Thraces of the past in the Strandzha Mountains

Not too many tourists venture themselves into inland south-eastern Bulgaria. They rather flock to the sunny coast and enjoy the hotels and cocktails with a warm Black Sea for their pleasure - it's not warm now though, as I have discovered.

So, before I took a dip in the freezing Black Sea and fell ill for a week, I spent some time in the region of the Strandzha Mountain where the Thracians that lived here more than two thousand years ago, only have a few burial stones to show for their existence and beliefs:

The Thracian Tombs were discovered a the end of the last century, and although some stones have tinted sides by paint applied 2500 years ago, you really have to use your imagination to guess what any of the burial site must've looked like. If you do want to get an idea, a place like Kanzanlak, near Buzludzha, is what you should go for. But walking around on this hill, horses rushing by, bees energetically guarding a tomb, and flowers of all colours, like a carpet to the highest spots, it is quite the experience.

The Srandzha region is a gorgeous, almost wild, part of the country and is very much uncolonised by buildings and hotels, which fill up the coast. If you have a (solid) car, and have the nerves of steel it takes to deal with Bulgarian drivers (who do not value life as much as getting where they're going, on time, it seems), I can only recommend a quiet and green escapade in these parts.

Plovdivian Promenade - Plovdiv (Пловдив)

Plovdiv has many great stories and little cute anecdotes to pique your curiosity. These span over SIX THOUSAND continually inhabited YEARS! So, just like with Bulgarian Menus, you can choose a page (of history), something you like, and not really know what you're going to get at all. But what is sure is that you are getting a massive serving. 

Typical space-gaining 2nd floors

Extract of a traditional Bumgarian restaurant's menu which I came accross

A more recent and very much unknown fact about this place, is that the third episode of Ukulele Road Trips Podcast was recorded there. It's an Easter special with plovidivy themed chit-chat, just what the place and season demanded. You should give it a listen I reckon.

If you like hills, cobblestones, nice views and Roman Theaters, you're in for a treat. They have respectively 6, a lot, a few, and one nice one. On the other hand, if you're more into 'walking only' high streets, well... you're also at the right place. Plovidv (and this is totally unchecked information by the way) has the longest in Europe! So you can take a stroll with your girlfriend/lover/trophy wife, or an ice cream, whatever makes you happiest, while under your feet silently snooze thousands of years of history. I mention this because they did recently dig up part of a Roman chariot racing track, but did not excavate the whole thing because that would have meant tearing the whole historical city center apart. Sensible thinking that.

In all these pages of the history-menu turned by a promenade in Plovdiv (and a great free walking tour), the humble story of a charming mustachioed man during the Communist Dictatorship caught my attention. Violinist Sasha the Sweetheart. Not the best name, but I'm guessing it sounds better in Bulgarian. A passionate musician, and as you can guess from his twinkling smile, a sweet humourous entertainer. Sadly, one joke too many, and to the wrong people, lead him to "disappear" all of a sudden in 1961, quite probably to a labour camp. Today, his beaming statue watches over the streams of sunglasses and tourists that pass by the old music school to take a peak at the Roman Theater.

Sasha's statue-smile, undisturbed

Buzludzha - Бузлуджа

It's not easy to understand Buzludzha. It's at the very top of one of the highest peaks of the central Balkan mountains. You get there after a long drive up winding roads, in the ever-cold Balkan wind. And the closer you get to it, the more unbelievable it becomes. It's all very surrealistic, and very much incomprehensible.

Until you walk in. Because once you walk in, you realise that what was practical didn't matter. Just like the pyramids or giant statues on hilltops, what mattered was the symbol. The greatness of the structure, the beauty of the mosaics and the madness of the endeavour all serve one purpose: bowing to the System. Revering the abstract God-like leader, the Ideology.

"Great buildings from this will arise, The famed grandeur of Bulzludzha, Will immortalise, The greatest system here by far..."

This Monument to Bulgarian socialism was completed in 1981, hosting party ceremonies, meetings and even concerts. Although how they actually got everything and everyone up there is beyond my understanding.

It is build on the spot of an important victory against the Ottoman rulers in 1868, and commemorates (if I am not mistaken) the first secret Bulgarian socialist meeting in 1891.

Buzludzah, despite the freezing cold, the ice, everywhere, is still pretty much standing. Bits and pieces are falling off, but the "Party" sure made solid constructions.