WHERE IN BULGARIA ARE YOU?

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WHERE IN BULGARIA ARE YOU?

WHERE IN BULGARIA ARE YOU?
Fri, 02/01/2008 - 11:40

You are just 30 miles outside Sofia and there is no sea nearby, but it feels as though you are on the Isle of Iona

where in bulgaria are you 17.jpg

You are surrounded by unusual, Celtic-looking crosses of all shapes and sizes, and your imagination might conjure up Medieval sagas of knights and monks better suited to Scotland or Ireland than the middle of the Balkans.

You are in one of Bulgaria's traditionally most backward and undeveloped regions, not a “real” tourist destination at all. Communism has had a stronghold here for a century: Georgi Dimitrov, Brigo Asparuhov and Georgi Parvanov were all born in the surrounding villages, and at present unemployment and social woes force the locals to come to Sofia in search of work.

All of the above did, with varying degrees of success. What remains, however, are the crosses – and the mysteries they hold.

Where in Bulgaria are you?

Issue 17

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