(Анна Ангелова), who teaches
computers at the High
School of Natural Sciences (Трета Природоматематическа гимназия)
in Varna
(Варна).
I left JFK airport in New York on the evening of July 18th and flew into Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris. While waiting for my connecting flight, I got my first chance to hear spoken Bulgarian.
Later, I learned that one problem was stresses. These were usually not where I would have expected them as a native English speaker. An example is the usual western pronunciation of Sofia (София), the Bulgarian capital city. I had always heard this with the accent on the "-fi-", but the true pronunciation has the stress on the first syllable. Another problem was that I would sometimes forget a word and come out with nonsense, like "shtashtie" (щащие) instead of "shtastie" (щастие) for "happiness". And some sounds, like the Bulgarian rolled "r", I just can't pronounce at all :-).
Despite my lousy pronunciation, I did find that I could usually make myself understood if I repeated or rephrased something a couple of times. This was good for peace of mind but not much else. I just let Anna do the talking during most of the trip. Her English is excellent, as she's been studying it for about ten years. That's the exception rather than the rule though. In hotels and other spots that attract tourists, there was usually someone who could speak English, and a lot of younger people know at least a little. But out in the country or with people middle-aged and older, English is unusual.
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It was mid-afternoon when we got checked in at the hotel. I was tired, but figured it was better to stay up until night in order to try to get my internal clock synchronized with the local time. We decided to go out for a walk. There's a small museum near the hotel which has some nice displays of minerals. We went inside and talked while strolling through the displays. Anna's father is a retired mining engineer, and I discovered she knows a fair amount about rocks :-). From the museum, we walked towards the Cultural Center. It contains various things like theaters and shops and is located on a big pedestrian mall. There were lots of people out walking, roller blading, skateboarding, etc. One thing I noticed on the mall was what looked like a Russian monument. You see what for me was a surprising number of monuments and statues of Russians. The Bulgarians seem to have no love of communism, so I was wondering why the monuments were left. I later realized that the issue is one of perception. In the US, Russians tend to be identified strongly with communism. But in Bulgaria, the two are separated. The Russian language and culture are somewhat similar to that in Bulgaria, and the Russians were instrumental in helping liberate Bulgaria from Turkish rule. So the Bulgarians feel a sense of kinship to the Russian people; hence the monuments.
We continued down the mall and onto Vitosha Boulevard (Булевард "Витоша"), which is one of the main streets in Sofia. I'd liken it to something like Fifth Avenue in New York City, and it looks kind of like a New York Street except with Cyrillic signs. There were throngs of people, shops and cafes of all kinds, and posters for recent movies. I think there are more small shops and booths than you'd see in the US though. One other big difference is the prevalence of people smoking and of cigarette advertising. A lot of it seems to be American brands too. It had been years since I'd seen the Marlboro man on an ad, and when you toss in some Cyrillic, it was even stranger.
After about thirty minutes of walking, we turned down a side street and walked through an open air market (пазар or базар), stopping to buy some fruit for later. There were also a group of book sellers, and I bought a small English/Bulgarian dictionary to replace the one I had accidentally left in New Jersey. After a little longer, we stopped to have dinner. I had eaten on the plane so was not particularly hungry, and we both had salads. I can't remember what Anna's was, but mine was a shopska salad (шопска салата), which is a typical Bulgarian salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and Bulgarian white cheese (сирене). When we finished we worked our way back towards the hotel and talked for a while longer before turning in for the night.
The usual routine in a restaurant illustrates these points. After the waiter or waitress takes your order and brings the food, they leave a ticket, usually in a little glass. When you're done, they'll come by and you pay them directly. They make change there at the table and then you can go. If you order something after they bring the ticket, they'll bring another ticket and put it in the glass. Incidentally, Bulgarians never seem to tip or to expect a tip. This was a bit jarring from my perspective.
