There’s a lot that I like about living in Sofia. There are somethings that I don’t love as much (like the fact that after eight months here I still trip on uneven sidewalk tiles). But this post is about things that I still don’t really understand:
- Why doesn’t my neighborhood grocery store carry the same brands from week to week? And more specifically, why is it that my favorite musli can be on the shelf for three or four weeks and then it will disappear for weeks on end. At this point, I assume that I’ll never see it again and that’s the week say two bags show up on the shelf. Also, when this happens why don’t I buy both bags?!
- What are the drivers thinking who slow down at crosswalks to let me cross?! It seems to me that most drivers see me trying to cross the street and speed up. Somehow I can’t help wondering if these well behaved drivers know the “rules” here.
- How can it be that I always go to the post office stand in line for at least 10 minutes and then when it’s my turn to buy stamps there’s not a single person in line behind me? I know it doesn’t seem possible but I’ve never been to the post office when I haven’t had to stand in line. The good think about this is that it gives me plenty of time to think about what I am going to say. These women do not speak English.
- I have no idea how streets or rooms in buildings are numbered. In Sofia University for example all rooms no matter what floor they are on seem to be two-hundred and something. Really, how does that help me find the room in the maze of a building that is Sofia University. So every time I am there I’m the tall blond girl walking all over the place. The same goes for many of the streets in Sofia. We don’t seem to do the odds on one side of the street an evens on the other side. I am not sure who numbered the streets but I can’t help wondering if he’d been drinking rakia the night he started numbering.
- Why are all of my 8th graders in to metal (bands I know but have never really bothered listening to)?
- I used to wonder where all of the bad sweaters I gave my dad each year for Christmas went but now I understand that these somehow end up in thrift stores in Sofia and I occasionally have seen a dAd Dave special out on the streets. So this mystery has been solved. How they get here from Walla Walla I am not so clear on.
- How did mozzarella cheese for pizzas get replaced with the Bulgarian yellow cheese–kashkaval? Sure the colors are similar and the texture is closer than the Bulgarian white cheese–sierne (or Greek feta)–but the flavors are very different and the two cheese melt differently as well.
- Why don’t Bulgarians recycle?
- What’s going on with the Bulgarian red? How can every woman go to the hair dresser and come out with the same color of hair? Does she say: “oh give me what you just gave her” and point? Also, if I went to the salon how would I look in that color?
- How can it be that I never know the work schedule and why doens’t anyone tell me what’s going on? It’s happened more than once that the government will give us the day off and then have us make the days off up on a Saturday. For example it’s scheduled to happen in May. We get off May 1-6th but we’ve got to make up two days May 4th and 5th on two Saturdays later in May. So we don’t really get the 4th and 5th off after all… I guess the good thing is that least I know this time.
There are a few things that I don’t understand and love.
- How can a bottle of beer be so big and so cheap? 500 ml and 2 leva.
- Who is supporting all of the cafes? Man I love a good cup of coffee as much as the next girl and I get one at all times of the day but who are all of these other people? how are the cafes always busy?
- How is it possible that the babas (grandmothers) that I see struggling to carry home kilos of fruits and veggies are able to eat it all before it goes bad?
- Why people put up with me when my Bulgarian is so bad.
- People selling things everywhere from hand shelled walnuts to bras to homemade wine in coke bottles and lots of socks, scarves, umbrellas and flowers.
- When little kids say to me: I don’t know the word for it in English and it turns out it’s for some food or a person’s name that we don’t have English.
- Why everything that’s homemade tastes better–it’s like somehow the Bulgarians are able to bake, cook or can sunshine into whatever they’re making. Jam, bread, pickled veggies you name it.
- How can the simple combo of pastry and salty cheese be so amazing (banitsa… not to mention the other options cheese and spinach, cheese and green onion and even pumpkin) but in the States all of our pastries are sweet. What’s wrong with us?! Why don’t we have a savory pastry?
- Why isn’t the Cyrillic alphabet cool? This also goes for the Bulgarian language. I’d love to have a planner that had the months and days of the week in Bulgarian but after a 3 month search no luck. Shouldn’t this be some hipster-cool thing? Alas, it’s not.
- How this country can frustrate me to no end sometimes and still I am trying to figure out to extend this year into a second one.
Hope that you get a kick out of these two lists.
