Last summer, I went to Bulgaria for a competition. While I was there, I reflected a lot on the similarities and differences between Bulgaria and the US. Being my first time in Europe, I was unsure of what to expect. In this blog, I want to just show a few of my observations about how it was to be there from a foreigner perspective, both the good and bad.
A view of the town and the mountains in the background.
The first thing that I noticed was the natural surroundings of Bulgaria. The part of the country that I was in is fully mountainous, a stark contrast to what I saw in the Midwest. However, besides that, a lot of the trees, plants, and road signs were pretty similar, so when we were going from place to place, I forgot that I was in a foreign country because the surroundings were pretty much what you would see driving through any national park. Except for going to Las Vegas once as a little kid, I had never been any mountainous area, so this was my first time seeing mountains. So on the three-hour drive from the airport to the competition venue, my eyes were glued to the window looking at the beauty of the all of the mountain ranges.
One of the most pervasive biases we have from movies is the movie color filter added to certain countries. For example, in this photo we can see that Poland is gray and Mexico is yellow. Probably this bias is why I found it surprising that the Bulgarian countryside looks like anything you’ll find here.
The place I was at is a ski town, so it was probably busy in the winter, however in the summer, most of the people were locals, and it looked like any small town. The main thing I noticed was how close eveything is. Right outside of my hotel was a neighborhood, a community park and the main shopping area, making going anywhere you wanted in the town pretty easy. By contrast, in suburbia, you have to go through rows of neighborhoods to get to places. The person who felt this the most was my grandmother who was with me. She often feels that America is suffocating because you can’t walk to places like how she did in India, but Bulgaria provided a more relaxing atmosphere and she wants to live there someday. One of the biggest things for me about this atmosphere is that when I hear the word “small town,” I generally think of the decay and decline in the small towns I’ve been to like my stepdad’s grandparents’ hometown, but this town was the opposite, with the main street vibrant and buildings new. I realized that I had to throw away the stereotype I had before about decay and realize that not all small towns are like that, especially this one because it brings in tourism revenue every year.
This is my grandmother sitting in the downtown area wearing the blanket thingy that the organizers gave out.
You can’t talk about a place without talking about the food. I thought that the food was alright, not excellent, but definitely not bad. The organizers emphasized that we try some Bulgarian food while we were there. A lot of the meat in the traditional dishes was excellent, but I felt that the vegetables were ordinary. For example, I remember eating shopska salata, a salad with Bulgarian cheese grated on top. I’m not a huge cheese person, so I thought that the cheese just ruined the veggies, which were already pretty much what you would get if you cut up vegetables at your house, but if you’re into cheese, then I guess that it might be good. However, what I thought was a crime was the rice. I don’t think rice is native to Bulgaria, so this might not be a native dish, but this was in both the hotel and one time the organizers ordered catering. I woke up the first morning and headed to the dining area of the hotel, where I was excited when I saw rice, but when I dug into it, I realized it was oily. Me and most of the participants from Asian countries expressed nothing short of utter disgust when the oil rice, and I thought that I was going to get clogged arteries before the competition started. Despite this, I still think that Bulgarian food in general was pretty good, and the fact that my food was fully paid for was good enough in my opinion that I shouldn’t be complaining. Reading on traditional Bulgarian food while writing this blog, I feel that I missed out on many excellent dishes so I definitely want to go back if I can and try more. One thing I wanted to add is that people don’t really know or care if something is completely vegetarian or not, so if you are vegetarian, then you should probably do what one of the Indian participants did and bring seven days worth of instant upma.
This is what shopska salata looks like.
Finally, the people of Bulgaria were some of the nicest and most adaptable people I’ve met. An example is that the place where the competition was had no AC, and this was during the heat wave in Europe last summer. However, the organizers were able to get fans in every room, and my proctor made sure I was comfortable before the test, which I found nice. The only thing that you might need to watch out for is that dark-skinned people sometimes receive racism from locals. While I didn’t experience this, one of my friends did, so it’s important to be cautious and travel in groups while you’re there. Regardless, all of the Bulgarian people that I met were extremely polite and accommodating.
Out of all the places that I’ve been to, Bulgaria is the place that is most like a “window,” to me, allowing me to see into other cultures, and I thought it was great that I had the opportunity to go around and see what it’s like. Between good skiing in the winter and good hiking in the summer, if you’re looking for a nice place international to travel that’s relatively cheap, Bulgaria would be a good place to check out.