Party House, NOT a nightclub

A big red star used to be where now the Bulgarian flag is. Top of the Party House.

Much of what I am telling you here in this post is what I have learned during a pilot tour* to the Largo. The complex allegedly was designed by the best Bulgarian architects of the time, with the supervision by the soviets, and it drew inspiration from the Bulgarian medieval past (see the shapes of the lamps and the arches inside). It just so happened that the architects were trained during the pre-communist era.  

The Party House imitates classicist palaces (Roman/Italian, French) - note the columns; the round foyer & ceiling; the straight axis design. Simultaneously, the building includes decorative elements depicting the fruits and products of the Bulgarian countryside: clusters of grapes, roses, wheat ears, so it brings the palace closer to farmers & proletarians - the 'right' communist folks. Details are a very important element of this building.  

The House was constructed of local, Bulgarian, staples, with the exception of Bohemian glass chandelliers, the material for which was brough over from Czechoslovakia. (The only original chandeliers still in use nowadays can be found at the nearby Hotel Sheraton). 

 *If all goes well, the tour should be up and running from approximately November 2013 - check for the updates here. The tour is part of the Southeastern-Europe-wide ATRIUM project. 

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After the fail of socialism in the 1990s the Largo buildings remained more or less the same, apart from the fact that the hammers-and-sickles were dutifully removed from the decorative ornamentations, as well as the big red star from the top of the Party House. No more Lenins, Stalins and similar figures can be found at the Largo today - if you are feeling nostalgic you can go and see some of them (as well as the said red star) at the Museum of the Socialist Art. Plus, the Mausoleum of Georgi Dimitrov, the former socialist leader, dissapeared from the face of the earth.  

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Now time for some images:

Hammer and sickle removed.

The round ceiling & chandellier.

Decorative elements.

Columns.

Ceiling, the main hall.

Corridor (there are 3 kms of them in the building).

Balconies, with grape clusters & roses.

Hammer & sickle removed.

Text and photos (c) Agne Drumelyte, 2013.

Largo, the scary (not anymore) Triangle of power will open up to the public

The Largo at night. (c) Agne Drumelyte.

Right in the center of Sofia, above where the main street of the ancient city of Serdika was, looms the strict, monumental architectural complex The Largo - one of the more known socialist architecture examples in Eastern Europe.  

It was built in the early 1950s, in the lands freshly-flattened by the WW2 bombings (as much as 1/4 of the city was destroyed beyond repair then - especially the center).  

Rather oversized for the under 7.5 million Bulgarian population, the Largo consisted of functionnaire buildings: Ministries of Electrification & Heavy Industry; the Government; the Party House - that is, the house of the Communist Party, not a nightclub.

It also included attractions like the former leader's Georgi Dimitrov's mausoleum (1949; constructed in only six days as the great Bulgarian socialist leader died unexpectedly during his visit to Moscow); and the TZUM, at the time Bulgaria's most prestigious department store where the products of the socialist workers' achievements were on display for local and international visitors.

The important guests used to stay at the nearby Hotel Balkan, also part of the complex - the building nowadays is used by Hotel Sheraton.  

All of the said buildings, except for the mausoleum that was demolished in the 1999, still dominate the central Sofia today. Most of them, however (with the exceptions of the TZUM and the Hotel Sheraton) can be seen only from the outside. The former communist government buildings are used by the democratic Bulgarian government nowadays.     

There is, though, a hope that the great dinosaurs will open up to the public one day. I have just been on a trial tour to the complex, 'The [Un]Known Largo'*, and have witnessed some of the insides of the former communist Party House - see a post on it here.  

The tour is part of the EU-funded ATRIUM project that aims to create & promote a cultural tour route through the Southeastern Europe, one that is concerned with the totalitarian architecture of the 20th century. Most of the tour's venues are socialist buildings of the Balkans but a couple of right-wing totalitarian venues are on the list too. 

*If all goes well, the tour should be up and running from approximately November 2013 - check for the updates here. 


The facade of the Party House (centre), on the same night.

Text and photos (c) Agne Drumelyte, 2013.

Free mineral water: the springs at the Banya Bashi

For a while this was my favourite place in Sofia; also one to which I was taking all the newcomers to show it to them as one of the city's attractions. Although rough and scruffy, the Banya Bashi area is where one can observe the powers of nature at work: the thermal Mineral Springs.

There is no shortage of springs in Bulgaria. They come in all temperatures, flavours, scents and mineral compositions. In Sofia region alone mineral springs provide around 500 litres of water per second. There are several of them in Sofia; quite a famous medicinal one can be found next to Lake Pancharevo.

