Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Scenes from Bulgaria



Let's now take a look at some scenery from Bulgaria. Bulgaria is about the size of Tennessee. If I knew how to draw an arrow, I'd point out the area of Ivailvgrad, my dad's hometown. Since I can't, you can go to this map and make it larger. Towards the bottom right of the map, you'll see a town called "Svilengrad." That's about 5 miles from where dad lives--I walked the road there one day--ok I walked half-way there. Later, my cousin drove us there. In fact, here is a picture of me trying to go over the Greek border fence:


The sign says (not literally, but the idea), "Border lookout. You are forbidden to cross." Over my shoulder is a guard tower and the guards with binoculars and big guns were watching us.

Bulgaria is a lot like the Midwest--green in spring and summer, colorful in the fall, and cold/snowy in winter. One difference, though is Bulgaria has mountains--not like the Rocky Mountains but more like the Appalachian Mountains.

Here is a great picture of a typical neighborhood in Ivailovgrad (on the left). I need to explain that the bigger cities do not have a lot of homes.

















In Sofia, the capital and where I served my mission, there were very few homes, but a lot of apartment buildings (like the one on the right).

Let's look at my dad's village, Drabishna. Each town has a village associated with it. Villages are typically a lot smaller and tend to be used more for gardening or farming purposes. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I didn't get any pictures of Dad's house where he was born. I think since I'd been there before, I didn't feel the need--dumb me...those pics are in paper form and not digital.
















That's my brother getting water from a spring in our village. They used to have a lot of spigots throughout the village, but they shut down quite a few of them. We had to drive almost to the Greek border (about 3 miles) to get to this one. That water was delicious! So cold! Mmmm.

Here is the old church in Drabishna. My dad used to be an alter boy there. The state religion is Bulgarian Orthodox which is similar to Greek Orthodox which is sorta like Catholics (there are differences, but for those who don't know much about Orthodox, Catholicism is close).















Let's leave Drabishna now. Above is a picture of the hill/mountain in Ivailovgrad. It's difficult to see, but there are German bunkers on this mountain. During the 30's and 40's, the Germans built bunkers on the mountains. The bunkers were used to communicate--reminded me of Lord of the Rings when the fires were lit on the mountains. The same concept--lights were used as the bunkers were several miles away from each other. Anyway, a few years ago, a group of people decided that although the bunkers are history, they are part of a nasty period. So to try to change that image, they decided to put a cross on the bunkers. Thus, this picture is a cross that was built directly on top of the bunker. They didn't do it to all the bunkers, just this one.















Something that is wonderful about Bulgaria. Their major export is rose oil. And rose oil is used in nearly anything that has a fragrance. Even if the fragrance isn't rose, there is rose oil in it. Thus, roses are everywhere. This picture was a rose in my cousin's yard. I thought the two-tone look was very unusual. Up top is a rose tree. Yeah, we have rose bushes, but this bush grew so big that it looks like a tree. We estimated that the branches were about 3 inches thick.

Here are some pics that I took that I just like.




This last picture is a little "museum" Bogdon has at his house. He has collected a lot of stuff that are antique (or at least really old). Many things in there were made from his father or grandfathers. It's a nice little tribute that I really like (and Dad always threatens him that he's going to take some things from there).

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