One Week, Two Cities: Sofia & Stockholm
Past ten days have been eventful, to say the least. I was invited by team WordPress to attend WordCamp Europe in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was for a conversation between Matt (Mullenweg) and me (an alpha adopter of WordPress software), where I deftly steered Matt into only answering (and not asking) any questions. The camp, obviously involved a long journey — San Francisco to New York. An overnight stay in NYC which also led to a chance meeting with Mack Weldon founder Brian Berger and a great cup of coffee at my favorite NY spot, Ground Support. And then off to Sofia via Munich.
To be candid, I didn’t know what to expect from Sofia & Bulgaria. Middle Europe is an interesting part of the continent and candidly, very hard to describe. The city of Sofia, which is the capital of Bulgaria has starred in the history of Europe, but the falling of the Iron Curtain left it with pock marks of communism — stark, concrete residential blocks. Architecture and town planning during the Soviet era was minimal, focusing on efficiency over aesthetics and elegance, almost brutal. Parts of Sofia reminded me of the propaganda films I saw growing up in India.