Bulgaria

It was strange to arrive into a European country that had similar advantages to the UK (pre-Brexit). I didn’t expect the currency to be the LEV, for instance.

Unfortunately Plovdiv doesn’t have it’s own airport (although being the second largest city) so there was a 2 hour drive to follow the flight by. Kindly, the university / hotel arranged this are all went very smoothly!

Plovdiv is the cultural capital and it didn’t disappoint! From amphitheaters, to art installations to mounds you could climb and get some amazing views over the city.

One of the most interesting mounds that I climbed on my final days is this huge 36-foot statue of a Russian soldier. Erected in 1957, it stands as a monument to the Red Army’s “liberation” of the city during World War II. Talking to the locals they said: “it’s complicated”. I didn’t pry much further than that.

The food was really interesting. Upon landing there’s huge amounts of advertising for this restaurant called “Happy” which says it’s the best restaurant in London (as a Londoner though, I’ve never seen or heard of it before). I checked it out on my first night. The restaurant is huge and offers every type of cuisine. There’s even a sushi bar in the restaurant. The strangest thing was not being able to find “bulgarian food”. It turns out almost all of the restaurants offer primarily an “international” menu.

The reason I’m here: work! I’ve been invited to give a speech and presentation as an expert is haptic and VR technologies and their application into dental education. Accompanied by a friend from ADEMA university who gave a fantastic academic presentation about the integration of technology within the curriculum in a private university. I also had the opportunity to give demos of our latest software.

Mission accomplished!