Bulgarian Cameos #3 - Transport

You will see a lot of new cars on the roads in Bulgaria, with a good mix of Trabants, Ladas and Skodas from a bygone era. But the the donkey cart is still a widely used form of transport throughout the country.




You will find that a large percentage of villagers have a donkey and a cart, though some have swapped the donkey for a tractor.




When we were in the village of Srem, a most heinous crime was commited when someone's donkey was shot. The perpetrator was never found and is still on the loose and some wag was heard to say, "You can shoot my wife, but not my donkey."

Bulgarian Cameos #2 - Graffiti

Graffiti artists seem to crawl out of the woodwork wherever you go - it is just the spelling that varies.

I assume that this example of graffiti, seen in Elhovo was not Bulgarian as it was not written in Cyrillic script.

Bulgarian Cameos #1 - Shipka Pass

When you see a scene like this one at the top of the Shipka Pass, it is difficult to imagine that four fierce battles were fought here during the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878).

The Russo-Turkish War resulted in the defeat of the Turks and brought an end to 500 years of Ottoman rule in Bulgaria. If you are interested, you can read all about the war on Wikipaedia.

Time for sunshine

These sunflowers were photographed near Kazanlak in the Valley of the Roses in Bulgaria. Though they had their backs to me they nevertheless put on a cheerful display.



Kazanlak is probably one of the largest rose oil producing area in the world. By the time we passed through the roses had been harvested, but the visit to the Rose Museum was interesting. Apparently it takes one hectare of roses to produce one litre of rose oil. No wonder it fetches around €6,000 a litre.

These roses were photographed in the car park outside the Rose Museum.