Bulgaria: Don’t Knock It Til You Try It

Clash of the Civilizations: the Antique Theater from Roman times and the Dzhumaya (Friday) Mosque in the middle of the old town. The mosque was built in the 15th century.

I sat on the empty platform waiting for the train to take me back to Plovdiv. The day was brutally hot, with a high of at least 40 degrees. Across the rusty train tracks overgrown with weeds were dilapidated, Communist.-era industrial buildings that sweated rust in the waning evening sun. I had been in Bulgaria for more than 24 hours, and yet that was the first time I had seen before me an industrial landscape that so perfectly fit my preconceived notions of what a post-Communist, Eastern European country should look like.

Not a Byzantine citadel or 15^th century Ottoman mosque in sight.

Indeed, southern Bulgaria defies many expectations. Sure, Stalinist cityscapes are there. But I didn’t realize just how Turkish – well, Ottoman – the region seemed. When I told Turkish friends and co-workers this, they shrugged it off and said “well, of course, it was Ottoman for hundreds of years!”

While this is true, it still came as a surprise to hear so many Turkish words used in a language spoken by Cyrillic-loving Slavs. Çanta (bag), masa (table), for example, and döner (lamb meet cooked on a rotating skewer) and işkembe (cow intestine soup) are staples in Bulgarian culture.

I think it’s because of a general Western ignorance toward just how influential the Ottomans were, but I just couldn’t shake that image of Bulgaria as a communist “little brother” to the Soviet Union, making toothpaste and fertilizer for them. To Turks, so proud of their history, the fact that the influence is so strong there is sort of a “duh!” to them but to this Occidental: well, I expected more pirogues and sauerkraut.

View from Clock Tower Hill looking northwest

Despite some rigid city planning outside the old town, Plovdiv is a pleasant and distinctly laid back city of 400,000 – laid back especially after Istanbul. It has no real vibrant nightlife – at least while the students are gone. Bulgaria has some great beers, leading one to wonder why they aren’t exported more. The whole town can be seen in about two days, either by foot or by its bike-friendly roads. Murals adorn walls and excavations are taking place. Its location is on a hot plain, yet the seven hills that thrust up from the city streets like giant wasp nests make it a perfect city from a strategic standpoint. The ethnographic museum gives a great look at the local culture. Old Ottoman houses nearby, two Roman theaters, and a smattering of convents and churches round out a Thracian vibe.

I spent a total of 12 waking, lucid hours touring the city and felt satiated. A great half day trip takes you to Asenovgrad, home of the aforementioned train platform. From the pleasant riverfront city center – where you can dip your legs or jump in one of the calm pools during the hot summer – it is a 2 kilometer hike up a busy country road to a Byzantine era castle ruins. The castle was once used to protect Byzantium from Slavs in the north.

One of various town murals. This one was right outside my hosts apartment.

But perhaps the best part of visiting Plovdiv was Couchsurfing with young Bulgarians. I stayed at a different place both nights. The first night I spent near the city center in an old, pre-communist little villa. The first host is a computer programmer who squeezed me into his schedule even though he was to attend a wedding on Saturday. We ate surprisingly tasty Chinese, and I chatted in Turkish with his clever girlfriend, who spoke Turkish in the home (it’s always fun to speak Turkish with foreigners who aren’t fluent; they are so much easier to understand!).

The second night I stayed with a very friendly, very tattooed and pierced peer who is an engineer at a local factory. This is how the other half lives in Plovdiv, I suppose. Whereas the first building in the old town predated communism – I think – this was a very Stalinist building in a newer part of town across the river. The commies knew a thing or two about water pressure! He has a nice river view, but the place is otherwise modest, in a giant grey block with vast staircases.

I am going to have a hard time staying at hostels alone after my first experience being hosted through couchsurfing.com. It is a great and safe way to get to know the city best: through the people who live there!

Maybe a ski vacation in Bulgaria is in the offing this winter…an Ottoman mountain lodge perhaps?