The springs next to Banya Bashi, however, are right in the centre of the city; and they are hot, robust and plentiful. The flowing water is organised into some thirty taps that run continuously day and night as if they were little fountains. The temperature of the water is perhaps enough to brew oneself a cup of tea with it.

The place is always full of people: drinking; washing their hands; filling up large plastic bottles to bring home. There are also homeless people washing themselves and doing their laundry. The city's pigeons and cats make sure they get their share too. The access to the water is open to everyone.

Right next to the springs there is a busy tram stop. So far, even in the middle of the night, I have not yet seen the place empty. I like to wait there during the more quiet times of the day; when one can hear the water running, and, if it's cold enough, see the steams. Even if the area is kept neither very clean nor too beautiful it has a surprisingly nice feel to it. It is not the most photogenic place in the world so my advice would be just to go and experience it.

These springs have been in use since at least the Roman times, perhaps even earlier. From the more recent times the roughly a hundred year old yellow building of Central Mineral Baths remains in the neighbourhood. The building used to be a public bathing place up until the late 1980s - it used the readily-warm water straight from the springs.

Today the house is gradually decomposing, although there are some plans to reanimate it and to make it a bathing place again (this time, though, within there would be a 'top notch spa' and a gallery). Noone is certain about how long the renovation is going to take but, as a foreigner, I can say that I would be one of their regular visitors.  

 


The former Central Mineral Baths' building, waiting for the renovation.

Text and photos (c) Agne Drumelyte, 2013.

Balkan Hostels, not exactly best friends of the booking engines

Bunk bed, an inseparable part of many hostel experiences.

If you are a regular user of hostels you might have noticed that the hostel industry runs according to the same principles as any other industry. It is the environment in which bigger businesses and corporations eventually swallow up the smaller ones. And those who take over are not necessarily nicer and/or have better values than those being taken over. However, the dominant ones are more visible (which helps them to get even more profit and grow).

I am not intending to point out 'good' and 'bad' things about the hostel industry here, but, for example, how do you usually search for and book hostels?

Many people simply go to one of the major hostel booking websites: these are convenient to use, include hostels from all over the world, and, usually, contain hostel photos & guest reviews. They charge you a deposit (part of your pay for the bed, normally, around 10 percent of the price for each night) and, sometimes, a booking fee (around 1.50 -2 euros, dollars or pounds).

The deposits and booking fees are how the hostel booking websites make their money. The 10 percent deposit that you pay as part of your overnight stay does not go to the hostel - it stays with the booking website. The 10 percent is your hostel's donation to the mediator. 

In order to be popular with booking-engines-using backpackers many hostels in popular tourist destinations have to lower their prices and this way to lose even more money. In return, the quality of many cheap hostels' facilities suffers. 

The moral would be not to stay at the cheapest places and to support smaller, unique businesses that have got some character, even if they charge you a bit more.

Another good thing you can do to is to book your stay directly with a hostel, avoiding the mediators, or simply to walk in. In this case the hostel of your choice will get 10 percent more income from you than it would have got if you used booking engines.

Surely, in certain locations using the established hostel booking websites may give you a sense of added security and credibility but it is up to you to decide.    

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Here in the Balkans, meanwhile, I have discovered two 'anti-booking-engines' hostel owners' initiatives: the 'Balkans Best Hostels' and the 'Balkan Backpacker'. Both are comprised of different 'hand picked' (read: best, most unique) hostels from several countries around the region, and both currently offer you, the traveller, a 10 percent discount if you book directly with them instead of using a mediator.

The first one has got a website; the second one only a flier which you can pick up at any of the participating hostels and use it to get your discount & collect stamps.

Have not tried the 'Balkans Best Hostels' yet but I have stayed at a couple from the 'Balkan Backpacker' group, and, yes, I can confirm that the quality of the facilities in one of them, the 'Aurora' of Niš, was truly above the average (as well as the setting inside a historical house); while one in Plovdiv had a good location and a nice homely feel.  

Text and photos (c) Agne Drumelyte, 2013.

Bulgaria's former shoe capital. Welcome to Gabrovo.

A haute couture shoe-selling garage in one of the yards of central Gabrovo.

In central Bulgaria - almost at the very centre of it - there is a long, ugly, and, in a way, quirky town of Gabrovo, also known as the country's Capital of Humour. Why? - because nationwide (and even in some areas outside Bulgaria) there have been a lot of jokes about the Gabrovians' stinginess, calculation and overly practicality. The Gabrovians have even got a Museum of Humour & Satire, located in a heavy and grey rectangular building, to prove their reputation.

