It is an image that stays in the mind. In a brightly-lit, austere tavern, a pair of men in traditional Bulgarian costume dance, surrounded by onlookers. Rachenitsa is a horo popular all over Bulgaria and is usually danced by one or two men, not holding hands, but on their own. Famous for its difficulty and the stamina required, in the olden times it was used as a competition between rival parties.
If you chance to pass by on your way from Ruse to Silistra you will see a large military cemetery beside the road. Stop and have look at the rows of graves, the chapel, the old machine guns, and the monument in the shape of a war medal. There is an obelisk, too, with inscriptions repeating the same words in Bulgarian, German, Turkish and Romanian: "Honour and glory to those who knew how to die heroically for their fatherland."
Bulgaria has not changed its name since its founding in 681, as if the 200-year Byzantine and the 500-year Ottoman rule never happened, but the list of the preserved and known graves of its rulers makes for an extremely short paragraph in its long history.
SUCCESSES AND SCANDALS
Vute was strolling around the centre of Sofia, when he suddenly caught sight of his friend, Nane, on Eagles Bridge holding a bouquet of flowers. "Who are you waiting for?" Vute asked. "The Americans!" replied Nane. Socialism was at its peak. "Are you out of your mind?" said Vute. "Didn't you wait here for the Russians on 9 September too?" "Well, they showed up, didn't they?" answered Nane.
Stalin managed to force the Bulgarians to do something even Hitler couldn't make them do. After the Communist coup on 9 September 1944 the Bulgarian army did enter the Second World War. The Bulgarian Army stopped the German withdrawal from Greece, and in December it helped beat back the German counteroffensive near the Drau River. Bulgarian soldiers celebrated the end of the war on 9 May 1945 in Austria.
THE TREATY OF NEUILLY
When news of the 27 November 1919 treaty signed in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine reached Bulgaria, there was not a dry eye to be found. The victors in the First World War forced the defeated nation to accept a peace deal that Bulgarians to this day consider a national catastrophe.
Anarchy in the empire
How did the Eastern Question turn into the Eastern Crisis? The answer is complicated, but the seriousness of the problem was clear by 1875.
On your way from Europe to Istanbul along the well-trodden road through Nis, Belgrade, Sofia and Plovdiv, you can easily tell when you have entered the territory of the former Ottoman Empire - toilets begin to stink in western Hungary! The Bulgarians have now been independent for nearly 130 years, but they still bear the scars of 500 years of Ottoman rule and sadness at their long enslavement. While they adjusted to foreign rule, Europe experienced the Renaissance, discovered the Americas and Australia, enlightened its monarchs and developed an industrial society.
What is the similarity between baklava, Volen Siderov and the mosque in the centre of Sofia? If it wasn't for the Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria at the end of the 14th Century, none of the three would exist today.