Farewell to Mandarin

Since our arrival in Sofia, Ellis and I have been working in the Mandarin Office Center. This constitutes 2 very modern glass buildings which house quite a number of businesses, including a few connected Israeli businesses.

We have enjoyed working at Mandarin. Aside from the modern offices, the building is fairly close to where we live - a 7 min. taxi ride for me (if there isn't too much traffic) and a 25 min. walk for Ellis.

In a desire to have all the connected companies closer to each other, and with more office space than is currently available (companies are split between different floors and buildings), it was decided to move all the companies to new offices. The new offices are next to the third largest mall in Sofia, and near the airport. This will mean a much longer trip to and from work each day, and Ellis will have to come with me in the taxi, as it is too far to walk.

My company is moving out this weekend, and we will all meet at the new offices on Monday morning. Ellis's company will be moving in the middle of next week. So - yesterday, I packed my desk and bade farewell to the Mandarin Office Center. And farewell also to our favorite restaurants where we have enjoyed many lunches - Rainbow, Dobro and La Pastaria.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The “Pogacha”

Image
Pogacha is a traditional, round bread which is used in many Bulgarian ceremonies and celebrations. This was also the name for the celebration that we were invited to by one of my colleagues, Luca, and his wife Iva, in honor of the birth of their son, Nicola. Although the customs surrounding the birth of a baby had their origins many centuries ago, and most of them have not survived, there are still some customs which have made it to modern times and are generally followed by all women after giving birth. When a baby is born, the baby is not taken out of the house for a period of 40 days. During this time, only close family members are allowed to visit and to see the baby. In ancient times, this was due to the fact that a woman was considered “unclean” and as a result, she and her baby were at great risk from evil spirits. Today, it is more of a feeling of protecting the baby from germs and keeping him safe. At the end of the 40 days, there is a celebration, which only the women family...
Read more

Top 15 Favorite Bulgarian Places

Image
At a distance of one month, it's sometimes hard to believe that we spent two wonderful years living in Bulgaria. We look back with fond memories at the many places we visited, the many people we met, and the many things we learned about Bulgaria, its culture and history. This started as a Top Ten list, but there were too many places to list, so it became a Top 15 list, and still, some of the colorful destinations we visited are not included. The list is presented in alphabetical order. Balchik . On the Black Sea coast, this town was the summer home of Queen Marie of Romania . We enjoyed walking around the botanical gardens, seeing the old style houses and the simple palace that captured the heart of the Romanian queen. Belogradchik . Belogradchik is a town in northwestern Bulgaria and also the name of a fortress and nature reserve of bizarrely shaped sandstone, limestone and other rock formations. The Belogradchik Rocks were Bulgaria's candidate in the campaign for N...
Read more

The Chinese Market

Image
On Sunday we went with our friends Sima and Shlomo to the northern neighborhoods of Sofia to an outdoor shopping bazaar known as the Chinese Market. Stokov Bazaar, or Ilientsi, is a huge area of stalls selling everything from kitchen appliances, toys, clothing, and car parts, and at very cheap prices. Many of the shopkeepers were indeed Chinese, and it was interesting to see so many Orientals in one place, speaking Bulgarian. We managed to buy a few things we needed but it was hard to fully enjoy the experience as it was freezing cold. Either the cold, or the after-Christmas mood kept the crowds away, because we heard that the bazaar attracts many Sofia shoppers.
Read more