Excerpts from articles written by
Bruce Taylor, Brussels based Travel Industry Journalist
DISCOVER A BULGARIAN TRADITION: ENYOVDEN
Enyovden is one of Bulgaria’s most celebrated national holidays, along with Easter, Christmas and St. George’s Day. It takes place on 24th June and coincides with St. John Baptist’s Day. It is both a religious feast and a traditional folk ritual. The celebrations of this day have mystical pagan roots and are related to the summer solstice, healing waters and wild herbs.
According to Bulgarian tradition the lasses from each village make a mysterious gathering on the night before ‘Enyovden’ to pick special herbs and sing magical spells. On that evening the healing powers of the herbs are supposed to be at their most potent.
Later the girls take the sprays to make herb crowns, tied together with red strings, which are then used for curing ‘77 and half diseases’. In practice these are all the known illnesses in the Balkan villages over the past centuries. Each crown is named after a member of the family and protects him/her from evil spirits and illnesses.
The maidens also name wild flower crowns after their beloved young men. Thus it has the power to ‘call’ and attract their beloved ones. A must is also a big fire around which all the traditional dances take place and which the bravest ones jump over to prove their courage and to bring health and love. Dances and songs continue all night long, until the sun arrives and starts its slow steady move towards winter.
LEGEND has it….
Legend has it that, while God was dividing up Europe, the people here were too busy working. When they finally woke up to what was going on, they found they were the last in the queue and everything had already been shared out. God is said to have taken pity on them and given them a little of every other country in Europe. Hence the amazing diversity of Bulgaria in such a small geographical area…..
Bruce Taylor writes:
Two years ago I knew absolutely nothing about Bulgaria and made a first visit there purely by chance. I have been back 3 times since and travelled all over the country. I’m a convert and like all converts I’m passionate. I love the people, the warm welcome, the history, the music, the mountains, the countryside, the food & wine, the rakija….
I have come up with 11 tips and things you need to know for your first trip to this fascinating undiscovered land.
Endless ADVENTURES
Bulgaria is an adventure from the moment you step off the plane. Once you’re out of the cities, you step back into a timeless rural world where every type of activity is available from softly adventurous walking, bird watching & cultural touring to more serious hiking & trekking in the Rila, Pirin & Rodopi Mountains and extreme off-piste mountain sports for the experienced. Just avoiding potholes in the roads is also quite an adventure for drivers.
Colourful customs: BABA MARTA
Bulgaria is a country of curious colourful traditions. Take Baba Marta (Granny March), the holiday on 1 March when Bulgarians officially welcome spring. They make little red & white ‘Martenitsa’ decorations out of thread to celebrate the first sighting of a stork, swallow or tree in bud and you find them everywhere, even hanging on the trees.
Savour the CHEESE & YOGURT
Cheese comes in two types – yellow or white. Not too exotic, you might say. But wait until you have tried the white variety without which Bulgarians would lose the will to live. It’s like feta, but much better, saltier and with more flavour. And you’ll find it everywhere at breakfast, lunch & dinner. Bulgarian yogurt is rightly world-famous and there’s nothing like its rich & creamy consistency. Try it with honey & walnuts.
Light CANDLES
Everywhere from the smallest church to the most impressive cathedral, Bulgarians light candles: candles for the living and the dead, candles for health and happiness….
Learn your CYRILLIC alphabet
There are 30 letters in Bulgarian Cyrillic, and if you want to know where you are, learn them before you go and keep practising. This way there is less chance of getting lost, even if there aren’t that many road signs out in the countryside. Take a good phrase book with you and learn some basic Bulgarian. People will appreciate your efforts and have a good laugh too.
Enjoy wonderful FRESH FOOD
The food is slow, fresh and abundant. And the Bulgarians say you have to start a new diet every Monday. Vegetables have real taste and a salad is a meal in itself. My personal favourite is Shopska Salad with tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, spring onions and the ever present Bulgarian white cheese. Bon Appétit!
Meet a famous Bulgarian: John ATANASSOV
Although he died in 1995 at the grand old age of 92, his legacy is increasingly at the centre of our daily lives. John Atanassov was the American physicist of Bulgarian descent who invented the first electronic digital computer at the end of the 1930s.
Watch the changing LANDSCAPES
So much of the countryside is still unspoilt, from flat fields of yellow oil seed rape to snow capped mountains. In spring nature bursts before your very eyes and blossoms everywhere. I remember the pure mountain air, the layers of morning mist, the light, the birdsong, the eagles flying effortlessly over green valleys, the storks nesting in their chimneys….
NAZDRAVE!
A vital word in your new vocabulary, as important as molya (please) and blagodarya (thank you). Whenever there’s a toast, which is pretty often in Bulgaria, you look your drinking partners directly in the eyes, one by one, and chink your glasses. If don’t follow the custom you’re in for some bad luck (and bad sex, or so legend says)
PS Rakija (Bulgarian brandy) in all its many forms is an aperitif and should be approached with caution.
