Vagabond, Bulgaria's English Magazine

16/12/2024

🌟 Wonders of Bulgaria’s Northwest: Berkovitsa

The first town that you will go through after crossing into the Northwest through the Petrohan Pass, Berkovitsa is famed for its brass music bands performing the specific Balkan mixture of folklore, Ottoman and what sometimes evokes klezmer tunes. The best time to experience it is during the music festival in September, or, if you are lucky, to stumble upon a local wedding.

Outside of these, your visit to Berkovitsa will probably be a quiet one, but do not miss the old clock tower. It was built in the 1760s with donations from the local artisans and the Ottoman administration that recognised the need for a more structured workday – the chimes of the clock would tell both artisans and customers when shops opened. The clock's mechanism was made in Bucharest and still works, measuring time with its copper bells.

Find out more about Berkovitsa and some of the other wonders of the Northwest in our latest article: https://www.vagabond.bg/wonders-northwest-4356

📸 by Anthony Georgieff

13/12/2024

🎁 New month, new chance for you to win a prize from Vagabond’s monthly game:

❔ Where in Bulgaria is this place?

Come Yuletide, and the streets swarm with adult men dressed in what appears to be a combination between early 20th century gendarme uniforms and traditionally embroidered white shirts. They march to rhythmic tunes in what looks like a symbiosis of tap dancing and the Bulgarian horo. They enter bars and restaurants, whose patrons are only too happy to disperse tips. Each part of the city has its own band. At the end of the day they all converge in the town's centre and prizes are given out to the best participants.

✅ Answer the question to win a prize!
✅To participate email your answer to [email protected]

Join Vagabond’s competition for a chance to win a copy our book Wall to Wall. Poetry Europe.

Discover more hints about this place at: https://www.vagabond.bg/where-bulgaria-are-you-4402

📸 by Anthony Georgieff

12/12/2024

🎤 On the cover of Vagabond Issue 214: MN Design

From prehistory to modernity, humanity has explored the nature of metals and has tamed them, putting them at the centre of entire industries and creating astonishing pieces of craft and art of them. Nedyalka and Dimitar Mitkovi have dedicated their lives and creative spirits to making exquisite pieces of wrought iron.
Their company, MN Design, manufactures interior and exterior items that meet all modern criteria of quality, durability and safety but look like objects of art – sometimes tender, sometimes bold, but always unique and with their own soul.
We sat for a conversation with Nedyalka and Dimitar to learn about their process and how they tame metal at MN Design. Read the full interview at: https://www.vagabond.bg/metal-comes-life-our-hands-4409

Nedyalka and Dimitar Mitkovi, founders of MN Design, create objects of strength and beauty

12/12/2024

⏳ History of Diocletianopolis

Diocletianopolis survived the Hun attacks in the mid-5th Century, and although sections of its fortifications were initially destroyed, they were later rebuilt. Life in the city ceased at the turn of the 7th Century, killed or driven off by the continuous attacks of Avars and Slavs. Later the city revived as an early mediaeval settlement, and people have been living in it ever since. Unlike many ancient cities which were lost under the impact of uninterrupted inhabitation across the ages, a lot of Hisarya's Roman past has survived. In the heart of today's town, among the early 20th-Century villas, Communist-era sanatoriums and modern spa hotels, a number of Roman ruins lurk.

The fortification walls of Diocletianopolis are the city's defining feature, and are one of the best-preserved late Antiquity fortresses in Bulgaria. The most imposing of the gates is the eastern one, still called Kamilite, or The Camels, because of its massive hunch. It appears on almost all advertising materials for the city and also on the bottles of the local mineral water, which you can buy all over Bulgaria.
Explore the ancient Diocletianopolis further at: https://ancientbulgaria.bg/listings/diocletianopolis

📸 by Anthony Georgieff

11/12/2024

You are looking for a sanctuary in the hustle and bustle of the city? Just one step behind the entrance door and you're in a different world, where kindness, curiosity and courage are in the air.
Vagabond talked to Rumyana on Georgieva, the founder of Joy Yoga, to learn more about this place.