Carolyn,
I’ve been living in BG for more than 20 years but there’re a lot of things that still amaze me. last week I didn’t find my musli either so I’m sharing the pain…
good luck in extending your stay for a second year.
Regarding #9 on your list, it is mostly because during communism, red was the only color for hair dye that was available… I suggest this book: How We Survived Communism & Even Laughed.
#8. Due to corruption Sofia’s recycling plant is a bit… delayed…
Excellent list though. Made my day and made me think a lot.
About holidays – it’s a cheap widely-criticized populist move of the ruling “social” coalition.
It’s easy to vote tons holidays to make people pro-left in the coming elections July. It’s hard to raise the GDP…
Going to cafes has become a daily job for some.
Every second of free time is wasted if not spent with friends drinking cafe and watching people pass by.
(btw Sofia doesn`t have the most cafe density, Bourgas does, and they are always full)
Серж, it’s true about Bourgas:) Karolinka, funny list, it will be nice to feed us with more of your perspective though:)
I’m living here close to 30 years and still I do not have the answer to items #1, 2, 3, 4, 9 and 10 from the first list and items # 3, 9 and10 of your second list
I liked very much Nr. 5 – there IS still hope then, and maybe that generation will be different from the previous ones, and won’t listen chalga. Not being biased, just… a bit.
About the musli… Just leave it
. As you have mentioned, we know how to prepare tasty food, that you have are not used to. Try popara, iufka(may be noodles in english??). The popara has many variations. For example, tea full with bread, sugar, cheese and butter. Or milk with bread and sugar.
Hi Karolinka27,
Regarding #3 in the second list, now that you have learned ‘baba’ you are ready to learn the term ‘babini burkani’ (baba’s jars). These are where all of the fruits and vegetables go in. Then the ‘babini burkani’ are sent to babas’ children and grandchildren
#1: I rememer a couple of years ago the amazing price of 0.37lv./bottle of beer “Slavena” in the local shop:)
@Slav40 I guess this is just one more reason that I need to find my own Baba. For the record, I am still looking.
#3 “…time to think about what I am going to say. These women do not speak English.”
Yeah, I’ve got the same problem in US. How come they don’t speak bulgarian over there???
@ayreonautiqus You’re right they do speak Bulgarian (which they should). I just don’t speak as much Bulgarian as they would often like and then sometimes I get stage-fright when I try to use my Bulgarian. So standing in line gives me plenty of time to practice what I want to say over and over again in my head.
Well, I think this is one (end probably the only one) of disadvantages of your mother thong being worldwide spoken. This doesn’t give you any reason to learn foreign languages (except Spanish maybe:-)). The thing that really frustrates me is (as you very, very, very well pointed out):” Why isn’t the Cyrillic alphabet cool?” for the Bulgarians themselves?
A suggestion to your No. 3 – go to the post office between 3 and 4 pm, or after 6 pm (Central post is open till 7 at least), or on Saturday. Also, carry a magazine and a music player – Murphy’s law suggests that if you are well prepared to wait you probably won’t have to:)
About the numbering in the university – the building has three section.
One that is right next to the bus stop – there the rooms are 200+
The second is the middle one with the giant front doors that are rarely open – rooms 100-200
And the third which is closer to the subway construction site with rooms 1-100
And once you get used to the building, it’s not a maze, but quite well organized, actually.
And do find some baba to make you baklava if you haven’t tried that so far. it’s sweet heaven on a plate…
Cool list, it is interesting to see what a foreigner doesn’t quite understand.
Sofia University – don’t even bother trying to figure it out. I’ve been there a few times – it’s impossible. Even the people that go there take a year to figure it out. I personally think they should have maps all over the place with “where you are” dots on them.
Now, banitsa you can find in the States. In all the big cities, NY, Chicago, where there’s greek population. Go to any greek bakery – the one with feta cheese and spinach is called spinakopita, and the plain one just with cheese is – cheese pie. They are delicious, often made with real cheese (to let you in a little secret, in Bulgaria more often then not they are made with “izvara” – a yogurt based cheese, close to ricotta)
Good luck extending your stay.
On 9 in the first list: also, a lot of women don’t go to a hairdresser and instead dye their hair at home. Another reason why red is popular is red henna – it’s actually good for the hair so many women use it instead of hair dye (which always does some damage).
@ayreonautiqus – dude, I believe you are talking about Carolyn’s mother tongue and not about her mom’s underwear [greets and sorry to involve you, MoM, I know you are reading
]. Try to look the term ‘thong’ in Google images 
It’s just a funny typo 
@Carolyn – thanks for letting us the possibility to see our city through the eyes of a foreigner. Probably by the end of your stay you would present an exhaustive list so we can work on changing the negative things. Regretfully, most of these are not likely to change, it’s just the mind that we have in these geographical latitudes…
PS. Is there a limit on the characters? Hopefully nope
I’ve been reading your blog since November last year and I remember being referred to it after a Google search on the event of the opening of Starbucks in Sofia. I do check your blog on a daily basis – it’s a must-do like checking my e-mail
I can also remember reading somewhere that the picture in the header of your blog is what you see of your … window. This said, I figured out that I work in your neighborhood cause this is a roof I see every day on my way to work 
Then comes this posting of yours in which you somehow try to compare Berlin and Sofia. It felt so good to read that you like Sofia better – [quote] This is, for better or worse, my city. [end quote
]
Not the end of my comment, though. I was headed for a restaurant in your/my neighborhood for lunch and I was planning my comment I wanted to write that same day on your Berlin Part II posting. As I was trudging my way through the cars parked on the sidewalks (here’s another thing you may find difficult to understand…) you popped out of a store right in front of me
I have always thought that I would just stop you and talk to you for a while if I happen to meet you in the street and this just seemed the perfect timing. However, I did nothing but let the moment go, I believe that I just got quite confused to actually see you as I have always imagined…. I was also afraid that you could be shocked if a stranger stopped you and addressed you directly by name 
LOL! Ain’t it super strange? 
Anyway, you should not wonder how you ended up with 1000 viewers of your blog, it’s just the fact that what you write is pretty interesting both to US and BG audience. You keep doing the great job!
Oh, and last but not least – I always get to learn a new word or expression in English thanks to you!
Yay! Благодаря!
Well, I say thank God that those 8th graders listen metal music!!! Maybe the things are getting better? It could be much, much worst – they could listen to a chalga….
Anyway, Carolyn I am glad that you are enjoying my country while I am enjoying yours
Get used to it, it probably ain’t gonna change and there’s no reason to moan about it. Just accept it as it is, try to ignore it or something. Also, please avoid generalizing too much, it’s really annoying when foreigners begin every conversation with “Bulgarians do this and that and …” as if they’ve thoroughly studied all the different classes and subgroups of society and are now having an expert stance on most issues. This is strangely encouraged by some Bulgarians themselves (as seen here) who have a constant urge to make sure every foreigner is enjoying their stay here. It’s take it or leave it, like any other country really.
P.S. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being rude.
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I forgot to comment on the 8th graders being into metal.
In my teenage years, I noticed an interesting tendency among young Bulgarians. If they were intelligent and studying at good schools, they listened to metal, otherwise they listened to chalga. This is a horrible genralization, I know. Nevertheless I am glad and surprised to hear that the rule more or less remains same; I thought other styles had replaced metal as the official music of the “I AEG” long ago… you are teaching at that school, right?
@none: you are being rude. It is not only very interesting, but also helpful to be aware of how foreigners perceive your country. Besides, everyone is guilty of making statements of the type ” always do this and this”. I make there type of generalisations when I travel abroad, and so do you.
And there is nothing wrong with the constant urge to make foreigners have a good time in your country. I wish everyone had this urge, the world would be a better place.
@Mila – yes indeed, I meant tongue. Sorry for being so stupid…
At least I hope you had a good laugh.
Ha ha! #3 is totally the truth. Every time I end up waiting in line somewhere, it’s as though I’m always the last person to arrive.
What’s strange about it is that even thought I had to wait, being there at the end of it all gives me a feeling of comfort, like I’m that last one, and I just made it in time before the whole world shut down and nobody else was allowed to play either.
http://www.heartonasleeve.com
Oh my God, I can’t believe I haven’t read this blog before. It’s hilarious.
And about your questions… most of us don’t have the slightest idea.
It’s something like : “it’s just what it is. end of story”.
And somehow… nobody is asking questions. We are just dealing with it, managing to be sane.
Musli aint very healthy so give it up. Quite glad (that’s common) about #5. I’d have expected anything to do w/ chalga (perhaps you like the cheap chalga chicks, though?)
As for non-speaking English, also slightly astonished but very slightly, my gf observation was the same, actually.
