Bulgaria has a fascinating but often bloody history of invasion, occupation and subju punctuated by four comparatively short periods of political and economic in and stability. Bulgaria is a time warp of old and new — from chic shops in the city to donkey cars in the country. We hike to a mountain monastery, meet two sculptors (dad does Stalin, son does nudes), and enjoy a traditional dinner feast at a local home.
This text will be replaced
Surprising Bulgaria - With Rick Steves. Video hosted on Google. NHi, I'm Rick Steves, back again with more of the best of Europe. This time we're on the eastern fringe of Europe exploring mysterious and misunderstood Bulgaria. Thanks for joining us. We'll explore Bulgaria's modern capital, its trendy second city, a mountain monastery and time-passed villages. We'll feast with a family and get our cultural bearings in a surprisingly romantic land … where this means yes [shake head]... and that means no. Hiding out in the southeast corner of Europe, Bulgaria is part of the Balkan Peninsula. It's about the size of Tennessee. We'll travel from the capital city Sofia to the Rila Monastery. After visiting villages in the Rhodopi Mountains, we catch a train to Plovdiv. Bulgaria is mostly ignored by tourists. But travel here is wide open — like Western Europe. And it's a new age — The red star of Communism that capped the party headquarters... it's gone, replaced by the Bulgarian national flag. Bulgaria's largest city, Sofia, has over a million people. After 45 years as a Soviet satellite, its communist legacy includes cheap if rickety public transit, miles of blocky apartment flats, and Stalin Gothic buildings straddling yellow brick roads — which seem wider than necessary. Throughout the Cold War, Bulgaria was one of the Soviet Union's most loyal satellites. There was even talk of making Bulgaria the 16th republic of the USSR. And Georgie Dimitrov was the local Lenin — his waxy body was on display under glass in there. But in about 1990 all that changed. The father of Bulgarian Communism is now buried out of sight. His mausoleum is a rack for local graffiti, and locals have taken their own tools to this old hammer and sickle . A visit with Spartok and Krum Dermenjivie illustrates the sweeping changes Bulgaria has seen. Krum spent his life sculpting statues of great communists — Bulgarian and Soviet. His son, Spartok, learned from his dad. But rather than heroic politicians, he sculpts erotic nudes.
Five centuries subjugated to Ottoman rule and, more recently, four decades locked very firmly behind the Iron Curtain turned Bulgaria into a distant, enigmatic country in the eyes of much of the rest of the world. Images of cheap wine downed at student house parties, budget ski holidays and umbrella-wielding Cold War assassins were once among the popular stereotypes, but Bulgaria today is a vastly different country from what it was even 10 years ago.
For most foreign holidaymakers, Bulgaria’s main lure is its long, sandy Black Sea Coast – which still boasts swaths of stunning beaches and picturesque bays despite the expansive construction work – but there is so much more to this country, and so much of it remains largely untouched and unvisited by overseas tourists. Networks of well-maintained hiking trails and horse-riding routes allow you to discover Bulgaria’s lush mountainous and forested landscapes, especially around the Rila and Pirin Mountains, inhabited by bears, lynx, rare birds and other kinds of wildlife now becoming scarce elsewhere in Europe. Getting around the country is easy, with cheap and efficient public transport to ferry you between the cities and into the remoter, rural corners, where the traditional, slow pace of life continues much as it has done for centuries. Here you’ll come across multicoloured monasteries, filled with fabulous icons and watched over by bushy-bearded priests, and impossibly pretty timber-framed villages with smoke curling lazily over the stone-tiled roofs and donkeys complaining in the distance, where headscarfed old ladies and their curious grandchildren still stare in wonderment at the arrival of outsiders. The cities, too, are often overlooked highlights, from dynamic, cosmopolitan Sofia with its lovely parks, sociable alfresco bars and fascinating museums, to the National Revival architectural treasures and Roman remains of Plovdiv, and the youthful maritime cockiness of Varna.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
