Bulgaria vs. The World

“Have you ever been to Turkey?”
“No, maybe one day I…”
“You should go. It’s much nicer than Bulgaria. You should live there, not here.”
“Oh...really?”
“Of course. I don’t understand why people want to come to Bulgaria, Turkey is much more beautiful, cleaner, and the children show respect. You must go there.”

At this point in the conversation I realized that any attempt I made to defend Bulgaria would be futile and the cynical old lady on the 4th floor would not be swayed.


This conversation took place a couple of months ago, but her words have stuck with me. For a while I thought that maybe she was right, I mean, she’s spent her whole life within these boundaries, she’s seen the fall of an empire, the entire country has changed right before her eyes, surely she couldn’t be wrong about something like this, right?

As I sit here writing this, in my big comfy armchair with the rain quietly falling outside, it’s easy to get lost in the memories of the past 15 months. In the last 6 weeks alone I’ve clocked more than 24 hours in trains and buses; I’ve camped on the beach, rambled around mountain villages, celebrated town holidays, folk festivals, birthdays, eco-camps, you name it. Having never been to Turkey I can't easily make the comparison, but I don't think I'm ready to give up on Bulgaria yet. After each of these trips I’ve never been anything less than amazed; be it from the generosity of the locals to share their culture (and their dinner table) or the spectacular landscape that some people might struggle to even imagine.

Now I’m not claiming to be an expert on this, due to a lack of television and general apathetic nature towards politics, but from what I’ve heard I’m pretty certain the world is falling apart these days. If that’s the case, then I think I’ll stick with Bulgaria, thank you very much. I might just run up to the 4th floor to tell her that.