Welcome in Sopot!

​Witamy w Sopocie!

Już odliczałam dni do końca projektu, gdy dołączyła do nas kolejna wolontariuszka. Tym razem dla odmiany nie Hiszpanka, a o dziwo - Polka. Dominika okazała się sympatyczną dziewczyną, a razem z nią przyjechała nowa energia i nowe pomysły. Jednym z nich była podróż do Sopotu. Trochę daleko nas zaniosło co? Szczególnie, że Domi pochodzi z Trójmiasta.

Pojechałyśmy z zamiarem, że będziemy pytać o morze, bo przecież być w Sopocie, a nie być nad morzem to skandal. Morza nie znalazłyśmy. A się naszukałyśmy co nie miara. Coś nam góry przeszkadzały! Wszędzie były góry i góry. Pojechałyśmy nawet najdłuższą kolejką krzesełkową w zamyśle, że może będzie morze po drugiej stronie gór. Niestety ciągle tylko góry. Nawet inni Polacy nie potrafili nam pomóc, bo też nie wiedzieli, gdzie to morze się zapodziało. Ludzie pytali, czy podoba nam się Sopot. A my oczywiście, że tak. Coś nam zaczęło nie pasować, bo zapytali nas w takim dziwnym języku. Taki jakiś podobny do polskiego, ale taki inny. Więc koniec końców okazało się, że pomyliłyśmy kraje!!!

Państwo opowiedzieli nam, że znają Sopot. Ten, w którym byłyśmy i ten nad morzem. Znają nasz Sopot przede wszystkim z festiwali. Niemniej jednak Sopot zwiedzony!

W Sopocie warto być,

by widokami żyć.

Najdłuższą kolejką krzesełkową pojechać,

by na paralotni sobie kiedyś poskakać.

Góry zastępują morze,

tak też być może.

Ulica wieszcza bułgarskiego,

zamiast Monciaka polskiego.

Sopot Sopotowi nierówny,

powód do zwiedzenia to główny.

Takie małe coś, mały psikus dla naszych znajomych.

​​

PS: My też chciałybyśmy myśleć, że jesteśmy w Polsce:)

// english version:

​Welcome in Sopot!

I was counting the days till my return to Poland, till the end of my project. One girl joined us, this time Polish girl – so one of my own. Some surprise there. Dominika turned out to be a really nice girl. She brought new energy and new ideas to our society. Well, one of this excellent ideas was to visit Sopot. Quite far away, right? Especially since Dominika comes from 3city.

We went to Sopot with the thought to ask where is the sea. Well, to be in Sopot and do not sea the sea? It would’ve been outrageous! We couldn’t find the sea, we were looking for it for ages and still no sound of it. The mountains were really bothering us, all we’ve seen were mountains and nothing more! Mountains, mountains, mountains. We even used the longest chairlift ever. All we saw on the other side of the mountain were another mountains. Even other Polish people couldn’t help us. They didn’t know a thing. Others were asking us if we like Sopot. The answer was obvious: “Yes, of course. How could we not?” Although… one thing haven’t add up. They were speaking in so very different, but yet similar, language. The thing is – we messed up with the countries. It was Bulgaria, not Poland!

The nice couple told us, that they know Sopot. Both of them actually. The one, that we’ve been to, and the one with Baltic Sea. They know Polish Sopot mostly from festivals, but still – We can cross Sopot out from our must-see list!

Sopot is worth to be,

those views you must see,

the longest chairlift happens to be there,

for paragliding people to share.

Bulgarian hero memories all around,

or Cassino street in the background.

Both cities are not the same,

But that is the point in this game.

We made a small prank to our friends in Poland that we are in our countries in Sopot. Some of them believed us, we had a little fun that’s for sure! Glad to have the possibility to see the city and to have best friends ever in the world!

Carlittos, Varna and Us

Hello again, everyone! Today, I have some short video, that we've prepared during our EVS on-arrival training in Varna. I hope that you can forgive me my voice, I was sick back then :) Hope you will like it and enjoy it as well as we all did. 

The topic of course was about Bulgaria and our stay here in general. Now, I have less than two weeks left of my EVS journey, I know I will miss this country and those people a lot. I hope that we can all see each other once again, and soon!

