Bogdan “Bogie” Balakow

Bogdan nicknamed “Bogie” is a  Bulgarian and the local representative of the infamous Bulgarian soda Mafia. The mafia threatens cafes and restaurants to serve nothing but their dubious soft drinks and mineral water license produced in Uzbekistan. Should any of the establishments attempt to withdraw from the agreement threatens the Mafia to blow up the place or burn it down. The goods they supply are unknown and have strange names like Sparkling White Rock, All Star Kola, Cherry Smash, Gund’s Peerless and Buffalo Rock Ginger ale and does of course make them hard to try to serve the regulars.

Laura who is basically most interested in selling coffee, tea and wine takes Bogdan’s dubious products’ lack of success with devastating calm. The same can not be said about Bogdan, who can not comprehend that the products are so difficult to sell, home in Bulgaria the crap sells like crazy. Moreover, he will be recalled and punished severely, probably executed if he does not succeed in Oslo. When Laura jokingly claims that in Norway, people would need to be beaten unconscious and have the sodas set with enema to get it in them at all, Bogdan takes this seriously and turns up with suitable accessories the very next day. When he realizes that the procedure ever so marketable in his own country, would end him in jail in Norway he feels the panic raising.

Bogdan comes from a family where everyone is a member of the Mafia , but feel that he does not fit in completely. As he himself says in his broken Norwegian: “In village home in Bulgaria are boys like father. In my family all in mafia, even my granny. But those are tough and creepy folks. I am big sissy, afraid of all things. At home all call me Miss Phobia. Even my mother.”

Bogdan has had to take a job as a ticket inspector at Oslo Tramways to be able to pay for a lot of the soda and mineral water mafia sends his way. This way he manages to make it look as if he’s running his extortion activities with at least some degree of success. Bogdan is, by the way, among the shady elements who hide their lack of legal residency in Moxie’s extra help, Frida Katinka Olsen’s house over at the east end of the town.