April 11; sunshine days are here ☀️
In the mountains, on the roof, and the road... this was my week
Happy Sunday,
Much to my delight, spring is here, bringing with it not just the joy of nature’s rebirth, with everyone being in an upbeat mood, but also the annual return of that time in which the best of both summer and winter can be enjoyed.
Skiing season finale (maybe) ⛷🤷🏻♂️
Quite possibly for the last time this season, Ellie and I spent the midweek at Bansko, enjoying those final bits of snow and winter, before warmer days roll around. In Bulgaria, classically the ski season ends on April 15, and most of the time the period after April 1 is a sorry story of artificial snow and t-shirt-ready weather. This year, like last, spring is a bit slow, and Bansko was a great place to be at for a few days in early April.
Both of us had a very busy week at work, so all we managed was a few early-morning and sunset-time cross-country runs on the big Bansko Ski Road, which connects the town itself, at altitude 950m, with the Banderitsa Meadow ski area at altitude 1600m.
With the sun setting at 8pm, and all the downhill skiers long back from the slopes, you can have the Ski Road all to yourself, which is exactly what happened to us.
As we got back to Sofia on Friday, we were greeted with clear skies, and the Vitosha peaks gleaming overhead with abundant snow cover, which makes us think this might not yet be the last time we get to XC before summer. Let’s see if we can do it one more time in the coming weeks.
Rooftop season kickoff 🥂😎
Some things only get better with time, and yesterday we discovered that this applies not only to wine, but to birthdays too. Ellie’s Bday was exactly a month ago, which was celebrated joyfully back home with her folks, and that same week was also the Bday of Kristina, Ellie’s coworker at launchlabs Sofia. Since March was gloomy and under lockdown, the decision was made to postpone the joint celebration till April, when it could coincide with the season opening of the office rooftop.
On top of that, we have the primer of this season’s first Bulgarian Pét-Nats from our friends at Grape Central, so all things considered, yesterday was a perfect occasion to do it all at once: the two birthdays, the rooftop opening, and the Pét-Nat celebration.
If you’re in Sofia, you’re always welcome to join us on the roof; we will be there many a weekend and many an after-work sunset occasion.
EV group ride to Plovdiv 🚙⚡️🚗⚡️💨
In Bulgaria we currently have an estimated 2000-3000 BEVs, which is short for battery-electric vehicles. These are cars that are only powered by electricity from a battery, no hybrid gas engine/generator or hydrogen fuel cell on board. I joined the ranks a few months back with my VW E-Golf, and recently also joined the Bulgarian EV Association, which is a group of about 50 girls and guys that are crazy about their EVs. Most of time we discuss range-optimal driving and where we should lobby for charging stations to be installed, but on some Sundays the board organizes day trips to scenic spots in Bulgaria, usually to celebrate a new fast-charging station or to test-drive a new EV model.
Such was the case this morning, when with about 10 cars we set off from Sofia to Plovdiv, a smooth 150km drive crossing the Sredna Gora mountain range, to have lunch in a well-known Bavaria-themed beer garden, and to test out the latest EV model that arrived in Bulgaria, the Fiat New 500. It’s a substantial upgrade of the 2013 model year Fiat 500e, the previous electric version of the stylized remake of the iconic 1960s Fiat 500.
Beyond the fact that EVs are simply cool and make a lot of sense, it’s always exciting to be an early adopter of something that everybody agrees is going to become big. I remember that feeling of being one on the first kids in my school who had dial-up internet at home in the mid 1990s. That feeling repeated itself in 2010 when I would shake up home parties with Spotify on my phone, where everyone would be grabbing my iPhone 3G to choose literally any song, and it would play. Here in Sofia we also had something like that when I did the first Instagram photo walks in 2011, and some of the best Bulgarian photographers would join on those and become friends.
Now it’s that pioneer feeling all over again with EVs. A few years from now, it will be funny to look back at it, just like looking back on Spotify and Instagram is funny today. All while we’ll be pioneering new things instead.
Thanks for checking in today and talk to you next Sunday! 😇
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