❓What makes Joy Yoga special?

❗️The idea behind Joy Yoga is to meet clients' needs in three directions – body, soul, and food. What makes us unique is that at one place we offer yoga practices, psychotherapy (IFS) and freshly prepared Ayurvedic food. Regarding this holistic concept, we follow leading yoga studios in the UK, US and India.



Link to the interview in the link

11/12/2024

🌟 Wonders of Bulgaria’s Northwest: Vratsa Balkan Nature Park

With its peaks, deep river valleys and gorges, the northernmost part of the Stara Planina defines to a significant extent the geography of the Northwest. Parts of it, which hover over Vratsa and cover about 80 acres, is a designated nature park, the Vratsa Balkan.

The easiest way to see some of the beauties of Vratsa Balkan Nature Park is to... take the train from Sofia to Varna, and gasp at the rising rocks at Lakatnik. People ready to explore on foot and by car will get more: the rock formations of the Ledenika Cave, the forbidding Vratsata Gorge, the 63-metre-high Borov Kamak waterfall and the 141-metre-high Vratchanska Skaklya, the highest in the Balkans.

Want to find more reasons to visit the region? Then head over to: https://www.vagabond.bg/wonders-northwest-4356

📸 by Anthony Georgieff

09/12/2024

✴️ The supposed remains of St John the Baptist were found in the ruins of an early Christian church on St Ivan island some 15 years ago.

Today the holy relics are displayed in St Cyril and Methodius church in Sozopol, the nearest town. Most of the time, St Ivan Isle, the place of the discovery, remains quiet but for an odd tourist boat arriving from Sozopol in summertime.

How were those relics found? And how were they preserved for such a ling time on the island? When is the best time to visit St Ivan? Find out all of the answers at: https://www.vagabond.bg/small-island-big-stories-4351

📸 by Anthony Georgieff

06/12/2024

An alternative suggestion for a ride in Bulgaria’s pristine nature. Some examples of rebranded public art. An introduction to Abritus. Insightful conversations with professionals from various fields. The December online edition of the Vagabond magazine https://vagabond.bg/ offers you all of that and even more.

Some of the highlights in Issue 218 include:
⭐ The Rhodope: a land of devils, saints and divine landscapes beckons exploration
⭐ Near one of Bulgaria’s larger cities, Razgrad, lie the remains of an ancient town that witnessed one of the most devastating events in Roman history – Abritus.
⭐ When people took notice of the Devetaki Cave for the first time, they were attracted more by its suitability as a place of habitation rather than by its majestic beauty. Today it is one of the spectacular sites you can see when traveling to the Devetaki Plateau.

More stories that can’t wait for you to read them at: https://vagabond.bg/

05/12/2024

📌 Belovska Basilica

You need to make an effort to see this one: you either hike for about 1.5 hours on a steep path that starts from Golyamo Belovo Village, or drive for 20-minutes with a 4WD on a dark road that starts from Belovo itself. Whatever the way you reach this 6th century church, you will be rewarded with the picturesque sight of red arches rising over the thick forest that covers this part of the Rhodope mountains.
In its heyday, the basilica was a part of a large monastery and served the inhabitants of a nearby fort, Lefka, that protected a busy crossroad between the Rhodope, the Sofia Plain and the Thracian Plain.

Even when the church fell in ruins, the memory for the sanctity of the place persisted. People continued to come and pray here - a tradition whose latest manifestation is a relatively new chapel erected in the rest area by the Belovska Basilica.
Learn where and how to find this sight in our online guide: https://ancientbulgaria.bg/listings/belovska-basilica

📸 by Anthony Georgieff

04/12/2024

📌 Magura Cave

About 8,000 years ago the early farmers living in the verdant lands near Rabisha Lake by Belogradchik painted some walls in a nearby cave with odd figures: stick-like dancing women, hunting men, strange birds and black suns. Their drawings, made with bat guano, still baffle. No one knows what the images at Magura Cave mean or represent – an irrelevant question anyway when talking about prehistoric "art." Some interpret them as representation of fertility rituals, others as an early calendar, the "earliest" in Europe.