Discover the ORTHODOX world
Orthodox history and religion is alive and well, and living in Bulgaria. Visit any of the many churches, monasteries (my favourites: Rila, Rozen & Bachkovo), archaeological sites and you enter a mystical world of art and beauty.
YES or No?
With Bulgarians you’re never quite sure which. They’re unique and do opposite to the rest of the world. They shake their heads from side to side to say yes and nod when saying no. But be careful, the younger generation and those who speak languages have learnt the international way, so it can get confusing.
Enjoy Bulgaria….and soon!
MUSIC is the food of Bulgarian life….
In the land of Orpheus, you find music and folklore all around you in all its rich variety. Most famous outside Bulgaria is the State Radio & TV female voice choir, Mystery of Bulgarian Voices. They sing expressive and haunting a capella music. See them on YouTube.
Everywhere you go you hear music, in restaurants, hotels, taxis…. Bulgarian taste is eclectic – a mixture of retro rock, old favourites and jazz interspersed with Bulgarian music with a definite eastern flavour. There are numerous music festivals around the country and many artists love performing here. Big names in 2011 include Sting, Sinead O’Connor, Buena Vista Social Club, Manu Chao, Whitesnake, Judas Priest, Mariza, Vaya Con Dios…..
In country villages they still transit Bulgarian traditional dance and folklore from one generation to the next with enormous pride.
SAYINGS for everything
In Bulgaria there is a saying for everything. And Bulgarians often start the sentence with “In Bulgaria we have a saying”. They are often simple, graphic and down-to-earth. I remember this particularly vivid example, “The one who eats the whole pumpkin isn’t crazy, it’s the one who lets him!”
Here are 10 more tips and useful facts for first-timers to help you discover the real Bulgaria……”
DOBRE, blagodarya!
Good, great, fine thanks. A useful answer and one that is surprisingly easy to pronounce! Taking it a step further; ‘Dobro utro’ is good morning; ‘dober den’, good day or good afternoon (from 10.00 to 18.00); and ‘dober vecher’, good evening. If you like something, just say ‘dobre’ and you’ll invariably get a friendly smile in return.
Real guests in real GUEST HOUSES
In the countryside you stay in family hotels or Guest houses and in Bulgaria this means they are still family-run. The word ‘guesthouse’ in English has lost its real meaning. Here in Bulgaria it retains the original one. You are made to feel a Guest with a capital ‘G’.
Guest houses range from basic to more comfortable, according to your budget, but the hospitality and local food is genuine and you know that your money is going directly into the local economy and making a difference.
LACTOBACILLICUS BULGARICUS, or just plain yogurt…
No, it’s certainly not just plain yogurt! Bulgaria’s most famous gastronomic product is indeed delicious and completely different from what is sold as yogurt in the rest of Europe. There’s nothing like its rich creamy consistency, smooth as silk. Try it with honey & walnuts or bilberries, either for breakfast or as a dessert. It is also used in salads, cold soup (tarator) and numerous other dishes.
A miracle cure for many ailments, it is reputed to have saved France’s Louis XVI from stomach cancer.
And they tell you it’s not difficult to make – just add boiled milk to the culture and squeeze the yogurt through a cloth to drain off the water. Et voilà! The secrets are the length of time and the temperature.
Not quite as easy as it sounds, I fear.
Climb every MOUNTAIN!
Climbing every mountain in Bulgaria could take you a lifetime, like collecting ‘Munros’ in Scotland and the latter are considerably lower! There are 7mountain ranges here which cover some 30% of the land area and they are criss-crossed with 32,000 km of trails. The four major ones are:
Central Balkan Range, an extension of the Julian Alpes and barrier against the frozen northern winds, runs from west to east across the middle of the country for 550km before ending up on the Black Sea.
Rila Mountains, south of Sofia, are home to the fabulous Rila Monastery, the Seven Rila Lakes and Bulgaria’s highest mountain, Mt. Musala (from the Turkish name ‘Near the Prophet’) at 2925m.
Pirin Mountains, further to the south, are alpine with their harsh granite rock and numerous lakes. A UNESCO protected National Park attempts to protect the unique flora, fauna & landscape against the onslaught of the nearby and increasingly commercial skiing industry.
Rhodope Mountains in the south-east, the largest range covering 18,000km2, are sub-alpine. The highest peak is Mt. Perelik at a mere 2191m! It is a rural land of green valleys and forests where time stands still.
Watch out POTHOLES ahead!
Avoiding elephant-eating potholes in the roads is something of a national sport and part of the magic of Bulgaria. If ‘pothole-swerving’ were an Olympic discipline, the Bulgarians would win hands-down. In the Rhodope Mountains potholes are even cut neatly into rectangles awaiting repair, which can take anything up to 2-3 years. Of course, the harsh extremes of weather, especially in the mountains, do not help.
