Bulgaria, whose high Balkan mountains and the "Blue Danube" are widely known,¡¡ is a small agricultural country abundant in beautiful scenery and rich in nature. The city suburbs are surrounded by pastures and you can see ox carts pass by and mountain goats walking in flocks. It is not unusual to see barefoot people wearing worn out skirts walking paths dotted by old buildings, and it seems as if time had stopped in this country. People are kind and gentle, and in country towns an old-fashioned life still exists. There remain a lot of things that make people nostalgic in modern Bulgaria. I caught people' attention, maybe because I was Japanese and greeted in German when I visited villages and towns. My local friend whom I haven't seen for 20 years, was still energetic after the Reform, and took me for a 130-kilometer drive saying "If you go there, you've seen it all in Bulgaria". A refueling, which I was secretly worried about, went well, and I was frightened every time a car passing by in the opposite direction driving more than 100 kph on the narrow roads. Finally we safely found our way to a beautiful temple, hidden in needle-leaved lilac trees in a valley deep in the mountains. Its sudden appearance stunned me and made me catch my breath. They say the temple is the soul of Bulgarian, as it was the only temple where people were allowed to pray in their own tongue during the Turkish Period, passing down their national culture. On the temple ground, a lot of children on excursion were running around on the stone walkways that had been damaged or had been missing, and were difficult to walk on.¡Ê£°£°¡¿£°£¸¡¿£Æ£Å£Â¡Ë
(TO TOP)..... (MAIL TO EDITOR)