wow, I miss the great singing bars in Varna and here I will visit the local ones for sure :)))

3. Exercising:
- football - every Wednesday with the colleagues from the company and almost every weekend with few BG friends and guys from Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Portugal etc. The open air playgrounds are not for free which compared to the ones in Varna pisses me a bit off.
- beach volley - very new thing in my schedule that will probably replace the weekend football. It's cool to play on the sand and under the sunshine allthough your skin may get burnt. At least I will have good brown tan when I come back for my holidays in Varna :)))
- bowling - wow, I started to love this game. It's funny, a bit hard, tricky but very interesting. I went only 2 times to play it but I got into it! :)) Looking forward for the next plays ;))
- shooting - for first time in my life I shooted with real guns - 3 types (automatic, semi-automatic and non-automatic). A crazy feeling - a but scary, noisy and weird at the beginning but then you start to enjoy it. I still keep my target at home ;)))
- coming soon - table tennis, billiard, forest trips :))) but I think to bring my backgamon from Varna here ;))) Come on, I have a Turkish guy in my flat! :))

4. Movie nights:
- one Dannish guy organizes very cool movie nights at his flat and so far I watched "Children of men" and "Kontroll" (nominated for Oscar in 2004 Hungarian cult movie);
- in my flat together with the other interns in Jacob Fleming, 3 of them my roommates :)
- cinema - "The Eye" and "Indiana Jones" were the movies I watched on the big screen in the 2 huge shopping malls in Bratislava - Aupark and Polus Center.

5. AIESEC events:
- LC Meetings;
- Coffee talks;
- parties in the flats;
- cultural nights;
- outdoor events - campings, reception weekends etc;

6. Concerts and festivals:
- yesterday I attended the biggest one in Bratislava with free entrance and open air - Zlaty Bazant! It was a huge crowd of young people representing different subcultures so you see there a mixture of colours and styles. Life persormances until 6 AM.

7. Sight-seeing:
- museums;
- galleries;
- monuments;
- castles;
- parks;
- the Old town;

The thing that I don't like is that everything and everywhere I have to pay for entrances, even for the playgrounds. I think there should be some free places but just we need to find them on the map ;) There were only 2 exceptions - Open doors for museums for 1 weekend for the beginning of the tourist season and 1 night, recently.

Weeelll, after a long time without writing I think that's enough info for now. I hope soon I will have the chance to add more pictures coz there are funny ones :)

See ya in the next post, folks :))

Victor Tomov

My interniship after the first 2 weeks

Hello guys :)))

The moment to share my first impressions of my stay and internship in Bratislava, Slovakia, has come. I think 2 weeks are enough time to create the primary opinion about the life and work here. It's just a basis for my next observations and explorations :P Wow, the last sentence sounded scientific :))) Now my moto is - "How big is your Bratislava? Explore it's dimensions!" Hehehe ;P :))

I like very much the Slovak capital! This must be clear from the very beggining :) Here it's not too crowded and the traffic is not as huge as in the bigger capitals. There aren't so many green parks within the city but this is compensated by the very nice Old town, its compact size and the small distances between the important places. There is wide pedestrian zone with bars, pubs, pizzerias and of course shops. The main street is called "Obchodna" wich translated in Bulgarian can mean "Pazarska" ili "Magazinna". On it is situated probably the most impoartant and famous among the young people place - the "Slovak Pub". I even have the strong impression that some of the Tarantino's movie "Hostel" scenes were shot there. It's cosy, very big and with reasonable price list of food and drinks ("jedla a napoje" - I'm getting better and better in Slovak language as well, hehee). There was my welcome drinking party. A lot of people came from the both LCs - Bratislava and Comenius (mine). The Slovak AIESECars are very nice people, warm and curious about the interns. I felt their hospitality and interest. It was nice and I stayed there till almost midnight. I tried the Slovak nationwide famous traditional non-alcoholic drink - Kofola. It looks like Coke Cola, but the taste's different and more freshy :)) I liked it very much which surprised almost everyone :)))

The first full weekend spent in Bratislava was during the Easter. Here there were 4 days off and I had the chance to do a photographic day on Saturday, to visit a very cool and relaxing Thea house where everyone can smoke nargile and play chess or cards. In the city center and especially in the Old town there is a plenty of interesting details to discover - an improvised telephone composed by 2 wooden boxes at a distance of 50 m one from the other; 9 metal blocks in a square shape that play sounds when you step on them so you can perform a music; monuments and metal statues (of paparak, voyeur etc.) and many many more. All the time there is something specific as event. On my first day in Bratislava I saw a "freezing" exercise in one of the shopping malls - Polus Center, when everybody freezed and didn't move for 3 minutes (between 2 whisles). It symbolized that we need time just to think and reflect at ourselves. Creative, isn't it! ;) Also few AIESECars participated.

I was invited to a hockey matches but the prices are a bit high for the good seats and the standing area gets sold out very quickly but I think I'll go to watch a game of Slovan Bratislava playing in the final or during the championship year. The footbal is less popular than hockey but I met also very fanatic and kean fans. In Slovakia the strongest team in almost every kind of sport is Slovan. Most of the times they win without problems :))

The last Friday night was my first hang out with the colleagues from my company. We visited one restaurant for warm-up and then a disco club called Charlie. It wasn't good - very crowded, smoky and hot without good ventilation. This was supposed to be one of the high quality discos in Bratislava so imagine about the others ;)) Prior we went to a Latino disco pub but it was soooo overcrowded that I had the feeling I'm in the bus to the Student town in Sofia - 280 for example :D

The bus drivers here are crazy, guys! Most of the time I feel like I'm on a roller-coaster. Once, the bus even did a short jump and I noticed how the wheels are loosing the touch with the asfalt!!! "Wow, that was something", said my friend from Poland with whom we travelled back home from the biggest Mall in the city - Aupark. In Aupark you can find everything so I won't get in more details about it now.

