21. Bulgaria

We spent a few days in Bulgaria, stopping in the capital Sofia, and then in the more northern town of Velinko Tarnovo, former capital, before heading to Romania.

We strolled through Sophia on a guided tour of the history of communism, which was quite interesting. Bulgaria was a one-party socialist republic closely aligned with Russia, until 1989 when Gorbachev's tendencies towards capitalism and democracy bled through Eastern Europe, and Bulgaria became a multi-party parlimentary republic. Like other countries, managing the transition from state-owned operations to a market based economy has not been quick or easy for the Bulgarians. At this time, healthcare and educational services that used to be completely free now require a small investment by the people, but they are still largely state subsidized. When taxes were described as fairly low, I questioned who was paying for these state services, and the answer was, well, no one. The state services are grossly underfunded and antiquated.

According to our guide, the country is split in its opinion about the Ukraine war, with many old-timers still honoring that sense of connection to Russia, and pining for reinstatement of socialist rule. Seems like a country divided in political opinion is not just a US characteristic.

Speaking of antiquated services, train travel here is fairly miserable. The trains regularly run late (our train this morning was 25 minutes late) and have no a/c. We suffered 4 hours of 96 degree heat in a stifling first class train car in which the windows would not remain open unless you held them down. (We propped our 2 windows open with a bottle of water and a roll of tp). Hand fans and sweaty bodies were plentiful. A reddit user described the train system as " a fun experience, if you enjoy a post-apocalyptic aesthetic".Read more