March 7; the Rite of Spring 🌸
March celebrations, vaccines, elections, e-bikes... this was my week
Happy Sunday,
Today I’m looking back at an unmistakably uplifting week; perhaps because March started on a Monday, bringing with it all of the Bulgarian spring festivities, and perhaps because it’s exactly a year since the start of pandemic restrictions… and just look at how far we’ve got, what a difference a year makes.
Baba Marta and Liberation Day ⚪️🔴🇧🇬
I always experience the start of March as some kind of kick-off for a long holiday season celebrating spring. Starting with Baba Marta day on March 1st, then Liberation Day on March 3rd, and then it goes on with the both Easters, Bulgarian Flower Holiday, May 1st, St. George’s Day (May 6th), Slavic Literacy Day (May 24th), and then all of a sudden it’s summer already.
This year is no different; March 1st was a sunny Monday, and the entire weekend before it, the Martenitsa stalls all across Sofia were bustling with business so that on Monday we could all tie the red-and-white charms on each others wrists, and wish each other health, happiness, and a speedy spring.
March 3rd is one of Bulgaria’s three national holidays, celebrating the foundation of the modern Bulgarian state after the Ottoman period. It’s called Bulgarian Liberation Day, and celebrates that on that day in 1878, the Russian and Ottoman empires signed a treaty that called for an end to the Russo-Turkish war and envisioned, among others, a rather large, new and independent Principality of Bulgaria. Both powers immediately backed off from committing to the treaty, and other European powers refused to accept it, so a few months later the Treaty of Berlin established a much more modest (northern) Bulgaria, which then went on to unite with Eastern Rumelia (southern Bulgaria, still Ottoman to that point) on September 6th 1885 to form more-or-less the Bulgaria we know today. That part is celebrated as national holiday no.2, Bulgarian Unification Day, each year on September 6. Then finally in 1908, Bulgaria declared full independence, now from the Russian empire, changing its name from Principality to Kingdom, which is national holiday no.3, celebrated as Bulgarian Independence Day each year on September 22.
It’s a complicated history, which took me years to figure out, but completely understandable and worthy of a country with a history of 1,300+ years. Fun fact: Bulgaria is the oldest country in Europe that still uses its original name from when it was first founded (7th century AD).
Thank you, science 😷💉
Ellie and I never expected it to go so fast, and like most of our friends, we were joking for the past three months that we’d be the last to get our Covid vaccine shots, somewhere late this year if all goes well. But lo and behold, March 2 was the day we got the first of our two shots.
It all started a week earlier, as the Bulgarian government announced that it’s opening limited “green corridors” in designated clinics and hospitals for anyone with a Bulgarian state-issued ID who wishes to be vaccinated, regardless of priority status, as long as supplies last.
We saw many of our friends get their shots, and as on Monday 1st the rumor went around that supplies for this green-corridor category would run out, we decided to head over to Sofia University Hospital on Tuesday morning to get ours.
After a three-hour wait with about 150 other people in the freezing cold outside the hospital entrance, during which we were split in age groups, had to fill out forms, and generally just did nothing for what seemed like forever, we went into the vaccination container and had a very friendly young doctor serve us our jabs of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine.
There’s an entire discussion going on whether it’s a good thing or not, to have these green corridors, while the vulnerable groups haven’t all received their shots first, but all I can say is that I’m very happy and relieved to be within the first 3% of Bulgarian residents who got vaccinated. My strategy is to closely watch the rollout of the much-anticipated European Green Passport, and to be early in line to obtain a certificate that allows me to travel, at least within the EU, without restrictions and PCR tests, as soon as possible after Ellie and I get our second shots on June 2.
Election time 🗳🇳🇱
I’m not a huge follower of politics, but I do feel strongly about the right and privilege to vote in free and fair elections, and as the Netherlands general election of March 17 this year started coming closer, I applied for my absentee ballot, so I could cast it by the March 5 deadline this week. I’ve been voting in the Netherlands every time since I first became eligible after turning 18, at the 2002 general election. In my younger years I tended to be idealistically attracted to free-market, small-government principles, and voted accordingly. Now, after all these years spent mostly between Bulgaria, US, and less fortunate countries in Eastern Europe, I’ve become more aware of the benefits of wealth distribution and social systems that facilitate mass upward mobility. In Dutch elections this usually means I vote slightly left of center, and this year I got excited by the classical left-liberal D66 party, whose current leader is the admirable Sigrid Kaag.
However, my excitement grew all the more when I saw an old university friend from my Groningen days, Hülya Kat, placed on no. 17 of the D66 party list. Hülya was close friends with my girlfriend at the time, and we’d have dinners and drinks with her often. She is now working as an HR manager at the Amsterdam Court of Justice, and has been an active member of the Amsterdam city council for the past ten years, pushing for accountability of corporate employers, support for neighborhood SMEs, and improving social integration in the capital city. I’m very happy that I voted for Hülya, and I hope she wins a parliament seat on March 17.
This week I dropped of my ballot at the Netherlands embassy here in Sofia; let’s see how the dice roll on March 17 and what the next government is going to look like.
Taking part in the e-bike revolution 🚴🏽♀️
Following our Vitosha tradition to share stories about the companies we invest in, and why we like them, my fund partner Marin Iliev penned a great write-up this week about our investment in Econic One, which he led within our team.
Econic One is a Bulgaria-based manufacturer of absolutely stunning electric bikes, beautifully designed, with a pedal-assist range of up to 150km, swappable batteries, and a very sleek app to control the bike and get all your stats and settings in one place. The company started making small batches a few years back, and has perfected the tech to the point where Econic One offers such premium features as theft- and crash-detection, data sharing, insurance and financing as part of the customer package, and much, much more.
Currently selling in over 10 countries in Europe, with the investment round we led into Econic One, the company is expanding worldwide, reaching 700 retail points by next year, also growing online sales and deliveries of the bikes. Econic One is currently the best e-bike money can buy, loaded with features yet priced very competitively, starting at just under EUR 2,000. I’m working on a plan to set up a pop-up concept store of Vitosha-related products at our office this summer; if I get my way, you are very welcome to stop by and take an Econic One for a spin around downtown Sofia to enjoy it yourself!
Beyond Sunday Max…
This week I noticed a few friends sharing another pre-launch social channel, called DotDot. I haven’t come around to testing it yet, but hey, it’s 2021 and the age of social networking renaissance, so why not give it a try!
Thanks for checking in today and talk to you next Sunday! 😇
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