However, as for post office: hell, dude, what do you expect the lowest salary employees to speak English. Be real.
Possibly grannies “conserve” the stuff – jams, pickles, etc.
The numbers in Sofia goes like that: odd one side, even the other. The number value (usually) increases from the downtown to the outskirts.
Disclaimer: I might be off since I don’t live in Bulgaria for couple a years.
Cheers (good sh!t)
Hey a friend is comming in BG in a couple of days to visit me here in Sofia. Thanks for the great article – it was very usefull
Have a great week
I forgot to mention she is from USA. Thats why it is useful…
I can give a short and long answer.
1. The short one:
Because you’re in Bulgaria and here absolutely anything is possible !!!
2. The Long one point by point
1. Probably cause they’re buying the cheapest things that dealers offer them.
2.Cause nobody is following the rules to drive a car ! (I like to Kill them All)
3. Murphy’s Law – It’s really strong in BG
4. For the streets cause they don’t have enough money for Labels + the fact the a lot of people like to steal, collect them . For SU I don’t have an answer
5. oooooooo , They’re nice kids like 1 guy answer : Be happy that they’re not listening chalga – It’s a miracle !
6. Second-hand is national sport here
I saw really fun Ad – We are offering clothes with history for people with Future
7. They put cashkaval cause it’s cheaper and like 20 years ago when nobody didn’t know anything about the parmesan and mozzarella – What do you think that we didn’t have Pizza we had it with sirene i kashkaval and of course everybody loves it in that way, so if you want it in normal way you can say it when you purchase
Excuse me – it’s not a patriotism but THERE IS NOT SOMETHING LIKE GREEK FETA – JUST the bulgarians didn’t make the payment for the international patent and this bastards steal it ! Like the Sourly Milk all the Japanese are eating real bulgarian Кисело Мляко, unfortunately we are eating fake shit cause they put only shits in it
8. This one is too long to be explain. Short – cause they never been do it in the past and they need time to be learned and of course some people want to make a lot of money before that !!! The F*ckin Mafia I mean
9.I’m askin’ the same I love red head women
The short answer is that 85-90% of ladys in BG like to look the same and when the new shitty style is here you can see all the women on the street like twins , it’s not only for the hair, it’s for everything – clothes, music , etc
BTW This is taking their beauty cause they really pretty at all !!!!
10. The Shortest ONE : THIS IS COMMUNISM !!!
(Which is back for the last 4 years with this government)
I quite like this post. It looks like you’ve scratched the surface of our peculiar culture. Maybe you could go on a trip to the countryside, especially somewhere up in the mountains, and discover these things taken to new heights. It’s this often beautiful entropy that one starts to miss when in a modern, well developed country. What I don’t like about BG is that it tends to be “middle of the road” in this, while I’d prefer if it was a stronger experience in every regard that you’ve listed above.
I take it from the other comments, that by now you’ve already discovered that we’re always ready to help, so just keep asking. :]
p.s. Cyrillic is great and, I gather, easy to learn. So why not just write those weekdays yourself, in Bulgarian?
Good post! I kinda feel like I’ve taken a walk in Sofia. Thanks! That was fun.
[...] Things I Don’t Understand There’s a lot that I like about living in Sofia. There are somethings that I don’t love as much (like the [...] [...]
@Top Posts Hey this is pretty cool. I had a top post on WordPress yesterday. It turns out I was number 53. That puts me below a CNN post, two or three People blog posts and above a post on AC/DC Barcelona! Thanks you guys!
Great observations:)
About point 5, unfortunately it’s not just the 8th graders…
It’s funny and kind of sad that heavy metal is considered a favorite among most of the intelligent bulgarian teenagers, but it all has to do with conformity and lack of information in this country. If you’re a teenager forming your identity and relationship with the world, no matter how smart you are. you feel the need to belong, so even in the unlikely case that you’ve somehow heard more musically subtle and lyrically intelligent music (indie rock, new wave, punk (70’s), post-punk (80’s), etc…) you have no incentive to choose that music over heavy metal, simply because in Bulgaria you will be the only one listening to it. I think that intelligent music is unpopular in this country because up to ‘89 there was very little outside influence here plus the english language skills of most people here are seldom at the necessary level to appreciate the more complex lyrical themes (for example how many Bulgarian fans of Morrissey are there? I’ve never a single one, except BG people who have lived abroad for some time.) And he’s been massively popular in the rest of Europe since the The Smiths years).