Rose Festival

The Rose Festival is one of the festivals organized in Bulgaria. If you go around Kazanlak, you can see a lot of rose plantations, roses in the local gardens or in general - roses around the city. Wherever you look, roses. Is it a coincidence? No! Because in 1420, when the town of Kazanlak in Bulgaria has been founded, Rosa Damascena known as the Kazanlak Rose, has been brought here by Turkish judge from Tunisia. Once upon a time this Turkish judge had cultivated those roses in his private garden here in Kazanlak. But now Bulgarians (not only but mostly) practice this tradition in the Rose Valley. Valley of Roses is a region, that is located in the south of the Balkan Mountains and the eastern part of Sredna Gora chain up to the south of this country. Bulgarians use roses for the commercial use, such as “Bulgarian Rose Oil” for the cosmetics, perfumes and so on, and so on.

When the rose picking in the Valley of Roses ends, people celebrate this occasion with the Rose Festival. It takes place in Karlovo, Kazanlak and another close located cities. The main celebration starts with International Children Day (of course on the 1st of June). The Rose Festival in Kazanlak though lasts from the 2nd to the 5th of June and is full of attractions prepared by locals and rose producers and sellers.


The Rose Festival has been celebrated from 1903, so this year was the 113th Festival of Roses. For me though, the 1st one. During those days I was a participant and a tourist at once so I would like to share my opinion and my impression about this festival.


For me, the festival started on Thursday when two of my friends, also EVS volunteers, came to Kazanlak to celebrate this holidays with us. On Friday I’ve decided to participate in Zumba and Horo dances, one of the attractions being held in Rosarium Park. It was so much fun, although it was a really big difference for me. When we were dancing Zumba – everyone was just looking at us. Looking! Come on guys, have some fun in life. Though horo dances are really amazing, zumba is also great. And you can lose some weight and have fun at the same time, don’t be afraid, ashamed or anything! Enjoy your lives! In the evening we’ve decided to meet together in the city centre, then we’ve witnessed the official opening of Rose Festival with included: coronation of this year’s Queen of Roses, beautiful fireworks and so on.


The next day, meaning Saturday, I’ve spend in the city. Also enjoying the activities prepared especially for this occasion. One of them is in my mind even till today. The point is, I love wine. I love taste of it, the colour, everything. So of course I couldn’t miss the Wine Expo, where of course I had to buy a bottle of wine. A bottle, which we drank few days later together with my friends – we drank it for life, happiness and health. It was a really good bottle of wine.


There was also one thing in my mind through the whole time during the Festival of Roses. I have been living here for some time now, and it was the first day, first situation, that I’ve met so many people on Kazanlak’s streets. I was asking myself where exactly I am? Is it still the same Kazanlak that I live in?


The next day, Sunday, was the only one that I’ve spend on the other side of the Festival. Together with one of the organizations, that we volunteer in, we were taking part in a parade, as one of the groups of course. I really enjoyed this event. I will have really good memories of the crowd in usually quite town. I will also remember that during the parade, everyone was really excited and inpatient about this “walk of fame”.


I’m really grateful for the possibility to see and to enjoy the 113th Rose Festival. I would like to thank my colleagues from voluntary work, especially Daily Care Centre for Adults and Kids with Disabilities. For giving me the possibility to participate in the activities and for the big welcome in your community. Thank you very much, it is a pleasure to be here with you. I will always have in my heart your kindness, hospitality and your friendship. Thank you, and... I hope that the next Rose Festival will be even better for everyone.

Easter in Poland

When I have first found out, that I have to write an article about Easter in Poland, my question was: ‘Can I write a single sentence, that it’s pretty the same?’ Yes, dear readers. It’s pretty the same. But, since I was asked to describe Easter in Poland, here it is.

We are in general Catholics, so our preperation for the crusification and resurrection of Jesus Christ begin 40 days before the most important day in our religion. Ash Wednesday, as we call it, is the beginning for the lent. The tradition says that every Friday is the day without meat. According to the rules of the religion, during lent we have no weddings, no huge parties. With those rules we spend almost 40 days, till the day in question comes.