Unfortunately, after a recent incident of vandalism, this section of Magura Cave – the only site in Bulgaria with preserved rock art, was closed to visitors. Tourists can still walk the rest of the cave – a labyrinth of subterranean halls full of stalactites and stalagmites.

Discover other exciting places to visit in Bulgaria’s Northwest at: https://www.vagabond.bg/wonders-northwest-4356

📸 by Anthony Georgieff

02/12/2024

Under Communism, there was hardly a place in Bulgaria without a monument to Lenin, or at least a street, a school, or a kindergarten named after him.

Lenin began to disappear from public spaces in Bulgaria soon after the democratic changes of 1989. Unlike monuments of partisans and the Soviet Army, there was little debate whether Lenin's effigies should be removed or demolished, and the streets, schools and so on were promptly renamed. In the process, a significant number of monuments and statues were lost forever, particularly those of bronze, which were sold for scrap metal.

Some of Lenin's images, however, survived, preserved by private collectors, galleries and municipalities. The best way to see many of them – from the monument that stood on the Largo until 1991 to desktop Lenins to paintings and other visual propaganda featuring him – is to visit the Museum of Socialist Art in Sofia.
The other is to undertake a trip around Bulgaria that will take you to places which, with one exception, you would otherwise never visit. Here’s were the few remaining statues across Bulgaria are still present: https://www.vagabond.bg/bulgarias-still-standing-lenins-4353

📸 by Anthony Georgieff

29/11/2024

When TTEC Europe, a global leader in BPO and technological services, consultation, analysis and maintenance, arrived in Bulgaria, in 2014, it was one of the foreign companies to recognise the potential of the local IT talent.

Ten years later, TTEC's Bulgarian office offers highly competent customers' service and technical maintenance, and is a preferred working environment for scores of driven professionals who want to do more than just offering excellent technological solutions and outstanding services – they are people aware of their capabilities to bring positive change in the world, and eager to use them. To learn more, we talked to Stefan Karagyaurov, Executive Director Operations of TTEC for Europe and Country Director Bulgaria.

❓What is TTEC's core achievement in Bulgaria?

❓It's been quite a journey for TTEC in Bulgaria since 2014. There has been growth in terms of size but also, in terms of the variety of industries and clients our teams are supporting there. Still, I believe our core achievement in Bulgaria isn't about hitting a specific number or metric – it's about building a culture. We've been focused on creating an environment where people feel they belong, where they can grow and bring their best selves to work every day. We've built a team that thrives on collaboration and innovation, and that's what makes us successful here.

Link to the full interview in the first comment

28/11/2024

Cobot is a word that most of us still need to google. But Dr Georgi Georgiev, founder of Simobotics, the Bulgarian company for design and construction cobots, knows that the near future belongs to collaborative robots that work efficiently in industry along with humans. The company's portfolio already has two cobots, Bulbot and MITO, that have the potential to ease operations and manufacturing processes in a number of industries and businesses.
In recent years, Simobotics has gained significant attention in the Bulgarian market with its cobots capable of performing a wide range of tasks. How has the company and its products evolved over the years?

❓What are some of the most interesting projects you have worked on?

❗️Simobotics is the successor to Giga Automata, a company I founded in 2018. In 2016, I initiated a project to develop the first Bulgarian collaborative robot, which was realized in 2022 after overcoming numerous business and technical challenges. In 2024, we introduced the second generation of the cobot, now named Bulbot, which meets all client needs and technical requirements. The cobot has six degrees of freedom, operates with a payload of 5 kg, and is controlled by a new intuitive graphical interface.

Link to the full interview in the first comment

28/11/2024

💥About 15 years ago a spec of land off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast made it into the international news: archaeologists digging in the remains of a 5th century church on St Ivan Isle declared to have found authentic relics of... St John the Baptist.

