Sliven, Bulgaria
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2005
1
13
16
Trip End
May 24, 2006
Sliven,
Bulgaria
Monday, May 15, 2006
Flying to Bulgaria
My flight to Sofia had a connection through Budapest, Hungary and so the plane flew straight northeast from Rome. I was really surprised to see lots of very high, snow-covered mountains right next to the sea on the eastern Italian coast. I guess those are the Appenines and there was still plenty of snow on them in mid-May.
Most of the Eastern Europeans I know have this way selling where they live whenever they talk about it. "You should come in the spring, it's very beautiful and the women are very beautiful and the sea is beautiful..." So I guess somehow I had gotten it into my head that if I went to Bulgaria in the spring (May), it would be a completely different place than I had seen it previously in December and January
Beautiful downtown Sliven, Bulgaria
. Well, it is different because the air is warmer, the trees are green, and the air's a little cleaner (but not much)... but Bulgaria is still Bulgaria. There's still huge potholes in the roads, missing sidewalks, stray dogs, trash on the ground everywhere, and just this savage, decayed, we're too tired to fix things up feeling. But on the other hand all the things that have appealed to me about Bulgaria still hold true. There's a bit more of a cultural life going on in summer than in winter. I love how much music the Bulgarians have surrounding them all the time. There's like 4 free music channels on TV in Bulgaria, all with either pop music or pop-folk (Chalga). Even MTV is free in Bulgaria. I went with some people to a concert with Dicho (Di4o in Bulgarian shorthand), the hip hop group Absurd, and some young blond singer whose name I can't remember. There's all these exotic and beautiful dancing girls on the stage, all super confident and powerful looking, prancing onto stage with short skirts and long ponytails and then prancing off again to change into another short skirt backstage.
I actually met Dicho once, in 2004, when he was the lead singer for D2 (deh dve). He was so excited to meet an American and he asked me how he did when he sang songs in English but I wasn't very impressed
Carandila chairlift
. His Bulgarian songs are really, really good though. Here's a music video for D2, Az i Ti: (video)
He was planning to take D2 to New York and Chicago and he wanted me to try and arrange venues for the band. Well he was kind of wasting his breath on me since that's not really my thing but I think it's funny now, especially since last year he dumped D2 to start his solo career as a little bit more of a hip hop singer than a guitar pop singer. His big song in the last few months has been "Az Nyamam Chef" which means "I Have No Boss." The video for the song has lots of big-chested dancing girls in bikinis, Dicho with a cigar in his hand and singing "I don't have a 'chef'"... this same guy who was begging me to be his tour organizer.
The blond singer whose name I can't remember had this really cool dance that was like the hip hop girls but in slow motion. Her skirt would flip up with every beat and all the guys and girls in the crowd would go crazy. Then there was the group Absurd, who are huge in Bulgaria with their Beastie Boys kind of style with political lyrics. I'm sure I would have appreciated it more if I could have understood what they were saying
the Bulgarian pop group D2
. It's funny to me how somethings I hear in Bulgarian are absolutely clear as day to me, as clear as if they were in English but then other times I have no idea what people are saying. Well I stayed a couple weeks in Bulgaria but started to go crazy again because I felt like I was slipping into the lifestyle too much. What I mean by that is the pace in Bulgaria is almost too slow for me to be comfortable... sleep late, take your time, go get a coffee, walk around, talk to friends, sip some drinks, maybe go to class, maybe work a little on stuff. I kept feeling stagnant so I tried to go out running a couple of times. Well the thing is, Bulgaria's not very good for running unless you have a car to get out into the mountains or country or something. All these people kept telling me "Watch out for the dogs!" And they were right! There were so many stray dogs around that running past them would start their chase instinct so I had to trick quite a few dogs into leaving me alone. That and there's no good sidewalks, the air's dirty, and everyone (literally) was staring at me whenever I ran. I'm quite sure that nobody exercises in Bulgaria unless they are training for the Olympics and are rich or something. Well I heard of one girl that went jogging in Sofia but she never came back because she got attacked by a stray dog. I just feel like it's hard to live a really healthy or active lifestyle in Bulgaria. But they sure eat healthy, and drink (very slowly) a lot of alcohol. Stress control, I guess.