During the socialist era Gabrovo was also known for its impressive sized shoe factory that provided footwear for all country. Nowadays the factory is in coma, if we use satire; or, if we want to be realistic, simply deserted.

The town stretches along the Yantra river, one that also flows through the neighbouring Etara crafts' village. The town itself feels a bit like a river, narrow and of nearly 30 kilometres' length. You can walk across easily but for a trip along it is advisable to get a bike or some other form of transport. Even to walk from the old part of the town to the aforementioned Museum of Humour might take you a while.

Although the town's history dates back to the medieval times, most of its current architecture seems to be from the same era as the retired shoe factory. One does not need to travel to Gabrovo solely for architecture; you can see pretty much the same styles at the 'sleeping districts' of Sofia.

On a Saturday night Gabrovo witnesses a few groups of young people, some of them drinking and partying right on the street. Then there are a couple of well hidden bars.

If you are in the area, I recommend spending more time (and sleeping) at the Etara village; and perhaps going for a nice hike to the neighbouring Shara Planina. The latter has got two celebrated peaks with monuments on them: the Shipka Pass with the monument for Bulgarian Freedom, and the UFO-like mysterious abandoned socialism monument.   

As well as that, in order to keep your guts healthy and fit, you can try a bar of Gabrovian chocolate (they sell it in Etara too, along with home made boza, airan, and several other culinary delights).



The hip-hop reunion.

Text and photos (c) Agne Drumelyte, 2013.

Etara, the water-powered crafts' village

The smoke, Etara.

Etara (Etar) is an ethnographic village located 8 kms south from Gabrovo, up the river Yantra.

Although officially an open air museum, the whole complex is a vivid hybrid of craftsmen & artisans at work in their shelters (you may watch them, ask them questions, and buy their ready produce right there on the spot); traditional food kiosks & restaurants; and a whole street of traditional 'National Revival' style houses.

Entry to the street of traditional houses.

Each house on the said street is a mini museum depicting how traditional homes of various craftsmen (ironmongers, tanners, silversmiths, carpenters, weavers, to mention a few) looked like back in the day - typically, with working spaces & shops downstairs, and sleeping quarters upstairs.

At the end of the said street there is a large hotel, built in the same style, offering the option to sleep at the museum. If you are not lucky to secure a room in this hotel do not worry as there are several other guesthouses in Etara, outside the ethnographic complex.

Some of the craftsmen shelters.

All the machinery of the artisans is run by water power - the old-fashioned way. The machines are made mainly of wood and iron, and you are welcome to observe their mechanics, e.g. how a water stream spins a large wheel that connects to a wood carver's lathe, or how a saw, all by itself, slices through a long log. 

Lazar Donkov, the initiator of Etara crafts' village.

Etara crafts village was initiated back in the 1960s by the local artist and ethnographer Lazar Donkov. Although it was intended to demonstrate the traditional ways of the past, it becomes relevant nowadays, as the tendencies towards self-sustainability, zero carbon footprint, small scale production increase. It is a good place to get some ideas, not only to learn about the past.

Several times a year, the village hosts popular festivals & culture events. Meanwhile, outside the crowded days one may equally appreciate the village's beautiful settings, inhale the smells of smoke (among other things, prunes are being smoke-dried here to make the Gabrovian chocolate); wood; leaves and flowers; and listen to the ever present water. 

Watch water at work in Etara:

 Spinning a power wheel.

Sawing a log.

Doing the laundry. 

(The latter one could as well be a spring water jacuzzii).

 

Text, photos and videos (c) Agne Drumelyte, 2013.



Underwater Thracian city of Seuthopolis

View from the Shipka Pass, Stara Planina mountains, Bulgaria. The Koprinka Reservoir that covers the city of Seuthopolis is on the plane in the far distance, a bit to the right. The plane is also known as 'the Valley of the Thracian Kings'.

In the previous post I wrote about the Thracians, the ancient inhabitants of Bulgaria, and mentioned the 'Valley of the Kings' in Central Bulgaria (nowadays also a major Rosa Damascena producing region) - the place where a big concentration of the remaining Thracian architectural constructions can be found.

One of such constructions is the Thracian city of Seuthopolis (4th century BC) - shamefully, put underwater by the communist government. To be more precise, it was discovered in 1948 during the building of the Koprinka Reservoir (dam of the Tundzha river) - and it was marked as the best preserved Thracian city to date - but it was decided to continue with the industrial works anyway and the city was flooded with water.

