If in the last few years, it has become very popular to send your plush toy to various travel agencies and they to take it to different places and take pictures to praise people on social media with interesting photos, then today I will introduce you to the sheep Elvin 🙂

Elvin is a plush toy that lives with Tsveti Trifonova – a manager in an international company dealing with digital and innovative products. In their free time, they both travel with their friends, and Alvin is already very popular on social media, therefore we’ve decided to him, in order for me to be able to him to you and tell you about the interesting places he has been to!

Hello, Elvin! In what mood do we find you today?

You find me in a great mood! In fact, today I traveled a bit outside of Sofia. Tsveti and I walked to the village of Leskovets. There is a very nice zoo with different animals – llamas, alpacas, peacocks, goats, all kinds of exotic birds. And the best part is that people walk among them and can pet them and take pictures. For example, I took pictures with alpacas and a ram (who is my cousin, but that’s another story. 🙂 )

Tell us a little more about yourself and the lady you are traveling with!

I’m Alvin and I’m a plush sheep, for which perhaps the most interesting thing is that I often travel and have my own Instagram profile – @instasheep365! It all started when my owner (my human, as I usually call him) once filmed me eating ice cream. She uploaded my photo to her Facebook and Instagram profiles and her friends instantly liked me a lot and were waiting for more photos. However, she is not very active on social networks, so she made a personal Instagram account for me. At first, she didn’t take me outside as she photographed me mainly when I was trying to to cook something at home but thank God it didn’t last long. For her what I can say is that (apart from not being able to cook, which is obvious) – her name is Tsveti, she collects plush sheep, she loves travelling, she collects the stamps from the Hundred National Sites and the Hundred Pubs, but with the latter she is a little frivolous. She almost always takes me with her when she goes to interesting places and takes pictures of me. 🙂

Why did you decide to travel and what motivates you to do so?

My human likes travelling and taking pictures, but she doesn’t like taking pictures of herself. Once she was talking to a friend of hers and they came to the conclusion that that the photos she took (because she wasn’t in them), were no different from the ones she could find on the Internet. Therefore, she decided to make her photos more interesting and ever since she is taking me travelling with her and taking pictures of me. Looking at the profiles of other plush toys on Instagram, it turned out that many of them are travelers. We looked at the ones of @abearcalledpaddington, where he constantly uploads photos from different exotic countries and we said to ourselves that we want to visit them and take pictures there too!

Tell us about the places you have visited so far!

So far, I have traveled mainly in Bulgaria. We had planned big trips in 2020 but unfortunately, they had to be changed. I have visited many places in Bulgaria – some of the more popular destinations and big cities such as Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Ruse… and wherever I am I always walk around the local landmarks, looking for high places from which I can see the whole city from above. I have visited many museums and galleries, which are included in the book of the Hundred National Sites of Bulgaria. This year I’ve visited Klisura, Koprivshtitsa, Kaliakra, Balchik, Pomorie, Belogradchik, Vidin, Leshten, Kovachevitsa, Melnik, Kyustendil and many more. I have conquered the highest peak in the Balkans – Musala and I often walk around Vitosha mountain, because my lady and I live in Sofia. Outside Bulgaria, for now I have only gone to London (United Kingdom) and Drama (Greece).

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Where is the place where you felt happiest and enjoyed visiting it?

It is difficult to say, each place has its own charm and its own magic. I am glad that there are so many such places in Bulgaria! And when I look at your photos, I can’t wait to feel the magic of the rest of the world! I hope that this happens soon!

Which is the farthest place you have visited?

For now, this is London. Then and for the first time I flew by plane, although we were seated in the aisle seat and I could not take pictures, as I was wanted for my Instagram. But London fascinated me with its scale – everything is so big there, they have a river (I love rivers), I rode on boat on the Thames river. Their museums, Oh, Gosh, so much to see. I was fascinated by Madame Tussauds. Before I finally visited there, I had thought that in this museum there were just few wax figures that people could take pictures of, and that’s it. But it turned out that there was a “taxi ride” that took you through the years and the story of London itself. And yet, perhaps I was most impressed by the architecture – how old and mysterious everything looks, and this is where the name itself comes from “Spirit of London” – you get the chance to truly experience the spirit of this ancient and gorgeous city.

Where would your lady want to take you next?

I have long dreamed of walking around the beautiful cities through which the Danube River passes. These are mostly Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava, Belgrade! Of course, I will not refuse a trip anywhere in Europe, America and Asia, and why not Australia. More and more interesting destinations such as South Korea, Vietnam, Japan have come to my attention too. In Bulgaria we have set a goal this year with my lady to conquer both Vihren and Botev peaks. And as a bonus to go around the Rhodopes, because there she and I have not walked enough yet.

Would you share any curious or funny story that you have while traveling?

As you may know, when I take pictures for Instagram, I take so many up until I get that perfect shot that I think deserves to be shown Infront of the world. So, the story that I am going to tell you about happened when we were on board of the London Eye. My lady squatted, lied down, spined until we managed to take the perfect shot. And it wasn’t just us in the booth, of course. There was a young couple watching the whole photo shoot and they asked my partner if I was something like a celebrity. Then I heard them comment that they should have taken their plush too. By the way, quite often people smile when they watch my photos being shot and that only make me happier and happier!

Apart from your partner, do you travel with anyone else? Share with whom you’d like to take a trip?

Unfortunately, I only travel with her, and she still doesn’t have time or can’t get organized to do that with someone else. I would also like to travel with you! You always find a way to escape somewhere. I still don’t know how you manage to do that.

For about 2 years now you have had an Instagram account (here I will give a link to it). Why did you decide to do create it and do you feel popular?

I have already answered above why I did it. I am more popular than my lady for sure. The truth is that she, if nothing else, graduated in Marketing, and I hope someday she will start working harder to promote my account. For now, my goal is to accumulate more trips and stories to share. But as I shared, they officially found out in London that I was a star. Some plush toys are meant to be a start and it shows 🙂

Apart from your travel plans, do you have any other creative plans? It is quite fashionable to have a Facebook page, to have a youtube channel – can we expect something similar from you soon?

For now I will focus only on my Instagram account. My lady has wanted me to create a YouTube channel for a long time, but I don’t know when that could or would happen. TikTok also has been quite popular recently and who knows I may show up there too 🙂

It’s a little hard to travel right now! How do you deal with the lack possibility to travel and do you miss traveling?

I have exchanged the lack of travelling abroad with travelling in Bulgaria. The truth is that my main followers in Instagram are other plush travelers and the most interesting thing is that they are from all over the world. Last year I decided to use this and share more information about the nice places I visited in Bulgaria. I hope this will arouse their interest and who knows, maybe their next destination will be our own country (Bulgaria)!

What would you like to wish to my readers?

I wish them to be healthy and to catch their favorite plush toy and take it on a journey.

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It’s great to keep the child in you alive and have fun traveling even with a plush toy. But the important thing is to do it willingly and always remember to have fun! That’s exactly why each of us travels. To have fun, to be able to escape from the reality for a while and look at life with a different pair of eyes. Whether you will be alone, with friends or with a toy – travel, experience the emotion and thrill of boarding a train or a plane, get to know new places so that you can go to bed in the evening with a smile on your face and say to yourself “What a day!”.

I personally promise that on one of my next travels I will be with accompanied by Elvin!

This post is also available in: Български (Bulgarian)