And here it comes. The most important days. Great Friday and Great Saturday are the only days in a year in Catholic church that we don’t celebrate any Mass. Then we gather during special celebration to get through the death of Jesus Christ. We wake up very early on Saturday morning to prepare the eggs the same way you, Bulgarians, do! We go to the church to holy our food. We put in the baskets: eggs, bread, sausages, salt and pepper, Easter lambs etc. Everything has its meaning. For example eggs are the symbol of life, bread is the basic food in our life as well as in the religion. You can go also to visit the grave of Jesus Christ. From the same grave that Sunday morning will be empty. We believe that during the night Jesus resurrected, so on Sunday morning at 6 am we celebrate special Mass, announcing that Jesus Christ in alive. After that we meet with whole family during very big breakfast. We eat Polish special soup called żurek, we prepare different types of eggs, like eggs with mushrooms, we prepare also special cake called mazurek wielkanocny. It’s very sweet but I really, really like it. After the breakfast, we go together for a long walk (we eat so much that we have to :)). The most interesting day during Easter is Monday, because as the tradition says, every girl has to be wet. All boys go from one home to the other and put water on all the girls that are not married. This whole process is supposed to bring happiness and luck with boys! So every girl should be wet, if not she won’t be able to find a perfect husband!

That would be unfortunately the end of celebrations of Easter in Poland. And how do you celebrate Easter in Bulgaria? Is it really the same? 

Inspiration, craziness, life...

Bulgaria is a lovely country, that inspires me to do things, that I wouldn’t do normally in Poland. Like... hitchhiking. I only tried in once, but I can see how people can like doing it. A few weeks ago, when the weather was really beautiful and the sun was shining all day me with my EVS friend decided to see nice, local places, that everyone here is talking about.

            We decided, that we want to see a place called Etarat. We knew that it all depends on our luck with hitchhiking. But... let’s start from the beginning.

It was a Sunday morning. We decided to go from my friends town, because it was closer to Etarat. And... we waited only 10 minutes for the first car! We had fun, I didn’t know that with this I can have it at lot. After few kilometres we had to change a car. And then... Happened something that I wasn’t expecting. We haven’t even waited a minute. And the person, that stopped, said that he had a free day, and had nothing to do at home, and either way he would spend the whole day alone, moping around at home, so he said “I can take you there, directly, nor problem”. So we were able to see not only the Etarat, but also Sokolski Monastery, the town of Gabrovo, Bozhentsi village, Draynovo Monastery and Bacho Kiro cave.  At the beginning of our journey, when we were still waiting for the car to stop, we had even some doubts, that we would be able to catch a car at all or able to see anything. And life can bring you some surprises every day. We had fun all day, and even had a time for a coffee at the end of our journey. After that I think I can try hitchhiking again, see how it will be this time?

            I knew that in Bulgaria you have a lot of amazing places, like monasteries, caves, old towns or small, preserved in old ways villages. I saw a lot of places here in Bulgaria, that show nature in a really good line. For example... I really fell in love with Bozhentsi village. It was a long time, since I saw last time so calming environment. We need places like this to calm down after hours spend at work.

            Journeys can also be a good thing in other way. Recently I visit the capital of Romania, Bucharest. It was a journey, right? I didn’t expect that at the ticket office at the train station I could not buy a ticket for the train?! Where else can I buy it? Please, dear friends from Bulgaria, work on being more practical and easier for the foreigners. Nevertheless, thanks to my basic knowledge of Bulgarian language and being able to understand almost everything you say, I was able to communicate with the cashier. She’d helped me to solve this problem and without farther ado I was travelling to Bucharest. At the train, where I spend the next 9 hours I’ve met a nice Bulgarian, with whom I had a nice conversation through our trip to Bucharest. Even though I still don’t speak very good Bulgarian, I was able to understand him without any problems and we had a long talk. As it seems we even have common friends in Bulgaria. Yes, and let me tell you, Bulgaria is a small world. (I can tell this as a physicists or from the allegorical point of view.) So, my point is. If you decide to travel. You can meet a lot of nice people. Some of them can even become your friends.

I had a really great time in Bucharest visiting this town. I’ve met a lot of nice people, seen a lot of places, had fun. And that’s what counts. But my point being. Don’t be afraid of travelling. I’m not saying you have to go far away. Look around you and see, that you have a lot of places where you can have some rest after a long week full of work. Everyone deserves some “relax time”, especially nowadays. So... pack a bag, take a map, smile and go. Wherever your heart wants. It’s time to have some fun in life. 