We caught another tram to a bus depot. A bus from there went to Rila, which is about 120 km south of Sofia. The countryside on the way was dotted with little villages. Most of the houses were of similar construction, with a white or tan stucco finish and a terra cotta roof. They often have a little garden or a trellis for a grapevine. There's no sign of what would be considered a lawn in the US, with short manicured grass. Most houses have a small fence around the yard too. The terrain reminded me a bit of the California coast, with rolling hills covered with long grass and occasional trees and bushes. A few regions were more densely wooded. There was a lot of agriculture, and occasionally the bus had to slow down or stop to let a herd of goats or a horse get out of the way. The roads were generally better than I was expecting, but a few stretches were more pothole than road. In the villages especially, some of the streets are narrow enough that only one direction of traffic at a time will fit.
From Rila, we caught another (very dirty) bus up into the mountains to
the monastery. The monastery itself is very impressive. It's been
built and reconstructed over many centuries. During the time of
Turkish rule over Bulgaria, it was a center for the preservation of
Bulgarian culture. Surrounding the monastery are various places to
buy souvenirs, but the monastery proper is relatively free of
commercial influences. I had forgotten to toss the camera in my
backpack when walking around Sofia the day before, but I had it here.
Here are some snapshots at the monastery:
The central church is very elaborate, with
painted ceilings like these:
We couldn't stay too long before we had to catch the bus back to
Sofia. So we didn't get to look around the tourist part much, but we
saw most of the monastery itself. And Anna looks ready to go too :-).
During our walk, we came to one of the central squares in Sofia which
is paved with yellow bricks. This is the place where many public
demonstrations and rallies are held. This fountain is in the square. A little later, we
passed the national theater. There were
lots of people playing chess around one side of the pool.
We ate dinner in a small restaurant that served traditional Bulgarian food. There were boiled potatoes with a red sauce made from tomatoes and chili peppers (лютеница) and another dish with chicken and potatoes, plus some other vegetables like onions for flavoring. I'd give the Bulgarian for the latter item, but the name is just a phrase meaning "potato dish with chicken" :-). When we got to the pedestrian mall near the hotel, we ate some ice cream, and then went back for the evening.
We stayed in the Hotel Etur (Етър), which turned out to be located right where the intercity buses stopped. We got off the bus and quickly got checked in. The room was smaller than the Hemus, but better maintained. The shower this time was attached directly to the sink, and there was no separate shower area at all. You just stood near the sink and the water ran to a drain in the center of the bathroom. It was somewhat cheaper too, about $30 for the night. After getting settled, we went out to explore the town a bit.
It was a fairly hot day, so we took our time. The people seemed a bit
more friendly than in Sofia, perhaps due to the much smaller size of
the city. We got directions to the old part of the city and started
walking. Here are a few photos from parts of the old quarter:
There is a large fortress on one of the hills. As we were working our way toward it, Anna got hungry, so we stopped to eat lunch at one of the cafes. We had gyooveche (гювече), which is a sort of casserole cooked in a clay pot. This one consisted of minced meat, egg, and chili peppers. The breeze in the cafe felt very nice, so we lingered over it for quite a while.
Admission to the fortress for foreigners is, of course, more expensive
than for Bulgarians, but it's well worth it. We walked a bit and then
settled down in the shade at a little shop that sells drinks and
snacks. Eventually we got up the energy to walk up to the top of the
hill where there is a church. Like most of the churches that we went
in, this one has an elaborately painted interior. However, unlike the
others that I saw, this one is done in a more contemporary style. The
history of Bulgaria and the Church are told in the painting which is
extremely expressive. I spent quite a while studying it and found it
both moving and intellectually interesting. There's even one part of
a wall that depicts the painters painting the interior of the church
in a sort of self-referential fashion. Of all the church paintings
I've ever seen, I liked this one the best. After a while we went back
out to explore more of the fortress. Here are a few snapshots, some
of the fortress itself and some looking out over the town:
When we left, we worked our way back to the hotel to take a shower and see about bus tickets for the next day to Varna. It turned out that the bus tickets could only be bought in the morning, since Veliko Turnovo is an intermediate stop on the Sofia-Varna route. We'd have to wait until after the bus had left Sofia before the bus company would know how many seats were available. At this point I was running short on clean clothes, so Anna showed me her method: washing clothes by hand in the sink :-). I wound up just doing that each evening from then on. As long as you only have to wash one outfit each day, it's not such a big job. If I'd resolved to do this before leaving NJ, I could have packed less stuff. Next time... :-).