@discopunk I agree with what you’re saying. In November, I gave a lesson at school on how we talk about the music that we like and dislike. The goal was to get students to say more than I like it or it sucks but to also include why. After talking about the new vocabulary, I told students that they now needed to pretend that they were music producers and that they were going to listen to a variety of different song clips and that they had to decided whether or not the liked the song enough to put on a CD that they were producing and why. I had a huge range of different songs but without fail the two kinds of songs that everyone loved and wanted to put on their CDs were Metal and pop songs (top 20). I expected this going in (given the metal t-shirts I see and the cell phone ring tones that I hear) but I also expected that the classes would be split on the songs that they likely had never heard before. In about three of the classes this was true. Students would say I’ve never heard this song before but I like it (I’m not gonna to teach your boyfriend how to dance with you By The Black Kids) but in the other classes for the most part if they’d never heard it they hated it. I was kind of bummed out by these reactions because my music taste runs counter to this and I’ll listen to anything once but I still have high hopes for these kids!!
there are as many fans of Morrissey in Bulgaria as those of Depeche Mode in the UK
This blog is getting too addictive
)
I totally agree with Karolinka, even if I am/was one of those narrow-minded metal dudes. And the comment above reminded me – have you ever noticed that Depeche Mode is huge in Bulgaria? Practically 50% of the population likes them, myself included, but I have never been able to find an explanation why a whole nation is hooked on this band.
@Mila
Yes I am reading, but apparently not as frequently as I should. – MoM
LOVE your blog! I totally agree with a lot of the things on your list. I only spent a month in Bulgaria and it never ceased to amaze me how different and confusing some things were. It’s crazy that things like this frustrated me to no end, but also left me loving such a unique country.
Just want to add what I have noticed about music – most people, when hear a song, tell you “I know this song, it’s cool” or “I don’t know this song, play something else”. So what I have seen fits to what you observed – people don’t like songs they haven’t heard of. This is maybe because we don’t want to differ from other people and we subconsciously know that if we haven’t heard of a song then our friends don’t like it, so we should not like it, too.
And I give example with chalga music – people who dislike chalga often happen to ask “Is this chalga?”. When you say “yes” they would say they don’t like the song. So listening to the song itself is not enough for them to decide whether they like it or not.
Is this like that in other countries, or again we Bulgarians are different?
I’m Karolinka’s little sister and I had good laugh about “mother thong” and the comments about it. I almost made a joke about it also, but you know, its my MoM too.
Also I loved Musli when I was in europe. So enjoy it while you can, as I can’t really find it in the states, or it is much more like granola when I do find it.
I can say that it was very interesting for me to read your blog. There is just one thing that I am wondering – Have you been to another city or village than Sofia? Because if you want to learn more about Bulgaria you should go in the small towns (NOT RESORTS) and villages and see the beauty of the Bulgarian nature. Also when you learn Bulgarian you can speak with the people in this villages and understand better our country.
Best Regards
@Ronkar Thanks for your comment! I have been outside of Sofia. My travels have taken me to Rila Monastery, Melnik (twice), Rozhen Monastery, Koprivshtitsa (twice), Veliko Turnovo, Gabrovo, Tryavna, Kazanluk, Shipka, Pazardezhik and Plovdiv but my travels have yet to take me to the Black Sea. So I’ve gotten around Bulgaria a little bit. Right now I am working on getting 25 stamps in the 100 best places to visit in Bulgaria book. Any suggestions for must sees in Bulgaria!?
It’s really addictive this blog, I agree.
I’m waiting in Moscow airport to come back home and I’m, more than happy I found this blog so it’s save me from boring waiting.
I want to comment about about #3 :
Usually I don’t have any reason to go to the post office, but recently happened to me that I was on the queue to make a payment. Let say there was 10 people in front of me and I was the last one of course
It took me long time to finish my job, since in about every 2 minutes new people (mostly old people) came up just from nowhere and went directly in front, claiming that they have already passed all the queue the same day. They asked directly to the staff about something they were waiting (it’s seems) all the day for it. Every one of them has different story, someone waiting for some software to become available and so on.
I can remember now such situations not only in post offices, but in others too. Take in mind that most likely might happen to you in offices of civil services, like post, national railways, national revenue agency etc.