News

Bulgaria struggles to bridge gap with the West

"This is the genuine and final fall of the Berlin Wall for Bulgaria," said Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev.

But observers are wondering whether Bulgaria, a former communist nation that is seeking to prove itself in a field of bigger and wealthier candidates, will fully adapt to Western ways.

It was just over a year ago that I asked myself the same question.

'Some things never change'

There is an oddly sweet smell permeating the air when I awake on my first morning in Varna.

I wondered rather groggily, as jet-lagged travellers sleeping in lumpy beds are apt to do: "Where am I?" One sniff later, I have my answer.

It's the pungent aroma of roasting peppers, a staple of Bulgarian cuisine, wafting through my open window.

Moments pass and I am fully roused into wakefulness by the steady thwacking sound of a housewife beating the dust out of an Oriental carpet that is hanging on a horizontal pole.

Some things never change, I think to myself.

Outside my window, I hear the sound of shrieking brakes as 15-year-old Ladas lurch forward, competing with the smooth German machinery of shiny new BMWs, handled, almost always, by hulking men with shaved heads and opaque black sunglasses.

This, I expected.

What takes me by surprise is the skateboarding teenagers wearing baggy jeans, executing flips in a blur of flying acrobatics in front of what used to be the city hall during the Communist regime.

Or the stylish clerks catering to tourists on hand and foot in the Lacoste and Escada stores -- they would not be out of place in any North American neighbourhood.

But this is Varna, the third largest city in Bulgaria, a country of about 8 million, located just north of Greece and Turkey.

My last trip to Bulgaria was in 2000. While most of my relatives have since emigrated to the United States, I am curious to see how the country has fared in my absence.

Back in the 1850s, when Varna was a cholera-ridden Ottoman seaport, British troops passed through on their way to the Crimean War. It's been said that one of them, Major General J. R. Hume, described the town as "no paradise...a wretched place with very few shops."

'Ghost of Communism'

Until recently, most foreigners concurred. Now, the signs of transition are everywhere. The boulevards, though marked with missing cobblestones and long-neglected gaping potholes, are teeming with life every night of the week.

The kiosk-style booths once lining the streets are gone. Replacing them are Parisian-style café chairs and tables that spill onto the roads, with the obligatory cigarette haze hanging over the brooding patrons.

Down the main thoroughfare, the city's youth strut their stuff in a range of trendy threads, usually imitation Diesel, Miss Sixty, or Von Dutch.

And while the local farmers still sell their ripest melons out of their car trunks, spilling out onto sidewalks, they now face stiff competition from the 24-hour supermarkets.

When travel writer Bill Bryson visited Bulgaria's capital Sofia in 1990, he rightly predicted that Communism wouldn't last there.

He was accurate on another count too: "I'm certain that if I come back to Sofia in five years it will be full of Pizza Huts and Laura Ashleys and the street will be clogged with BMWs, and all the people will be much happier," he predicted.

While it is arguable that the people are much happier, the old state-owned shops certainly stand empty these days.

Instead, the streets of both Varna and the capital Sofia are filled with foreign-owned brands such as Mexx, Mango, Benetton seemingly erasing the ghost of Communism.

The real estate advertisements are telling. Written in English, they directly target Brits, who are drawn to the country, attracted by low, low property prices, long summers, untarnished countrysides, cheap, organic food and easy living for retirees who can bank on their Western pensions. Indeed, the past few years have registered record property sales in Black Sea properties.

Dig these expenses

Without a doubt, Western tourists are delighted to find that everyday expenses are ridiculously, undeniably affordable - cappuccinos and domestic beers cost about 75 cents. A four-course meal for two, including drinks, appetizers, main courses, and desserts, comes to about $20.

Prices are decidedly more expensive; however, at the largest tourist complexes on the Black Sea where most tourists converge, such as Golden Sands and Sunny Beach.

Indeed, Bulgaria has nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites and a plethora of treasures recently unearthed on archeological digs, dating back to the ancient Thracian civilization, from the fourth millennium B.C. to the third century A.D.

It may only be a matter of time before Bulgaria becomes the next Prague, a destination sought out by young travellers where the nightlife is hopping and the food and drink beyond affordable.

On one of my last nights in Varna, I venture out to a café near the Sea Gardens called the Eurocaf, a nod to the future Bulgaria is not yet a part of.

Though it is early in the evening, locals are already congregating in the bars and cafés to smoke, gossip, and toast "na zdrave" (to health) with shot glasses of rakiya (the fiery national brandy).

I hear the strains of a familiar tune winding its way from across the street at a restaurant where live entertainment is offered nightly. It's a Gloria Gaynor classic - with a Bulgarian twist.

"I've got all my life to live. I've got all my love to give, and I'll survive. I will survive," the singer warbles, capping the phrasing with a yodel-like yelp, reminiscent of Bulgarian pop tunes from the 1970s.

On that balmy summer night, short steps from the lapping waves of the Black Sea, I am inclined to believe her.