There is sometimes a sound-and-light show at the fortress when there
is a tourist group willing to shell out some money for it. And when
it happens, anyone can go and watch. When we left the fortress in the
afternoon, I stopped to buy some Bulgarian folk music CDs for one of
my friends, and the shopkeeper told us that there would probably be a
show that night. So after munching on some leftover food that we had
(cheese sticks and fruit), we set out again for the fortress. When we
arrived it was already starting to get pretty dark, so we sat down on
a some bleachers that are available for watching the show. The show
involves lights all over the fortress, so you watch from well outside
of its walls. There were a fair number of other people who looked to
be from the town; apparently it's a minor local attraction when the
show happens. After about twenty minutes, a bus pulled up, a bunch of
tourists got out, and the show began. It consists of various colored
lights and lasers emanating from the fortress in a constantly changing
sequence, with traditional Bulgarian folk and patriotic music. I
enjoyed it immensely. According to Anna, it was supposedly even more
impressive years ago, with people riding out on horses and so forth.
Here are a few pictures, though they don't really do it justice:
The bus was reasonably nice, with working air conditioning and even a TV at the front for watching a movie. They showed something whose title I can't remember, but I recall that it had John Goodman in it, and it had been dubbed into Bulgarian. There's nothing quite like seeing John Goodman apparently speaking Bulgarian...
As we traveled towards Varna, we passed many fields of sunflowers. I had seen a few earlier and commented how I had never seen so many sunflowers growing together, but Anna said those were just a small patches. Many of the fields we passed on the bus weren't much bigger, but there was one that seemed to stretch all the way to the horizon. It was a veritable sea of yellow and green, and I wish I had been able to stop the bus to get a picture of it. The sight amazed me and brought to mind Wordsworth's poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud". For those who were asleep during high school English class (or for those in Bulgaria who never had high school English :-)), here's the poem:
I wandered lonely as a cloudOnce we got to Varna, we caught a taxi to the hotel where I would be staying. It was actually outside of Varna proper in the resort town of St. Constantine and Elena (Св. Константин и Елена). That the fare was excessive almost goes without saying :-). The hotel was very small, with probably only about five or six rooms. Like many of the hotels near the Black Sea (Черно море), it definitely caters to foreigners. It was relatively expensive compared to what I had been paying ($60 per night), but the room was much larger and nicer. There was an entry way, a separate living room with a couple of couches and a table, a big bedroom with a vanity and a writing desk, and the bathroom. There was even a tub this time, though still no shower curtain. A door led from the living room out to a balcony overlooking a very nice garden with lots of flowers. Of course, I used the balcony mainly for drying clothes :-).
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay;
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company.
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought,
What wealth the show to me had brought.For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
After I got checked in, we went walking. Anna had been rollerblading in the area before, so she knew where things were. We wandered down a few blocks to the beach, and then around through a park and back, stopping to eat a small meal of new potatoes and salad. By the time we returned to the hotel it was getting on towards evening and Anna needed to catch a bus back home. We said good night and planned to meet early the next day.
I had just finished when Anna arrived, so I grabbed my backpack and we set out for Varna. On the way out from the hotel, Anna pointed out a couple of red and white bits of yarn and string tied to a tree branch. There is a custom where people wear these during March. The threads are put on a tree upon seeing a stork. It symbolizes the coming of spring and a wish for health and happiness. We actually saw a storks' nest on the trip out to the Rila Monastery. I don't know whether there were really any around the hotel, but the custom can also be celebrated with a virtual stork :-).
The area at the entrance is actually well above the level of the
beaches and the sea. There are benches beyond the entrance where you
can sit and look out over the water, and we took a break there to
reflect and talk for a bit. Eventually we went down to the strip
where the beach is. There are lots of booths and restaurants down at
that level, and we strolled along enjoying the day. There are piers
every now and then, some of which even have places where you can eat.
