Bulgarian Life under Communism

The Communists discouraged celebrating Christmas by playing the best TV shows on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  That way the children would resist going to church for the services, usually with a grandmother or other old relative.  They usually showed Westerns, made in India with German producers and stars, “Achtung, fella!”  Five days later the children celebrated the coming of Grandfather Coal, who put gifts  under the New Year’s tree.

                        Those who regularly attended church had the fact that they were religious stamped on their ID card.  This affected everything: their employment, their schooling, where they could live., who they could associate with.  Needless to say, no one was religious.

                        During the Communist era they decided that everyone should work the land, so they gave every citizen 1000 sq meters of land to farm.  You could farm it, but you couldn’t build on it.  Most people were too poor to travel to their plot of land, and those who got there and built a place to live would have their houses torn down by the local officials.  Our host’s grandfather’s land was some kilometers outside Varna, near the present-day beach resorts.  He was a doctor, not a farmer, but went out on weekends to grow some things. He obeyed the law, as our host said, “only farmed, did not build.” Then they passed a law taking back all the land, however the law provided that those who had built, breaking the previous law, could keep their land.  “That’s Bulgaria,” our host exclaimed, “those who keep the law are punished and those who break the law are rewarded!” 

The law also said that if in one year, no one claimed the land, you could buy your land; the grandfather waited one year, no one had claimed the land, so he paid the municipality 30,000 leya for the plot.  Sometime later, a man came to the land with papers from the national government saying that he owned the land,  “Go to the municipality and get your money back.!” The city corrected their mistake, but only paid 30 leya for reimbursement.  “That’s Bulgarian life! You do what you can do!”

                        Russalka Resort was built in the communist era, 1950s, to cater to French tourists.  They came by bus, stayed at the all-inclusive resort, and were kept separate from the locals.  “We could see them on the beach, but we couldn’t talk to them or we’d be shot.”

                        Our host’s grandfather had built a house near the center of town.  Four families, the grandparents, two uncles and our host’s parents, lived there.  During the communist era, the government made them share their house with other families. “We were lucky, at least we got to keep our house.”  During this time the grandfather and uncles decided to add two floors to the house.  They built it themselves, as they could find or buy materials.  One uncle was an engineer and supervised the construction.  The hardest part was getting permits from the government to allow the construction.  Once they finished the building, the other families left and they were allowed to live there without sharing.  Each family has their own floor of the apartment building to this day.

                        During Communism, the officials used Olympic weightlifters and wrestlers as body guards.  After Communism , these body guards became the elected officials because they knew how to use power and influence.  “They are crooks, some are competent crooks and competent politicians and others are competent crooks and incompetent politicians.”

"How old is this town" is a silly question

"How old is this town" is a silly question when you are in the cradle of civilization.  Towns here have been inhabited since the neolithic period. The Varna area has the richest collection of Paleolithic tools in southeast Europe.  The first European culture sprang up here about 5000 B.C., predating Egypt and Mesopotamia.  Nearby is a necropolis (archeologists' cemetery) with the oldest gold ornaments in world history, showing an advanced civilization in 4600-4200 B.C.  Thrace ruled the Black Sea coast from 1500 BC, rivaling the Greek city states and Macedonia.  Odessos, today's Varna, was founded in 585-530 B.C. on the ruins of an earlier settlement and became a prosperous trading center between the agricultural areas of Thrace, with wood, leather, grain, trading with the markets of Greece and Asia Minor for marble, pottery, wine and oil.  Philip of Macedonia lay seige to the city in 341 B.C.
  In our culture, there was a time when there was only prairie, then someone came along and decided that this would make a good settlement.  Here, the good settlement is the first premise, already there.

In Bulgaria yoga is a competitive sport

In Bulgaria, yoga is a competitive sport.  The athlete, like in skating and gymnastics, competes in a compulsory and a free program.  The compulsory program allows the judges to compare everyone on the same postures, while the free program allows the athlete to demonstrate her most artful and skillful poses.  The yoga class I went to was a very strenuous workout, focused on the exercise more than on relaxation and meditation.

   "Bulgaria is a great place.  If you're with someone who knows it, it is a beautiful country.  If not, you're in trouble!" said our host.  We experienced the beauty that Bulgaria has to offer.  Our host took us along the steppe overlooking the Black Sea to the Yailata Archeological Reserve, Cape Kaliakra, the Russalka Resort and beach, culminating with al fresco dinner on the Black Sea at the Dolboca Mussel Farm.   

