Hiking to the Madara Rider

June 6, 2022

The front/obverse of Bulgarian Stolinki coins (1) depicts the Madara (2) Rider, a cliff-face carving above the village of Madara, southwest of Varna on the rail line to Shumen.

After walking through Varna's sea-side Primorski Park (3), I caught the train heading inland and was the only passenger who alighted at Madara. Finding my way in the village was easy: there is basically only one road and I needed to go uphill.

A stone staircase leads to the cliff face, carved in the 800s C.E., during Bulgaria's first empire period. The carving depicts a man on horseback having just vanquished a lion, followed by his faithful dog (4). Pictures do not do justice to the artistry of the 1,200 year-old bas-relief carving.

A trail leads further up the cliff face through an irregular series of stone steps to the top of the escarpment (5). Here an old fort guarded the approaches to the First Empire capital at Pliska and the broad, rich agricultural land north of the Balkans.

The sweeping views from the escarpment to the villages and farmland below, and across to the Shumen escarpment, explain the military significance of the site. The vistas were enhanced when the sun poked through the clouds.

I walked along the ridge top to a viewpoint facing southwest (6). I heard voices across a cleft in the cliff and a woman appeared on the cliff face opposite me. I noted a somewhat overgrown path that appeared to go the right way (and stayed away from the cliff edge) and proceeded with caution.

After a few minutes down the narrow path, I encountered a woman hiking (the only other person I had encountered on the ridge so far). I mustered my best "zdravete/hello" (7) and she raised one finger in the universal sign for "wait a minute." There was a group of four woman hiking and their leader emerged, asking in English if there were another way down besides the irregular stairs we had come up (8). She showed me a map on her phone indicating the presence of cave monasteries in the area that she was looking for. Judging by the topography, they would be close, but a hundred feet or more down the cliff face. 

Their leader indicated that there was a viewpoint just past where we were chatting (the same one where I had seen her earlier). The views there invited lingering. I had a snack and enjoyed the scenery while watching swallows of some kind dining on the wing, and bees gathering pollen from small purple flowers.

Later, back down by The Rider, I saw the guide and her four friends; we exchanged mutual thumbs up. A class field trip was also there with the teachers taking action shots of the kids jumping in front of the cliff carving, which the emerging sunshine now had revealed in richer detail.

I stopped at a souvenir booth for some postcards, but the shopkeeper did not sell stamps. "Post office in Madara?" (Поща мадара?) I asked in my pidgin Bulgarian. She laughed incredulously as if to say Madara is way too small for a post office. "Varna, Shumen, Sofia" have post offices, go there (9).

Back down to the station for the afternoon local train to Varna. I always feel better when other passengers show up when I'm waiting for a train, suggesting that I had not misread the train schedule. While I waited alone, I was comforted when the road crossing gates descended at the right time, signalling an approaching train. I hopped on, opened a few windows using all of my (limited) upper body strength to budge the windows on the ancient train and enjoyed the ride back to Varna.

Overall, the hike was 4 or 5 miles long, with a 900 foot vertical rise. History, culture, nature, hiking, train rides and a quick dip in the warm waters of the Black Sea at the end; a good day.

(1) For context, the 50 Stolinki coin is currently worth about 28 US cents. The main unit of currency in Bulgaria is the Leva, divided into 100 Stolinki. There are also 1, 5, 10, and 20 Stolinki coins, all depicting the rider on the obverse.

(2) Pronounced with the stress on the first syllable: MAH-da-ra.

(3) Established in 1878 during Bulgaria's national revival period and roughly akin to Boston Public Gardens (established around the same time), although Varna's Promorski park is much larger, stretching about five miles along the sea.

(4) Looking closer at the coins, I noticed they omitted the dog from the image on the coins.

(5) While the stone steps were not slippery from the overnight rain, the air was heavily saturated with moisture, making me huff and puff more than usual in the humid air.

(6) My mild fear of heights and general clumsiness kept me a respectful distance from the cliff edge.

(7) "Zdravete" to be polite and greet people in their own language. "Hello" to indicate that I do not speak Bulgarian.

(8) Their guide was hoping for an alternative path back down (and spoke English well and with some subtlety): "I'm trying to keep the ladies alive with hope of an easier way down" (a).

(a) Ironically, if I had not heard their voices across the chasm, I probably would not have ventured this far myself.

