bulgaria!

it is surreal that i have been to bulgaria and back! it was the epitome of a whirlwind trip, with only about two hours of free time on our own… it was very eye-opening and surprised me more than i thought it would. bulgaria definitely reminded me much more of south africa than western europe— it was pretty much the complete opposite of denmark in terms of the economic, political and social architecture. poverty, corruption and the black market play an unfortunately large role in bulgaria today; i was not expecting the packs of stray dogs, using squat toilets, or such poorly maintained buildings. i still can’t believe it is part of the EU. nonetheless, here are the details: i went with my core class/program, entitled “migration and identity.” so far this semester we have been looking at mostly immigration issues, such as conflicts surrounding the waves of muslim immigrants to denmark in the past 40 or so years. we only got a very basic introduction to bulgaria before we left, so my knowledge of the migration and identity issues they have was pretty limited. on the trip we focused on the massive brain drain (thousands of educated young people have left bulgaria since the communist regime ended in 1989), the role of religion in shaping bulgarian identity (the country is overwhelmingly eastern orthodox christian), minority populations (roma and muslim people) and the country’s integration into the EU. each of these was illuminated in different ways, but mostly through lectures, site visits to ngos, and by keeping our eyes peeled as we made our way through bulgaria’s two biggest cities, sofia and plovdiv.

first of all, i’d like to give a brief history of the country: the area now called bulgaria was first inhabited around 4000 bc by the thracians. it was then peopled by slavs and bulgars as part of the roman empire. the nation of bulgaria was founded in 681. bulgarians invented the cyrillic alphabet…and yogurt. the bulgarians were under the yoke of the ottoman empire for 500 years but retained their own identity as orthodox christians instead of assimilating under the muslim turks. they gained independence in 1878, allied with germany in the world wars, and fell under soviet control in 1944. their communist era lasted until 1989, at which point a chaotic but peaceful “romantic revolution” swept the country. by 2000 over 1 million students had emigrated due to political instability and a lack of opportunities. they joined the EU in 2007. today the nation is home to about 7.5 million people— that’s 2 million more than denmark.

on our journey we visited sofia first. sofia possessed nearly all the negative qualities of a big city but we didn’t have time to discover the positive parts. it didn’t help that it was snowing and/or overcast while we were there and the garbage collectors were on strike, but my general impression of the city was that of grime, trash, traffic, and ruthless rain. as we drove from the airport to the center of town, we passed what seemed like mile after mile of crumbling concrete apartment towers which strongly evoked bulgaria’s soviet past. realizing that all of the signs were in cyrillic and we literally couldn’t even guess what they said made me realize how far east (and generally removed from the familiarity of western europe) we were. we attempted to check into our hostel only to find that we were actually staying in three separate buildings; the one i was in was on the fourth floor of a residential building and was clearly someone’s apartment turned into a ten-person dorm. the situation was a bit of a mess and left a bad taste in our mouths.

our time in sofia was occupied with a tour of the absolutely gorgeous aleksander nevski church, a folk dancing workshop (so much fun!), a meeting with ethnographers who spoke to us about the roma minority in bulgaria, a trip to the european commission, a chat with a freelance journalist who emigrated but recently returned to bulgaria, a morning in bulgaria’s largest roma (aka gypsy) community, two lectures at the open society institute and many vast group dinners. some of the information we gathered in sofia — such as the degree to which the roma minority is marginalized—was conflicting, but thought-provoking. our time in the roma neighborhood was certainly an experience: although they have been settled in that particular site for over 100 years, a nomadic mindset had influenced their decision not to build permanent houses or create a system of infrastructure. thus, trash was literally piled several feet high in many places; most dwellings were falling apart, and very of the few of the people we met had a complete education, full-time job, or much contact with the world outside their segregated community. it is interesting to note, however, that more people greeted us with smiles in this enormously impoverished, makeshift city than in sofia itself.

our trip to rila monastery, in the snowy rila mountains, was a breath of fresh air after a few days in sofia. we were greeted with sunshine (i think this was a sign) as we checked into our lovely, simple, mountaintop hotel. the monastery has been in existence in way or another for hundreds of years, and its current incarnation is simply amazing. the detail put into the ornate icon paintings all around (inside and outside) the church is mind-blowing! it was a wonder of art and i really, really enjoyed visiting here. we spent a quiet 24 hours there which definitely bolstered my positive feelings towards bulgaria.

our third and final stop was plovdiv, by far my favorite place. we stayed in the city center, tucked into a maze of narrow cobblestone streets centered around an ancient roman amphitheatre. the old town had a sleepy feel to it and i felt completely safe meandering around it— a huge change from sofia. while in plovdiv we visited an incredible 13th century mosque, the ethnographic museum, and met with local university students. and more enormous dinners were consumed— i think i ate about five pounds of feta cheese in bulgaria. we shared an absolutely epic meal with the university students on our last evening there. in our four (!!!) hours at the restaurant we were served platter after platter after platter of traditional fare: feta pizza, grilled vegetables, salad, and copious amounts of all kinds of meat. at first the quantity of food on our tables was laughable but it soon became over the top and we all felt bad wasting so much of it. the evening was made more ridiculous as a group of traditional (yet rather touristy and cheesy) folk dancers provided an hour of entertainment. i’ll never forget that meal! on our final morning, some classmates and i woke up early to walk to our favorite spot on a hill overlooking plovdiv. we took in the scenery and then managed to find the only ice cream shop open at that hour and buy waffle cones for breakfast!

going with a group of 40 people certainly had its advantages (i didn’t really have to do any planning or decision-making on my own, worry too much about the language barrier, and pay very much out of pocket) but also some serious downsides, such as being completely conspicuous and sort of taking over everywhere we went. it was tough dealing with everyone’s special needs: we had seven vegetarians (including myself), three lactose-intolerant people, and one gluten-free girl; i’d say about half of our group was sick at one point or another. however, i got a chance to talk with nearly everyone and had a wonderful time hanging out with these interesting folks! i am very glad i went with DIS because i probably wouldn’t have even made it to bulgaria nor figured out all the details of visiting the smaller towns on my own. our guide velko was just awesome, and the DIS intern co-leading the trip was extremely helpful and friendly. i can’t imagine going to bulgaria without them! all in all it was a fascinating, unique, and very worthwhile trip that i will always remember; if you ever make it there, just remember to bring your own toilet paper!