Sasha and I spent a great day in Plovdiv yesterday. We explored this beautiful city as tourists and we had a great time. We walked down the main street and then spend the rest of the day in Old Town. There is a Roman amphitheater that is still used for special occasions. We had coffee and Coca Cola in an outdoor bar overlooking the amphitheater.

We visited two museums, the National Historical Museum and the Etnographical Museum. Both are located in Old Town, in beautiful old Bulgarian houses. Old Town is in general very well preserved and restored. There are many paintings of the street views, we have one in our living room.

In front of the Etnographical Museum.

Saturday afternoon my plane landed in Sofia, and Milan and Sasha were there to pick me up from the airport. It's really good to see everybody again.

Our first dinner started with shopska salad and rakia, and chicken with a great side dish kiselo zele (one of my favorites). Kisole zele is pickled cabbage and it's baked in the oven with the chicken.

I slept in until 1.00 pm the next day; we had an easy day and spent a nice evening with Rangel, Iordanka and Renche.

The previous two times I was in Bulgaria in the middle of the winter; it's nice to see everything so lush and green now.

I'm on my way to the airport in a cab whose window almost fell out.

I'll fly to Atlanta and from there to Prague, Czech Republic. My original flight through JFK was canceled and I was not able to do my seat assignment online because of that so I hope I can make sure to get an aisle seat at the airport.

Update:

• Guus is happy with his aisle seat and is on his way to Prague. (2 days 5 hours ago)
• Guus getting worried about his seat assignment now: "eh, please come back in 20 minutes sir while I hold on to your passport and tickets" (2 days 5 hours ago)
• Guus just learned that the British Museum's exhibition on the Terracotta Army is coming to Atlanta in November (DC after that) (2 days 6 hours ago)

Today I am traveling to Bulgaria! I'm staying for a week with Milan and Nadia; Sasha has been there for a while now.

My original flight was through JFK, and left around noon, but two days ago that flight was canceled and I was rebooked through Atlanta. I certainly don't mind, since the layover in Atlanta is a lot shorter. It's the first time in a long time that I don't start my international flight with having to get up at some crazy hour. I had already taken a day off so I have plenty of time to pack my luggage and get ready.

Oh, I loves these debates! The long expected debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin was tonight, and I enjoyed watching it over dinner and a beer (tomorrow is a day off).

Ms. Palin did well, a lot better than in her interviews the last couple of days although she stayed really close to her one-liners and evaded a lot of questions. I'd say that Mr. Biden won the debate, on style and content, but as a blogger of The Economist put it, "Ms. Palin won the expectations game".

I just read an article about a planned resurfacing of I-40, the road I take to work every day. In April of next year they'll refresh the asphalt between 540 and the Wade Avenue exit. The same article mentions a very sensible change that's being planned for the Raleigh 440 beltway:

"The Beltline job includes plans to remove Inner / Outer Beltline signs that have confused motorists for years. Instead, the Beltline would be divided between east / west I-40, and east / west I-440."

That makes so much sense -- the Inner / Outer Beltline thing never really worked for me.

I realized late at night that I was out of yogurt.

Since I hate starting the day without a decent breakfast I went to Kroger. A thunderstorm was just getting started; big lightning flashes everywhere but no rain.

To my surprise, in between the doors of Kroger stood a security guard and she told me that the store was closed for floor repairs. It was 11.00 pm, and luckily she made an exception for me if I promised to be back quickly, which I did. Interesting how you get used to the grocery store being open 24/7.

The last few weeks have been crazy in many different ways. And boy oh boy, what a mess the economic system is in.

Today the Dow Jones saw the sharpest drop ever, after the bailout plan failed to make it through Congress. I was not a big fan of the plan, with its proposed massive government intervention in the market, and some say that a 'correction' would have been healthy. It's impossible to know of course, but a lot of very smart people have warned against the dire consequences of not passing such a bill. Let's hope it doesn't come to some of those scenario's. Last night Wachovia was taken over; Wachovia has its headquarters in Charlotte, NC.

Once thing is clear: neither Mr. Obama nor Mr. McCain, let along President Bush, have a strong control over their parties and their voting on this issue.

I just came back from Greensboro, NC were Vladi and I attended a rally with Barack Obama and Joe Biden. This was the second appearance of Mr. Obama in North Carolina in a week and since last week was not exactly a success for me I decided to try again today. The gates opened at 10.00 am, and Vladi and I were in line around 9.15 am. That turned out to be well on-time and when the event started at 12.15 pm we had a great place in the crowd with a good view of the stage.

Mr. Biden spoke first. It was their first public appearance after last night's debate and Mr. Biden slammed John McCain on things he said in the debate, saying Mr. Obama "owned" the debate yesterday. Mr. Obama spoke for about 30 minutes.

I took some pictures with my phone (see below). It was a lot of fun to attend this event.

Waiting in line. Until 10.15 am or so the line hardly moved so I was getting somewhat nervous. There was a little bit of drizzle but luckily no real rain.

We made it! Around 10.45 am we saw the entrance gate to the event.

The stage was in front of a nice backdrop. Security on the roof of the building.

A very large crowd; estimated at around 20,000 people.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The Washington Post:

'Addressing his supporters, with Biden at his side in a rare joint appearance, Obama sounded more confrontational than he did last night. On stage, he had even agreed with McCain on several points, to the delight of McCain supporters, who cited the references repeatedly afterwards as an example of McCain's command.

But today the gloves came off. Obama ridiculed McCain's sudden decision earlier this week to suspend his campaign amid financial bailout negotiations as "looking for a photo-op." He described his opponent as grasping for a strategy on the economy. "Doesn't really know what to do," Obama said. "Hasn't been clear what to say."'

Tonight we watched the first Presidential Debate of 2008. The topic was foreign policy but obviously the economic crisis got a lot of attention.

A few friends came over and we had a great time watching the debate with beers, chips and chili.

I'd say that the debate was pretty much a tie, something which works to Mr. McCain disadvantage since he's considered to be most well prepared for a debate on foreign policy.