Now Seuthopolis is about 20 metres underwater. There are no organised diving tours to the site as far as I know but the Bulgarian architect Zkeko Tilev has proposed a plan (one worth at least 50 million euros) to re-claim Seuthopolis from underwater and to make it a major tourist attraction (as well as that the move would enable Seuthopolis to gain a UNESCO World Heritage Site status).

According to the plan, a circular wall around Seuthopolis would be built within the dam - one, similar to those used in archaeological sea excavations - then the water from inside the wall removed. The city would become a 'deep' island within the reservoir. Visitors would reach it by boats and then observe the city from the water level (20 metres above) or they could take a lift down and explore the constructions immediately.   

The summary of the Tilev's proposed plan can be found here (and I strongly recommend to have a look at it as the concept is very interesting).

Worth mentioning is also the fact that the famous Thracian graves in the area (currently appreciated by many tourists, historians and archaeologists alike) are of people from Seuthopolis. That is yet another reason why uncovering the underwater city would make a perfect sense.

Text and photos (c) Agne Drumelyte, 2013.

Thracians, the legendary inhabitants of ancient Bulgaria

A Thracian wreath, made of pure gold, 4th century BC. The leaves were designed to move in the wind, as those of a real tree would, and the tiny buds between them were meant to make a gentle jingling sound with every twist of the head of the wearer. This, likely, was a party accessory of a female. When it was discovered as part of a Thracian treasure, the archaeologists had to painstakingly unfold every single gold foil leave with special tweezers as the wreath had been battered under the earth.   

Bulgaria is very old. Today it is known as a Slavic country but the Slavs arrived to Europe only as late as the 6th century AD. Bulgaria, meanwhile, has been inhabited for at least eight thousand years (i.e. people had already lived here for at least 6.600 years before the Slavs' arrival).

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The legendary civilisation of ancient Bulgaria was that of the Thracians. The Thracians were Indo-European people who, among other things, were known to be excellent warriors and gold carvers. They dominated present day Bulgaria before it was conquered by the Roman Empire. Even within the Roman Empire the Thracians managed for a long time to retain strong identity and to remain the prevalent population in their own province.

The last of the Thracians died off and/or were assimilated in the 5th century AD. Some of their genes are now being carried by modern Bulgarians.

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Bulgaria is not short of Thracian treasures and ruins. Especially so the central part of the country, around the so-called Valley of Roses near Kazanlak, a.k.a. the Valley of the Thracian Kings. There one can find plenty of tombs of important Thracian people (one of them, the Kazanlak Tomb*, is on the UNESCO World Heritage list) as well as other Thracian architectural constructions. 

Read about the underwater Thracian city of Seuthopolis here.

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I have been hearing about the Thracians since my first longer-term stay in Bulgaria last year but I did not actually register the information until I got a rare chance to touch the thin leaves of golden wreath (pictured above) with my own fingers and to sip some wine from replicas of Thracian silver wine vessels (photo below); after this tactile experience the thousands years' history came to life and now I am a convert.

True to be said, although Bulgaria holds a lot of artifacts from the Thracian times, the civilisation itself remains mysterious. Only the said artifacts and written documents by their neighbouring cultures (ancient Greeks & Romans) inform us today about the Thracians as written sources by the Tracians themselves did not survive. Only very few Thracian inscriptions are known - and the ones that are known have not yet been deciphered.

Replicas of Thracian silver wine vessels (okay, not the best photo angle). The vessels were made of various metals, silver and gold being quite common among the rich.

* Once you are in Kazanlak, go up the hill where the actual tomb and its exact life size replica are side to side. Only the replica is open to visitors (unless you are on a very special mission - then they might unlock the real tomb for you).

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Next time I might also tell here a bit about the golden mask of the king Teres which is now stored at Sofia's Archaeological Museum.

Text and photos (c) Agne Drumelyte, 2013.

Blocks of flats, the beehives of 'equal' post-soviet citizens

A concrete block of flats monster at Lyulin residential district on the outskirts of Sofia.  

Blocks of flats. Tall, grey buildings with multiple entrances; small, graffiti-covered elevator cabins (unsuitable for claustrophobic people) that take you to the upper ninth / twelfth / sixteenth floor; two- and three- digit flat numbers. The swarm of people who live there.

In Edinburgh, UK, where I stayed for several years, such type of high-rise buildings was uniformly associated with a certain stratum of society: people of working class and those living off state benefits. Typically, the housing was provided by the council, and the areas where they were standing were known as rather rough, violent parts of the city.      

