TRAVEL

Authenticity, genuine patterns and natural materials are all the rage in interior design today. Current trends are all about handcrafted products that are beautiful to look at, do not pollute the environment and are not harmful to your health with microplastics and dust-generating synthetic materials. Finding such interior products is not easy. But in a small town in Bulgaria you can find a surviving tradition that for centuries has produced amazing hand-woven carpets in stunning designs, using real wool and natural dyes.

Let's try a thought experiment. You are in a closed room, without windows, with only a smartphone connected to the Bulgarian Facebook, to get information about what is going on in the country and the world. Soon you will discover that thanks to the content uploaded by social media users, you will be able to keep track of the change of seasons. Everyone complaining about the mile-long traffic jam on the motorway to Greece and/or boasting about their homemade kozunak sweetbreads? Ah, Easter is coming. Your feed is full of little children with heavy rucksacks and gigantic bouquets?

A group of barefoot men and women dancing in a large circle of live embers, while hypnotic music beats a rhythm that gets under your skin and into your blood: Firewalker dances in Bulgaria are a spectacular rite to watch. A tradition whose origins are lost in time, the nestinari dances almost disappeared in the 20th century, but were eventually revived, albeit modernised, to appeal to a modern audience hungry for Instagrammable and TikTokable "authentic" experiences.

When the first European travellers saw Pobiti Kamani near Varna, they could not believe his eyes. The massive stone pillars emerging from the sandy, shrub-covered wilderness made Viktor Teplyakov, a "special missions officer" in the Russian army during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, to rein his horse. He wanted to explore, but there was no time.

Oh, the Bulgarian rose! From promotional videos to bars of soap sold in tourist traps across the country, the image and scent of the emblematic flower has become synonymous with Bulgaria itself. A traditional crop, vital to the international cosmetics industry, Rosa damascena embodies the beauty, uniqueness and value of Bulgaria – the perfect symbol for a country trying to establish itself on the global travel market.

From Lord Byron to Hungary's Sándor Petőfi to Cuba's José Martí: poetry has a fair share of authors who deserved to be labelled revolutionary not only because of their groundbreaking stanzas and language, but also for their political stance and activities. Bulgaria has Hristo Botev.

From Roswell to Project Blue Book in the United States and Project Condign in the UK, the military have always been interested in finding possible extraterrestrials on planet Earth. The Bulgarian Army is no exception. But its efforts to make contact with possible aliens have nothing to do with the image of gloomy researchers sifting through grainy photographs of UFOs and interviewing frightened locals who claim to have been abducted by little green men.

If there is one river that defines Europe in terms of landscape, history and economy, it is the Danube, a 2,850 kilometre ribbon of water that flows from the Black Forest in Germany to the Black Sea in Romania. Some 470 km of its course make up a significant part of Bulgaria's northern border – and of its history, economy and life.

In the days of overtourism, selfies and Airbnbs there are still hardcore travellers who want to leave the comforts of home and explore new places, people and cultures, even if it often means sleeping in a tent in a remote mountain village. This is what Olivier Meissel has done. He cycled across Bulgaria three times to make a documentary inspired by his father. The senior Meissel, a retired history and geography teacher, had become a tour guide. In 2001 he was asked to organise tours in Bulgaria. He did this for ten years, developing a deep passion for the country.

The image of two men, one young and sporting a dark beard and the other older and white-bearded, with books and parchments in their hands, are to be found all over Bulgaria. There are countless statues and posters, church murals and icons. Their images multiply on 24 May, when long processions of students crowd the central streets of every city carrying posters, usually decorated with flowers.