Bulgarian Surprises

[Kalin]

Some articles written by Christopher Deliso that might be interesting to the group members. Chris is an American travel writer and journalist, author of travel guides on the Balkans for Lonely Planet, and travel articles for Travel Intelligence and Hidden Europe Magazine. He is the director of the Balkan news website Balkanalysis.com.


"Bulgarian Surprises"

"While I have visited and vacationed in Bulgaria several times since 2002, this was the first time that I had the luxury of roughing it for extended periods of time. Among the numerous little revelations I will take a minute to list them. Then I will note some things from the industrial point of view.

Vidin - sad Vidin, the ploshtad so dark at night - over the river with that great balmy river smell, the way you can tell a real river (it commands respect), with the fish and the beer down on the boat.

Oddities of Bulgaria: the cornerside coffee machines (as if people were rushing a la New York and too busy to sit down!) of Ruse, where my research was made easier by the fact that there is finally decent budget accommodation to write about in the city centre……..
…..The river resumed at Vetren, bleak and ungainly with overgrown greenery, by the serene and reeded lake of Srebarna. It was indeed silvery and soft, the wild fruits were out, I waited in vain to see a river otter.

We skip a little ahead now but I don't want to leave out the great old trains of Bulgaria, some so old (yet spacious) they make me jealous about my Yugoslav-era Macedonian trains that the government is talking about upgrading.

Veliko Tarnovo - a crowd favorite - and everyone knows the architecture so I don't need to add anything on that. Two more unusual moments, however, aside from the Turkish coffee made over heated sands... the first was the university, where the professors treated me graciously and I got a guided tour on Trapezitsa Hill. It was fantastic seeing everyone out and digging away and presenting to the sun little shards of Byzantine pottery and even the odd colorful ceramic plate. And the foreman of sorts, making notes and inspecting documents in some sort of organizational challenge with strange inscrutable mechanisms and tools.

The second VT experience was when I went the second time around. After visiting a hotel to write about I saw a street heading up into blackness and naturally wanted to explore it. Up and down and around the corner an old woman in black with unnervingly large, beatific eyes stopped me and asked me everything about myself. Speaking Macedonian as I was, there were some misunderstandings but still not much more than you'd expect in dealing with a 90 year old woman in the middle of Bulgaria. She did not want to let me go and I began to wonder if she really existed at all.

After I finally freed myself and went down the hill, I looked up and she was not there. Though there was nowhere to go! The whole episode still seems something excessive but then again so is Bulgaria and so are its people.

An explosion of colour awaited me in Plovdiv where I had the very great luck to be invited into the home/studio of Dimitar and Rosalia Kirov, the famous painter and his wife the ballerina. I wrote about them in the book, by the way (though I didn't write about the disappearing woman). I will always be grateful for being granted access to what I described as "the greatest museum you'll never see" in the guide. Such wonderful paintings and mosaics, so vivid and rich, and such kind people. I called Dimitar "the spirit of old Plovdiv personified" and I believe it is true.

Old Plovdiv struck me as a particularly wonderful old town precisely because there are still artists and musicians and so on living and working there. It is not like one of those dead and antiseptic old town as in so many cities, the kind of place that exists just for the tourists. It is truly a great place …..
…..
Kazanlak was also a pleasant surprise and I found myself irresistibly attracted to it, its blend of cultures, open market and improbably nightlife. Shipka, with the gold dome of the Russian-style church gleaming on the green hill was a welcome relief after a minibus full of peasants with their chicken and walking sticks and burlap bags and dust. All part of the fun!

I see that I am not going to have time to get into the industrial side of things so I will wrap up my first impressions of other places. Devin down in the Rhodopes was a great getaway, and I enjoyed hearing the stories about hotels and employees and their connection to votes for political parties, which had something to do with why some didn't speak English though they offered massages with diamonds and caviar.

Indeed, the gigantic faux crystal ball erupting from the fountain in the new five-start hotel was a bit over the top, and so was the behavior of the old drunk in the town's one bar who tried to beat a hapless Austrian tourist because he had something against Austrians in general, going back, I think, to the Second World War. I didn't really understand why and I don't think anyone did. The police came but they seemed bored. It seemed Devin had quite a lot of police for such a sleepy town, considering mothers feel fine to go into the shops leaving the baby carriage unguarded outside of the door.

Now I can see that we are well and truly running on and this story will have to be continued another time. So my apologies to the citizens of Chepelare, Kotel, Sliven, Stara Zagora, etc., and those over in Pirin too- I will get to you! All good things in all good time, as the song says. For now, good night and blagodaria Bulgaria!"



www.balkantravellers.com/

[Kalin]

Bulgarian Surprises, Part 2

Some articles written by Christopher Deliso that might be interesting to the group members. Chris is an American travel writer and journalist, author of travel guides on the Balkans for Lonely Planet, and travel articles for Travel Intelligence and Hidden Europe Magazine. He is the director of the Balkan news website Balkanalysis.com.

"Bulgarian Surprises, Part 2"

"Up from Devin through Shiroka Luka to Smolyan, the Rhodopi conifers all obediently in rows, trying to burst out. The sky always seems bluer there, though, as I am told it's a 'soft' mountain region, the warmth of the Aegean caressing it from across the south.

