It's a Holiday in Bulgaria

With apologies to the Dead Kennedys. Today is Yesterday was Ден на Съединението, Unification Day.  (Note: I actually meant for this to be done by yesterday. Sorry about that.)

September 6, 1885: Bulgarian forces arrive in Plovdiv--to that point the capital of the Ottoman vassal state of Eastern Rumelia (which was itself a part of historical Bulgaria)--and surround the palace, proclaiming a coup that is to unite Eastern Rumelia with the new Principality of Bulgaria. Ethnic Bulgarians rejoice and prepare for war with the Ottoman Empire, through which they would successfully defend their newly unified state.

Great things have been afoot the last few days. After Sunday, my Typical Lazy Housekeeping Day, I made the first small, informal overtures towards beginning my research on Monday. I met with a few friends of my good friend Neda and discussed how to begin researching the music of the Shopi. We bandied many Good Ideas about, talked Bulgaria, went for a lovely stroll, bandied some more Ideas, talked choral music, and generally had a nice time of it. (More on the Good Ideas in a moment.)

After that, it was time for my thrice-weekly run (I have had the motivation and, most happily, the time, to devolve back into a whirling hurricane of limbs three times a week in my never-ending quest for studliness), which took me on a lovely tour of the Boris Garden and Studentskigrad (Студентскиград, literally "Student City," the section of Sofia in which most University students live - generally a party unto itself), dinner, and Skyping.

Tuesday was Unification Day, and to celebrate, Greg, Kalin, his brother, Kyril, and I went on an abbreviated, yet, nonetheless, challenging, hike of Mt. Vitosha. Despite the forecast that called for potentially heavy rain, we decided to brave the elements, in a completely macho show of bravado.

Before we set out on our hike in earnest, though, we made a stop by the Church of St. Nicholas, a tiny Orthodox church dating from the 11th (!) century. No longer a functioning church, but a museum, it contains frescoes from the 12th and 13th centuries, which were pretty cool to see. An observation: The old Orthodox churches here, when compared to the contemporary structures of Western Europe, are SMALL (I know, the irony of choosing to emphasize such a word with capital letters). This was, by far, the smallest, but it served to reinforce the point that there seems to have been a very real architectural divide (both formal and aesthetic) between the ecclesiastic designs of the Catholic and Orthodox worlds. Nearly all of the pre-Revival churches (those built before 1762) here are quite small and extremely ornately decorated. Compare these with the Gothic churches that took Western Europe by storm toward the end of the Medieval Period.

Leaving an architectural dissertation for another day and an audience that actually wants to hear it - Mt. Vitosha, while relatively unimposing when compared to your typical Appalachian mountain, is still a mountain. It is steep. And when we finally got to our destination--a rather picturesque waterfall--after a spirited hike of an hour and a half, we were glad to have a rest. Luckily, we couldn't have been in a nicer spot (The word in Bulgarian is най-хубаво, a word that combines the meanings of "the nicest" and "the prettiest").

The Author under the falls

L - R: Greg, the Author, and Kyril in totally-not-posed positions under the falls

A snatch of Sofia through the trees

On the way back down the mountainside, the heavens opened up and the rains came. Well, we thought, we were heading home anyway. We made it down more or less uneventfully, and I even managed to get this kind-of-cool-looking shot on the way:

By far, the most Beliakov-ian picture I have ever taken

Being thoroughly tuckered out from this journey, I didn't have much energy left, but did manage to drag myself out to dinner with Greg and Colin, who had just returned from a trip to Georgia (Asia, not North America), at a nice place called The Mayor's.

Today, I trekked to the Hadji Dimitur neighborhood of Sofia to pay a visit to the American Research Center, one of the many Good Ideas thrown my way on Monday. The director, Denver Graninger, was extremely gracious in showing me around after I dropped in unannounced, shortly before closing. He answered a few of my questions and primed me with information on what the Center has to offer. It seems as though I have one more resource to draw upon.

Afterwards, I met up with Michael, the last of the Fulbrighters to arrive, who just flew in today. We chatted, had dinner, and saw a bit of Sofia before he had to go back to his hotel in anticipation of an 8 AM train out of town. Another pleasant, touristy night in the books.

So my research is begun. My plane of experiences is expanding. I'm on my way. The extreme lateness of the hour is calling me away to my bed, so I'll wish a Merry Wednesday to all, and to all a good night.