The Alien Diaries Visits Bulgaria Part Three: Delicious Food, Colorful Signs and Murals

Food, in the end, in our own tradition, is something holy. It's not about nutrients and calories. It's about sharing. It's about honesty. It's about identity.

Louise Fresco

The best way to get to know a country is by eating the local cuisine.   This was one of the best dishes I had in Bulgaria.  It is a pork stew with prune and wine gravy in a bed of mashed potatoes.  The idea of prunes as an ingredient in gravy didn't sound good at first but this was absolutely delicious!

This is a photo of homemade yogurt served with banitsa:  Yogurt contains the bacteria lactobacillus bulgaricus, among other bacteria friendly to the digestive system. The best yogurt in the world is made here. Banitsa is a traditional Bulgarian pastry made with sirene (cheese similar to feta) eggs, phyllo dough, butter, and eggs.  It is usually eaten for breakfast.

In Plovdiv and Varna there were colorful signs everywhere, some in Latin alphabet and some in Cyrillic:

If you're going to visit a beach town in Bulgaria, Varna is the place to go.  It has a long pedestrian zone that leads down to the beach.  In mid-September it was a little breezy but pleasant, and not overcrowded with tourists.  The water is warm enough for swimming.  I passed because it was windy and I get cold easily.

Varna, this time in Cyrillic letters. I don't know why the bike was there. People rode bikes and scooters up and down the pedestrian zone; there were a few near misses.  I survived.

A colorful sign in Plovdiv: in 2019, Plovdiv was the European Capital of Culture.  Notice the stairs in the background. Plovdiv was built on seven hills, and with all that hilliness, stairs are unavoidable.

Someone painted this on a public toilet building in Sofia. It's the toilet monster! The artist had a sense of humor. Look at the sign by the men's WC.  He looks like he's having trouble holding it....

This mural in Veliko Tarnovo. commemorated an event that happened in 1835.  Looks like something that had to do with a revolutionary movement.  The lion, symbol of Bulgaria, is at the top center, and underneath are a gun and a dagger.  

My phone battery was starting to fail in Bulgaria, so I wasn't able to take videos. The battery couldn't be replaced, either, like the older phones so I missed out on some opportunities to take videos of the dancers; fortunately, I was able to take pictures.

There was a folk dance group that came to the hotel in Kazanlak.  This photo is of two young women dancing a rachenitsa:  The group performed other dances as well: Shopska Rachenitsa, Graovsko Horo, Daichovo, and Pravo Trakiisko Horo (the audience was invited to dance the Pravo).

Below is a video of a rachenitsa from Thrace (south central Bulgaria).  Rachenitsa is the national dance of Bulgaria. Again, not my video; it is one of series on learning folk dances. 

 

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The Alien Diaries Visits Bulgaria Part Two (links to Part One)

Bulgarian Folk Dance Around the World

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The Alien Diaries Visits Bulgaria Part Two - Offbeat Things About Bulgaria

Life for most of us is full of steep stairs to go up and later, shaky stairs to totter down; and very early in the history of stairs must have come the invention of bannisters.

Louis Kronenberger

Stairs and mural in Veliko Tarnovo

Bulgaria is hilly and mountainous.  The cities were built on hills and access to tourist sites involved climbing up (and down) many stairs, often without bannisters. Good balance is essential, especially on rainy days, when stone steps can be slippery. I don't remember which cities in Bulgaria had the most stairs.  Plovdiv comes in as a close second after Veliko Tarnevo.

The photo below is of an endless stairway, also with no handrails. It took forever to get down. There were times I had to go down sideways.

Going down from one of the Thracian tombs. 

Plovdiv is the place to visit if you love murals.and ruins.

The amphitheater in Plovdiv had some really steep stairs. This particular set had handrails, a modern innovation. The amphitheater is used for concerts and performances during the summer.

No handrails on these stairs, also in Plovdiv.  Like Rome, it is an ancient city (predating Rome) and built on seven hills. The Romans had not installed bannisters when they built this structure. I wonder how many people fell down the stairs......

Check out this manhole cover.  It contains the coat of arms of the city of Plovdiv and to me it's a work of art. The motto translates to: "Ancient and Eternal." I you look close enough you can see the seven hills.   Walking on cobblestones in the Old Town was brutal after a while. Even with supportive sneakers it was hard of my knees.

