Ask A Bulgarian

[Mustakrakish]

I'd certainly visit again, but not in the same region, as I kinda "seen everything there is to see", except for maybe more in depth "out of hotel" look at locals and not all inclusive hotel package (gets boring after a week and food gets old), much rather be self sufficient, as prices for food are very good whether grocery shopping or eating out.. If I were to visit again, it'd be near Nessebar and Sozopol I guess (didn't have much time to see those properly), as I prefer having something to see instead of being on the beach most of the time (not my type of coffee, if not really a proper sightseeing tourist, I certainly am a... "gastronomical" one ).

Maybe visiting non black sea part of Bulgaria would be interesting too (maybe Sofia?)...

BTW this was my first ever vocation abroad (no kidding) and Bulgaria had the honor.

 

[Takhisis]

I think that 'cheap alkohooli' was a deal-clincher.

 

[Domen]

The Roma are, as surprising as it might truly be, every-damn-where. Like, you can't say there's there, there and there - there's always a small or large minority of them, be it a large city or a small poor village in the Northwest. I guess they're analogous to the Jews in Medieval times. But, the largest katuns might be located near Sofia or Plovdiv, where essentially it's a part of the city.

Nope. They are analoguous to the Roma of Medieval times. The Roma live in Europe since the 1300s.

And they migrated from South India already 1400 years ago (it took them 700 years to reach Europe).

Roma have their origin among the "Untouchables" - the lowest caste of India - who migrated from South India to Asia Minor and Europe:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-Indian-untouchables-genetic-study-shows.html

(...) Roma gypsies in Britain and Europe are descended from "dalits" or low caste "untouchables" who migrated from the Indian sub-continent 1,400 years ago, a genetic study has suggested. (...)

Some speculate that the Roma had been expelled from India for notorious stealing, though it is probably just a myth.

Cultural patterns of the Roma seem to be quite uniform across country borders.

Although for example Polish Gypsies don't want to be associated with Gypsy immigrants from Romania. The former are ashamed of the latter.

The largest "Communist Roma settlement" in Europe consisting of blocks of flats, is in Slovakia, Lunik IX:


Link to video.

They were better off when they were nomadic. At that time they also had various crafts and traded things. Now the are mostly unemployed.

Roma people by country (bigger wheel = more Roma people):

Singer Edyta Górniak had a Gypsy father (but he abandoned his woman and their daughter when Edyta was very little):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edyta_Górniak

Are there any famous people of mixed Gypsy-Bulgarian or Gypsy alone ancestry in your country?

 

[gay_Aleks]

I think that 'cheap alkohooli' was a deal-clincher.

Well, once you're delivered to Pirogov and headlines say "Stupid Spanish tourist decides that he's immune to alcohol"...

...well, the deal will be settled. Alongside with your liver.

I'd certainly visit again, but not in the same region, as I kinda "seen everything there is to see", except for maybe more in depth "out of hotel" look at locals and not all inclusive hotel package (gets boring after a week and food gets old), much rather be self sufficient, as prices for food are very good whether grocery shopping or eating out.. If I were to visit again, it'd be near Nessebar and Sozopol I guess (didn't have much time to see those properly), as I prefer having something to see instead of being on the beach most of the time (not my type of coffee, if not really a proper sightseeing tourist, I certainly am a... "gastronomical" one ).

Maybe visiting non black sea part of Bulgaria would be interesting too (maybe Sofia?)...

BTW this was my first ever vocation abroad (no kidding) and Bulgaria had the honor.

Sofia would be well, great if you want to find what a Bulgarian is. But if you want to have a nice time, you'd be better off visiting during the winter in places like Pamporovo or Borovets.

 

[gay_Aleks]

I guess they were better off when they were nomadic. At that time they also had various crafts and trades. Now the are mostly unemployed.

Why, they are practising many crafts and trades. Mostly the crafts of low-degree thievery and the trades of prostitution, but..

Did you know there's a school for thievery in Bulgaria? An illegal one, of course, but they take you at 12, and by the time they marry you, the expert thief in you will be born.

And if it doesn't, well, you might as well say goodbye to your arms.

 

[Domen]

In the past they were producing and repairing things, as well as fortune-telling and stage-performing. Later they would sell things they produced to local peasants in exchange for food and other things. And move on to next village.

Among things they produced were for example pots and kettles. And repairing roofs or fences, etc.

 

[gay_Aleks]

They still are fortune-telling. Now, whether they're scamming or it's a way to distract you from your wallet, varies from case to case.

 

[Domen]

Yeah, but no longer producing. "Made in China" has replaced "Made by Gypsies" as cheap things.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Not really. I've never actually seen anything manufactured by gypsies.

 

[Takhisis]

Domen, please stop posting about gypsies altogether, you're insulting us.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Us? What do you mean by that?

 

[Domen]

Not really. I've never actually seen anything manufactured by gypsies.

Me neither. We are too young. I'm talking about the 19th century and first 2/3 of the 20th century. At that time they did produce things.

And they lived a nomadic lifestyle in such large wagons (you can see that each wagon had a chimney):

At that time Gypsies were carpenters, stove fitters, roofing contractors, smiths, producers of small metal items (frying pans, pots, kettles, etc.).

As well as horse-breeders, peddlars, traders, circus performers, fortune-tellers, itinerant musicians, etc. Simply nomads, not tied to land.

Modern patologies among Gypsies can be compared to what happened with Plains Indians after they were forced into reservations.