My travelling in Bulgaria and experience that I have through it

Being a volunteer in Bulgaria, is something that I’ve never dreamed about. I’m a volunteer since I was 13 years old, but I’ve never thought that I’ll be here, at this place, with those people. But everything is changing in our lives. This opportunity’s been allowing me to travel around Bulgaria and other countries. I would like to describe to you one of my journeys. First hitchhiking in my life.

                                                                                 Veliko Tarnovo, 14^th February 2016

It is a sunny day in February. A Valentine’s Day nevertheless. And instead of spending a day alone at my place, me and my friend decided to try hitchhiking. I wasn’t quite sure about it at the beginning. Me? Hitchhiking? A bit of craziness in life wouldn’t hurt, right? So my friend finally convinced me to travel with her and see a place called Etar. We decided that we will try to see only this place, ‘cause we all know how long it takes to travel by hitchhiking. Well, life can surprise you every day. I’ve went to Tryavna, and from that place we’re travelling together with my Italian friend. We went in the direction of Etar and then, 10 minutes later and Voilà! We caught a car. Our Bulgarian language is not so fluent, but we managed to understand that the driver will get us to only some point, and we will have to split up and try to catch another car. Ok. We got out of the car and went by foot in good direction for like one minute or even less. We were only walking, just heard a car, turned around and waved. And.. Voilà! once again. This time we managed to communicate better, and the driver said: “girls, I hope you don’t mind, but I just have a free day, and I would have to go home and spend the day alone, could I... somehow... visit the countryside with you?” Well, we agreed, and... the day began!

            First thing we saw was the architectural and ethnographic complex called Etar. We so enjoyed the peace, silence and nature. Living in a city, place for having some rest from the noise is always more than welcomed. Then we went to see the Sokolski Monastery. It’s a nice place, although a monastery – a church itself I mean – was closed. Though the small chapel that was there was really beautiful. Then, together, we went for the dinner to Gabrovo, which is really a nice city worth exploring more. Having so much time allowed us to see more, so then we went to see architectural sanctuary called Bozhentsi. Maybe, just maybe, when I’m old, and I would be looking for a place to live, far away from a civilization, maybe I could choose a place like this? Who knows! Then, the final destinations came. A place I’ve seen before, but on the 2^nd of January, a month or so ago. Dryanovo Monastery and the Bacho Kiro Cave. A small place, that was also worth seeing.

            And driver-for-the-day drove us back to Tryavna and with that our journey has finished. A Valentine’s Day has been full of love, the love for Bulgarian countryside.

The differences between Bulgaria and Poland

Poland and Bulgaria. Us. The same, but nevertheless different. We are both countries in Europe. Thousands kilometers apart. How can we be the same and different at once. Kind of like Schrödinger’s cat J

Poland is my motherland. This is where I come from. I live in a country that counts over 38 million people. In comparison to smaller than Poland - Bulgaria, where is over 8 million people. That makes the first and almost the most visible at first difference between our countries. With the matter of our population number comes the matter of our area. As far as I know Poland is three times bigger than Bulgaria.

Poland is a nice country situated in the Central-Eastern Europe. Bulgaria lays in South-Eastern Europe. I also see Poland as a one country divided, geographically speaking of course, in three parts. North – full of lowlands, middle – uplands, south – mountains. Bulgaria for me is a country, where you can meet mountain and valleys one after the other. Poland in 90% is a country full of valleys, in comparison to Bulgaria, where mountains contain over 60%.

We are both Christians, although in Poland in general we are Catholics, and here you are Orthodox. We have a lot of common celebrations, we believe in general of course in the same things. I had the honor to see how you celebrate Christmas in Bulgaria. We celebrate the same days. Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. But Christmas Eve in Poland looks differently. We gather together with whole family and celebrate. Our tradition is to prepare 12 dishes that day, not like in your country uncountable amount of them. We are not supposed to eat meat that day, and although that is what our traditions say, it has been changing recently. That day is very important to us – Polish people. Even if some of us believe differently or do not believe at all – we still celebrate.

It’s very hard for me to find so big differences, but one of those things, that comes in my mind, is that we both live in different time zones. Here, in Bulgaria, is one hour later than in Poland.

