Thoughts about Bulgaria

It has taken us a while to understand Bulgaria.

But before the post, just a note to let you know the maps have been updated, and show us leaving Hungary. We have also added a new map showing our favourite places, and less so ones, with links back to the posts. Hope you enjoy.

Susana and Gary

We have been in this country for ten days and we have seen quite a lot of it: countryside, mountains, cities, villages, coast… As usual, we have been observant and looked for something distinct but nothing had impressed us.

However, we are travellers. We think the world is an amazing place. Everything, absolutely everything is worth visiting, and Bulgaria is not an exception. So we gave ourselves time to reflect, these are the highlights of the country:

The landscapes

Quite frankly, there is nothing special about Bulgarian landscapes. Yes, they are green, even at this time of the year, but we didn’t find anything dramatic, like gorges, deep valleys, alpine forest, etc. Bulgaria has high mountains. But even the drive through them has not been particularly breath-taking.

I disagree, the drive on the first day to Bansko was incredible, deep valleys with dark green pine trees, quite alpine in character. GDR

The mountains

Bulgaria has quite a few national parks with very high peaks. We climbed Vihren and attempted to climb Musala (the highest of the country). The former wasn’t a beautiful peak, although it was quite challenging. The latter was a stunning mountain. Shame the conditions weren’t good when we attempted to summit it.

The head of the valley here was also amazing. GDR

The villages

Bulgaria is quite rural. Villages roads are not in very good condition. Agriculture lacks mechanisation. There is still a huge amount of manual work involved in the growing of crops.

The people

We had heard that Bulgarians spoke excellent English and that they were very friendly and helpful. The former is only true of Bulgarians who work for tourists, such as hotels, travel agencies and touristic sights. I am not English, I don’t assume that everyone can speak the international language. If they can’t I either try Spanish or use gestures. The latter normally works, it has worked for millions years.

With regard to friendliness and helpfulness, we have a different view from what we’ve heard. Don’t take us wrong, when you ask for help anywhere in the world, you get it. But Bulgarians are not precisely the most outgoing. We have found them distant and reserved in their approach. This is particularly true in villages and towns, where they are most likely to be unfamiliar with foreigners.

The capital

To be completely honest with you Sofia was never going to win any awards for beauty. But it is well-worth visiting. The city still keeps vivid remains of the communist system and if you walk along backstreets, you can find quirky sights (refer to our post).

Gambling

We have noticed a large number of casinos both big and small that are located all over Bulgarian cities. We think that gambling is a wasteful and unproductive way of spending your money, but I guess it is very tempting to get into it when you don’t have much of it.

Prostitution

We have seen quite a few prostitutes on the sides of the roads of Bulgaria. Sometimes, every few metres. They stand alone or they cluster in groups. We later found out that prostitution is not illegal in Bulgaria. This doesn’t make it better. Bulgaria is one of the poorest countries in Europe, and whilst some women might freely choose to earn their living in this way, it could still be the only, easy choice they have. I bet some women may still be exploited by pimps which, by the way, which we learnt that it is thankfully illegal.

In summary

Compared to Albania or Macedonia, we found Bulgaria is not in a particularly hurry to develop and catch up with the years it lost under communism. This may change if they become more integrated in the EU. But it seems likely they just want to take it easy. And that’s fine. The EU has proved on many occasions not to be the European dream that East European countries think it is (ask the Greeks). Maybe Bulgaria has already realised that.

SM