   The Yailata Archeological Reserve has over 100 cave dwellings from pre-Christian times, with evidence of human sacrifice, a medieval cave monastery, and a Byzantine fortress, high on limestone cliffs overlooking the Black Sea. The epic 'Jason and the Argonauts' refers to Yailata during their travels in the 5th century B.C.

  Dinner at the Black Sea mussel farm was the best meal ever.  It began with mussel soup, a creamy lemony soup filled with fresh mussels, garnished with a spicy pepper sauce called Salamorito. Freshly baked bread, Bulgarian white wine, and a cucumber-tomato salad topped it off.  But we also had three large bowls of steamed mussels to deal with.  More salamorito!

The Sultan knows how to produce a spectacle

Visiting dignitaries were received by the Sultan once a month on the same day that all the imperial salaries were paid.  All the ministers and their staff showed up to get their paycheck; quite a parade.  As the guidebook stated, “This created an opportunity to reflect on the wealth and power of the institution.”  Also, it allowed everyone to see the pecking order of who was more valuable to the Sultan.  The European artists of the 1600s that were sent with the ambassadors were impressed with the spectacle of the receptions, creating some of the most famous paintings of the era.  Apparently, the European monarchs didn't have the panache of the Ottomans, which I'm sure was soon corrected.  All ceremonies are designed to provide an opportunity to demonstrate the value of the sponsoring  institution, whether religious or academic.

Learning the Culture: Adventures of 'Coffee Boy'

We travel for the experiences, and we like to see how the locals live.  However, I learn about local customs and norms when my "taken-for-granted" behavior contradicts some "taken-for-granted" norm in the host culture. By learning from my mistakes and faux pas I learn about the culture.  On the overnight bus, I had learning experiences from Coffee Boy.
   We booked a package tour  to Cappadocia, an overnight bus with a shuttle transfer from the travel agency, one night hotel, two days tours with all admissions, and meals.  We imagined ourselves with the "cruise line" crowd, but the shuttle picked up customers from all the backpacking hostels in the area.  We looked like the trip chaperones. 
  The overnight bus seems to be the preferred mode of transportation for locals.  The bus includes a movie, in Turkish starring B-list American actors (now I know what happened to Thomas Hayden Church's career), reclining seats, a drink and refreshment service.  Imagine a Greyhound bus without the ghetto.   Each bus has a steward responsible for the refreshment service, a young man about 15-16 years old that we called "Coffee Boy." In addition to coffee service, Coffee Boy also has responsibility for maintaining the fragile bonds of civilized order.
    After receiving our bedtime snack, we settled down to a night's sleep in a reclining bus seat.  During the night I shifted in my sleep and tucked my foot, with shoe on, under me in the seat. Coffee Boy alertly slapped my foot out of the seat to the ground.  They have a thing about shoes being unclean, and watching what was on the sidewalks gave me a good idea why.  Needless to say, having this violation of a social norm pointed out to me at 2:00 in the morning wasn't my best cultural learning moment.  And for the remainder of the trip, Coffee Boy ignored me with morning coffee and the morning towel.
   On the return trip I was resolved to learn from my cultural faux pas, so I took off my shoes after bedtime snack.  Uncomfortable in the night, I shifted sideways in my seat and placed my stocking feet in the aisle.  This Coffee Boy came the length of the bus to nudge my feet out of the aisle and proceeded to spray Febreeze on the aisle carpet for a meter on either side.  No problem with others' shoes that were in the aisle, my stocking foot was a threat to civilized society.
   So this time I was fully awake at 2:00, so I got off the bus during one of the many breaks at the Turkish bus lines equivalent of a truck stop, complete with waitresses with beehive hairdos (or maybe I was dreaming).  When I went to reboard, it was like an I Love Lucy show: I was confronted with a row of identical buses from the same bus company, all with Istanbul noted in the window.  The only way I knew to find the right bus was to find the bus with Nancy asleep about halfway back.  The first bus I tried had a few women in front, one clad in a black burka with only her eyes showing.  I don't know how many social norms I violated, but after I was halfway down the aisle the black burka lady came after me with loud threats and imprecations.  She was between me and the door, so I made the international sign for "Hey lady, I'm just a stupid tourist, i just want to leave!" (Two open palms up, and a nod at the door; no, I didn't flip her off.)
   Nancy used to feel sorry for the oppression of the burka ladies, but now she's decided that they can hold their own.

