My plans have changed a whole lot throughout the course of this trip. I have had to miss cities that I really wanted to visit, and I have randomly found myself in others that I never could have foreseen. If there's one thing I have learned about traveling during this trip, it's that it's difficult to stick to a plan--and that's usually for the best.
I never intended to visit Bulgaria in my lifetime. Up until around 3 days before I left, I still thought I would bypass the country. However, I left Istanbul about 6 days ago on an overnight bus bound for Sofia, Bulgaria's capital city, and I could not be happier that I did.
At first glance, Sofia is not a particularly remarkable city, and I felt pretty underwhelmed on my first day there. However, the city does have loads of interesting sights and history. Often, though, it's easy to miss these sights until you're literally right upon them. The churches and statues and such are all hidden in the folds of urban landscaping and tall buildings. When I was walking around Sofia looking for a particular place, I would often be ready to give up, convinced that I should have spotted it already, and then I would look down a random alley or something and see a towering church. It's really strange, but also pretty cool. The churches in Bulgaria are mostly from sects of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which look quite different from the Catholic cathedrals of Western Europe. I haven't visited many Eastern Orthodox churches, and they were quite beautiful. Here are some photos of the sights around Sofia:
 |
| A random old church right the urban center of the city. |
 |
| Statue of St. Sofia, for whom the city is named. |
 |
| St. Nedelia Church. |
 |
| Painting in St. Nedelia Church. |
 |
| Devotional candles in St. Nedelia Church. |
 |
| Again, inside St. Nedelia Church. |
 |
| Russian Orthodox Church. |
 |
| The awesome Alexander Nevski Cathedral. |
 |
| Inside the Alexander Nevski Cathedral. |
On my last day in Bulgaria, I also visited Rila, a small mountain town that is renowned for its beautiful old monastery. A couple of guys from my hostel basically invited me to go minutes after I woke up, so it was a bit random. When we got there after a 3 hour bus ride, though, I was glad that I had accepted their invitation. It's a very quiet, peaceful place, and it has a wonderful church with colorful religious murals painted all over the walls. They accept foreign visitors for a low price. If I had known that, I might have rearranged my itinerary in order to stay there. Oh well. It was a wonderful day trip. Here are some photos:
 |
| The Nativity Church at the monastery. |
 |
| Murals. |
 |
| The grounds of the monastery. |
 |
| The Rila Monastery. |
I am not usually big on buying souvenirs. In fact, I had not yet purchased any souvenirs before Sofia. However, there is one type of souvenir for which I am a total sucker: communist kitsch. This is the reason that I have a big knock-off of an Andy Warhol lithograph of Mao Tse-tung hanging on my wall. I love that kind of stuff--can't get enough of it. Bulgaria, after World War II, embraced a communist government whole-heartedly, and it ran the country until the collapse of the Soviet sphere of influence in the late 80s. They never technically joined the Soviet Union (I don't think), but they supported it and wanted to join it for a short time. When I arrived in Bulgaria, I went souvenir hunting for any ridiculous remnants of Soviet souvenirs. After a few days of searching, I came upon a flea market around the Alexander Nevski Cathedral , and I felt as though I had hit the jackpot. Typically, I don't like shopping, but browsing through the Communist trinkets and such made me feel like an elderly woman browsing through Tuesday Morning. In other words, I enjoyed myself. They had Soviet propaganda pins, statuettes, flasks, shirts, nesting dolls, watches, weaponry, cigarette holders, etc. etc. I felt like I was in a wonderland of communist goodies. Here are some photos:
 |
| Aluminum statues of Lenin! |
 |
| USSR (CCCP) drinking sets! |
 |
| Russian nesting dolls: Stalin, Lenin, and... Elvis? I am now the proud owner of the Stalin dolls. |
 |
| Soviet Zippos! |
 |
| Communist compasses. |
 |
| Soviet propaganda pins. |
 |
| Soviet T-shirts. |
I want to be clear, though: it's not a genuine historical interest that drives me to buy this kind of stuff. In spite of my more conservative friends who probably label me as a Pinko Bleeding-Heart Commie, it's also not in retrospective support of the USSR (obviously). Honestly, it's much less intellectual than all of that. In truth, I just find this stuff hilarious. To my sense of humor, there is something hysterically funny about Josef Stalin nesting dolls, Vladimir Lenin compasses, and Mao Tse-tung pocket watches. I can't say exactly why, but I think it has something to do with the seriousness and callousness of these figures projected onto such ridiculous and harmless objects. Again, this is why I have that brightly colored lithograph painting of Mao on my wall at home. It's certainly not because I agree with the Cultural Revolution or the Great Leap Forward. There's just something funny about seeing a man like Josef Stalin reduced to a nesting doll.
That doesn't explain it totally, though. I've never seen such kitsch trinkets for Fascists like Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco, but I doubt that I would find them quite so funny. I can't really say why. After all both groups (Fascists and Communists) killed millions and millions of people in the 20th century, so there's no argument to be made that Franco wasn't "quite as sinister" as Stalin. Nevertheless, I only find communist kitsch funny. I don't want a compass with a swastika on it--but if you show me one with a hammer and sickle on it, my eyes will light up. I can't say why for sure. Maybe part of it is a matter of political ideology. I lean to the Left (as my friends know), which probably makes me sympathetic to socialistic ideals. Meanwhile, I deplore fascism even in its most genuine and idealistic practice. Therefore, it would make sense that I find one funny and the other not. Stalin and Mao are equally as evil as Hitler and Franco, but there is one fundamental difference. In the cases of the formers, they represent a total corruption of and departure from the ideals of Marxism (whatever one might say of Marxism). Meanwhile, the actions of notorious fascists in history appear to me to be natural outgrowths of fascism as an ideology (militarism, nationalism, hyper-patriotism, etc etc). Put another way: no matter how strictly you adhere to fascist ideals, the worse off the people will be. That is not necessarily the case when it comes to Marxism, which in a strange way disarms tyrants like Stalin by presenting them as historical anomalies.
OK, I feel like I'm rambling now, and I'm getting close to defending Marxism. I don't want to do that. For all of you neo-McCarthyites: "I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the Communist Party." And that's true. My only point is that I am sympathetic to the ideals (not the ideas) of communism, and I cannot say the same for fascism. This probably accounts for my apparently arbitrary sense of humor when it comes to kitsch souvenirs of 20th century tyrannical dictators.
On the other hand, maybe there's just something inherently funnier about a Vladimir Lenin change purse.
"Be well, do good work, and keep in touch."
.
No comments:
Post a Comment