Flying home from Bulgaria to Ireland is normally a nice and simple affair – non-stop, easy and simple. But… what if it wasn’t? What if it went through Liverpool?
Well, turns out, flights going through Liverpool were plentiful and cheap. And simple enough – looking at flights, it stood out as a surprisingly simple option… so you know what? We did it. A layover in Liverpool, for a few hours, as a chance to give us the opportunity to walk and explore.
We went in without any major plans – no specific list of where we’d go, no specific set of targets or goals to rush to. Instead, we simply wandered and enjoyed the chance to do a bit of exploring as a relaxed couple. We grabbed some food, we saw some sights, we explored the mall like we were teenagers in the US during the 1990s.
And yes, we saw the statue of the Beatles.
I mean… okay, we didn’t have firm plans, but we weren’t going to miss something that obvious.
Well dang, Ben. You’re some cool jet-setting fancy-pants, aren’t you? You were just in the United States, and now you’re flying to Bulgaria?
That’s correct, dear reader, yours truly is finally starting to live the dream that I had when first moving to Europe… I’m flying around the continent going to parties!
In this specific case – flying to Sofia for a birthday party, and for our second Pride celebration of the year. Just a quick jaunt, you understand. A few hours in the air, a quick hop skip and jump to the house, and then a lovely few days in Sofia.
Now, Sofia pride was impressive and lovely in my opinion… but from what I heard from others, it was a bit underwhelming when compared to previous years. From my side, though? Huge music events, a fair number of booths, a solid (yet respectful) police presence, and just so many people. Like… SO many people. And since Bulgaria had just recently won Eurovision, we got to hear the winning song by DARA! Who, for those like me who haven’t heard of her, was the one who won Eurovision.
We relaxed, we met Andrea’s friends, we listened to music, and we enjoyed the sun and shade as the day went on. The concert ended, the parade / march began, and we walked until we stopped walking. It was fun, it was lovely, and I appreciated the time to simply enjoy a bit of an adventure while listening and reading Bulgarian (which I’m still learning, slowly but surely).
The end of Pride was… a bit weird, I have to admit. We were marching, and had stopped for a moment as we’d stopped multiple times before – For a traffic light, or some other official situation we assumed. But 15min onward, we were still stopped and waiting. Someone finally came down the line, “The march is over! Congrats! Go home.”
… wait, what? Yeah, turns out, there wasn’t actually an ending point… just a random stop near the palace of culture? No real announcements, no major event, just an organizer coming down the line telling folks to disperse and go home. It was… strange. Anti-climactic, of course, but also it kind of felt undermined? Andrea had opinions, to the surprise of no one, but I couldn’t really comment one way or the other. We did chat with one of the organizers briefly, but… no real new information.
Aside from that one weird note, though, it really was an excellent weekend away.
Pride was lovely, and a great chance to get into the excitement and chaos of the city.
The birthday party was excellent – getting to meet lots of new people, practice a bit of Bulgarian, and eat delicious food? Yes please!
Andrea’s been a part of the Irish Whiskey Society for a while now – I can’t quite remember how and when she joined, but I’ve gotten to hear about the tastings that they put on every so often.
It’s neat – Not quite my cup of whiskey, for one reason of another, but it’s cool and fun and I was quite excited to be invited along to a special tasting… a tasting for “airport exclusives”, alongside a few other rare bottles from the society’s private stores.
…
Yeah, I’m not saying no to tasting rare and unique whiskeys. Come on, now.
“So? How was it, Ben? Get to the point!”
Alright, alright – in short, it was lovely… but I’ll be honest with myself (and you, dear reader) that I’m not a particularly skilled or loquacious whiskey taster. I enjoyed many of them, was underwhelmed by some of them, and was thankful to be walked through the whole process.
I took photos of the ones that I could, and made a point to stay in the moment, appreciating the chance to try bottles that there’s pretty much no chance I’d pay for myself (not due to quality, but due to the sheer cost of the bottles).
