“I grew up in Bulgaria. My dad traveled a lot for work and I would sometimes join him on his travels. Every new country we visited I would fall in love with and afterwards I never wanted to return back home. I always knew I would leave Bulgaria the minute I would be able to stand on my own feet. When I was 19 I packed my bags and left. In the past 3 years I lived in Milan and Amsterdam and I traveled to different continents. I noticed that whenever I would tell people I was from Bulgaria they had these negative associations with the country mainly based of what they heard through media. Of course it is not perfect but it made me think and focus on the beauty of the country. In a way I needed to be away from to gain the perspective that I needed to fall in love with the country I was born in. Even if its not perfect, it is still my home.”

“I have always found traveling by train way more romantic than any other transport. Right after my final exams I bought a InterRail ticket and I traveled through Europe by train. It was the best time of my life. When I returned back home I was so disappointed with the results of my finals exams that I decided to keep on traveling. I took the train to Spain and I stayed in Madrid for a few weeks. In Madrid I fell in love with Picasso’s work and I decided to keep on traveling through Spain to see more of his work. After that I started traveling outside of Europe. I once made a 36-hour train ride of which I sat on my backpack for 19 hours because the train was sold out. I could have easily booked a flight but when you travel by train it is more about the journey and when you fly it is just about the destination. ”