In Smolyan, the taxi driver declared his town the only 'gypsy-free town in Bulgaria.' Pamporovo regrettably reminded me of similar overdevelopment of ski resorts in America, all of those property signs and stacks of bricks and apartments they hope someone will buy. Chepelare more authentic, in that run-down former Communist way, and the tourism office providing the (to us) hilarious description of their easier ski trails as 'suitable for women and children.' I should mention that one of the best meals I had in Bulgaria, with friendly service too, was across the river on the 'other' side of town, in the little dining nook knows as the Pelelanovska Konak.

Some other foreigners have not found much to like in Stara Zagora, apparently too 'modern' and bland with its uniform streets and layout. I disagreed. Recalling from my sort of education the importance of the area for Byzantine discoveries inclined me favorably to it from the start, but seeing the lively cafe life and fashionable folk lounging around sealed the deal. I was recently talking with a nice young man in Plovdiv and when we were not discussing the sad parts of Bulgarian history, he recalled the old days - 'before they ruined the Black Sea coast with English people' - when 'we would take the train to the coast with our friends, and always we were waiting for Stara Zagora, because then the Stara Zagora girls would get on headed to their vacations, and soon we would all be drinking on the train and friendly and winding up having a quite nice vacation!'

I enjoyed a beautiful moment of intense rain, it came out of nowhere, and everyone was huddling to get inside or underneath something. I was soaking wet of course, but managed to get under a tree which just meant I was wet in patches. Then it stopped, as suddenly as it had started, and the sun came out and the wetness of the streets gleamed silver and everything was fine fine fine. I got on the train to continue on, but I was alone, and no one was going on Black Sea vacations, only some soldiers inside.

In Sliven I stayed in one of the most impressive traditional hotels I have seen in Bulgaria, the Toma, with its ornate handcarved ceiling and ornate painted walls. It took me a few days to find it, as it had not been in the previous guidebook, and like most good things I found it by accident. Silven was also interesting for the art gallery (nicknamed 'Sirak Skirnik') and I should thank the women there for guiding me through the impressive collection of paintings and icons.

Sliven's open market was perhaps my favorite part of the town; a fantastic mix of old men on bicycles, inexpensive clothes which I still wear today and, somehow, a NATO-EU affairs office meant to enlighten the locals about the wonders of trans-Atlantic integration.

I almost didn't make it to little Kotel but I am very glad that I did. The ride was stunning through the forest and past the horses and grassy fields along the way. The municipal office proved a good substitute for the tourist office which was not open at the time, and I got all the info I needed from the very helpful women there. After rambling around taking photos and taking the pulse of the locals, I noticed the cat on the old scale where the peppers and onions were taking up space, inside the protected residence/shop/cafe that once belonged to 18th-century revolutionary Altanla Stojan Voyvoda- with its animated old drinkers livening the place up. You should also know that the town church does NOT have a Masonic connection (despite the mysteroius triangles)- this is what the church keeper said heatedly.

Now, moving across to Pirin, I noted some of the same overdevelopment issues in Bansko as in Pamporovo, though on a much larger scale, and I was amazed to see this town had around 100 places to stay, and a population of 10,000. I understand that not every business endeavor in Bulgaria functions according to the logic of profit and loss, but it still seemed excessive. One can only hope they learn to diversify the tourism base away from skiing only.

It must be said, and I didn't put this in the book though I almost did, that it is a shame that the town that boasts a new Kempinsky hotel should have the most horrific toilet (at the Bansko train station) I have ever seen. I had to take a picture because nobody would believe me otherwise. Various generations of byproduct bubbled and seethed along with plastics and various other objects in an open area near the track that had apparently once housed a real toilet. There was not even a cavity in the ground. Perhaps the civic authorities have forgotten that not everybody comes by limousine or organized tour bus?

That excepted, the mountains were gorgeous, not only in Bankso and Pirin but in Rila as well. I took the earliest morning bus from the Rila village, leaving the hotel which is old outside but slightly newer inside the rooms, where everyone who stays is exactly on the same pilgrimage as me. The frescoes on the outside walls of the church, featuring the whipping, chaining, roasting and so on of sinners was pure comedy, and it was hard to imagine a time when, God bless their souls, the peasantry would have actually quaked in fear at such vivid displays of the fate that awaited them for sinning. If they had only had Planeta TV in those days!

It is hard to imagine two more contrasting border towns than sleepy Delcevo in Macedonia and booming Blagoevgrad across the line. But that is what two universities will get you. This train line, the one coming from Thessaloniki to Sofia via Blagoevgrad, I should point out, features modern cars with actual electric sockets on the upper part- the first time I have seen such things in the Balkans and good news for my laptop.

Melnik, likeable Melnik, deep in the Pirin sun- everything was quaint, the way a tourist town should be, though some of the people were sad that the town is dying out to regular inhabitants in order to make way for tourists. 'Even the pharmacy has closed,' they lamented.

There was a nice touch, though, in the Kordopulov House, the grand old wine baron's home, where in the end of the warren-like cellar's winding passageways, all the small coins glinted from the soft rock wall where they had been embedded. They had been put there, I was told, by well-wishers who wanted to hope for a good harvest, good rains, etc. This was exactly the kind of interesting little detail that travelers appreciate coming across, and I felt very happy to write about it, as I also had to write the chapter on wine in the Bulgaria guidebook.

There are many other things that could be said but this is all for now. I just want to note again the great kindness and help of the many Bulgarian people I have met (and continue to meet!) and the positive impact this had on me completing my work in a way that, I hope, was relatively successful. The patience and spirit of helpfulness that Bulgarians of all ages and backgrounds offered made a real difference. This is not something that can be said for all countries, by the way. So, once again, blagodariye sitchko."


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