Candlelight dinner

On a December afternoon we meet Ara Malikyan. The place is The View – the restaurant with the best view in Sofia. Ara looks like a pirate. His eyes sparkle, his hair and beard are shaggy. He is dressed in clothes collected from all over the world, studded with large jewels, as if plucked from a casket of jewels from faraway lands. He carries a bright red ball with the autographs of the girls of the National Gymnastics Ensemble. He comes from their rehearsal. They’re preparing two routines against the backdrop of his music.

Ara sits down at the table, looks out at the impressive cityscape at our feet, we are 82.5 metres above the ground, on the 24th floor in the heart of the capital, and Ara says that in Bulgaria he feels like a local. “When I came here for the first time, it was in February last year, the weather was very nice,” he says, “and I went around the centre of Sofia. I love walking around and talking to people. And I really liked the city.”