In soviet and early post-soviet Eastern Europe that I knew as a child the tall concrete housing did not have the stigma associated with them in the UK. In soviet times all people were meant to be equal* so doctors and teachers lived side to side with factory workers, writers, musicians, plumbers, shop assistants and trolleybus drivers.

The houses had yards with trees and playgrounds where pensioners spent time siting on benches, gossipping & discussing each others' disease; children were playing in sand boxes, swinging on playground constructions and running around playing hide-and-seek games; parents walking around pushing prams; dog owners walking their pets, etc. Neighbours knew things about each others and often formed symbiotic relationships such as watering each others' house plants and keeping a watchful eye on each others' doors for burglars when one of the sides was on holidays. 

Typically, ceilings in such housing were low, the flats were connected to the central heating and hot/cold water system. Kitchens** were small, assuming that in the end the soviet citizens won't need kitchens at all as they all would be eating out in public canteens. The lucky ones had additional storage space in the basements where they kept apples, potatoes and other supplies brought over from farming relatives.

The occupants normally were also the owners of their flats. According to the 'bright future' plans, every soviet citizen had to be provided with accommodation.

All started to change during the 1990s, after the fail of the Soviet Union. People with more money and/or love for beauty started moving out to historical parts of towns; to the nature; or to private suburban houses. The process, however, takes time, and in Eastern Europe the populations of concrete high-rise buildings still remain rather motley. 

Not the biggest fan of living in high-rise blocks myself, I, however, have an anthropological interest in them and will try, one day, to introduce you to the famous Mladost, Lyulin and Nadezhda residential districts of Sofia. Meanwhile, here is how you address a letter to someone living in a block of flats in Bulgaria:    

After the street name goes house number first; then the number of the entrance to the house (if applicable); then the floor number; then, finally, the number of the apartment/flat. For example, 'ул.София No.105, вх.B, ет.6, ап.79'. Photo from a Bulgarian language class at the Galaxy School, Sofia.  

* as we know, in practice it was not necessarily the case, and some soviets, as Geoge Orwell proclaims in his 'Animal Farm', were 'more equal than others'.

** the topic of soviet kitchens is broad requires a post or a book on its own. In my native Lithuania, for example, the kitchen was a popular place for meetings of underground intellectuals and anti-soviet dissidents. Perhaps from those times there is a term 'kitchen politician' meaning someone who only criticises the government sitting in his own or a friend's kitchen but does not declare his/her views publicly.

Watch a video: a post-socialist landscape, train Sofia - Plovdiv.

Text and the top photo (c) Agne Drumelyte, 2013.

Social centre 'Adelante', Sofia's leftist experiment

Adelante (meaning 'come in / forward / ahead' in Spanish). The entrance. 

Like many cities, Sofia has got its own alternative left-ish community. Some of it revolves around the social centre 'Adelante'.

Zapatista coffee, organic honey.

The centre, a social experiment itself, has been operating for nearly three years now. It aims to provide and enlighten the local community via initiatives such as free classes (IT, languages), lectures, things-and-clothes-swap (the centre's free market in one of the corners of the premises: bring what you don't need and pick what you find useful), as well as free internet.

Guerrilla detergents.

A small cafe/bar counter works at the premises - profits from it go towards paying the rent for the house (alternatively, you can donate some money to keep the centre running). There is also a mini shop selling goods made by independent, organic, radical, guerrilla, etc. producers.

The 'free shop'.

For example, here you can buy Zapatista coffee grown in the Chiapas region of Mexico by a co-operative of indigenous farmers. The profits would go directly to them, and that would be much fairer than buying the usual coffee packaged by the dominant corporations, as the centre's information material advises.

Among other goods are organic soaps and cleaning liquids produced by squatters of an abandoned detergent factory in Greece. The profits also are said to go directly to the manufacturers. Then, you can also find organic honey and creams from Bulgarian farms as well as several zines, booklets and books for sale.  

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A presentation at 'Adelante'.

To read about a presentation I have been to, click here for organic gardening and here for permaculture. 

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Social centre 'Adelante', Gurko 27, Sofia.
Website: http://www.sc-adelante.org/?p=708&lang=en.

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The staff at the centre claim that they do not want to be labeled ''left or right wing'' and that they are looking for their ''own alternatives based on equality, anti-hierarchy and anti consumerism''. [update, 3 November 2013].

Text and photos (c) Agne Drumelyte, 2013.