(9) The post office in Varna is right near the train station. After making my way through the many packages on the floor waiting to be picked up, I pointed to where the stamp would go on the postcard, said "America" in my best Bulgarian accent and indicated how many cards I had. The clerk demonstrated the requisite combination of three stamps necessary for each card by pasting them to one of my postcards. Curious, I said "Engliski: 'stamp'; Bulgarski?" "Марки" (MAR-key) she replied with a smile, giving the plural form.

The morning train to Kaspichan, connecting to Madara

The Madara Rider

Climbing the escarpment

At the top

The fortress

There's an old saying:

"He who would keep a secret must keep it a secret that he hath a secret to keep."

Not so much here

View across the cleft from first viewpoint

Venturing down the overgrown path

Looking back to the first viewpoint

The village of Madara

Views from second viewpoint, worth lingering for.

Bee gathering pollen at second viewpoint

Flower on escarpment

Climbing down

A Martenitsa (10) on the trail

The Rider in the sun

The vanquished lion, somewhat eroded

Detail of the dog

They left the dog off the coins

At the Madara station road crossing

View back to the cliffs ftom the train station

The train arrives on time at Madara

I managed to manhandle a few windows open

Вечна Слава (Eternal glory) to the Bulgarian Communist Party.

Relic of former days in Promiski Park (11)

A refreshing dip in the Black Sea at dusk

(10) In March 1, Bulgarians greet their friends with "Честита баба марта" ("Chestita Baba Marta," Happy Grandmother March) and exchange Martenitsi (red and white yarn bracelets) which they wear until they see a flowering tree, on which they hang the Martenitsa. I presume the one on the path fell from a nearby tree.

(11) In Sofia, the former Communist monuments, statues, etc have been moved to a museum. The monument here in Varna was probably too big to move

Kayaking on the Black Sea

June 5, 2022

Today started early with the local train from Burgas to Varna. After heading inland to Karnobat (1), the train uses the easternmost rail route through the Balkans, which is a gentler ride than the two lines through the mountains further west. 

Approaching Varna, there is a narrow deepwater inlet (2) (called Varna Lake) with extensive port facilities that extends some 15 miles inland, the sight of which signalled our arrival back at the Black Sea.

I had been in touch with Galin (owner of a local kayak company) about a paddle in Kavarna, about an hour northeast of Varna in the southern Dobruja Oblast/Region of Bulgaria (3). The original plan was to go on June 6, but the weather forecast was for thunderstorms and higher winds that day, so Galin convinced me to go today and even arranged to have a couple who also planned to paddle today drive me up from Varna.

Kiril and Petia kindly met me at the train station and we headed north. Kiril had studied marine engineering in Varna. His wife showed me pictures of a metal helmet and battering ram from Roman sea battles with Carthigians. Kiril was on a marine archeology team that had found the artifacts off Sicily. The couple were married in the charming central Bulgarian town of Veliko Tarnovo. 

Suddenly, Kiril's car (a diesel Audi) sputtered and began to spew smoke. The car limped off the road and he popped the hood. We did the guy thing of looking at each other for ideas. I just shrugged. There was nothing to be done; they called Galin to cancel the tour and handed me the phone. Galin suggested I could hitch-hike up the coast (4). I just walked to the street to hail a cab (5). The driver raised an eyebrow when I gave Kavarna as the destination, which was about 40 miles away (6).

Arriving in Kavarna, Galin was easy to find; the town is small and he had kayaks on his car roof. We drove further north to Bolata Beach (7) and launched the boats, accompanied by Christian (8), a local teenage boy. We paddled past Cape Kaliakra then turned west back towards Kavarna, where Galin's girlfriend (Francesca) had gone with the car. After weathering the cape, Galin was concerned about the waves coming from two directions associated with a shift in the wind, but it didn't phase me much (maybe 2 foot seas), so we pressed on. 

A cacophony of sound emerged from the cliffs. It's nesting season for cormorants, pink starlings (9), and bee-eaters, which nest on the narrow beaches at the base of the cliffs. We stopped for a break at a small rocky beach only accessible from the sea, after which I saw a baby dolphin bobbing on the surface that had not survived.

A few hundred yards from shore at the end of our 9 mile paddle, I saw lightning strike inland and picked up my pace. We arrived just before the storm.

Because of the delays getting started, I missed the last bus back to Varna (which left at 5:40 p.m.; Kavarna is a small town). Kiril drove me his taxi-driver friend's house. His friend had already had a glass of rakia, so he called the other taxi driver in town who agreed to take me (and my wet clothes) back to Varna. While this was all happening, Francesca and I were eating white cherries we had just picked from the cabbie's tree; yum.

