I got me another one of those silly-language related situations. One thing I cannot drink is sparkling water. Hate it. Guess if I bought myself a six-pack… From now on, I am resorting to Italian water – Acqua minerale naturale – nice and simple.

It is really funny – there is this lady who works in the store next-door. I am there every day, and every day she insist on speaking to me in Hungarian. Not a hi-thank you-buy conversation, she’s got more to say. And I’m staring at her, thinking Lady, I was here yesterday. And the day before. I didn’t speak Hungarian then, and despite the fact that I might look quite intelligent, I did not learn it overnight. Lovely chatting with you, though.

One of the things that always makes me laugh is when one person is talking to another and the latter does not know the language, the first person always (and I do that, too) starts speaking veeeeery slooooooowly. Yeah, that doesn’t cut it … I cannot wait to start my classes though; perhaps the supermarket lady has got something fascinating to say. Will definitely let you know if that’s the case.

And here it is, your random fact of the day. Bet you didn’t know that in numbers in English the very first time you have the letter “a” is in … one thousand. Funny, huh?

Two weeks ago I bought a souvenir from London.

It looks like a teapot:

It feels like a teapot:

But is it a teapot???

Nah! See, the genius who designed the teapot forgot to drill a little hole for the liquid to flow out.

Best paper weight I ever bought!

Lo and Behold!

Great news for the bagel lovers  in Sofia. I found a fantastic little bagel place (thanks, Trayan!) right in the center of the city. O’nice offers the real thing – not the Dunkin Donuts crap, mistakenly called bagel. The place is small and very cozy, the food is divine: a great choice of bagels (more to come in two to three weeks), a tea selection that will satisfy the most pretentious of you out there, real good coffee (Vesko says) and smoothies! Also, as any self-respected place nowadays would, there is wireless Internet available.

Chris, the owner, is Irish and he would come by, say Hi and make sure everything is fine. They also offer frozen bagels to go – you could take one, six or a dozen – and you can make your own selection.

I know I’ll be there often! And I definitely recommend it!

And for those of you who want to experiment with food – here you can find an easy recipe for home-made bagels.

Enjoy!

P.S. Here it is, your random fact of the day: March 23rd is the international day of meteorology.