Welcome to the Bulgaria page!

I went to Bulgaria in September of 1997 to be married to Toni in her hometown of Plovdiv. Plovdiv is the country's second largest city and dates back thousands of years...before the Ottoman Empire, before the Romans controlled it (they called the city Trimontsium), before the Macedonians called it Phillipopolis.
Marriage day!
Old ladies are mixing a stew in preparation for a feast at Bachkovo Monastery. A live sheep and chickens were a few yards away.
With the breakup of agricultural communes, many farmers have gone back to hand labor. Grass spread out to dry in the streets is a common sight in the smaller towns. The high walls are typical of mountain villages, to protect against marauders, wild animals and Turks.
This is a house owned by the whole village, and people would rent it for a day to make their rakia (a strong drink). This has the traditional stone roof and stone walls.
Rila Monastery is the heart and soul of the Bulgarian Orthodox church, nurturing the Bulgarian faith during the reign of the oppressive Ottoman Empire. This shows some of the murals of the main church.
The East-German-made Trabant (or Trabi, for short), has a two-cylinder, two-cycle engine (with a gas/oil mixture, making it smell like a lawnmower), with pressed fiberboard shell and barely room for four, altho I saw 7 in one. This larger station wagon version is the poor man's VW Bug.
Veliko Turnovo was the country's capital during the Golden years of the second Bulgarian kingdom (12th to 14th centuries, AD). Much of the city, as seen here, is built at the cliff's edge.

More miscellaneous information:

Bulgarians have their own language, a slavic tongue similiar to Russian. Bulgarians were the originators of the Cyrillic alphabet (used by Russia, the Ukraine, and other E. European countries). Saints Cyril and Methodius, two Bulgarian brothers and monks, designed the alphabet on the will of the king, so that Bulgaria could be a Christian nation in 892 A.D.

Bulgaria was a major power at that time, taking the place (politically and geographically) of what used to be called Thrace, and having a history that Americans sometimes mix with the Greeks (the Oracle at Delphi was really in Bulgaria). Bulgaria was ruled by the Romans before their first golden age, then their power was usurped, and then had a second golden age, before being overrun by the Ottoman Empire after the collapse the Crusades. Bulgaria was then controlled by the Turks, sometimes harshly, before the Russians drove them out in the late 1800's as part of the Russo-Turkish conflicts.

In recent years, Bulgaria sided with the Germans in both world wars, which wasn't good for them politically or economically. In WWII, however, it should be noted that the Bulgarians refused to export their Jews to the German concentration camps. King Boris died of a 'heart attack' 3 days after telling Hitler this. After the war, it became a communist country, aligned closely with Russia, and has had troubles adapting to a free enterprise economy. They export much of the world's rose oil, are known for fine wine, Black Sea resorts and even downhill skiing (as well as handguns - maybe this is why the upset gold medalist in the women's biathlon at Nagano was a Bulgarian). For details, you can look at www.Bulgaria.com, among other sites.

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