Planning a vacation? Try Nessebar on the Black Sea. Recently I was treated to a visit to Bulgaria by friends I met in a Rotary Club,
Dr. and Mrs. Gazdov. What an exciting learning experience it was. I was amazed at how very little I knew about the country and its
people.
Bulgaria is in a strategic location near the Turkish Straits; it controls key land routes from Europe to the Middle East and Asia. Of
all those over age 15, 98.6% can read and write. Most English-speaking people in the country are British. The people are warm and
friendly.
The most interesting things I discovered were the antiquity of the country and the process of building on the past.
According to The World Factbook, the Bulgars, a Central Asian Turkic tribe, merged with the local Slavic inhabitants in the late 7th
century to form the first Bulgarian state. In succeeding centuries, Bulgaria struggled with the Byzantine Empire to assert its place
in the Balkans, but by the end of the 14th century the country was overrun by the Ottoman Turks. Northern Bulgaria attained autonomy
in 1878 and all of Bulgaria became independent in 1908. The US struggle for independence was very brief by comparison.
Having fought on the losing side in both World Wars, Bulgaria fell within the Soviet sphere of influence and became a People’s
Republic in 1946. Communist domination ended in 1990, when Bulgaria held its first multiparty election since World War II and began
the contentious process of moving toward political democracy and a market economy while combating inflation, unemployment, corruption,
and crime. Today, reforms and democratization keep Bulgaria on a path toward eventual integration into the European Union. The country
joined NATO in 2004.
I would highly recommend a visit for your next vacation.
