The 24th of May is celebrated in Bulgaria as a National Holiday, honoring the two brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, and their creation of an alphabet for the Slavic tribes in Eastern Europe. Bulgarians also recognize the day as Bulgarian Education and Culture and Slavonic Literature Day and commemorate Bulgarian culture and literature and the alphabet on this day.
Cyril and Methodius were two brothers, born in Greece, who became Christian missionaries to the Slavic tribes in Eastern Europe. The brothers first created the Glagolitic alphabet, which transcribed the Old Church Slavonic spoken language into a written form. The Cyrillic alphabet, which incorporated both the Glagolitic and Greek alphabets, is said to have been created by a follower of St. Cyril and St. Methodius and named in honor of St. Cyril's work among the Slavic people. Cyrillic is now used in many Eastern European countries, including Russia and Bulgaria.
Having only had a few several Bulgarian language lessons so far, it has been interesting to compare the differences between Russian and Bulgarian and their respective alphabets, not to mention grammatical structure. For example, "my name is Monica" in Russian sounded like "menya nazavood Monica" (and meant, "they call me Monica") while in Bulgarian sounds like "az sum Monica" and means "I am Monica." So even sharing Cyrillic roots and alphabet, each language has it's own rules and grammatical structures.
So today, in honor of these Saints, as well as the Bulgarian holiday, I will work extra hard on my language homework and practice my pronunciation of the Bulgarian language, as Cyril and Methodius would have wanted.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
What I Hate About Bulgaria... So Far
Craters on the moon are jealous of Sofia's Giant Potholes
Not only are these deep and wide, they are frequent on my ride into and from work. Many drivers play "follow the leader" as they take cues on when to swerve from the driver ahead of them. This often times can requiring driving in the opposite lane with quickly approaching oncoming traffic, or going around the bend with no idea if a car will meet you head on as you try to escape the gaping holes in the road.
The fact that most native drivers could probably drive blindfolded and know exactly where they need to swerve means that potholes here in Bulgaria cause no outrage or evening news reports - they have become part of the routine and of daily life. The runoff from the mountain means that there is always water trickling down or gathering in roads that have poor or nonexistent drainage systems. And with all kinds of vehicles - from trucks to buses to tractors and construction equipment - using and abusing these arteries, it is hard to maintain, much less find the time to close down a lane and repair it. Adding to these issues is the fact that there are only three main roads up into the three neighborhoods that are found on the mountain (Dragelevsi, Simeonovo, and Boyana) - if one of these is shut down, even for a couple of hours and especially during rush hour, the other two routes quickly become congested and you could inch up the road for an hour before reaching the network of smaller roads and alleys that spread out through the neighborhoods.
The roads here are a mess, to say the least.
Bigger than a car wheel!
Two small potholes eventually fuse together to create a larger monster! Notice how the car passing by is driving in the MIDDLE of the road. Tragedy...
Not only are these deep and wide, they are frequent on my ride into and from work. Many drivers play "follow the leader" as they take cues on when to swerve from the driver ahead of them. This often times can requiring driving in the opposite lane with quickly approaching oncoming traffic, or going around the bend with no idea if a car will meet you head on as you try to escape the gaping holes in the road.
The fact that most native drivers could probably drive blindfolded and know exactly where they need to swerve means that potholes here in Bulgaria cause no outrage or evening news reports - they have become part of the routine and of daily life. The runoff from the mountain means that there is always water trickling down or gathering in roads that have poor or nonexistent drainage systems. And with all kinds of vehicles - from trucks to buses to tractors and construction equipment - using and abusing these arteries, it is hard to maintain, much less find the time to close down a lane and repair it. Adding to these issues is the fact that there are only three main roads up into the three neighborhoods that are found on the mountain (Dragelevsi, Simeonovo, and Boyana) - if one of these is shut down, even for a couple of hours and especially during rush hour, the other two routes quickly become congested and you could inch up the road for an hour before reaching the network of smaller roads and alleys that spread out through the neighborhoods.
The roads here are a mess, to say the least.
Bigger than a car wheel!
Two small potholes eventually fuse together to create a larger monster! Notice how the car passing by is driving in the MIDDLE of the road. Tragedy...
What I Love About Bulgaria....So Far
Shopska Salad
It's as simple as chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and shopska cheese, with optional addition of onions, mushrooms, and garlic. I also drizzle some olive oil and fresh lemon juice with a sprinkle of salt and pepper over the colorful diced vegetables and dig right in! It's a light but filling salad, made possible by open air markets that allow me to buy fresh ingredients weekly, if not daily.
These pictures are not from my own kitchen, but rather a local restaurant, which featured such interesting cocktails, like the "American Dream," (pictured below) and a whole section dedicated to Owen's meals (typographical/translational error also pictured below):
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