Get up, slaves of work

Bulgarians are different, different from Greeks. Bulgaria seems like a rougher place when it comes to social interactions.

Society

They just have a rough charm. Not that there is anything wrong with Bulgarians. I rather think something is wrong with the Greeks: how can anyone be so easygoing and relaxed 😂 In Bulgaria, people will also put you straight when you do something wrong, and even when you do nothing wrong. Really quite normal, and if you have not just spent a month in Greece, it would probably not even stand out.

Sofia

We first head to Sofia. There is not all that much to say about Sofia, but there is a nice anecdote: We go into Decathlon, where we meet Anna. She has a apricot toy poodle and exactly the same red hair as Alex, so we chat a bit. In the evening we are out in a completely different part of Sofia, and Anna crosses our path again. In other words: Sofia is a bit of a village. Quite likeable, really.

What is great about Sofia is that there is a lot of green space. You can make your way from park to park and avoid traffic that way. In the evening the parks are full of people, there are concerts everywhere and the atmosphere is great. Also cool are the many tiny shops, workshops and coffee places where young nerds try to turn their hobby into a job. A very interesting mix of young, creative, and also a lot of history and tradition.

Economy

I would put it like this: Bulgaria has a massive maintenance backlog. People seem to be doing well, but the infrastructure and many of the buildings are in really bad shape. The old Soviet-era trams regularly clog up the whole tram network because they keep breaking down and have to be pushed aside by a more modern model. That is hard for me to understand, the changeover was a good generation ago now, and infrastructure and house building are actually good business. It cannot really be down to money either: with debt at 22% of GDP, Bulgaria has the second lowest debt burden in the EU. On 1 January Bulgaria adopted the euro, and recently it sent the old corrupt oligarch government packing. Maybe something will finally happen now?

Overland

From Sofia we drive to Plovdiv and from there on to Tryavna, always heading toward Bucharest where we will arrive on the 16th. The landscape reminds us a little of home, it is very green and very fertile.

We also absolutely have to pass one of my “once-in-a-lifetime visit marker” places: Buzludzha Monument. Soviet brutalism at its finest. Unfortunately, you can no longer go inside because of the risk of collapse. I really hope the Bulgarians manage to save this beauty.

*This blog post has been automatically translated by a Large Language Model.