Kazanlak is a smaller city located in the center of Bulgaria, about three hour drive east from Sofia. It is known throughout Bulgaria and throughout Europe as the place where the famous and expensive Bulgarian Rose Oil is produced. The city is surrounded by fields of rose bushes, a special variety of rose that originated in Damascus and then was cultivated into the Kazanlak Rose. Bulgarians are proud to brag about their Kazanluk Rose and the rose oil that is harvested from the Kazanlak Rose. This rose oil is also known as Bulgaria's "liquid gold," as it is three times more expensive per ounce than gold and is used throughout the cosmetic industry as a base for perfumes and other beauty products. One kilograms of rose oil is extracted from 3000 kilograms of hand-picked roses! Over 2000 people harvest these roses each year, as hand-picking the blossoms is the best way to preserve the roses for the distillation process. The harvesting of the roses lasts anywhere from five to twenty days, depending on the crop. This year the roses bloomed earlier and so the harvest was complete by the second week of June.
We left Sofia early in the morning so that we could arrive in time for the Rose Parade at noon. It was raining when we left and the rain would continue to sporadically meet us as we traveled through small villages and along mountain roads to Kazanlak. The rain refreshed the entire countryside, greening the fields and the trees that passed by our windows. The mountains stretched along the horizon, rain clouds preventing us from seeing their peaks. My favorite things to watch for were the colorful wildflowers that lined the sides of the roads, the flocks of sheep and goats that grazed in the fields below the mountains, and the villages that we passed, each gate and garden decorated with at least one flowering rose bush.
Approaching Kazanlak, we passed by the famous "Valley of the Roses." The fields in this valley were filled with row after row of now-picked rose bushes. There were a few people out in the fields, gathering the remnants of the rose harvest, and we could only imagine what these fields must have looked like just a week ago.
The sun met us as we drove into Kazanlak, warming us as we made our way to the center of town for the parade. We were about half an hour late, but we managed to catch the tail-end of the parade (see slideshow in the sidebar). The main street was filled with rose petals and the air filled with the scent of roses - a nice change from the body odor that usually emanates from such a crowd in the heat of the sun. The main city square was filled with flowering rose bushes and I made sure to get a photo with the famous flowers.
We were only in town for an hour before the rain caught up with us, so we decided to head back to Sofia. The lavender fields were one of my favorite sights on the return trip:
