Bulgaria is not a destination I would recommend for a meeting, let alone an incentive. But I loved it. I do not have the skill to adequately convey the experiences, feelings, and the sights and sounds of my short visit to Bulgaria. My friend, Georgi, who lives in California but returns every summer to the Bulgarian mountains to visit his family, graciously invited me to meet him in his parent's village for a few days and see Bulgarian life as few tourists get to see it. I would need to be a poet to be able to paint the picture that describes the hospitality of the people, their history, the way they live, the food, the music, and the natural beauty of the countryside.

The following does not do it justice, but... some vignettes...

Scene 1 - Sitting in the shade in an overgrown garden in the mountains while an 80 year old man with long gray hairs growing from the top of his nose (really) played the mandolin for us and sang ancient songs about fighting the Byzantines, the Crusaders and the Turks. His wife sang harmony. He told us about what it was like when the Germans came. The government welcomed the Nazis, not as invaders, but as Allies (yes, Bulgaria sided with the Germans. Oops). Eventually that brought in the Russians who were not that friendly to anyone on the other side. Most stories about Bulgarian history, from the Thracians to the present-day seem to end with, "and a lot of people were killed".

He was drinking homemade plum brandy he kept cool in a mountain spring behind his house (the traditional refrigerator). From his point of view, Communism is not bad. Idealistic, young men and women who wanted a better life joined the Party back in the thirties to help the people, then became partisans to fight the Fascists, and after suffering huge losses, welcomed the Russians in as liberators. Only later did they learn of the horrors of Stalin. But still, he said, capitalism is worse. It is only about money and does not care about the people.

Scene 2 - Stopped at a place in the mountains where for centuries the locals have washed their carpets. No washing machines or dry cleaners here. They channeled part of the river down a steep slide into a circular wooden structure so the water swirls around like a whirlpool, washing the dirt and dust out of the carpets, before emptying back in to river. The field next to the river is covered with carpets of all colors hanging out to dry and the locals picnic (and drink) while they wait. The cost per carpet is the equivalent of about $.65.

The man in charge of this very low-overhead operation, probably passed down to him from many generations of carpet washing overseers, was sitting outside of his small house roasting a lamb and drinking wine to celebrate his friend's son's acceptance into the economics program at USF in San Francisco. Weird. The absent son had just left for America and must be experiencing some pretty serious culture shock around now. Through our interpreter the man and his friend told us that America is good. It has laws. Wherever there was communism, they explained, it's bad.

Scene 3 - Wandered into an Eastern Orthodox Church where they were just starting their service. Priests in elaborate vestments coming and going from behind the altar, ancient frescoes of the Madonna, a choir of almost as ancient bent-over old women answering the call of the priest in Church Slavonic, nuns in black robes, only their faces showing, genuflecting, parishioners lighting candles, moving from station to station to kiss the pictures of Jesus, to bow, and to make a fluttering movement with their hand over their chest as they take the love of God deep into their heart. The smell of melting wax was everywhere. It was mesmerizing. Unfortunately for me, they didn't allow cameras and everywhere I looked was an iconic photograph, the perfect representation of Bulgarian life, waiting to be taken.

Scene 4 - Met a woman who trained as an architect, then opened a store importing jewelry from India, and is now studying to become an astrologer (she said it's complicated). She told us that on a beautiful, clear day, archaeologists opened the tomb of a Thracian sorceress right across the road from her house by the Black Sea. They did it without reverence, only wanting the artifacts inside. Suddenly very dark clouds came from nowhere, covered the sky, and a huge storm with torrential rains caused flooding in the excavation scattering the archaeologists and workers. She was there, she said. She saw it. She also told us that there are no gays or lesbians in Bulgaria.

Random Thoughts:

1. Whoever gets the contract to replace broken paving stones in Sofia is going to get rich.

2. There are a lot of attractive Bulgarian women

3. Every country in the Balkans thinks it deserves to be as big as the day it was the biggest, even if that happened 900 years ago.

4. As a corollary to number three, everyone remembers everything bad that anyone ever did to them, but does not remember the bad things they did to everyone else.

5. Liberation in 1878 from the Turks after more than 500 years of occupation is still a big deal.

6. Roads in Bulgaria, for the most part, suck.

7. Many people in the countryside rely on horse-drawn transportation.

8. If you see a pile of trash, most Bulgarians will point at it and say, "Gypsies".

9. There are a lot of attractive Bulgarian women

The people here have always suffered. Under the Turks, the Communists, and now the Mafia. The people who used to work for the government stole what they could and live relatively well. The Mafia runs things, and the people get poorer and poorer. When the Communist government fell in 1989, no one took responsibility for maintaining the infrastructure. Although there have been some spotty investments, and there are pockets of what we recognize as a modern European state with a middle class, the cities and landscape are dotted with crumbling blocks of apartments, bad roads, and poverty associated with the third world. History does not end, so it will be interesting to see what will happen next.

One other point to make; If you are connecting in Heathrow in order to go to Sofia, and you must transfer from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5 (our bus drove for so long I was convinced Terminal 5 must be in Brussels), the odds are pretty good that even if you make it, your luggage will not. So our first 24 hours in Sofia were without luggage and unfortunately this coincided with one of the worst heat waves in recent memory. Walking around in the same clothes you had worn for a couple of days in 100 degree heat, while experiencing jet lag, is just one of the joys of traveling. And on top of that, my camera was in my suitcase. Grrrr.

On to Budapest.

For pictures of my trip to Bulgaria, visit my Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/TheCramerCollection.