=================================

In U.S. comedy film "Borat', scenes showing Borat's home village in Kazakhstan were in fact filmed in the Gypsy village of Glod, Romania:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borat#Location

(...) The "Kazakhstan" depicted in the film has little or no relationship with the actual country, and the producers explicitly deny attempting to "convey the actual beliefs, practices or behaviour of anyone associated with Kazakhstan" in the "all persons fictitious" disclaimer. The scenes showing Borat's home village were filmed in the Gypsy village of Glod, Romania.[21] (...)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...ted-Sacha-Baron-Cohens-spoof-documentary.html

We all hate Borat: The poor Romanian villagers humiliated by Sacha Baron Cohen's spoof documentary

Seventeen-year-old Carmen Ciorebea may be a listless teenager, but she is resolute about one thing. 'Glod is a terrible, terrible village. Nothing ever happens and there is nothing beautiful to see here,' she sighs. 'I will never be happy here.'

She is not alone in these sentiments, which are shared by many in the poverty-stricken Romanian village, nestled in the shadow of the Carpathian mountains north-west of Bucharest. Life is hard here: toilets are little more than sheltered holes in the ground, and horses and donkeys are the only source of transport. Most people eke out a living peddling scrap iron or working scrubby patches of land.

So as we can see Jewish comedian Sacha Baron Cohen chose to portray his Co-Victims of the Holocaust as model of Anti-Semites in his movie.

=================================

What do you mean Takhisis ???

 

[Takhisis]

Stop posting about gypsies altogether, Domen.

 

[r16]

just like anybody else Gypsies and stuff find nomading life hard especially and settle down as soon as practicable and they need jobs and stuff and give them a yard and they will build you Battleships above the limits of 1922 Washington and 1935 London treaties . Or am ı wrong or something ?


oops , sorry for the late posting .

Moderator Action: Warning against trolling / spam in RD thread. Please remember that posts should be on-topic and positively contribute to the discussion. Thank you.

ı think we should make a clear distinction between my "likes","dislikes" and failures ; especially in translating what ı say in Turkish to English . Even if this looks like a public discussion of a moderator action ı would rather get infracted for saying the Gypsies (the Romans as they are in Turkish Officialese) are perfectly capable of honest work as much as anybody else instead getting halfway there and look like some racist fool . For the last ı will have tons of opportunities in the coming months where any Turk will be branded one anyhow . And not by coalition making against the Poles either .

 

[Tigranes]

Do the average Bulgarians feel any identity conflict? I mean to be so Slavic in present and have such a glorious Turkic origin? To suffer so much from Turkish massacres while the very name of the land and of the people is so historically Turkic!

 

[gay_Aleks]

No, not really. Now, ethnic conflict between Turks that stayed in Bulgaria and the whole 'ISIS IS COMING, BRACE YOUR ASS!' that for some unknown reasons has spawned from the depths of Yor'Shoggoth, which is where Mr. Siderov is most likely born from and pure white skinheads also led by the abovementioned, it exists.

Or, well, the media would like it to exist. My firm belief is as with most things concerning politics and "invasion" of Bulgaria:

Who the hell cares about Bulgaria? Why the hell would the Russians, or ISIS or Western monopolists riding on Hispanic immigrants like that guy from 300 ever want to possess this land? It's a very common theme in Bulgarian politics, whenever something terrible (Crimea, Iraq, et cetera) happens somewhere else, we immediately go into panic mode, firmly believing for no good reasons that inevitably, one of the agressors will also come for Bulgaria's ass.

Now, excuse me for the rant post. Once I saw the news "Illegal Islamic boardhouses teaching children of extremist Islam in the Eastern Rhodopes", I facepalmed so hard I woke up in a hospital. Same for "Crimea today, tomorrow - Bulgaria!".

Good lord, we're stupid. Or, at least, the drumming media that is unfortunately part of life.

 

[Takhisis]

Who the hell cares about Bulgaria? Why the hell would the Russians, or ISIS or Western monopolists riding on Hispanic immigrants like that guy from 300 ever want to possess this land?

Why would anyone want to possess your country? To take your women, your lands and your wine, not necessarily in that order.
Rephrased in seriousese: Governments tend to look for power, and expanding and consolidating are always goals. Remember that pan-Slavism, for one, is not completely dead.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Pan-slavism is so dead, there's a giant pile of corpses to prove that.

And have you noticed something? Any power that takes the Balkans as a part of it's realm or as an ally, always fails and dies. See: Axis, Ottomans and Byzantines.

 

[Earthman]

Turkicness of Bulgars is something doubtful. Whether their name is of Turkic origin or not is also uncertain, but if it is of Turkic origin then it comes from "bul-" meaning "mix-" and "garii-" meaning "to speak", so Bulgars literally meant "people who speak mixed languages". Proto-Bulgars were simply a federation, numbering some dozens of thousands of people from many different tribes and ethnic groups, who gathered and united under the authority of certain leaders - and that's basically it.

Black Sea steppe in 300s-600s was a melting pot of many ethnic groups. Most of tribes from that region eventually resembled that mix.

Check for example the 1998 book: "Strategies of Distinction: The Construction of the Ethnic Communities, 300-800".

To suffer so much from Turkish massacres while the very name of the land and of the people is so historically Turkic

How Turkic in ancestry are modern Turks? Turks are mostly descendants of population of Asia Minor, who became Turkicized by invaders.

Pan-Slavism is not originally Russian. First Pan-Slavic Congress was in Prague in 1848 and Russians were not invited, being seen as "Mongols".

 

[gay_Aleks]

As far as the origins of Bulgars, the explanations range from "Central Asia, because everyone comes from there, no?" to "I dunno man, aliens?".