One possible advantage is that they do slow down the traffic, just like the vicious ‘sleeping policemen’ in towns and villages. Beware! Other rural driving hazards include horse-drawn carts, sheep, the occasional herd of cattle or stray cow, hay drying on the road….But don’t worry, you’re never in much of a hurry when you’re visiting Bulgaria. If you’re renting a car, do make sure you’re fully insured.
Respecting RAKIYA
Rakiya (Bulgarian grape brandy) is an institution, a way of life…and at 40% proof; it must be treated with respect. The first thing you learn is to drink it as an aperitif or at the beginning of a meal, not the end. Yes, Bulgarians do things differently. As my Bulgarian friends told me, it is always served at the start of big family meals and that makes everyone very talkative!
The second lesson is that it is always accompanied by something solid, normally a salad as the first course. It’s also delicious with sliced apple or cold meats. There are infinite varieties and, although I have only managed to try a few (so far!), I can recommend Burgas 63. Homemade rakiya is often the best and certainly the most powerful with an alcohol content of 60% or more. If you don’t go for the grape or plum variety, try another more aromatic flavour such as apricot or sour cherry. Naztrave!
Smelling of ROSES
Bulgaria is one of the world's largest producers of attar of roses (essential oil from rose petals).
The rose harvest in the Valley of Roses in the foothills of the Balkan Mountains, 2 hours east of Sofia, takes place each year at end May.
Rose Festivals in Karlovo & Kazanlak, on 30 May & 1 June attract thousands of visitors. The programme is eclectic and includes a Rose Queen contest, the distilling of roses, an international folk festival, a photo competition, rose rakiya & rose jam tasting and the re-creation of ancient Thracian rituals. The original roses grown by the Thracians were reputedly ‘unsurpassed in their splendour’. Today’s Kazanlak rose was introduced much later by the Ottoman Turks and is descended from the Damask rose.
The distillation process of turning petals into oil is a complex one which requires many kilos of petals to produce just a single ounce of essential oil. This delicate fragrance is a uniquely expensive luxury and is used in many equally expensive perfumes.
STORKS A-Go-Go
Storks are Bulgaria’s favourite bird. For me they’re the symbol of Bulgaria. The airborne equivalent of dolphins, storks are almost human. Each spring over 5,000 pairs return from their winter migration not just to the same village, but to the very same nest in the very same village. The male comes first to ensure everything is in shape and do running repairs. Then the boss follows, just as in human life. There are strictly two to a nest –no stork swingers – until they multiply into four. No village should be without them. They’re so elegant and decorative. And if you see them walking behind a tractor in the fields, they’re just having a small feast of tasty crickets.
In the autumn some 200,000 storks from all over Eastern Europe congregate by the Black Sea for military manoeuvres, before migrating south again to the winter sun. It must be a spectacular sight, if you’re lucky enough to catch it. They fly in changing formations all the way to the Middle East & Africa.
In the footsteps of TAKE THAT
Robbie Williams, Gary Barlow and Take That chose Bulgaria to shoot their latest music video at the Nu Boyana Film Studios in Sofia. Today Bulgaria is one of the most attractive destinations in Europe for film producers, thanks to its wide variety of scenic & architectural locations, and its reasonable costs.
More FOOD glorious fresh food
Banitsa is
part of the Bulgarian psyche and a meal in itself which is eaten anywhere at any time of the day or night. It’s a traditional Bulgarian savoury dish made by layering a mixture of whisked eggs and pieces of white cheese between filo pastry, and then baking it in the oven. Delicious and very filling…just what you need in the fresh mountain air.
And talking of white cheese, as Bulgarians do constantly, don’t miss Chushki biurek (fried peppers stuffed with white cheese)
A land of amazing HERBS & SPICES
There are herbs for every medicinal purpose and condition - depression, anti-cancer, headaches, blood circulation & purification, diabetes….And as you walk in the mountains, there they are growing wild before your very eyes. But you’ll need an expert to guide you. Mixed together they make a wonderful free and soothing herbal tea.
Achillea Millefolium is a perennial flowering plant (with small white flowers) related to chamomile, and it has always been highly prized by traditional healers for its wide range of medicinal properties, particularly its antiseptic and anti-inflammatory qualities. It has been used to combat everything from infections and cuts, to digestive disorders and arthritis.
And ЧУБРЦА (chubritsa) is the spice Bulgarians take with them whenever they go abroad. They use it in everything; beans, lentils, stews, bread….
WHAT others say
“Bulgaria is a must visit destination…”
Lonely Planet
“Despite the soaring popularity of its seaside resorts, Bulgaria remains a little-known destination with a great deal to discover: much of the country is like an open-air museum of Balkan culture, with beautifully decorated churches, fine mosques, wonderfully preserved rustic villages and a great deal of enduring folklore.”
Rough Guide
“For walkers & naturalists Bulgaria is a paradise with an amazing variety of landscapes and a rich biodiversity.”
Cicerone Guide to Walking in Bulgaria’s National Parks
Join us on a discovery of Bulgaria
An exceptional and unique journey not to be missed!
