Tag: train

REVIEW: THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN

The Five People You Meet in HeavenThe Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maria, my former Danish flatmate and co-volunteer at Sofia City Library, recommended this book to me. She was disappointed that a lot of people on Goodreads were knocking it as too melodramatic or for “forty-year-old housewives” (or something like that) but she thought I might enjoy it.

I never knew I was an unemployed forty years old, let alone a woman. Wait; I am unemployed…

It was short, well-written–especially the parts describing Eddie’s early years at the amusement park, or his time at the war–and made me feel as if I was right there as part of the action. I have a soft spot for books that manage to get this right: not having too many details when describing a scene or situation, instead carefully disclosing the right ones that will most effortlessly evoke your imagination. Scents, colours, bodily sensations, random observations or the protagonist’s train of thought (that one doesn’t even have to be relevant to the plot) and metaphors work particularly well.

I didn’t take away from it any kind of profound message. It doesn’t seem to have changed my life in any significant way as it seems to have done for some people who include this title in their relevant lists of life-changing books. Nevertheless, it did make me go through the obligatory and entirely foreseeable process of pondering who my five people I’d meet in heaven would be and conversely who it would be that I would hang around for a while waiting to meet. The idea that I might not have met some of them yet, or even never will, seems comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. I wonder: is it necessary for us to die in order to have a good hard look at our time on the physical plane and what it taught us?

I’ll stop here. This is going too deep too fast and I’m not prepared to responsibly go on–supposedly–unknowable philosophical musings.

On a final note, reading this made me feel very calm. Maybe it’s because I went through it almost exclusively while travelling on trains.

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EVS IN SOFIA CITY LIBRARY – JĀŅI – LATVIAN MIDSUMMER

Originally posted on our EVS in Sofia City Library blog.

On June 23rd we celebrated Jāņi together with our Latvian friends, which is their celebration of midsummer, complete with fires, homemade cheese, beer (very important) and attempting to stay up until sunrise – whoever fails to do so is cursed with sleepiness for a year, at least in Latvian tradition. What is important to note here is that of course the night of June 23rd in the high latitudes of Latvia isn’t more than 3 or 4 hours long, which means that Jāņi doesn’t translate so well for countries that aren’t situated quite as close to polar bears and baby harp seals as the Baltics are – call me Bulgaria. Some of us made the brave attempt, but the idea of sleeping around the fire, or in custom hammocks, beat the spirits of all but the toughest.

The celebration took place in a summer house on Stara Planina close to Rebrovo, which is in a forested valley next to Sofia. It never ceases to surprise me with how many beautiful spots of nature, mountains, lakes, rivers and forests, exist no farther away than a single hour’s trip from Bulgaria’s beating heart.


A taste of the 40-minute train ride, together with Janis, Rian, Zanda and Vicente.

Latvian homemade “cheese”
What? ZANDA is evolving!
So much green… Jāni had his day
Wild strawberries! City boy was excited!
Picking flowers for the Jāņi crowns

After the sun set, the fireflies came out to play. Some of us, including myself, had never seen a firefly before, and that we were excited doesn’t even begin to describe it. The attempt of a video above doesn’t remotely do the experience justice, but at least you can catch part of the vibe, especially played by the sound of the chatter of the crickets and the song of other little creatures of the night.

I’ll leave you with an interesting observation: Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Latvia, Denmark and I’m sure further countries still, all share the same obviously pagan celebration on the same day – the summer solstice – but it’s everywhere under the guise of the same obviously christian name: St. John’s. Vicente’s theory is that the pagan festival had existed everywhere in Europe since ancient times, and very early on in its history christianity decided to keep it intact in order to not not alienate the recently-converted pagans. It added, however, the “front” of the christian saint to more covertly incorporate the old celebration to its own traditions. Who knows?