We shared a compartment on the train with 4 youngsters, one a medical doctor, another an economist and the one girl studying economics and the other a social worker. They had a lively conversation with us about art, culture and communism too. We say to the doctor he should come to SA and work there, he will come back to Bulgaria owning a Masserati after a few years. He is a doctor in the military state health, and he is not paid very well.
An old and very serious man joined us along the way and the mood in the compartment immediately changed. I asked him what he did, he said he is retired and he was a clerk! I say a communist clerk! He nods! He says very little and we assume he does not understand a word, but then later he joined our conversation in perfect English! Now I think:- Aha...KGB spy.
The youth are heavy into Arts and Culture, in Plovdiv we attended a ballet, free again, for the youth and by the youth! Little girls from 4 years old onwards danced with joy!
The Spas in Bulgaria are hugely popular, you can buy the mineral water in the shops, the most favourite brands are Bevin and Hissar; renowned spa towns one can visit are Velingrad, Sandanski and Hisar.
5 regions of different traditional music exists and the most popular is
Kanarite
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34yEwDMXSlE&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Nikolina Chakrdakova is also an absolute favourite
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsn7xy7rAIs&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Some more modern music that is popular with the youth too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRmiuo94rtY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
They all listen to www.last.fm/user/breslava as this is their favourite radio station
Food = Tripe!!! Yes they eat everything, the reason for that:- during the Communist regime, there was serious food shortages. The Taxi driver remembers waiting for 5 hrs with a ticket for bread in that time, there was nothing in the shops. People became self sufficient and everyone still does intensive gardening, they all have amazing vegetable gardens! Every garden is a food garden too!
Compelling writers are Elin Pelin, Aleko Konstantinov and the poet Ivan Vazov's. Vasov's revolutionary poetry can be found between paving in parks.
The artist Vladimir Dimitrov - the Master, lost control of his right hand and started painting with his left hand.
"Our president" says the economist; "claims that he doesn't have a wife, but he has one, he just doesn't show her on the tv!" Perhaps Zuma can take some tips from him.
Miles and miles of forest belongs to private owners, the government or municipalities.
"Daar is soveel vuurhoutjie fabrieke! Almal rook verskriklik, oud en jonk, dun sigarette, die beste besigheid om te hê in Bulgaria" sê ma!
We find so many similarities between Bulgarian and Afrikaans, words like ballet, meubele for meubels and Nommer and even Pelikane, Oog and tee!
The youngsters are proud of the Rose oil, White cheese yogurt (that mom now eats with honey for breakfast),
Wood carving and the Cyrillic alphabet.
Their national flower is the pink rose and their national bird is a pink pelican.
About buying flowers:
If you buy flowers in even numbers it is meant for a funeral, in odd numbers it is for friends! No wonder the lady looked at dad funny when he bought us the 2 roses in Sofia.
About the dogs:
There are 11 thousand dogs in Sofia alone, I mean dogs on the streets. They are well fed and tagged, in Plovdiv we saw no dogs, just the no dog sign, iso dogs we saw loads of cats!
The Bulgarian ladies have beautiful hair. We train pass Wig factories, they sell their long hair for good money and their hair is turned into wigs that sell all over the world.
We see so many chimneys in the towns, and the kids say it is for hot water!
Pa sê; 'paaie is goed geteer en kyk net hoe staan die koring en die sonneblomme. Kan jy glo dat die paaie
op marmer uitgelê is, en al die dorpe se oorsprong is na aan riviere en marmer. En die klein trekkertjies met 'n een of twee skaar ploeg! Baie silos, baie graan. Kyk nou net die lelikste dakke hier wat in mekaar val!
You will pay 20000 euro for small apartment and 125 euro for a hectare of land.
Solar, the doctor claims is their best product.
We see loads of people fishing. Hunting is a sport only for a rich guy, the taxi driver says.
And finally we saw loads and loads of twins!!! Bulgaria is the land of twins, in one afternoon stroll we saw 8 sets of twins...must be something in the water!
No comments:
Post a Comment