Ask acquaintances about their hobbies or leisure activities. They'll go blank for a moment as they think about what they do in their free time. After a few seconds, most people will offer a vague answer: “listening to music”, “reading”, “watching movies”. A few folks do have real hobbies, like paragliding, or collecting pre-World War II shoelaces, whatever.
One of the most popular images associated with Bulgaria is the Tsarevets Hill in Veliko Tarnovo. Proud Bulgarians regard it as one of the important symbols of their statehood – to the point that they have made it the centrepiece of a sound and light show. It served as the capital of the restored Bulgarian kingdom from the time of the liberation from Byzantine rule until the Ottoman conquest, a kingdom that at one point stretched between three seas.
There was a lack of female leaders. Women were working outside the home, but still tied to their traditional tasks of cooking, cleaning and child-rearing. Female students seemed to lack initiative.
There's a famous joke about a British tourist in Paris who, mustering his meagre schoolboy linguistic skills, ordered a citron presseé in a café. He was beginning to savour the prospect of a freshly squeezed lemon juice until the French waiter laughed and asked if he wanted a squashed car!
I don't go out of my way to hang out with other expats in my free time. Of course, there are a couple of bars in Sofia you can go to if you really need a conversation about football, or to reminisce about good ol' stuff from the old country, like meat pies, or Eastenders.
But chances are you're going to end up copping an ear-bashing from some tedious old property developer, or casino manager, who is much more interested in your girlfriend than your views on TV soaps, British pastry dishes, or Liverpool FC.
You may think that Bulgarians are non-violent, peace-loving people who hate sending troops to Iraq. You are wrong. Many Bulgarians believed that King Simeon's aggressive wars (see Vagabond 10) marked a high point in the country's history and that the 40 years of calm under his successor, King Peter, were a period of decline that actually led to the fall of Bulgaria under Byzantine rule. However, the long years of peace enabled the country to resist for decades before losing its political independence in 1018.
HALF A COUNTRY FOR A PRINCESS
I'm a great believer in the ancient wisdom: "Just love women. Don't try to understand them!" And that, I've found, goes double for Bulgarian women. But in the Vagabond tradition of courageous and insightful journalism, here goes.
I first experienced the charms of "The Bulgarian Woman" from 15,000 kilometres away. Here's what happened...
When I was given the opportunity, I had a hard time deciding whether or not to move to Bulgaria. What I knew about this country, before actually moving here, would have filled the back of a postage stamp.
Bulgarians often say that they straddle the divide between the East and the West. You can certainly see the evidence - they may have a European frame of mind and streets full of Western cars but Oriental bureaucracy and hygiene abound.
Many years ago a Frenchman, dining in a restaurant in the Golden Sands resort, vociferously demanded that the waiter should take away, s'il vous plait, the cold soup that he had served for lunch - and heat it. The waiter tried to dissuade him. So did the chef. But the man insisted and finally received the soup as he wanted it - warm.
NOT EXACTLY BARBARIANS
"The Bulgarians are not savages and barbarians!" Georgi Dimitrov said rhetorically in his defence speech at the Leipzig trial in 1934, when he was charged with setting the Reichstag on fire. The man who became Bulgaria's first Communist dictator 10 years later, unknowingly expressed the oldest and most deeply rooted conviction of the Bulgarians, namely that they are an exceptionally gifted and civilised people who should not be underestimated.
Across the road from the National Gallery in Sofia, there is a plaque on the wall of what is now the BNP bank but was once part of the Grand Hotel Bulgaria. It records that James David Bourchier, the Balkans Correspondent of the London Times, lived there from 1892 to 1920.
During the years when Bulgaria's membership of the EU seemed but a beautiful daydream people would often take comfort in the thought "So what! We've been Europeans for 1,300 years." In 681AD the Byzantine Empire had to make a treaty with a young, steadfast confederacy formed alongside the Danube and thus admit the political existence of Bulgaria. But the Bulgarians of the 7th Century were not exactly the Bulgarians you see today walking the streets of Sofia or Sozopol.
Chow Down, BG style.
Eat 100 percent Bulgarian-style for a day, just so you can say you did. Kick off in the morning with banitsa, an oily, cheesy pastry creation suitable for breakfast and roof insulation purposes only.
At lunch, have a gevrek. They're those bread-rings sold by old ladies on street corners. Possibly invented during the war, when fresh bread was unavailable, the idea kind of stuck, as a nostalgia thing. Chewier than old boots, you'll be munching away for hours.
You don't need to live long in Bulgaria to learn from your Bulgarian friends or from whatever scarce English language brochures you can get your hands on that the country boasts a rich history and an invaluable cultural heritage. It has been the birthplace of incredible generals and remarkable statesmen, an outpost against every foreign invasion into Europe and the cradle of at least a couple of great civilisations.
A cross from Jerusalem or a phial of water from the Jordan: these are the most likely souvenirs from the Holy Land that you will get if a Bulgarian friend of yours goes to Jerusalem for Easter. Whatever feelings you may have about such kinds of presents, bear in mind that you should congratulate the one who gives them to you with Chestito hadzhiystvo and address him at least once with "hadzhi".
Loftus, a member of Clinton's White House staff, political advisor on the Kerry campaign, reporter and friend of the late Hunter S Thompson, a tireless talker with an absurdist sense of humour, an infamous foul-mouth, and a healthy “spiritual revulsion” toward George Bush, had no experience in feature film making, but a hell of a lot of political credentials on his side.
Modern Bulgarians prefer speaking English rather than German - or at least they try to, but only 60 years ago it was a different story. Since the end of the 19th Century, Germany had been Bulgaria's major economic, political and military partner, a relationship established on the basis of Bulgaria's desire to break away from the Russian sphere of influence and the accession of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty to the throne. Because of the economic rise and successful military campaigns against their neighbours, the press dubbed the Bulgarians the "Prussians of the Balkans".
On Saint Patrick's Day everyone wants to be Irish, or so they say. All over the world, from Sydney to San Francisco, people will put on something green and take to the streets to cheer colourful and goodhumoured parades. However improbable, for over a decade such events have been annual fixtures in Moscow and Tokyo.
At some stage during your stay in Bulgaria you are bound to have a close encounter with what over the past 16 years has come to be regarded as Bulgaria's most popular art form: chalga. Your first experience of chalga may come as early as your cab ride from the airport to downtown Sofia. Soon you will find out that chalga is everywhere. Cabbies love it, it deafens customers in many an eatery, it blares out of school windows during breaks and, of course, it fills disco dance floors.
It is the autumn of 1898. A pastor climbs with heavy footsteps down from the pulpit. A minute earlier his sermon had been interrupted. Girls are sobbing and crying, distressed by the sardonic laughter and loud voice of a young man. The pastor throws out the drunken troublemaker who continues ranting and raving in the street.