In Bratislava, I live in a huge flat along with 4 more interns - all of us in the same company - Jacob Fleming Group (the Slovak leader in the Business Intelligence field). So, we are 5 people and 4 from the Balkans - from Turkey, Romania, Greece and Bulgaria ;))) The fifth one is from.... Guess where! LODZ, Poland!!!! That was an amazing coincidence when I realize it. He was an active AIESECar for 3 years but during my internship he was abroad so we didn't meet there ;) The world is small - how many time I have to realize that!? :D :))) It's also very funny to see how a Turkish boy and Greek girl live in one flat for the first time in their lifes. They became great friends and that's really cool :))

Yesterday, all of us did our first sightseeing together. We climbed the hill to the TV Tower, paid 100 Sk to get up and enjoy the view towards the entire city. It was pretty cool I have to say :)

Last week, I started the real job - after Easter and the 3 days of intensive trainings and practice. I have to do phone calls selling in order to execute with my team a campaign for a conference related to Talend management and Leadership development. I like very much the topic but this will be my real practice to improve and get confident about the comapny's next products. The seeling campaign I'm working on now will end in 2 weeks and then I will form with 3 more guys a team for a new project. The goals and standards that everyone has to achieve in order to be paid very well and receive alot of money from comissions are very high. I work hard and I think soon the results will appear :))) The atmosphere in the company is nice as the average age is 26. On each Wednesday the boys gather to play football. Every month there is s company party as well.

AIESEC in Comenius University is ok. I like very much all the people I met and I enjoy every moment we are together. I received great welcome package full of useful materials about the city and some hard stuff like the traditional vodka - Borovicka. Some the members are very active and all the times we hang out together. That's nice. There are some other interns as well and reguratly I meet them. There is a team called "Partyslava" so it's another opportunity to have fun here ;)))

On the upcoming Saturday I plan to do the Bulgarian night. I brought with me sushenica, lukanka, servilat, liutenica, shipkov marmalad, kaisieva rakia and alot of music, presentations and movies about Bulgaria. I found also the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Bratislava which can be useful as well. I have some gifts to the AIESECars and the company as well and they will be presented soon :)))

I will end up this story with my Slovak mobile number - +421908614975. You can contact me on it all the time. I will call you from the company's office which I can use 24/7. Out of working time I can call everyone for free and talk as much as I want. So, let the phone calls be the way for stay in touch, and then the e-mails ;)) Chats I don't have here so often so we'll keep in touch that ways mostly ;))

That's all from me for the moment. Expect soon pictures as well ;)))

See ya in the next post,

Victor Tomov

I'm on the road again ;)))

Hi guys! :)))

Finally, I'm abroad again! This time in Slovakia - the little big city Bratislava! ;) This is the advertising slogan of the Slovak capital. It's like the Varna size regarding the population - around 450 000 (half during holidays coz everybody goes home! hehehe).

Let me tell you more about the trip to this small but really beautiful part of Europe.

Well, I had the feeling that these 19 hours scheduled as a duration to go from Sofia to Bratislava were not soooo true and updated... and I was right! My bus arrived 3,5 hours earlier at the bus station Mlinske nivy!!!! Wow, that sounds familiar, doesn't it?! Whata luck I'm having here, guyyys. But compared to Lodz, this time I arrived at 2:30 AM in a rainy weather with a huuuge (yeah, bigger than for Poland) luggage ;) And whata surprise - the bus stopped in front of the barier at the station's entrance, then the driver put his entrance card to open it but it didn't work out. So, he waited 10 seconds and told me - "you have to get off here, coz I cannot open the barier" So I did it in front of the bus station, it dizzled and was very cold. Then I took my luggage and saw how the station guard who had to open the barier came while the bus was driving out. "Teraz je neskoro" I said to him ("Now is too late") and we together watched the bus departure nodding in aggreement.

Well, then the waiting began - almost 1,5 hours for my buddy to pick me up from the station. It was sunday, morning, not regular buses at that part of the day so she did her best but it was impossible to pick me up in that situation exactly on time. Again like in Poland, I had the chance to get to know in details the bus station :))) It was closed but I figured it out after 200 m 10-mins luggage-whrestling walk from the barier to the main pedestrian entrance and peron No. 1 ;))

So, it was a short trip but mixed first impressions. Bratislava looks beautiful at night - with huge modern high tech buildings - Malls, business centers, offices of world corporations, illuminated from everywhere. Compared to the ugliest EU capital - Sofia, Bratislava looks amazing! :)) Very compact city - old town, and center full of sightseeing places at a walking distances one from another.

That was the story about my trip and arrival.

See ya in the next post, folks :))

Victor Tomov

The New Year Eve home party

Here are some photos from my home celebration of the 2008th New Year :))

French champaign, Turkish Raki, Red wine, Whiskey - all in a row ready for the party :)

Pick up your good luck from the banitsa ;)

Me, my mom and my dad

Me, mom and dad again at the Chrsitmas tree

See ya folks,

Victor Tomov