Judy. A little over a week ago we waved goodbye to Port Elizabeth,
South Africa and our last Servas hosts, the wonderful Christine and Louis.
After
a 24-hour flight to Johannesburg, Frankfurt, and finally Budapest, Hungary, we
attended our great-nephew’s second birthday party.
Just as it was with Chris and Dilyana’s
wedding in Italy three years ago, this party was filled with folks from many
different countries—Australia, England, Malta, Latvia, Bulgaria, Hungary,
Slovenia, the US, and more. Parents
conversed in English, but the kids’ conversations were in all kinds of
languages, and nobody seemed to mind. It was a wonderful afternoon.
In our three days
in Budapest, we spent one morning sightseeing; the rest of the time we visited
with family, did laundry, caught up on day-to-day issues, grocery shopped and
cooked dinner for the family: our old standby, a Spanish tortilla de papas. As Dilyana put it, “We had a Spanish meal cooked
by our American family with South African wine and finished with Latvian
chocolate!” A great metaphor for their lives, as expats living abroad, and for
us, as nomads.
Dilyana is
originally from Bulgaria, a place as exotic to us as any we’ve imagined. At her
wedding to our nephew Chris, we met some of her family and became intrigued by
where they come from (even though most of the young people had immigrated to
Germany), so we had decided to give it a visit. With their help, we set up a
week-long itinerary and set off.
We flew Whizz Air
into Sofia, rented a car, and immediately drove to Blavgoevgrad, near the Rila
Mountains. Bulgaria was a former member of the Soviet Bloc, and our hotels and
the buildings near it reflected the Stalin-Block style. It was a spartan, but comfortable room with a
balcony that looked out on the mountains. We walked to a wonderful restaurant
and immediately discovered our first challenge—our waiter spoke no English.
Plus, Bulgaria also uses the Cyrillic alphabet, so we were doubly challenged.
With the help of some English on the menu, we managed to order, and were
rewarded with a delicious dinner and good wine.
The next morning
we were to drive to the Rila Monastery, a World Heritage Site high in the
mountains. It was founded in the ninth
century, and its monks are credited with saving the Bulgarian language and
culture during its many wars and occupations. We woke to fog so thick we could
barely see. Still, we only had a week,
so we set out. At first we could see nothing, then suddenly the fog lifted and
we were face to face with steep green mountains and snowy peaks in the
distance. It was a beautiful drive, and quite without warning, the monastery
was before us. We walked past the stone walls and through the gate and were
greeted with a riot of color in a serene courtyard. There were two groups of
school children and about a dozen adults, so we basically had the place to
ourselves. We walked into the church and
watched the Archbishop conduct a service blessing new icons. The chanting was
soothing, and the candles and incense calming, so the stress of the fog and the
winding road fell away. The monastery
has magnificent icons and murals—check it out on YouTube or Google it. I cannot
describe it well enough.
We left and headed
to Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria, and the oldest continuously
inhabited city in Europe. The GPS on our rental car sent us along back roads,
and “limited access highways” has a whole new meaning in Bulgaria. Ted kept
saying, “I can SEE the highway! That’s where I want to be!” With the help of our iPhone maps and the GPS,
we finally got on the interstate and headed into the ancient city.
Here we had a much
cozier room, with a highly rated restaurant across the street. Again, our waitress spoke no English, but the
menu had photos, and a kind Danish expat sitting near us helped us out. I had
begun to recognize a few sounds in the Cyrillic alphabet, and could sometimes
sound out something, but Bulgarian is not an easy language; in fact, several
people told us to say merci instead
of the more difficult (for us) Bulgarian word for thank you.
We headed into the
old town and took a fascinating Free Plovdiv Tour, which lasted two and a half
hours and taught us a great deal about the city. (You may remember we did one
in Cape Town—good stuff!) Our guide was fun and informative, and our small
group hailed from Italy, the US, Germany, and Canada. The city is also a World
Heritage Site, beautiful and interesting, and we’d love to spend more time
there.
BUT, the next day
we headed for the Black Sea and the ancient town of Nesebar, also a World Heritage
Site. We should call this the World
Heritage Site Tour!
Old Town Nesebar
is located on an island connected to the mainland by a spit. Our hotel here
faced the bay and the mainland, and we often sat on our balcony just to watch
the boats and water. This small town is filled with churches and foundations of
churches, dating to the fifth century. Several are part of the museum now, and
we toured the actual museum as well as some churches.
Obviously all are small,
except for the ruins of the Basilica of St. Sophia, but the Byzantine designs
and icons made them well worth the visit.
It is said that there are foundations of eighty churches there, probably
built by wealthy traders as the Byzantine power grew. In the church of St. John
the Baptist, there is a graffiti prayer etched into a column. In Greek it reads, “St. John, save me.”
There are also old
houses there, though not as old as the churches, and this tiny island offers up
all kinds of artifacts in the archeological digs. True, it IS a tourist
destination (although most people stay on the mainland and take bus tours
there), and there are too many souvenir shops, but since we arrived before the
season, we were able to find quiet spots to sit and enjoy the town.
After two days we
left for Sofia, the capitol, where we had a great Servas visit with Tania and
John. They live in a lovely top-floor apartment with a great view of Mt.
Vitosha, which looms over the city. We had some great discussions with them
about our take on world issues, and they opened up some new ideas for us. Ted
has commented before that travel is teaching us how little we know, and I think
it’s safe to call ourselves sophomores—wise
fools. We know just enough to be
foolish. It’s requiring us to listen more to other viewpoints.
Tania and John’s
apartment is a mere 20-minute walk to Sofia Square, the center of the city and
location of the statue of St. Sofia, which, incidentally, replaced the former
statue of Lenin. As a former Soviet satellite, it still has many remnants of
its Communist days. Again, we took a two-hour walking tour of the city, seeing
the ruins of the city of Serdica, the Roman city on which Sophia now rests, and
walking its Roman roads, still preserved underground. Along with its history,
we hit the high points of Sofia, ending at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.
We
also visited St. George’s Church, in continuous use since the fourth century,
with frescoes from the sixth century (also a World Heritage Site). Interestingly, Sofia is a very tolerant city: in Sunday Square, you will find a mosque, synagogue,
Bulgarian Orthodox church and Roman Catholic church within a few yards of each
other. As in many old cities, churches became mosques became churches, and so
on. After all these centuries people still are tolerant of each other’s
religious beliefs.
John drove us out
to the historical museum, a former residence for “guests of the Communist
Government”. Absolutely HUGE, with massive marble and carved wood rooms,
crystal chandeliers, and wide, modern staircases. In its day, it must have been
quite impressive. Unfortunately, the gardens behind the museum have been neglected and are now overgrown, and the building, which houses an amazing collection of
historical artifacts, is showing signs of wear.
Bulgaria
definitely has some economic issues, as we learned from our time with Dilyana’s
friends, but it seems to be pulling itself up by its bootstraps and trying to
grow. I really hope it does; right now it’s a great bargain for American
tourists. And it’s still one of the most exotic places I’ve ever visited.
Another country for the “to return” list!
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