#146 Bulgaria & other thoughts

The bar of Sofia Hotel Balkan

Hello from Bulgaria. This is my first new country in at least two or three years. And I am very glad that I took the opportunity to come here.

I will start with the negative. Not to be depressing, but just to get it out of the way. There is no doubt that Bulgaria is a poor country, and is facing challenges with its infrastructure and its political landscape (corruption, inefficiency, etc.). The two cities that I have been in, Sophia and Plovdiv, are both decidedly run down, although they both have a certain charm. Depending on the neighborhood of course. There are areas still burdened by Soviet era architecture, but there are definitely some very pleasant neighborhoods as well, both in the city center and on the south side close to the Vitosha Mountains. Sophia is situated on a flat plane surrounded by mountains on all sides. Apparently this does lead to a inversion layer with pollution problems during the winter. Although I’m told that merely by being up on the slopes of the mountains, even as little as a 100 to 200 meter elevation difference will place one above the inversion layer.

St. Sofia - Heart of Sofia

Plovdiv is supposed to be one of the world’s longest inhabited cities. Maybe one of Europe’s longest inhabited cities. Unfortunately, although there are a plethora of Roman ruins, they are extremely poorly maintained. It’s a great pity. As my readers may know I am not a big fan of ancient ruins, monuments, cities, etc. But they could do a much better job of maintaining these sites of cultural interests. And it would be to everybody’s benefit. Not only for maintaining the history, but it would also be a great draw for tourism. If I was a tourist that came specifically to see sites like these and I saw the ones that we barely saw in Plovdiv, I would be greatly disappointed. There are a lot of ancient sites in Sofia as well. Slightly better maintained, but still not to a high standard.

There are ancient bits and pieces scattered absolutely everywhere. The large block (2nd from left) is one of many in an outdoor café a block from the hotel. The building at the right is behind the hotel and I believe supposed to be one of the oldest structures in the city.

The mountains surrounding Sophia would be really wonderful for hiking. I have heard that the winter sport areas are quite nice, and Varna, on the Black Sea coast is supposedly excellent for seaside type activities. Next time for sure.

On the south side of the city looking towards Vitosha mountains

What I fell in love with, immediately, was the heart of Sophia, and in particular Vitosha Boulevard. The street is lined with bars, cafés, and restaurants, all arranged on either side of a wide pedestrian only area. The food is wonderful, and relative to many places not very expensive. I would say that it probably is about 25% more expensive than Istanbul, but that is not bad.

Vitosha Blvd at night - looking south towards the mountains

Dark Side of The Moon desert - Tastes even better than it looked :-) - Restaurant Shtastlivetsa [Щастливеца]

According to my local tour guide, apartment costs for something in the 500 to 600 square-foot region are probably in the range of $400-$700 per month, slightly more if you go the AirBnB route. But, more expensive though it is, the AirBnB route is my preference. No additional hassle and all utilities included.

The Internet seems to be excellent and they don’t seem to be censoring the Internet (which I ran into in Turkey). Although not part of the Schengen area, Americans get 90 days at a time coming in to the country.

I have found the people, by and large to be very friendly (barring some very brusque mobile telephone people and waiters). Even when English was an issue, I found people to be very helpful.

So – I don’t consider the negatives at a reason to not come here. At least for me. I have every intention of making this a regular resting place.

Bulgarian has been a challenge for me. It was very easy to learn the alphabet, but trying to get the sounds straight in my head so that I can actually speak them to people has been difficult. Although now that I am writing this on day three of being here, I have noticed that it is easier to say things like “please”, “thank you”, etc.

Благодаря ти – Thank You (blagodaria ti)

Съжалявам – I’m sorry (Suzhalyavam)

Извинете ме – Excuse me (Izvinete me)

не разбирам – I don’t know (Ne pazbiram)

добро утро – Good morning (dobro utro)

I realized, with a faint sense of something well done, that when I learned the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet, I have learned the Russian alphabet as well – only 3 additional characters in Russian. I find it a pleasant language to listen to. Soft on the ears. If I spend more time here, which I certainly plan to, I will invest in 2 – 3 weeks of intense Bulgarian.

I guess the thing that I should say that was the most striking for me, was the much lower population density. The most striking figure I can mention is; Istanbul has a population of 16 million, probably more. Just for the city of Istanbul. Bulgaria’s entire population is less than 7 million. And Sophia is only about 1.2 million. I find the greatly reduced density much more enjoyable.

The gallery above is from a military museum in Sofia. Mainly decrepit versions of various weapons and uniforms dating back to the 1600s. But interesting in its way.

Now … Denmark – What the happened to all the Viking genes?!

In discussions with my friend Jakob from Denmark (So I don’t feel so bad about repeating what we discussed) 😊 - I’m appalled at the current state of Denmark.

My run in with DK Hostmaster about a Danish domain name (see earlier blogs); laws that say one is only allowed to carry a knife of less than 3 inches that cannot lock (anything else is illegal) ;  Jakob’s experience as an ex-patriate Dane in Denmark but being unable to get the COVID 19 vaccination without jumping through numerous hoops and months of delay; and a few other things about what the government is spending money on … just left me shaking my head. The impression I get, from several long conversations, is a country that exhibits the worst aspects of a hide bound bureaucracy and a nanny state. A rule for everything, and everything has a rule. Laws are passed to protect you from the 1% but the laws affect the 99%. Hence my question; what on earth happened to the original gene pool that produced Vikings, the hardened warriors that rampaged across Europe, Africa, and the New World for three hundred years. How did they turn into the Danes of today? Well a question like this doubtless has no real answer. But I thought I would throw this commentary out there.

Some quotes from one of my favorite mystery authors, Kerry Greenwood: Cooking the Books

At long last I was able to remind myself of what I wanted my life to be like. Uneventful, save for a few carefully chosen events according to my design for living.

Silence is good. It contains no possibilities for putting foot in mouth.

Get involved with humanity and you find yourself morally compromised.

Some ignorance is invincible.