{"id":208,"date":"2007-12-10T23:29:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-10T13:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/?p=208"},"modified":"2007-12-10T23:29:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-10T13:29:00","slug":"st-sofia-day-celebrations-tony-gets-enlisted-into-the-bulgarian-military-protocol-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/bulgaria\/things-to-see-in-sofia\/st-sofia-day-celebrations-tony-gets-enlisted-into-the-bulgarian-military-protocol-office","title":{"rendered":"St. Sofia Day Celebrations &#8211; Tony gets enlisted into the Bulgarian Military Protocol Office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"float: right\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-1009507070974015\";\r\ngoogle_alternate_ad_url = \"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/google_adsense_script.html\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\ngoogle_ad_format = \"300x250_as\";\r\ngoogle_ad_type = \"text_image\";\r\n\/\/2007-06-30: TSBlog 300x250\r\ngoogle_ad_channel = \"2928184950\";\r\ngoogle_color_border = \"FFFFFF\";\r\ngoogle_color_bg = \"FFFFFF\";\r\ngoogle_color_link = \"FF6600\";\r\ngoogle_color_text = \"000000\";\r\ngoogle_color_url = \"339933\";\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\n  src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>As mentioned in the last blog, I was so thrilled at having met the Bulgarian President that I had to convey my delight to someone and this person turned out to be a serious looking military guy.\u00a0\u00a0 Not knowing if he understood\u00a0 English, we were just happy to <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"right\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/37261-2\/DSC_0764.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Sergei Kanthev, Chief of Military Protocol, Bulgaria\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Sergei Kanthev, Chief of Military Protocol, Bulgaria\" \/>show him with our smiles that we very much enjoyed the city&#8217;s\u00a0celebrations.\u00a0\u00a0It was with great surprise that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Bulgaria\/Sofia\/StSophiaDay\/DSC_0764.jpg.html\" title=\"Sergei Kanthev, Chief of Military Protocol, Bulgaria\">Sergei\u00a0<\/a>started talking to us\u00a0and wanted to know where we were from.\u00a0 He said that he liked Australia and the Australian people and was a keen fan of Steve Irwin.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"left\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/37263-2\/DSC_0765.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Sergei and Tony, St. Sofia Day Celebrations\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Sergei and Tony, St. Sofia Day Celebrations\" \/>Sergei told us that he is the Chief of Military Protocol which impressed us.\u00a0 After a bit more chit chatting, he took off his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Bulgaria\/Sofia\/StSophiaDay\/armybadge.jpg.html\" title=\"Sergei's Military badge - Sofia\">badge <\/a>and gave it to Tony.\u00a0 We were flabbergasted at his generosity\u00a0and didn&#8217;t think it was appropriate to take it, but he insisted on Tony having this souvenir.\u00a0 All we had to reciprocate with was my <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"right\" width=\"85\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/37279-2\/armybadge.jpg?resize=85%2C110\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Chief of Military Protocol, Sofia\" height=\"110\" style=\"width: 85px; height: 110px\" title=\"Chief of Military Protocol, Sofia\" \/>very humble ballpoint pen with aboriginal artwork on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sergei obviously liked chatting to us and invited us to coffee at a very posh cafe where he frequently entertains foreign military delegations, etc.\u00a0 It was obvious that he is well known about town as people greeted or saluted him along the way.\u00a0 He was very keen for us to learn more\u00a0about his city and pointed out things as we walked.\u00a0\u00a0 Sergei was a genuinely nice guy and it was obvious that he enjoys travelling and the exposure to foreign cultures and lifestyles.\u00a0\u00a0 He extended his invitation for us to stay with him and his family in their city apartment anytime we&#8217;re in Sofia and advised us that his wife is a great cook.\u00a0 We could have chatted to him the whole afternoon, but had to excuse ourselves as we still had work to do, to photograph the other end of town.\u00a0 How fortunate we were to have met this very interesting person who enriched our <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"left\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/37277-2\/DSC_0767.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Coffe at Cafe Flora, Sofia\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Coffe at Cafe Flora, Sofia\" \/>local experience.<\/p>\n<p>When we told our tour director of our experiences, he in turn shared it with the rest of group, which increased Tony&#8217;s kudos no end.\u00a0 Bold and brazen, we were going to flash the badge at the Bulgarian border guards if they gave us any grief .. luckily we didn&#8217;t have to do this!<\/p>\n<p>Helen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As mentioned in the last blog, I was so thrilled at having met the Bulgarian President that I had to convey my delight to someone and this person turned out to be a serious looking military guy.\u00a0\u00a0 Not knowing if he understood\u00a0 English, we were just happy to show him with our smiles that we [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-things-to-see-in-sofia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - 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