After returning home from the Eastern European camper van trip, I spent a few days at my parents’ place in the mountains. As always, when I’m back home, I meet some friends. A great way to catch is by having some drinks in a nice location since it’s summer and warm out, or grab some food. That’s what I did with some and had a great time catching up.
Camper checkup and photoshoot
For an Instagram reel of my friend, I needed to do some drone footage, so I asked my mother to be the driver, while I recorded while driving. We decided to go into the fields not too far from my home. The view is pretty nice, and we won’t disturb anyone. So we went just at the edge of the fields, where I lifted off the drone. I instructed my mother to drive at a certain speed, so I was able to follow properly and smoothly. I did a couple of videos and pictures. After 10-15 minutes, we were done and headed into the next village to grab some food together. Enjoy time with my mother. Doesn’t happen that often.
My friend, for whom we shot these videos, was happy with the footage. Back in Bulgaria, in the middle of nowhere, I was joking about going to a bar when we returned from our walk. My friend was surprised and asked, “Where will you find a bar here?” I said, “MaWi Camper Bar“. She has an Instagram fan page in Peru and is doing bar reviews. When she travels, she likes to visit the world’s best bars and create international content. As a joke, we came up with the idea of recording a different reel for a little bit. Preparing a cocktail in the camper van with very simple ingredients and preparation.
In Bern in the office
I’m not in the office very often, but whenever I’m in Switzerland, I’ll make sure to spend a couple of days there. The thing is, my hometown is in the Eastern part, while my parents’ lives and the office are more central/west. So it’s a 2-hour train ride away. Doing this daily is definitely too much, so I always need to find a place to stay or a friend who lets me crash at their place. This time I was able to stay for 4 nights at a friend’s place and therefore spend a week in the office.
At a shooting farm
This time I went on a shooting farm with my mother and a friend who lives in the next village. We drove over on a nice and warm Saturday afternoon with our bicycles. Arrived there, we got instructed by my gotfather who’s coaching there. I haven’t seen him in a long time, and it was very nice to meet again and receive instruction. Such shooting clubs are very common in Switzerland. Either for people practising the sport or for those in active army service who conduct shooting exercises once a year. The usual distance is 300m with the standard Swiss Army rifle, the SIG 550 (Stgw 90). I haven’t shot since I left the army 10 years ago, but I’ve always had a talent for it. My grandfather was already pretty good. Obviously, without training, I won’t shoot the maximum points every time, but for shooting this for the first time in this decade, I got pretty good results.
New passport
I’ve been travelling since 2018, almost non-stop, but got my passport in 2016. So after 10 years, it’s time to renew it. Since I travel a lot and am away for 5-10 months at a time, I have to keep a close eye on expiry dates. If it’s an ID, a passport or a credit card. I need to complete all the official paperwork while I’m back in Switzerland. Otherwise, it’s getting annoying with the embassy and special shipping addresses. So it was time to get my ID and passport replaced ahead of time, since most countries require at least 6 months of passport validity before entry. The Swiss passport got a new design, and I was curious to see how it turned out. While the last was already very colourful inside and received some attention from various officers over the last 10 years, the new one will do as well. While the outside looks very similar, the inside looks very futuristic. I like it.