1. Probiotic Bulgarian Yogurt. Upon arriving, everyone said, “Bulgaria has the best yogurt!” Not only is their yogurt amazing but they serve it up like pudding in larger than normal portions. Ordering a “glass of yogurt” as a drink at a restaurant is also very common (yuck!). Called, “Yogurt capitol of the world!” it’s also extremely healthy.
2. Girls crimp their hair. Talk about bringing back the 90s! Bulgarian girls like to rock it like it’s 1999. I’m a little jealous, actually. But only crimp the first few inches closest to the scalp. Any more than that and it’s no longer cool.
3. Yes means no. Nodding your head means “no” and shaking your head means “yes”. Oy, that’s been a hard cultural norm to adopt!
4. Oldest (continually inhabited) city in the world. Plovdiv (one of the places we stayed in for a while) is one of the oldest cities in the world, with ruins and inhabitants dating back to around 4,000 BC. The city was amazing and full of ancient ruins still being discovered today!
5. Largest producer of rose oil in the world. Bulgaria is all about the rose. Everywhere you go you can buy rose oil, cosmetics, and other items all sporting a rose on the package (or souvenir) or with the rose in its ingredient.
6. Shot of espresso. Europeans drink coffee very differently than Americans. I’m a bit of a coffee snob myself, but there’s no way I can truthfully say that American coffee is better… it’s just different. Coffee drinkers in America think, “the more the merrier”, but here it’s all about a small 5 oz. cup of savory, bold espresso that you sip on slowly (and they take their sugar very seriously- “the more the merrier!”).
7. Fast food- Duners. Hamburger and fries is to America as Duners is to Bulgaria (“sufllaqe” in Albania, same same) A duner is basically a large tortilla-like wrap piled up with freshly scrapped meat right off the rotisserie, lettuce, onion, tomatoes, some kind of sauce, and loaded with French fries. Wrap it up and you’ve got yourself a satisfyingly, unhealthy duner!
8. Baba Marta Day. Known as “Grandmother March Day”, we arrived just in time to celebrate this exciting holiday! Starting March 1st, everyone sports a red/white bracelet or other small amulet. You wait until the first sight of blossoms on a tree then tie your bracelet around the branch. Blossoms mean that spring is coming!
9. Slices the size of your face. For the price of practically 90 cents in America you can get the biggest single slice of pizza you have ever seen. Gigantic, cheesy, and loaded with any topping you can think of! What’s up cheap dinner!
10. Don’t go Bulgaria! Not to be a downer, but it’s been said that in the coming years Bulgaria will be a dead country. These days, more people are growing and leaving the country and not coming back than there are people being born and staying.
11. It’s cool! In my option, Bulgaria is extremely underrated when it comes to tourism in Europe. Most people think of visiting England, France, Germany- heck, anywhere in Western Europe! But Bulgaria’s got it going on. This has probably been my favorite country on the Race (with Thailand and Japan also in the lead) and I would absolutely LOVE to come back here one day!
This month we traveled literally all over the country for our ministry. While it was by far the longest month on the Race, it was incredibly blessed and led by the Lord with the contacts we made, ministries we got to be a part of, and the huge dose of culture we got to experience! We visited the country’s 4 largest cities, saw dozens of ancient ruins, stayed within walking distance of The Black Sea, visited the most spectacular and sacred churches I’ve ever seen in my life (all orthodox), stood on top of mountains overlooking the land, built a snowman (OF COURSE while singing “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”) drank LOTS of espresso shots, visited Greece, worked with orphans, lead church services, built relationships with the locals, and so much more!
Our Unsung Heroes month has come to a close. Now I can’t wait until next month to start afresh with a new ministry as I head into Romania and anxiously await the arrival of my Mom and Dad at the end of the month as they’ll join me out here for a week of ministry for the Parent Vision Trip! Yippeeeee!!
