Issue 73

Plovdiv's claim to be the Bulgaria's most diverse and cosmopolitan city can be spread not only over the peoples who used to live, or are still living, in it. The diversity covers also the heavens above. A short walk round the historical core of the city leads you to temples of many different religions and denominations.

Some of them have been here for centuries, other have resurfaced after long periods of sometimes forced hibernation. And, of course, there are the recent "immigrants."

The best way to enjoy in (relative) solitude Ephesus, one of the cultural, archaeological and tourism gems of Turkey, is to come in autumn. In the summer, the crowds can get a little overwhelming. They pour in from opening to closing times, busload after busload after busload of organised tours. They queue to be photographed sitting on the ancient Roman public lavatory.

Many branches of the arts are struggling in the current economic climate, but there are still examples of culture that show how, with courage and vision, much is possible. The international Sofia Poetiki Festival is one. Since 2010 it has attracted prominent artists from Bulgaria and abroad, creating an ingenious mixture of poetry, prose, dance, theatre and performance. The man behind Sofia Poetiki is a poet and writer himself, Yassen Atanassov.

At 64 and in remarkably good shape Karel van Kesteren, the Dutch ambassador, seems to be at equal ease riding his 25-year-old Yamaha Maxim 700cc motorbike in Sofia and up the Iskar Gorge, sitting behind his desk in the elegant Dutch Embassy near the Doctor's Garden, and lobbying in the Bulgarian parliament for the adoption of important pieces of legislation such as the Illegal Assets Forfeiture Act. By some twist of fate we are meeting on the exact day when 38 years ago Van Kesteren started his diplomatic career at the Dutch Foreign Ministry.

Travelling in Bulgaria can become a surreal experience when you look at the expensive cars parked in front of shabby apartment buildings, at the stunning landscapes dotted with relics from either Antiquity or Communism, and when overwhelming hospitality alternates with plain rudeness and paranoid suspicion.

Few places in Bulgaria, however, can rival Dimitrovgrad in strangeness. It seems to epitomise best the three main characteristics of 21st Century Bulgaria outside the gated communities and the five-star spa hotels: chalga, tackiness and post-Communist destitution.

While the details of the latter seem to be well-known at least internationally, the reasons for and the exact sequence of events leading up to the former remain, at best, contentious.

Up until the beginning of 1943 the Bulgarian Government was preparing itself for the implementation of the Wannsee Conference guidelines to exterminate Europe's Jews.

1. Which emblematic monument in Sofia was removed from its place for restoration, causing an outcry for reported incompetence?


A. The statue of St Sofia


B. The Soviet Army monument


C. The Tsar Osvoboditel, or Liberator King, monument



2. Which movie stars visited Bulgaria for the shooting of Killing Time?


A. Robert de Niro and John Travolta


B. Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Aniston


I told my wife on the telephone I was coming back. I would be catching the bus in an hour's time and by the evening I'd be at home. I wasn't home that evening because – albeit unwilling – I was duty bound to catch another bus which drove me in a completely different direction. Come off it, I told myself, stop mucking about. Get the job done and get home! Sometimes I talk to myself. My wife rang and I explained what had happened. She believed me and said she loved me very much. And I love her very much too. Later I'll let her read these words from the story.

Even the casual walker through the streets of Sofia will immediately notice the many eyesores dotting the city. Death notices and small ads compete for space on lamp posts. Derelict buildings cohabit with rusty newspaper stands and stalls of street vendors selling cheap socks and underwear. Rubbish blooms in the planters originally meant for greenery.

You have probably visited Perperikon, the mighty fortress inhabited for millennia and hailed as the site of the famous oracle of Dionysus, where the destinies of Alexander of Macedon and Augustus were foretold. It is now popular to use it as evidence of the ancient and sophisticated culture of what is now Bulgaria.

The Rhodope, however, is home to a site which can rival Perperikon in importance, grandeur and charm. Gluhite Kamani, or Deaf Rocks, about 13 kilometres by car from Lyubimets is much less crowded. There, the Thracians created a rock sanctuary about 3,000 years ago.

One recent example was the remark made by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov when Bulgaria and the United States approved an agreement to counter serious crime and terrorism.

Its source was their clock tower. 

Built in 1814, it was the highest man-made structure in the town and was measuring the time with impeccable accuracy.

Today, the tower is still the focal point of local pride. Thanks to the efforts of a local man, it still works as it had been doing for almost two centuries.

Where in Bulgaria are you?

In its short post-Communist history Bulgaria has tried, with varying success, to slough off elements of its past and its behaviour as a Balkan nation where Communist-era propaganda used to distort or ban outright any public debate. These elements include, but are not limited to, the historically controversial figure of King Boris III, Bulgaria's last king. A war-time ally of Hitler, he was father to Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the country's prime minister in 2001-2005.

I am not a joker. I am a big joker.

Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov

GERB without populism is like a tribe of cannibals declaring a fast.

Sofia City Councillor Rosen Milanov (BSP)

While Greece and Turkey developed their tourist markets, Bulgaria has remained stuck in a netherworld of beer, chips and some of the most gruesome souvenir dolls on the planet.

The Independent in London