"We are the center of the world," our restaurant manager declared to us, "and the whole world comes here to Istanbul." He began to address passing tourists in the crowded lane next to our table, in Arabic to four young women covered in brightly colored head scarves who blushed at being addressed and hurried on, in German to passing tourists in shorts, black knee socks, bucket hats and cameras, in English to a group of college students, again in Arabic to two men in galabiyya, the traditional Arab garment (then sotto voce to us, "There goes Osama bin Laden!"). When he spoke to a passing black man, "Hello, African!" the man gave a sharp retort, "Don't tell me who I am! You don't know who I am! I am Nigerian, not African! I am who I am; you don't know who I am." The Turk quickly replied with a submissive apology smoothing over the exchange.
This Turkish man was proficient in language and extraverting skills that will take him far in the tourism industry. Elsewhere in Istanbul, you are assaulted with less skilled pitchmen hawking their restaurant, carpet shop, or souvenir shop, "Excuse me! Excuse me! Excuse me!" or "Where are you from? ...I have a cousin who lives there!" I was amazed to find how many Turkish relatives are living in Helotes and Monahans, Texas. I, like the Nigerian, often objected at being verbally accosted, the hawker was quick to smooth over the exchange, "I'm sorry, sir; I meant no harm. I just wanted to show you the most beautiful [tourist crap] in Istanbul." But outside the tourist areas, Turks are eager to be helpful.
When we walked the ancient walls of Constantinople, we met a older man outside the only store in the neighborhood, "I was watching you walk here, and you look like you would want something to drink. Come in. What do you want?" He was not the shop keeper, just someone from the neighborhood whose hospitality made us feel welcome. I also felt some relief to know that someone was watching us, because we had been walking among more burkas and galabiyyas than we had ever before, clearly one of the few tourists that venture into that neighborhood. He told us about what a beautiful ride the nearby ferry provides to take us back to the more trafficked area of town.
    Turks are proud of their country. Cami's Turkish friend from Duke wanted to show us the best of Istanbul outside the typical tourist attractions. We got an overview of all the historic sites in Turkey at a children's park with over 100 scale models of historic sites. Where else could we see the Halikarnas Mausoleum of Mugla, one of the ancient seven wonders of the world, and the Sumela Monastery, six stories carved in rock inside a mountain cave, both located near the borders with Iraq. Our host showed us the best traditional foods (grilled mixed meats over bulger wheat pilaf; boza, a fermented wheat pudding--Yumm!; seven types of baklava from the best baklava maker; and the traditional Turkish liquor Raki--"you only really know someone after you have shared Raki together") and the best traditional music. Our host also wanted us to see modern Istanbul, taking us to the financial district to see Kanyon, the futuristic multi-functional mall, condo and office complex.
   Istanbul has the best people watching in the world. Part of what makes people watching so interesting here is the mix of the familiar and the strange [to us]. This morning outside the local Starbucks, a dozen high school girls gathered for coffee and smokes before school, all dressed in the latest named fashions, with fashionably named handbags. The other end of the spectrum were the teenaged girls in black burquas with only their fashionable eye glasses and colored Converse hightopped shoes showing to the world. The less conservative Muslim women wear colorful head scarves with matching accessories. The men span the fashion spectrum as well, from the stylishly casual to some wearing the galabiyya and taqiyah, traditional Arab garments.
    So what does Istanbul have to do with Romania? Well, Romania was under Ottoman rule during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This was the occasion for the most famous historical Romanian, Vlad III, prince of Wallachia, known to the Western world as the fictional Count Dracula. Many Romanian words are similar to their Turkish counterpart, reflecting a century of Ottoman rule. More currently, Romania is equally distant from modern economic powerhouses, Russia, Germany and Turkey. Romania is linked to the German economy through EU membership, to Russia though oil and gas, but the Turkish economy, growing at 11% per year, must be a magnet for Romanian commerce.