We walked out on one and watched some men fishing. The water is
pretty clear, and you can see to the bottom even at depths of two or
three meters. From where we were, the entrance to the port of Varna
was visible. You can see a couple of cranes in the background in this
picture which was taken on the pier:
While we were there, we even saw a three-masted sailing ship leaving
the harbor. By this time, the beach was beginning to fill up with
people, as you can see in the background behind Anna.
We continued walking down the beach, eventually turning back after a
couple of kilometers. On the way back, we passed this fountain.
The area was starting to get crowded by this time, and we decided to
have lunch. We stopped at one of the little cafes near the entrance
and ate snezhanka (снежанка), which is a salad made from cucumbers and
yogurt, and drank eyeryan (айрян), a drink of yogurt and water.
Afterwards we bought some popcorn. Popcorn comes in both salty and
sweet (like Cracker Jack) varieties, usually from the same booth. We
got some of each and began to work our way along the Sea Garden in the
other direction. In this case, we were heading for the train station
in order to buy tickets for the return trip to Sofia. There are the
ruins of a Roman bath along the way and we stopped to explore them a
bit. Of course, it cost about four times as much for me to get in
than it did for Anna :-). Here are a few pictures:
After buying the tickets, we looped back towards the center of town.
It's not far from the Sea Garden actually, though I didn't have a good
mental picture at the time. The whole center is very pedestrian
friendly (along with the other towns we were in too). This is a
welcome change from New Jersey :-). On the way towards the center, we
passed the opera house:
The center itself is dominated by the Cathedral, which is very impressive. The
domes are newly restored by the way.
We checked on bus schedules for a planned excursion the next day, sat
in the the Cathedral for a little while, and I did some souvenir
shopping at a bazaar. Then we caught a bus to the Delphinium (dolphin
aquarium). They have a show which we watched. It's something like
one that I had seen at Sea World in San Diego. By this time it was
late afternoon, and we were going to meet some of Anna's friends for
dinner, so we began walking back along the Sea Garden to the
Cathedral. People are out in droves in the afternoons and evenings.
It's much more a feeling of community than you usually get in the US.
Here's a picture taken as we walked along.
We got to the Cathedral a few minutes late. Anna's friends, Petia,
Galena, and Plamen (Петя, Галена, и Пламен), were already there
waiting for us. After introductions, we began walking and ultimately
wound up at a beer garden. Anna, Petia, and I all had salads, but
Plamen and Galena stuck with nuts (and beer of course :-)). A lot of
the conversation was in Bulgarian, and I had to rely on Anna's
translations, but it was very companionable. Petia was very outgoing,
while Galena struck me as soft-spoken, which I can relate to :-).
Plamen also didn't say too much, but is very witty. According to
Anna, Petia is also fairly shy, but I'm judging relative to me :-).
We lingered for quite a while, but eventually it began to get dark and
we left. Given the hour, the buses wouldn't be running much longer,
so everyone had to start heading home. I was not confident in my
ability to recognize the correct bus stop at night though, so Anna
called for a taxi to take me back to the hotel. In hindsight, I would
have recognized the stop without problems, but it didn't matter much
as for once I was charged the true fare (about $2.50).
On a side note, public phones are very common and are much more convenient than in the US. There are two companies that run them, and you can tell which company runs a particular phone by the color. You buy a prepaid phone card for one of the companies and then to use the phone you just stick in the card and dial the desired number. No dialing an access number, then entering the card number, then finally dialing the number you want. When you're done with the call, the phone displays the amount of money left in the card. Cell phones are not uncommon, but they're not yet as popular as they are in other European countries.
Albena is on the coast, and it's definitely a tourist town. There are big hotels overlooking the beach, lots of little bungalows for rent, and plenty of booths with souvenirs and food. It was also the only place where I can remember seeing manicured lawns with short green grass during the whole trip. We walked for a while, hearing probably as much German as Bulgarian. There were lots of artists set up, offering portraits mostly from photos. It's a pleasant enough place, but very crowded, and eventually we decided to move on to a somewhat more tranquil town. So we walked back to the station and caught a bus to Balchik.
