The shipyards on the Bulgarian side of the Danube River, which marks the border between Bulgaria and Romania.
May 24 - Saints Cyril and Methodius Day (Orthodox churches).
Born in the 820s in Byzantine Thessaloniki, brothers Cyril and Methodius are two of the most famous and influential saints in the Orthodox Church. They were missionaries among the Slavic peoples, translated portions of the Bible into Old Church Slavonic so that people could read it, and are credited with inventing Glagolitic, the first Slavic alphabet.
Today they are widely remembered for their contribution in creating a literate public. May 24 is a public holiday in Bulgaria (where it is the Day of the Bulgarian Alphabet, Culture, and Education), Macedonia (where it is Slavonic Enlighteners Day), and in Russia (Slavonic Literature and Culture Day).
They are also saints in the Roman Catholic church, but their feast day - a public holiday in Slovakia and the Czech Republic - is in July.
A 5.8-magnitude quake struck Bulgaria early Tuesday, triggering panic among sleepy residents who ran into the streets in their pyjamas, and some minor damage, but no casualties were reported.
The quake jolted an area near Pernik, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) southwest of Sofia and was felt in the capital and other towns as well as in neighbouring Greece and Macedonia.
Residents of tall apartment buildings in Sofia said objects crashed to the ground during the tremor which lasted several minutes, and was followed by about 20 lighter aftershocks, according to local seismologists.
“Everything was shaking like crazy. I ran out shouting … I won’t go back home today,” teenager Maria told AFP outside her apartment building in a western Sofia neighbourhood.
A state of emergency has been declared in the area around Pernik, a mining town of about 80,000 people, and police and firefighters were dispatched to the region to held distressed residents and check for damage.
School classes were cancelled Tuesday and Wednesday.
“So far, there are no (known) casualties or injuries, which is good news,” Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told Focus press agency.
Civil defence chief Nikolay Nikolov said his service has received reports of toppled chimneys, falling masonry, cracked walls, broken windows and damaged cars in the Pernik region and Sofia.
My village is not too far from Pernik. D:
Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Let me suggest a few typical Balkan tours.
Take train to Belgrade: then go by Danube steamer to Widdin. From Widdin to Sofia go by rail, and then back to Belgrade on horseback, sending on heavy luggage by rail, but making at Nish on the way a depot of provisions and linen.
Take train to Bucharest. Go from there to Stara Zagora on horseback, crossing the Roumanian frontier at Roustchouk, going over the trail of the Russian Army of Liberation and seeing the Balkan mountain passes.
Take train to Sofia, and from there to Yamboli. At Yamboli go on horseback (in the track of the Bulgarian Third Army of 1912) to Kirk Kilisse, Lule Burgas, Chorlu, Silivri (on the Sea of Marmora), and Constantinople. A somewhat wild trip this would be, but quite practicable. The most comfortable way to travel would be to take ox wagons for the luggage and the camping outfit. That would restrict the day’s march to twenty miles. The horses—(diverging to look at scenery and battle-fields)—would do about thirty miles a day.
Take train to Constantinople, and from there boat to Salonica. Go on horseback from Salonica to Belgrade. This would show the most disturbed part of the Balkan Peninsula and some of its wildest scenery.
Take train to Philippopolis, and from there go on horseback and with ox wagons for a tour of the Rhodope mountains.
Bulgaria’s parliament voted on Thursday to ban smoking in all indoor public spaces from June 1 in an attempt to persuade one of Europe’s heaviest smoking nations to kick the habit.
The European Union’s poorest member state has joined a growing list of nations to ban smoking in bars and restaurants. It also agreed to forbid smoking outside nurseries and schools and at stadiums during sports and cultural events…
Inspectors will impose fines of up to 5,000 levs ($3,300) for a first offence and up to 10,000 levs for a repeat violation for bar-owners or managers tolerating smoking in restricted areas. Smokers who break the law face up to 500 levs for a first offence, which could be doubled for repeat violations.
A survey showed 56 percent of Bulgarians, the second heaviest smokers in the EU after Greeks, oppose the total ban on smoking in closed public areas.
I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that this law will not be followed to the letter.
Bulgaria in spring.
Victory Parade. June 24, 1945. Moscow. Red Square.
С Днем Великой Победы всех!!!!!! УРА!!!
Watch whole parade (49 min)
This was the first Victory Parade, so it makes sense that it was held a little after the fact, but ever since, Victory Day - the day the Nazis surrendered to the Soviet Union - has been celebrated on May 9.
Personal anecdote time: these days in the European Union as well as EU candidate states, May 9 is Europe Day, celebrating the unity of the continent. But in May 9 in my little town in Bulgaria, my colleagues and I watched the Victory Parade on TV (our little local cable got one channel from Russia) and my colleagues sang patriotic Russian songs. They told me nostalgically about when May 9 was the Day of Victory in Bulgaria too, instead of the Day of Europe (which I thought was a little ironic since Bulgaria was actually on the losing side).
Then I blogged about that, and someone who lived in Plovdiv responded to say that they had never ever seen Bulgarians do anything like that.
So while I am definitely not making up my anecdote, perhaps it is an outlier.
Anyway, today is both Victory Day and Europe Day. A little more on each later.
May 6th is St. George’s Day on the Orthodox calendar! This is a big holiday in Orthodox countries, and heralds the beginning of spring.
In Bulgaria, Gergyovden is also the Day of the Bulgarian Army. All over the country, people honor the service and sacrifices of the army.
