Vidin, Bulgaria

We and another Viking ship descended on this poor little town of 30,000 people as we traipsed through their very large pedestrian zone complete with monuments (the Communist one was left because the sentiment was considered transferrable: "The greatness of the motherland is built on top of the bones for those who died for it.")

We saw lots of your average town homes and buildings, which was a nice glimpse. Are ours this rough at home? What these poor people have gone through with all their wars and occupations. 😢

Some facts we learned from our guide:
--Bulgaria has had their name of their country longer than any other European country.
--The prior generation speaks French and Russian, while younger folks speak English.
-- 1st country to adopt Cyrillic alphabet.
-- Eastern Orthodox since 9th century (but not very religious), some Muslim still and a lot of agnostics.
- The Bulgarians threw off the Turks in the 19th century after 500 years with help of Russians.
--Vidin was the capital for 30 years (it's Sofia now).

Walked to the Baba Vida (Granny Vida) fortress, an extremely well-preserved and original 15th and 16th century fortress that was never taken, with foundations that are 2nd century Roman. (It's the only entirely preserved medieval castle in the country.) Name is 10th century legend about an eldest daughter, Vida, who remained unmarried and built the castle in her city.

As we walked by this area they call the "triangle of tolerance," we learned some more interesting religious and WWII history about the Bulgarians. They joined the Axis (Hitler, Mussolini) with the promise they'd get Thrace and Macedonia back. But did you know that during WWII Bulgaria lost very few of their Jews? We didn't. Tsar Boris III put the country's Jews on work detail projects so few went to the concentration camps. They weren't completely immune but better than other countries. Rumor has it Hitler poisoned the Tsar because of his refusal. So even though Vidin's synagogue isn't used any more, they donated it to the city because the Jews moved away under Communism. See the picture of the "thank you" for helping them during the war.

It seems that these former Communist countries have really struggled to regain their footing in a more capitalistic world. But they seem to be close to one another and spend a lot of time drinking coffee with each other for hours. Who is to say they aren't doing the more important thing?Read more