Balchik features a very nice set of gardens overlooking the sea. The
entrance fee is supposed to be more for foreigners, but Anna did some
fast talking and I managed to get in for the same fee as a Bulgarian
:-). We walked in the gardens, admiring the plants, and then found a
bench to sit for a while. Here are a some pictures from the gardens:
After a while, we walked down to the beach and spread out towels underneath an umbrella. We talked for a bit and then I decided to go in the water while Anna stayed behind to watch our things. The water near the surface was warm, but after a half meter it was already fairly cold. I swam for a while, trying to stay in the warm part :-). When I got back, Anna went to swim and I stayed with the things. About ten minutes after she left, a man came up to me and said something in Bulgarian that I didn't understand. The rest of the conversation went like this:
Me: "Говорите ли английски?" (Do you speak English?)We planned to have dinner that night with Anna's family, so it was soon time to start back. Anna took one final picture before we left the beach. Warning: this image may not be suitable for younger viewers :-).
Man: "Не." (No)
The man taps the umbrella. I understand immediately.
Me: "Колко струва?" (How much does it cost?) These are the two most important words for a foreigner in Bulgaria :-).
Man: "Два лева." (Two levs)
I gave him two levs, and he gave me a ticket :-).
Mr. Angelov spoke of Bulgarian hospitality, and then we drank a toast and began eating and talking. It was a wonderful meal and conversation in all respects! It was also probably the largest meal that I had eaten while in Bulgaria. After the salad, there was a chicken dish, then ice cream and homemade banitsa. I tried some Bulgarian yogurt with a little sugar, and a kind of fizzy fruit-flavored drink that Mr. Angelov was partial to.
At the date of the dinner, Aleksandar was just finishing his thesis for becoming a mechanical engineer, specializing in ship machinery. (He has now graduated.) We talked about what he had left to do, and he showed me some pictures from a voyage to Italy that he went on for training. Everyone had questions about America, and I talked about what it was like and about my impressions of Bulgaria. We got out a globe and an atlas, and I pointed out different places in the US like where I lived and where my parents and relatives were.
I found that Mr. Angelov had a very clear voice; I could come closest to understanding him of anyone I had met in Bulgaria. Anna told me later that he was once recruited to be a radio announcer for just that reason. I was given a little drink serving set as a souvenir, and I gave a pocket knife to Aleksandar and a picture frame to Anna's parents. Finally it was time to go. Aleksandar drove me back to the hotel in the family car and Anna rode along. It was very late when we got there, and they had already locked the hotel gate for the night. One of the staff came and let me in, and I said good night.
We caught a bus into Varna to the school where Anna teaches, and she
showed me around. The building is square and imposing, with very high
ceilings, but somewhat in need of repair. Before long it was already
noon. The day just seemed to be flying by. We ate lunch at a pizza
place near the school, then took the bus back to Anna's since her
brother was going to give us a ride to the train station. It was
early in the afternoon and only Anna's mother was home. We sat around
talking for a while. Later, since it was going to be a very long
trip, both Anna and I took the opportunity to get a shower and change
clothes. Aleksandar and Mr. Angelov got home late in the afternoon.
Aleksandar had just had his thesis printed and bound and we looked at
that. We had another nice dinner, with ham and deviled eggs. Then it
was time to go. We said final goodbyes, and I took this last picture
of Anna and her family:
Aleksandar took us to the station, and we were soon on the way to Sofia. We had a compartment to ourselves, and we stayed up to talk a bit before falling asleep to the rocking of the train. The next thing I remember is Anna shaking me awake as we neared the central station in Sofia. It was still early, so we dawdled over a glass of orange juice at a sidewalk cafe before catching a bus to the airport. Saying goodbye for the final time was difficult. Bulgaria is a fascinating land, and I hope to return one day to experience more of it. For now, I must be content with the memories of the best vacation I've ever had.