Bulgarian Experiences: Plovdiv and Celebrations

I love visiting Plovdiv, and I never tire of learning about its history. A friend visited recently and we took the free walking tour of this ancient city 20 km from my town. I learned that this statue I've passed by many times is their "Peace Memorial" according to our guide and is the monument of Gyuro Mikhailov. It represents a man doing his duty right to the end, even if others consider it pointless. This soldier stood his post and died sweeping the building he guarded. That does seem rather pointless, doesn't it?

Historians have traced Plovdiv's history back 6000 years. It was settled on seven hills. This photo was taken from Nebet Tepe, one of the hills which has the remains of a very early settlement.

This monument of the Unknown Soviet Soldier (on top of the hill on the right and close-up below) is dedicated to the Russian soldiers who died fighting the Nazi in the "Great Patriotic War." It's also a good guide to help a foreigner get through the city without getting too lost.

There is always street entertainment in Plovdiv, but we never expected this, and they were playing beautiful Native American music. They called it "Mohican." They looked authentic but spoke fluent Bulgarian.

A new area of Roman ruins recently opened up. I have to wonder how all these things got buried in the first place.

Utility bills have soared here the past year, and people are protesting all over the country to let the politicians and utility executives know they're unhappy. We watched from the sidelines.

Volunteers and teachers all over the country judged creative writing entries the first Saturday in March. Students aged 14-18 wrote essays on different topics, and we were amazed at the quality of their work. They are Bulgarian, but they wrote in English, and all were to be commended for their creativity and their knowledge of English grammar. In the Plovdiv area we had over 600 entries to judge. It took about ten hours, but we got the job done and had a good time doing it.

This is the time of year when there is much celebrating in Bulgaria. There was the Kukeri Festival and The Wine Festival (St. Trifon's Day) in February. The first day of March is "Baba Marta Day" when Bulgarians welcome spring by giving each other martinitzi, the red and white bracelets I wrote about last year. March 3 is the Day of Liberation from the Ottoman rule, and March 8 is International Women's Day which is celebrated with lots of flowers and partying. I didn't get as many flowers as the other teachers (probably because I don't teach as many kids), but I sure got a lot of martinitzi.