Bulgaria - Eastern Europe - page 98

Cruel Dance
Bear sightings are notoriously rare in the wilds; if you're keen to see one up
close, head to the nearby “Dancing Bear Park” (daily 9am-5pm; donations wel-
come), founded by the Vier Pfoten organization, supported by animal rights
crusader Brigitte Bardot. Once a widespread source of entertainment, the cruel
practice (cubs are placed on a hot plate while music is turned up to make them
appear to “dance”) was banned in Bulgaria in 2002, but the bears still get up
on their paws and dance involuntarily, perhaps associating human visitors with
the demands of their (usually) Gypsy owners.
ordinary Bulgarians, and helped launch the National Revival. On the mountain side
of the square is the Church of Sveta Troitsa. It's pretty unexceptional but note the
high walls—erected to hide the major extensions commissioned by the wealthy elite
during the early 19th century, a time when the Ottoman rulers had pretty much put
a lid on further Orthodox development, the then-mayor of Bansko paid for this defi-
ance with a 5-year tenure in prison. Behind the church is the Neofit Rilski House
Museum (daily 9am-noon and 2-5pm; 3lev/$2/£1) birthplace of one of Bulgaria's
great scholars (he was for instance the first to translate the New Testament into Bul-
garian), and another key player in the National Revival. Other than this there is the
nearby Rilski Convent, housing a small Icon Museum (Yane Sandanski; Mon-Fri
9am-noon and 2-5pm; 3lev/$2/bp]1), and the Velyanova kushta Museum (5 Velyan
Ognev; same hours as convent), home to the man who carved the iconostasis in the
Church of Sveta Troitsa, and today furnished with typical 19th-century items, provid-
ing some insight into the relatively humble lifestyle of Bansko's hoi polloi. A little far-
ther north from the old quarter is ploshtad Nikola Vapstarov, where the annual
Bansko International Jazz Festival is held in August. You can visit the Nikola Vap-
starov House (same hours as convent; 3lev/$2/£1), where the revolutionary poet was
born; it's pretty dull, bar a few crafts on sale in one of the adjacent rooms, and the
occasional art exhibition held in the hall downstairs.
THE ARCHITECTURAL RESERVE VILLAGES OF RHODOPE
If you like your nature served with 18th-century rural architecture, traveling from
Bansko through the Rhodope mountains to Plovdiv will more than likely be the high-
light of your sojourn in Bulgaria. It's not just the scenic beauty, or the long, empty
roads, but the romance of seeing fields tilled by horse-drawn plow, and women and
men in traditional garb reaping the produce that will end up delighting your palate at
a roadside restaurant. Exploring the mountain villages (the best of which are Leshten,
Kovachevitsa, Dolen, and, to a lesser extent, Shiroka Luka and Gela) is like stepping
into a living museum, where old folk sit mutely on benches in the sun, against
stonewalled and timber-framed homes as their ancestors have for over 300 years.
Alleys and lanes in these villages are impassable by car—potholed, and sometimes
thick with dung and mud—so you must explore the villages on (well-shod) foot,
stumbling onto images of novel beauty: an old woman, walking her goat like a dog,
greets another bent double under a huge stack of hay; a gaggle of teenage girls move
their hips to a badly tuned radio, giggling at a passing boy on a powder-blue Commu-
nist-era motorbike; a girl comes thundering past on horseback, riding with no bridle