(1) The train takes a lot longer than the bus, which follows the hilly road along the coast. But the train is a much more comfortable ride.

(2) I would say tidewater, but tides are de minimus on the Black Sea. 

(3) The Danube flows west to east, forming a natural border between Bulgaria and Romania, before taking a sharp northward turn near Silistra. The region south of the Danube east of this sharp turn is called Dobruja and had a mixed Bulgarian/ Romanian population. Its status was settled after World War 2, when southern Dobruja was assigned to Bulgaria (a) (b).

(a) A castle formerly belonging to the Romanian king is in Balchik, Bulgaria.

(b) Later in the day, a taxi driver on the ride back to Varna told me his mother had to learn in Romanian when she was young because the whole territory was Romanian.

(4) I had noticed a bus stop nearby with "гара" (pronounced "gara" and meaning rail station) as the destination, and figured I could get back into town, which was my plan at this point.

(5) The main coastal road runs between Varna and the seaside resorts at Golden Sands, so cabs were frequent. 

(6) Taxis are cheap in Bulgaria. I was not sure if he was pleased with the fare, or disappointed he had to drive that far.

(7) It seemed incongruence to ponder that 250 to 300 miles (c) across the sea are Odessa and Kherson in Ukraine, between which lies the front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

(c) Less than the distance from Boston to Phildelphia.

(8) Christian (Chrish-TEE-ahn) likes to come along in a real kayak to paddle in something other than his inflatable (d) kayak.

(d) Francesca originally said "inflammable" kayak.

(9) Galin said he had not seen the Pink Starlings in 5 years. They vary their nesting location each year based on the food (insects) available at breeding time. There are apparently a lot of bugs on the coast of Bulgaria this year.

Burgas Station

It's poppy season in Bulgaria

The flowers grow in profusion along the railway

The powerful Skoda (10) electric engines from Czechoslovakia (11) dating to the  Communist era

Climbing the Balkans

Cleft in the mountains

Patiently waiting

View of the "wonderful rocks" formation from the train

Back at the sea

Bolata Beach

Setting out, North side of Cape Kaliakra

Rounding the cape

On the South Side

Approaching the beach stop

Storm clouds gathering over Kavarna

(10) The company still exists today, mainly making cars as part of the Volkswagen group.

(11) Czechslovakia (e) was an industrial and engineering leader in the former communist block in Eastern Europe (f). The engine felt like it could go from 0 to 60 at the speed of a Masarati.

(e) The country split into Czechia (a.k.a. The Czech Republic) and Slovakia in the 1990s.

(f) An old joke about a visitor to the Soviet Union being shown the country's modern marvels, many of Czechoslovak origin: "They must be great friends of the Soviet Union" the visitor says (meaning the visitor assumed Czechoslovakia was friendly because of all they gave to the Soviets), "Yes, they must," the Soviet guide responds (meaning the Czechoslovaks had no choice). 

The Amber Museum

June 4, 2022

I set out this morning to spend a couple of hours at the World War II museum in Gdansk, which opens at 10:00. Unfortunately, a pedestrian drawbridge near the museum also opened at 10:00, remaining open for boat traffic from 10:00 to 10:30 (1). While watching the boats go by, I decided to visit the smaller Amber Museum instead, given my limited time.

The Amber Museum is housed in the reproduction of a large mill dating from circa 1350 that was destroyed in 1945 (2). The museum was laid out simply. The first floor (3) presented the science of amber. Amber is preserved resin from ancient pine trees that fell into rivers flowing into the Baltic Sea. The wood rotted away, but the resin was preserved by the cold water temperatures (4), preserving many ancient bugs and leaves in the amber. The second floor presents the cultural history of amber, from pre-historic trade routes to modern jewellery.

This afternoon's flight to Burgas, Bulgaria boarded on time, but there was a 2 hour hold due to heavy air traffic over southeastern Poland, resulting from the closure of Ukrainian air space (5). The pilot decided to follow a more westerly (and less congested) route, which required more fuel to be loaded (6). The revised route took us directly over Budapest, from which we followed the Danube on the west/south bank of the river over Serbia (7), then the spine of the Balkans (8) to the Black Sea coast, where we landed only about 20 minutes late (9).

(1) If I had known, I could have taken an alternative route to the WWII museum.

(2) Gdansk was known as Danzig and was part of Germany when the Soviets invaded.