World Encyclopedia of Travel, 1973, on Romania

The Pan Am Encyclopedia of World Travel, 1973, begins with "The world of travel ( and that's Pan Am's World) is always changing. That, of course, if part of the excitement of travel." We'll see what has changed about Romanian tourism in 35 years.
It says this about travel in Romania:
What's Special: Romania's landscape resembles a natural citadel: the Carpathian Mountains at its center descend step-like towards its plains, which are criss-crossed with rivers. Romania has the tideless Black Sea with its magnificent beaches, the Danube Delta, lakes and several rivers. The spring offers flowers and festivals; the summer, sun and sea; the autumn, hunting and fishing; and the winter, snow and skiing in the mountains.
What To See: Bucharest has been called "the Paris of the Balkans." It has beautiful gardens and parks and lakes, and just beyond are woods and forests. Things to see include the Stavropoleos Church, the neo-classical Romanian Atheneum and the Mogosoaia Palace, now a museum of feudal art, about 12 miles away. The Arts Museum houses woeks of the 19th-century Grigorescu, Romania's foremost painter, with midieval, traditional and more modern works. Se the Hanul lui Manuc, a restaurant building with verandas, galleries and belvederes. Tehre are also the Village Museum, the Minovici Museum,and the Ethnography and Folk Art Museum.
The Black Sea: Constanta, a popular resort in itself, is the stepping to the other resorts along the coast. Eat seafood at the Pescarul, Dobrogea Pie and shish kebab at the Dobrogea Wine Cellar and fishermen's patties washed down with the local Murfatlar wine at the Furnica. Visit the Archeological Museum, the Roman mosaic, and the Statue of Ovid, the Latin poet who spent the last years of his life here in a bout 17 AD. About 40 miles to the north of Constanta lie the ruins of the ancient city of Histria, built in the 6th century BC by Greek colonists. At Ademclisi, about 40 miles south, is the Tropaeum Trajani erected by the triumphant Romans 1800 years ago. From Constanta one and two-day excursions are run by Carpati along the coast into the Danube delta and Central Moldovia. See the painted monasteries of Bucovina, whose colors are undimmed after almost 500 years, and the natural wonder of the Bicaz Gorge. From Mamaia, three miles from Constanta, stretch 38 miles of broad flat beach full of Miami-type resort hotels.
Brasov, just over 100 miles from Bucharest, in the Transylvanian section of the Carpathians, is Romania's second city and a good tourist center.
Food and Restaurants: Spicy, aromatic dishes of pork, chicken, smoked sausage accompanied by mamaliga (corn and barley) are typical of Romanian cuisine. Sample sarmalute in foi de vita (ground meat wrapped in vine leaves, sprinkled with borscht, and served with cream or yogurt); pui la ceaun (chicken cooked slowly in a rich garlic sauce in a cast iron pot). Try also grilled beluga and pike or carp on a spit. You can afford Romanian caviar. In the brasseries and cafes in Romania try savory sausage, pate ghiveci calugaresc (monk's hotchpotch--vegetables cooked in oil); mamaliga with cheese, cream or eggs; bulzul (a ball of mamaglia stuffed with cheese and butter). Meals are usually rounded off with fresh fruit and cream, ice cream or pastries (cheese pancakes, plum dumplings, brioche or sweetmeats like baclava and sarailie).
Drinking Tips: The national drink Tuica (plum brandy) is potent straight, but diluted with soda as apertif. There are several excellent vin du pays, five kinds of brandy and several liqueurs.
Helpful Hints: Handshaking is a common form of greeting. Tipping is not customary, but for special services something like a pack of cigarettes is appreciated. Drinking water is safe.

Hmm, tipping with cigarettes? I'll bet great American cigarettes will get me more attention than a T-shirt. Romania still has the highest rates of cigarette consumption in the world. A study of smoking among school teachers in Romania found about 33% smokers, "Despite school policies, tobacco products could still be purchased either within school premises or close by" (Irimie & Mirestean, 2010). Among youth, age 15-17, smoking rates were almost one-quarter, with boys smoking more (33%) than girls (20%; Lotrean, Mesters, Ionut, & deVries, 2009)

So my friend says I should pack two cartons of Marlboros in my suitcase. Hmmm?

I'm most interested in the food. This gives me a list of traditional Romanian foods that I want to try.

• smoked sausage with mamaliga
• sarmalute in foi de vita
• pui la ceaun
• grilled beluga on a spit
• savory sausage
• pate ghiveci calugaresc
• mamaliga with cheese, cream
• bulzul
• Tuica

I'll report on what these foods are and how I like them as I get to them.