A Bulgarian history lesson

Today Heather and I did a walking tour of Sofia, capital of Bulgaria. It cost 4 euro each to have possibly the most knowledgeable student in Bulgaria walk us and a Canadian girl around Sofia for 4 hours.

Some interesting information that I previously did not know include:

Bulgaria was aligned with Germany during World War Two, although they never handed over their Jewish population to the Nazis. They also never fought a single battle in the war. Rather their agreement with the Germans was to allow them to pass through Bulgaria to fight the Greek/Turks/Russians. This was not a problem for the British forces because although the Bulgarian King had written a letter to the British Prime Minister outlining his choice to join the Germans, he was a cousin of the King (King George VI - roughly), who had a prior to, or during, World War I changed the last names of the family to Windsor from otherwise Germanic sounding names. Bulgaria made it clear they would never fight for the Germans. In 1943 the US forces bombed Bulgaria, destroying 12,000 baroque and other historical buildings, regardless of the pleas of the Bulgarian government, purely because of the principle of acquiescing to the Nazis.

Bulgaria is one of the most constitutionally religiously tolerant nations in Europe, although the Communist era prevented much display of religious belief (not officially banning it however).

Sofia is built upon a wealth of natural mineral water springs, many hot water fountains around the city supply passers by with hot water, which despite technically being better to cool you down in hot weather, I would prefer a nice cold drink.

The current Government is a coalition of a socialist party (heirs of 'The Party', Minority Turk party and another party whose ideology does not sit very comfortably with either of the other two. Citizens are loathe to pay taxes for fear of Government corruption and poor policy.

Bulgaria was one of the worlds largest producers of AK47's and anti-tank weapons, the market value of a Bulgarian AK47 being 50% greater than a Russian one of the same age.

A year of Law at University costs about 100 euros.

2kg of chinese costs about 10 leva (5 euro) - which we discovered tonight after being warned by the waitress that the servings are BIG.

The rail system is great because the monarch promoted rail development ahead of roads due to a fear of land invasion.

Like much of Persia, Bulgaria has been property of numerous powerful Civilisations throughout history, each making their mark. Although I am most excited about some hiking and camping in Rose Valley, previously the largest producer of Rose Oil until the shift to industry from agriculture during the Communist era.

Many other little tid bits of information were thrown at us today and I should probably do some more reading to cement the lessons from today in my memory. But for now, I am tired and ready for bed....off to Plovdiv tomorrow for some more Bulgarian cultural history.