There were street cats everywhere.  I don't know if people owned them but they were used to being around humans (unfortunately I don't have the photo of the cat who sat up and begged for food at an outdoor restaurant in Varna.  That kitty got a little too close.)

During patriotic holidays in Bulgaria, the leader of the dance often holds a Bulgarian flag in their hands. I missed the celebration in Plovdiv during the weekend of Unification Day; but this is what a street celebration looks like: (not my video; this was taken in Brussels). This was the celebration of the anniversary of Bulgaria joining the European Union (it has been a part of the EU since 2007).  The EU is headquartered in Brussels. It was a rainy day, but that didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd.

If you want to skip to the dancing start at 1:45. What I like about this video is that a woman leads the dance (Pravo Horo), one of the most popular dances in Bulgaria.

Bulgarians are enthusiastic about their folklore (music and dance); it is a big source of pride and patriotism for them. After being oppressed by the Turks for 500 years, I can understand why. Since many young Bulgarians (and a few older ones) speak English) they chatted with me when I told them of my interest in folklore and we had some lively conversations (more on this in a future post).  They were particularly impressed when I told them I was familiar with many of the dances.

In Bulgaria, especially in Sofia, there are underpasses under the busiest streets. They are a clever way to for people to avoid unwanted encounters with traffic and trams. The metro stations are accessible from the underpasses. Another unique thing about this underpass was that there were exhibitions of the ruins of Serdica.  They were found when the Sofia Metro was under construction.

Bulgarians live forever in the afterlife on trees and bulletin boards in the center of town.  These obituaries are called "necrologs."  I took no pictures of them out of respect for the families, but if you want to see what they look like and read more about them, click here.

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The Alien Diaries Visits Bulgaria Part One

The Best of the Bisserov Sisters and Family (includes video footage taken in the Sofia Metro at Serdica station).

    

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The Alien Diaries Visits Bulgaria Part One - Common Misconceptions About Bulgaria

Um... Bulgaria is an interesting country. The people are lovely. There are potholes the size of small planets. 

Rachel Nichols 

Photo above taken in Plovdiv 

Regarding the quote above I agree with the author on Bulgaria being an interesting country.  My experience with the country and the people was very positive.  My motivation to visit was connected with history and folklore.  I was not disappointed.

People from the States, in general, know little about Bulgaria.  World history and geography aren't taught much in the schools here.  So it is not a surprise that many people here have misconceptions.

Does Bulgaria have a seacoast?

Where is Bulgaria exactly??

Is the water drinkable? 

Do they use the Russian alphabet?

Do the people live in housing projects?

Are the roads riddled with potholes?

First, let me clear up some of these misconceptions.

A woman I knew years ago who was educated and who also taught a writing class asked me the question about the seacoast.  Bulgaria has a seacoast facing the Black Sea.  It is very popular in summer with foreigners, especially British and Germans, who are sun-starved.  It's (almost always) sunny in Bulgaria from June to September.

People from northern Europe flock to Sunny Beach (near Nessebar).  It is a party town infested with tourists.  Avoid it if you can, it is too commercialized and full of bars and drunks.  Go to Varna instead. The beach was quite nice in mid-September, after most of the tourists left, and the weather still warm.

Varna

The video below is of the craziness that is Sunny Beach:

 

To verify the location of Bulgaria on the map, go to Wikipedia. See the green object on the map?  That is Bulgaria.  Greece and Turkey form the southern border; North Macedonia is west, Romania and Serbia to the north.

As for the water, the large cities have potable water, I can't speak for the villages where people use well water.  In Dupnitsa, I saw a fountain where people bottled the water and used it for drinking; it was mineral water with healing qualities. The answer to the drinking water question is: yes.  Bulgaria has been an EU country since 2007.  They have to meet certain standards for membership. You can safely drink the tap water in the larger cities, although most people prefer bottled water.

Dupnitsa

The Cyrillic Alphabet, used in most of Eastern Europe (that includes Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine, and Russia) was a descendant of Old Church Slavonic, used by Saints Cyril and Methodius.  They were originally from Thessanoliki (Greece).  The purpose of the alphabet was to teach literacy and religion to the Slavs.  On May 24th, there is a Bulgarian holiday to honor Cyril and Methodius.  