The human remains were discovered tucked in an elaborate, Russian-doll-like set of relic boxes. An inscription indicated that the bones were brought here by someone named Thomas and were interred under the church's altar, its sanctum sanctorum, on 24th June, the feast day of St John the Baptist. For some reason, they were not taken out in the 6th century, when the church was entirely rebuilt into a grander structure, nor in the 10th century, when a completely new church was built nearby, nor in 1629, when the isle was abandoned. 🤷‍♂️

The find from St Ivan Isle would not have made international news – after all, there are so many known relics of St John the Baptist that they can provide material for a whole football team – if genetic analysis and carbon dating had not shown that the bones did belong to an individual who lived in the Middle East in the 1st century AD. Just like St John the Baptist himself. ✅

Discover the full story of how kings, patriarchs, and pirates all clash on the small island of St. Ivan near Sozopol at: https://www.vagabond.bg/small-island-big-stories-4351

📸 by Anthony Georgieff

27/11/2024

Competent, customer-centric, and visionary, Infopulse is the preferred partner to scores of companies who value its end-to-end services for fast and quality digital transformation. Infopulse specializes in areas such as banking and finance, agriculture and food, telecom, manufacturing, software & hi-tech, and opened an office in Bulgaria in 2015. Anton Volik, Managing Director Bulgaria, shares insights on Bulgaria's IT market and Infopulse's operations.

❓How will Bulgaria joining the Eurozone affect the local IT market and economic landscape?

❗️Bulgaria's entry into the Eurozone will significantly benefit the local economy, including the IT sector. First, adopting the euro will eliminate currency risks for foreign investors and businesses in Bulgaria, making the country even more attractive to international tech companies and startups. This could lead to more significant investments in IT infrastructure, R&D, and innovation hubs.

❗️Second, Bulgaria will likely see reduced borrowing costs and improved credit ratings, giving local enterprises – including IT service companies – better access to funding for expansion and new projects. It may further drive growth in the technology sector.

Link to the full interview in the first comment

26/11/2024

EPAM Bulgaria is a company that truly recognise its employees are the cornerstone of our success. It's a simple premise, but one that the management has embraced wholly: the talent, dedication and innovation of EPAM people drive our company forward every day. With this understanding, EPAM Bulgaria emphasizes a positive workplace culture where the growth and well-being of every person matter.

❗️ In 2024, EPAM Bulgaria took a significant step forward by launching the "Employee Experience" program to represent a new way of working, putting employee well-being, growth and satisfaction at the heart of everything the company does.



Link to the full article in the first comment

26/11/2024

📌 Harmankaya Rock Shrine

The name of this extraordinary site translates to ‘the rock of the threshing floors’. One can easily see why the people from the Bivolyane village gave that name to Harmankaya. The area's defining features are two large circles in the bedrock, which resemble the threshing floors where people, in the times of pre-supermarket bread, used to separate wheat from stems.

But the two Harmankaya circles have nothing to do with threshing. They also make Harmankaya a shrine without peer. Some researchers believe that the stone circles were made about 2000 BC and were used for astronomical observations and calculations of the solar year. Whether this is so or the circles are natural is still an open question.

Want to learn more about Thracian rock shrines across Bulgaria? Then head over to: https://ancientbulgaria.bg/listings/harmankaya-rock-shrine

📸 by Anthony Georgieff

25/11/2024

👑 Prehistoric goddesses dancing in dark caves.
🌲Thick forests climbing up forbidding mountains, moist from the breath of hidden waterfalls.
🏛️Intriguing museums where ancient gold treasures share space with... a nuclear power plant model.

Are you ready to immerse yourself in a region of contradictions? Welcome to the Bulgarian Northwest! 🧭

Here are just some of its highlights, that Vagabond collected for you: https://www.vagabond.bg/wonders-northwest-4356

📸 by Anthony Georgieff