(3) Known as the second floor in North America. What's known as the first floor in North America is considered floor 0 in most of Europe

(4) A very simple, but very effective, cartoon movie targeted to kids (and unsophisticated adults like me) explains how amber was created.

(5) All flights from Northeast Europe to southeast Europe, the Middle East and Asia now pass through this choke point. As we passed, there were numerous thunderheads over Northwestern Romamia, further explaining the delay.

(6) Aircraft generally load enough fuel to get to their destination on the intended route, plus enough to get to the closest alternative airport, plus 10%. 

(7) Mark Reisner, in the preface to his book Cadillac Dessert (a), mentions how cities and mountains are dimished from the air, while rivers become grander as you get to see more of them. While I agree about rivers, I think mountain ranges also have a grandeur to them from the air.

(a) About dams and other water projects in the American Southwest.

(8) While also giving its name to the penninsula, the Balkans mountain range (b) runs west to east, dividing northern and southern Bulgaria.

(b) Known locally as Stara Planina (the old mountains).

(9) At immigration in front of me, there was a young mother with a  baby, who apparently did know have his/her own passport. I noted that the mother had a Ukrainian passport, so she and the baby were probably refugees (c).

(c) Most countries in Eastern Europe have a very welcoming policy to Ukrainian refugees. The National railway companies are also offering free rides.

1/2 hours for boats; 1/2 hour for pedestrians

Old-time espresso machine still in use

Plant and animal life preserved in amber

Madonna in amber, 16th century

Sluiceway beside the mill building/Amber Museum, Gdansk

Flower in Burgas

Dvořák's 8th Symphony in Gdansk

June 2, 2022

The flight from Boston to Copenhagen was above cloudy skies almost the whole way. Given the high lattitudes and it being June, it never got dark enough to see any stars.

A long layover allowed enough time to take the train to Helsinborg in Sweden, then the ferry back to Helsingor, Denmark (1) and a train back to the airport. The bracing air on the deck of the ferry was just the thing after a 7+ hour flight across the Atlantic.

The original plan had been to fly from Copenhagen to Gdansk, Poland then onto Burgas, Bulgaria. However, the Gdansk to Burgas flight was postponed by a day, so I spent the night in Gdansk (2). I hopped the train to the central city and discovered I could actually read a few Polish signs (3).

There was a symphony concert tonight at the Chopin/Baltic Hall. The evening opened with a Mozart violin concerto. The violin soloist appeared to be having a marvelous time, smiling and gesturing to the orchestra members. At the conclusion of the concerto, he performed some solo violin works which were not in the program, after talking for a while in Polish and (judging by the audience's reaction), telling a few jokes.

The second piece was a favorite of mine I had not heard live before: Dvorák's Symphony No. 8. Seeing it performed in person made me realize how many solo parts the piece had, which were acknowledged by the conductor singling out individual players during the applause at the end.

There was still sufficient daylight at 9:00 p.m. for a nice stroll through the city beside its rivers and canals. Gdansk seems to be a place where Polish people come for the weekend (4).

(1) Home of Hamlet.

(2) I had planned to spend the last two days of the trip here anyways.

(3) I probably knew at some point, but I was reminded that Polish is a Slavic language written in the Latin Alphabet (a), with various diacritical marks added to the letters. I noticed (mainly from context) that many Polish words have clear cognates in Bulgarian, but not in English or the Romance languages (b). For example: national, old, black, white, cheers, and bridge are all the same (or very close) in both languages (c).

(a) The Cyrillic alphabet (e.g., щ, ъ, ж) was created for early Bulgarian, a Slavic tongue.

(b) French, Spanish, Italian, etc. which derived from Latin, the language of Ancient Rome (hence "Romance language"). Some words used in Eastern Europe have clear French cognates, such as the words for Tickets in Polish, Bulgarian, Russian etc.

(c) Which basically exhausts my knowledge of Bulgarian.

(4) The signs include not hearing English on the streets (d) and the hotel rates being much higher on the weekends.

(d) Although I did see someone wearing a Nebraska T-shirt, a first for me. 

Breaking through the clouds on the ascent from Boston

The Faroe Island mountains poking through the clouds

Swedish Royal portraits on the ferry

Lighthouse on Swedish side

Combination Castle & lighthouse on the Danish side. The lighthouse has green and red zones to tell if you're in the channel or not

Sort of metro in Gdansk

Pomeranian flags

Baltic/Chopin Concert Hall

Pedestrian drawbridges

Sign tells the story

Twilight in Gdansk

I smelled the exhaust from the Trabant (Communist-era East German car) before I saw the car.