There was an exhibit of Old Church Slavonic side by side with the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet in a museum in Sofia:  The saints are in the lower right hand corner.  By the way the Bulgarian alphabet was the precursor to Cyrillic alphabets used in other Eastern European countries, including Russia. 

Ask anyone who has been to a former Eastern Bloc country, and they will mention the apartment blocks.  They look like housing projects in the States, basic, utilitarian housing with very little sense of esthetics.  I grew up in the South Bronx in one of those projects, so Bulgarian apartment buildings had a sense of familiarity about them. 

Bulgaria has a reputation for potholes.  The highways are well maintained, however, some of the back roads in the smaller towns and villages have a pothole problem. The tour bus driver avoided most of them; however some of the back roads in some of the smaller towns and villages were quite bumpy. (This is not a problem unique to Bulgaria, we have them in the United States too).  I live in Massachusetts and the potholes cause major damage to cars during the winter months. I have seen potholes in Massachusetts that can swallow cars!

I don't recommend driving in Bulgaria, but if you plan to (good luck) see link for a pothole map. It is updated periodically.

Part two of this series will be about some cool sights in Bulgarian cities as well as some scary stairs.

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Odds and ends: Misconceptions about the Cyrillic Alphabet, Bagpipes, and Bulgarian Geography

 
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The Boris Karlov Birthday Anniversary Post

 Music is the universal language of mankind. 

 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 August 11 of this year marks the 100th birthday anniversary of Boris Karlov, folk musician and accordionist. (Please do not confuse him with the British actor Boris Karloff of Dracula movie fame; the name he took is a stage name.  His real name is William Henry Pratt and he wasn't Slavic. Enough said.)

Although Boris Karlov passed on much too soon, 60 years ago, in 1964, his music is played at folk dances today.

After I read the Bulgarian YouTube comments I noticed that he is held in high regard in his home country as one of the best folk musicians.  The people in Serbia are also fond of his music (there is a statue of him in Kraljevo, where he gave his final concert.) He created magic on that accordion.

Boris Karlov was born in Sofia in 1924 to a family of Roma musicians. Video #1 is a tune he wrote about his home town: Sofiisko Shopsko Horo. Shopsko denotes the western region of Bulgaria; the region is known as Shopluk.

 

Video #2 is another fast tune (Karlov was best known for really fast music).   The dance is named after another Bulgarian city: Vidin.  The name is Vidinsko Horo. The costumed dancers are from Japan (Bulgarian folk music is very popular there).

  . 

Video #3 is one of the best known Karlov tunes: Bavno Oro.  Bavno is Bulgarian for slow, but the last 40 seconds or so of the music is fast! (Note: this is a tune from North Macedonia that is  popular in

Bulgaria.)

The music changes from 7/8 to 7/16 very quickly.  See video below.

Most folk dancers will recognize Video #4 as the music for the dance Sedi Donka.  Here it is listed as Plovdivsko Horo (Sedi Donka is a dance from Bulgarian Thrace, where the city of Plovdiv is located.) This is a tune that flies at warp speed. Feet can hardly keep up with this especially since this dance alternates multiple meters: 7/16 and 11/16 (there are slower versions of Sedi Donka but this one is the best).  

    

  

Video # 5 is one of my favorite dances and quite challenging so I have included a teaching video by Jim Gold.  It is a fast rachenitsa (rhythm: apple-apple-galloping). Of course Karlov had to play the national dance of Bulgaria (there are several arrangements of rachenitsa by Boris Karlov on YouTube).  This one is  Gjuševska Rachenitsa. If you want to skip the teaching, the dance starts at 4:50)

This is dance named after a town: Gjueševo. The Bulgarians named it after another town: Pazardzhik.   It doesn't matter, this is a great piece of music!

   

Unfortunately, Boris Karlov died at the age of 40 from kidney failure while on tour in Serbia.  Extensive touring in former Yugoslavia, Austria, and Bulgaria may have contributed to his demise. Who knows what other magical tunes he could have written had he lived longer?  He left quite the legacy despite the brevity of his life on Earth.

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Bulgarian Dances Named After Cities and Towns

Dances to Music Arranged by Boris Karlov

You can read more about Boris Karlov's life, in Bulgarian, in an article by Nikolai Chapansky, announcer of several folk music programs on Radio Plovdiv. 

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