Bulgaria hiking trip

 2 friends and I booked flights to Bulgaria to go hiking around Rila national park. We arrived in Sofia, the capital on the 31st of July, and immediately made our way to Borovits, a nearby skiing town. Borovits was a strange experience. It was hard to distinguish what was Bulgarian culture and what was clearly a touristy gimmick. British flags were attached to the front door of almost all restaurants, and English breakfasts were on almost every menu. Clearly, Brits must enjoy using Bulgaria as a cheap ski haven. 

In the morning we began our hike and made our way to Mt Musala - the highest point in Bulgaria. The hike was long, uphill, and exhausting: everything I've been longing for. When we arrived at our hut near the summit we met about 40 Czech people who were also staying there. They were super friendly, spoke excellent English, and drank crazy amounts of alcohol. I met a 70-year-old man who couldn't withstand bringing up the evils of communism at almost every opportunity. He told me about the difficulties of living in the Czech Republic 60's and 70's. The country was extremely poor and all the students were forced to learn Russian. 

The 2nd day of hiking was the hardest. A quick glance of the map had fooled us into thinking that Mt Musala to Ribini Erzo hut would be a simple hike along the ridgeline of the mountains. This was an underestimate. It was a long and challenging hike. Martin got altitude sickness, Victor got some severe blisters on his feet, and we all walked into a pack of ultra-aggressive dogs defending a group of cattle that had waddled their way onto our walking track. At one point I picked up a large rock to prepare for the worst. Don't worry though, we lived and no animals were hurt.

The 3rd day was by far the easiest. We hiked to Rila monastery - an extremely famous destination. I had no idea how big of a deal the monastery was until I arrived there. The religious paintings were amazing, they had nuns and priests doing religious ceremonies, and there were hundreds of pilgrims staying there. 

On the last day we hiked from Rila monastery to the famous 7 lakes. Confusingly, there were many more than 7, but that didn't take away from the moment. Victor unpacked his drone and got some jaw-dropping footage.

On our last full day, we traveled back to Sofia. We found an amazing Bulgarian restaurant. For 17 euros each we got to try some of the best meat I've ever tried with a full bottle of wine. It turns our the Bulgarian diet is almost exclusively meat-based; there were hardly any vegetables, just mouth-watering lamb, chicken, pork and beef with a heavy side of Avjar (a delicious tomato and capsicum paste).

The trip was great fun and a much-needed refresher. I'll be back soon, eastern Europe :)

Internet and democracy

There is a lot I want to say about this topic. This is just a taste test.

I remember when I watched curiosity, a NASA rover, land on Mars in 2012. I thought it was so cool that a machine built by fleshy humans was blasted from one tiny planet to another tiny planet. In my mind it was the perfect example of how humanity had adjusted it's focus, zooming out to see the infinitely complex and beautiful universe around us. That feeling was short lived. Shortly after the touch down was declared a success, a NASA employee was the focus of every news channel, YouTube video and Facebook post I could find. He had worn an inappropriate shirt with pictures of sexy women on it during an interview and was being accused of sexism. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember it devolving into a controversial issue, which generated & spread a lot of emotion around the internet. I remember feeling so disheartened that humanity had instantly snapped back to it's zoomed in view of the world. I also wondered whether the future would be any different.

Well here we are, 2020, literally 1 month until the launch of the next NASA rover, Perseverance. There are so many things to be excited about. For starters, this next mission will involve a land rover and a tiny helicopter called ingenuity. This is amazing! A helicopter flying on another planet that has almost no atmosphere! Yet a part of me is already disheartened. I'm bracing for the moment when humanity misses another chance to wake up and really open it's eyes. We're all so zoomed in. I see increasingly more of my friends take to social media to scream into a virtual whirlwind. We're all so opinionated about controversial moral subjects that have relatively negligible moral importance. There's a viscous part of 21st century technology that plays with our primitive psychology, perpetually distracting and polarizing us.

I'm bracing myself for the emotional shock of witnessing Ingenuity starting spinning it's blades for the first time, only for me to notice in my periphery that the following 15 recommended videos are about the TV host not being black.

New philosophy website: https://sites.google.com/view/mattsphilosophy/home

It's not complete:

https://sites.google.com/view/mattsphilosophy/home

Day 1

When it started it was loud. In every direction your senses were flooded with the deafening sound of people screaming and sirens bellowing. But as the virus spread it got quieter. Only the occasional faint crack of a gunshot in the distance could be heard. Now everything is completely silent. Even the wind dares not disturb the silence as it brushes its way over the thousands of corpses that litter the streets. My name is Matthew James, and this is how I survived the C19 apocalypse.

In the old word I was nothing special. I had an Engineering degree, a girlfriend, and a pet dog called Winry. I, like everyone else at that time, had been indoctrinated into the romantic view that a successful life was guaranteed provided you worked hard, had a fulfilling social life, and brushed your teeth twice per day. I was completely unprepared. When the first few people got sick, everyone cared so much. Scores of people would care around the clock for these people - there would be hugging, kissing, crying and laughter. Emotion is a luxury of the privileged, I guess. Little did these people know that their 'humanity' would only cause the virus to spread more. It spread so fast that by the time it was properly noticed, it was too late. I survived the initial wave of infections, not because I was prepared, but because of luck. I had spent the last few months cocooned in my bedroom playing game after game of Age of Empires, completely unaware of the events unfolding around me. Isn't it ironic that someone can be so distracted by creating a fictional empire, that they fail to even notice real empires beginning to crumble around them.  When I finally left my house to get more corn flakes and milk, the world I stepped into had already been scorched. It was at this moment I realized that I needed to uninstall the game and get supplies...