Huh? Bulgaria? I know, not my usual subject matter. But a few days ago I received information about an event called Bulgaria Eterna that was taking place last night in San Telmo. So I went along with my trusty friends Cecilia, Raul and Venetia.

We listened to the usual speechifying by the Ambassador and various others, and then we had wine and nibblies as we all mingled. Not hugely entertaining, but I did find the information about Bulgaria interesting, mainly because I didn’t know anything about that part of the world. There were various posters and information pieces around the walls and I read most of them. The travel posters showed that Bulgaria is certainly beautiful, but what interested me were the people I read about.

Did you know, for example, that the person credited with inventing the computer was Bulgarian? Me neither. John Atanasov was born in the USA of Bulgarian parents.

Did you know that yogurt originated in Bulgaria? Me neither. Dr. Staman Grigorov isolated the bacteria that causes fermentation in yogurt. The strain is called lacto bacillus bulgaricus, in honour of his homeland.

See, the reason this interests me so much is that Bulgaria is a country that’s not all that well known in the rest of the world, apart from adventure travelers maybe. And the three countries I claim as my own — Scotland, Canada and Argentina — also fall into that category. Scots have invented many things we all know today, including penicillin, the telephone (yes, Alexander Graham Bell was a Scot who emigrated to Canada — like me!), the steam engine and so many others I can’t remember. (Just Google “invented in Scotland” and you’ll be amazed.) But how many people know that? Not a lot.

In terms of universal acknowledgement, Canada suffers from its proximity to its huge neighbour to the south. I’m constantly amazed at how little people know about us. Just this week, a taxi driver asked me if Canada was a state of the US. He wasn’t being rude; he just didn’t know. Interestingly, everybody here seems to know we have an “English part” and a “French part”.

And then there’s Argentina. This wonderful country that captured my heart takes up a huge chunk of South America. It is physically beautiful, its people are lovely and I can’t say enough about the tango. Yet all most people know about it they learned from Andrew Lloyd Webber! Or they think it’s still like fifty years ago during the “Dirty War”. It’s not.

So I was interested to learn just a little about Bulgaria.  By the way, its capital, Sophia, will be the European City of Culture in 2019.

I also learned about Vasil Levski, probably Bulgaria’s greatest hero — at least that’s what people told us last night. I love the words this poster says about him:

TODAY

We do not remember your death

We show our devotion

As long as Bulgaria exists

You will live eternally!  1837-00

Look at the dates — they don’t remember his death! Is that not beautiful?

Here are a few photos of the exhibits, as well as one of us, of course!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bulgaria. Hmmm. Who knew?