One of the main surprises here was the way that Bulgarian people say “yes” and “no”. In all around the world people nod, when they want to say “yes”, and they shake their heads, when they want to say “no”. But here it’s completely opposite. I think that was, and still is, a thing that I sometimes forget about. I remember my first weeks in Bulgaria. I went with my friends to the restaurant. I wanted to buy a glass of wine. The waitress asked me if I wanted red wine. Of course I nodded and said yes at the same time. Well to be honest, the waitress was surprised and confused, as was I. From that moment I try to remember about that fact.

In Poland we drink a lot of tea. If you would like to order tea in Poland or you will be a guest in Polish house, you will receive black tea. This is what we mean by tea, and correct me if I’m wrong, but you understand tea as herbal tea. This is the next difference, that I could find between our countries. Also in Poland standard coffee is something different than standard coffee in Bulgaria. Your coffee in general looks like espresso with more water inside, but in Poland our coffee (of course I do not count the coffee in the coffee shop etc.) is a full cup drink, not served in a cup. For me it’s also kind of weird how you drink vodka or any other alcohol cocktail. We drink vodka is small glasses, not in cups. This was a surprise for me.

As you can see those differences are small. We share the same part in history. Our languages are very similar to each other. I believe that despite those small, in my opinion, differences between our nations, we are pretty the same. And at the end we all are the same - we are human beings.


//

Българска версия:

Полша и България - толкова еднакви и различни. Двете страни са част от Европа, намиращи се на хиляди километри разстояние, как сме толкова еднакви и различни едновременно?

Полша е родната ми страна, там откъдето идвам, страна, в която живеят 38 милиона души. Нека направим сравнение между двете страни, България е с едва 8 милиона души. Това е една от големите разлики между двете ни страни. Оттам идва и разликата в площта ни, Полша е три пъти по-голяма по площ от България.

Полша е ситуирана в източно-централна Европа, а България е в югоизточната й част. Полша е разделена географски на три-на север низини, по средата с възвишения и на юг с планини. България е държава, в която можеш да видиш планини и долини една след друга. Полша е държава, в която има много долини от територията й, докато в България има повече планини.

И двете държави сме християни, но ние в Полша сме повече католици, докато вие сте православни. Като цяло имаме много празници, които празнуваме в един и същи ден, както й неща, в които вярваме. Имах възможност да празнувам Коледа с българи. Ние в Полша празнуваме в същите дни като вас. Коледата в Полша обаче е по-различна. Ние се събираме с цялото семейство и празнуваме. При нас традицията повелява да приготвил 12 ястия, докато при вас са нечетен брой. По принцип не ядем месо в този ден, но постепенно традицията се променя. За нас Коледа е много важен ден. Дори и някои от нас да не вярват чак толкова вече в този празник. Най-странното за мен беше, че вие не пеете коледни песни. При нас всяко дете знае коледни песни. Това за мен беше голяма изненада.

Не мога да открия много разлики между двете страни, но една от тях е часовата зона. В България сте с един час напред, в сравнение с Полша.

За мен обаче най-голямата изненада беше как кимате с глава за „ДА” и „НЕ”. За мен това е точно обратното на това, което съм свикнала. Понякога напълно забравям за тази ви особеност. Спомням си за първата ми седмица в България. Отидохме с приятели на ресторант и исках да си поръчам чаша вино, но вместо да поклатя глава както е прието при вас, направих обратното, сервитьорката се чудеше дали казвам да, а показвам не. От този ден нататък започнах да свиквам да използвам българския вариант за поклащане на глава.

В Полша пием много чай и ако отидеш на гости чаят, който ще ти предложат е черен. Това ние разбираме под чай, а вие пиете плодов чай. Това е другата разлика между нашите държави. Също така нашето кафе в Полша е различно от това при вас. Вашето кафе е по-скоро експресо с повече вода, а в Полша нашето кафе е чаша в 200 мл. За мен също е странно как пиете водка или всякакъв друг алкохол. Пиете водката в малки чаши, а ние ги пием в големи.

Както виждате разликите между нас не са много. Имаме обща история. Езиците ни са доста сходни. В предвид всичко, което написах ние нямаме големи разлики. Всички сме човешки същества.