Bulgaria of the Mind

Tl;dr: Travel is about mindset awareness. An effort to get into the Bulgarian one.

One of my favorite questions to ask people when I travel is “what does it mean to you to be __________?”

I had only been in Bulgaria one time before, for a brief layover 25 years ago, so the opportunity to spend a week in the country was a tremendous privilege.

While plenty of work was done, I made sure to spend plenty of time exploring the places and getting to know the people. After all, it’s the people that make a place special.

I can’t say I knew too much about Bulgaria before I got here, other than the little reading I had done on Wikipedia and a knowledge of where it is located.

So, I immersed myself, albeit with a sense of “Ayliak” (laid back, chillness) that is the hallmark of Bulgaria’s second biggest (and oldest) city, Plovdiv.

Other than that, I was in Sofia (pronounced Soo-Fee-a) with an emphasis on the “fee.” I took a city tour and, more importantly, spent a lot of time with my?Gtmhub ?colleagues.

What I learned on my tours was that Bulgaria is the world’s oldest country (established in 681) and that Sofia is 8000 years old.?It has layers of history and culture including Thracians (of whom Spartacus was one), Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans, and, of course, Russian/Soviet.?It is 90% Bulgarian Orthodox and there are approximately 7 million people in the country, with about 15% living in Sofia.

Those facts are nice, but what I learned is that this is a country with vast and immense potential, a social group of people who like to share food and drinks with each other, who take a great deal of pride in their vast history and robust culture (which apparently includes dancing with a roasted chicken on a plate at weddings).

While the Communists totally screwed the country over in a big way, setting it back economically and politically by decades, the progress over the past 30 days has been notable.?When I was here in 1996, it was in the immediate post-Communist era and the country was, shall we say, depressing.

Now, there’s a modern, air-conditioned subway. Everyone has phones. WiFi is everywhere, and there is much to be proud of. Granted, the political situation is tenuous and corruption still rife, but you get the strong sense from the post-communist generation that there is a deep-seated desire to see things get better and to be a part of that change.

Unlike, say, Greece where the young people leave in droves, the younger generation chooses to stay in Bulgaria.?It’s “home” and family is really important.

If there’s one word that summarizes it, which I heard on more than one occasion, it is that Bulgarians have an “underdog” mentality.?There may be elements of low self-esteem in the country’s accomplishments (for example, there are no tech “unicorns” to date), but there is the equal sense that Bulgaria’s ascendancy to better times is inevitable.

It’s heartwarming to see that and you can’t help but root for them to win.

“Bulgaria of the Mind” is a pride in your past and a belief in your future, even if the odds may not always be in your favor.