This person should’ve been born in Bulgaria. Or somewhere in the Balkans. He would fit best in the crazy, chaotic peninsula with a pinch of oriental spices where people are serious when they say “party”. They know how to make it. Mother Earth gave Micky a wonderful gift in Bulgaria that he carried back home; “the best form of art,” as he says, or the Chalga, a mixture between oriental and Balkan music.

Or this young man should have been born in Poland, the country where people are not kidding when they talk about drinking; the country where “everyone drinks until the end.” We know that Micky loves such companies.

He would also be in his element in Greece – the country of thousands of dedicated football fans. There Micky would go to matches of his favorite Panathinaikos to pour out all of his craziness, I’m sure.

Or his best birthplace would be Spain – the country of warm and temperamental people with charisma and a huge palette of emotions.

Or why not Germany (I hope he won’t get angry at me for that one). There, he would love to have “live” access to bother and tease his “favorite” Germans. No wonder, since in recent history Germans showed no love to the real birth place of Micky – the Netherlands. Although the German occupation of the Netherlands is long gone (1945), some stereotypes keep the fire. “We are still all wooden clogs and tulips – that’s how they see us,” said Dutch journalist Sante Brun in 1995, referring to the German attitude towards Dutch people. Actually, Micky has many friends in the countries listed above, as well as in may others.

It seems fine that Micky is born in Holland, because this is the country of open-mindedness, tolerance and respect for the others. He is, in fact, a true citizen of the world and this is proved by the huge number of friends he has made all around our globe.

But now his date of birth is much more relevant than his place of birth. June 18 2013 brings the thirtieth birthday of our drinking legend Micky Bumbar.

He already achieved a lot – to start with, he’s well over 25 years old. He once said, I hope jokingly, that his goal in life is to reach that age. Well, that’s by far not everything that this young man can tick in his “To do” list. We are all thankful to him that he left a trace and a bunch of hilarious stories wherever he settled, even for a short time.

I don’t know the people whom he met outside of my country Bulgaria, but I’m sure he will be remembered everywhere as the wild and crazy party animal who knows how to dedicate himself and the entire company to having loud and remarkable fun.

And it’s amazing how fast he comes at ease with the people he meets. In just few days after having arrived in Bulgaria for a semester as an exchange student at the American University, he was throwing parties with ten, twenty, thirty people from the university. That was the time when I first met, as the Bulgarians say, this crazy head.

I was sure he wouldn’t remember his new friend. As you may guess, he got to know him in a warm summer night with liters of vodka, several guitars and tons of noisy people. So, the second time we talked, he was just eating his banitza (typical Bulgarian meal with dough and cheese) without a hint of embarrassment that he “didn’t know me.” I guess he is used to meeting many times the same person “for the first time.” This has happened to me over and over again, it even happened yesterday. It is just one of the funny sides of alcohol.

I wouldn’t bother to write such a long post for his birthday, if he didn’t have several characteristics that will stay unmatched. I owe him the mere fact that I’m writing this post, because without him this blog would be an immoral, unsuccessful idea of a Bulgarian drinker. And it would be much more boring.

Micky’s charisma for bringing people together is unique. We are all fun, friendly and easy going, but I have seen none who is able to gather 20, sometimes 30 people every night who will occupy tens of meters of tables, party their a*ses off and drink the bar dry. Remember, he manages to take out students, who are busy with studying and can easily refuse to go out. But a refusal is hard when you know you miss a crowd that will cheer, laugh and commit one “crime”: having too much fun. Of course, this would be impossible without the great sense of humor of our birthday man.

Micky’s just the opposite of boring. I’m sure he makes friends anywhere he goes, and when he leaves, people get nostalgic for the great party times. They know that he won’t have a substitute; no one would be able to gather those big companies again. He stayed for one semester in Bulgaria in Fall 2011, then came back for about ten days in the spring of the next year. It felt like our dormitories were revived again.

Huge masses of people were going out to drink and have a crazy time. We knew we had just a few days with Micky next to us, so we had no other choice. This was the time when several students staged More Honors, an annual comedy show with students being nominated in different categories. One of the categories is Alcohol Friendly and the battle for the award became the clash of the titans.

I was a second-year student at that time, so people already had known me for some time. This led to my nomination for the prize. Micky, an already former American University student who ended his exchange the previous semester, was of course not forgotten at all. It was quite natural for him to get the nomination as well.

So there I was, actively campaigning for myself; otherwise I would be destined to lose. I was asking students around all day long to vote for me. This campaign turned out unsuccessful, but I had no reasons to be ashamed. This man absolutely deserved to win; he showed unique party spirit to the university, wrapped up in just three months. I’m proud to have lost to him.

The prize can be won only once. Micky couldn’t compete anymore, so this year he was energetically campaigning for me from a distance; from the Netherlands. I was awarded on Apr. 19 2013. as the new Alcohol Friendly. Who knows what would’ve happened if one could win the prize several times?

I’m sure about that: he would have been a tough competition until the last person from the university who knows him, would leave. “I was studying and looked out of my window to see Micky drinking a two-liter bottle of beer, then I studied for a while and looked through the window again. He was already drinking a second two-liter bottle,” said Alcohol Friendly 2011 Nikita Shcherbak. Students won’t forget Micky’s party spirit, especially now, when he hasn’t been in Bulgaria for more than a year. Without Micky, our dormitories feel a little bit emptier and quieter. Yes, we go to parties, but in smaller groups. I saw that people from other countries are also asking him when he would go to their homelands.

Luckily for me and many other classmates, Bulgaria is on top of his list, more precisely – September 2013. It means that a whole lot of new great parties and stories will be produced. “I will have to rob a bank and find a quality liver donor,” said our friend Ivo Marinov, who is impatient to meet the birthday guy again. But even if Micky is not able to come for many years, I will go and see him. I won’t be alone, of course.

Cheers, our friend, and Happy THREE-O Birthday! Stay cool, funny and young! I hope I have summed up all your epicness in this post. If not – drink one more and have one (un)forgettable celebration! Jimi wishes you to drink beer with him somewhere in the sun after two more periods of thirty years!

Nikolay Nikolov (with a little help from friends)