March 12, 2018
The hotel owner called a taxi to take me to Kazanlak in the morning (we were able to communicate in French) (1). The Balkan Mountains end quote abruptly on the south side: steep mountains, followed immediately by broad plains. There were tanks crossing the road about 10 miles outside Kazanlak and the taxi driver pointed to some hills to the east and said "pow, pow" indicating a firng range. About 1/2 hour later in Kazanlak, I heard rumbles in the distance signalling that the tanks had begun their firing exercises (2).
A Thracian Tomb was uncovered in Kazanlak during Would War 2, while excavating an air raid shelter. The tomb dates to the 4th century B.C.E., when the Thracians ruled much of what is today Bulgaria, Northern Greece and European Turkey (3). There was an exact replica of the tomb built a few meters away to allow visitors to experience the tomb without damage to the original (4).
On the way to the train station, I stopped by the Rosarium (rose garden), which did not look like much, as it was still late winter. The majority of the world's rose oil (used in perfumes, etc.) comes from this area of Bulgaria.
I was sharing a compartment on the train with a young woman and older man. Another man joined us, who looked like he had been hiking and camping for the weekend. He soon pulled out a long knife (with a blade about 15 inches long). He passed the knife to the others in the compartment who took a look. I demurred about touching the knife, but he insisted that I at least look at the blade, which was labelled A-K 47, CCCP (5). As he left the compartment, he asked for a high four (6). While I do not know what my compartment mates were saying, they had a look of relief (as I'm sure I did) when machete man got off the train at the next stop.
Upon arrival at Sofia, I noticed that high, snow-capped Mount Vitosha looms over the city to the south (7).
There was a show tonight at a small theater near the center of town (Serdika) (8) called Teetaneechno, after the Titanic. While it was in Bulgarian, music was also on tap, so I got a ticket. The performance consisted of a 1960s-style Jazz Quintet with a female vocalist. She sang songs (mostly in English) while video from Hollywood movies was projected onto a screen. The video included bits of the 1990s movie Titanic, converted to black and white. There were occasional monologues (in Bulgarian) that the audience thought were hilarious. I had no clue what was happening, but laughter is infectious (9). During two songs, the female vocalist left the stage only to appear in black and white interposed through special effects in the scenes from old movies. In one, she was imitating a young Raquel Welch suggestively disrobing, but the singer did things like get her zipper caught and her boots stuck. In another scene, plates on the Titanic fall off the shelves of the sinking liner while she tries to pick them back up. The whole show was a bit odd, but great fun.
(1) I have found that most people over 50 or so in Bulgaria (who came of age during the Communist era) do not speak English, but do have some knowledge of French. The younger generations tend to speak English as their second language.
(2) From the train later, I saw more military vehicles and soldiers marching, suggesting some military exercise was going on. Bulgaria is now a member of NATO.
(3) The European portion of Turkey is often called Thracian Turkey, as distinct from Asian, or Anatolian Turkey.
(4) The tomb is rather small and even well-intentioned visitors would have difficulty not touching the walls which would damage the original paintings. Scholars can visit the original tomb.
(5) It did not make sense to me that a long knife would be labelled with the name of an assault rifle. I subsequently discovered that the knife was not a relic from Bulgaria's days as a Soviet ally; they are made in China and can be bought on Amazon.
(6) One of his fingers was missing, presumably from a knife accident.
(7) I have been to Sofia twice before, but it was always raining or snowy, obscuring the view to the south.
(8) Serdika was the Roman name for Sofia. The city adopted its present name from the most prominent church on the city.
(9) "Laughter is the shortest distance between two people" - Attributed to Victor Borge.
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