Bulgaria

 

Dear Everyone,

As you all know, I spent the last ~10 days in Sofia, Bulgaria (4 days) and Thessaloniki, Greece (6 days), with Lucas and Cindy joining me in Greece.  These trip diaries can be pretty long, so I’m dividing it into several parts - - this first bit is the Bulgarian trip, and the other two (or three?) sections are on Greece.  You may note that the Bulgarian portion has a lot more photos of people than usual - - this portion of the trip was more about them then history or architecture.

Why Bulgaria?  I think the only person in our family that had ever been there before was Andy, over 40 years ago.  I think he was drugged and robbed on a train from Sofia to Istanbul. Maybe you can ask him for more details.  Anyway, as I mentioned before, I felt some political pressure to visit Ed Germanov in his own dojo after a number of seminars in the US where he was the guest star.  Another big bonus was being present when Sensei Hiroshi Tajiri (based in Raleigh, North Carolina) received his 7^th Dan (black belt) certificate.  You may recall that Tajiri is also a master of sumi-e painting, and he has made portraits of Meeko, Daisy, and other family pets.  I can send you his email if you would like to get one; his prices are very reasonable!

Meeko, by Tajiri Sensei

The weather was awful when I left Chicago Wednesday, Feb 22.  The pre-ordered taxi was so late that I cancelled the pick-up at the last minute, and Cindy drove me to O’Hare in the pouring rain, bypassing a big truck accident.  Somehow my flight on United left on time.  The airport seemed pretty empty; perhaps there were too many cancelled flights.  There was also something wrong with my ability to generate a boarding pass for the Frankfurt-Sofia leg of the trip, and I worried that I would have insufficient time in Germany to fix the problem.  I went to the customer service desk just in time, because immediately behind me was a whole flight’s worth of people that were trying to make other arrangements.  Unfortunately, the service desk could not help me either.

The flight was completely uneventful, but it left about 30 minutes late (just missing the ice storm), which increased my flight connection anxiety. However, it was only about 20-25% full, so I was able to lie down across three seats, and maybe even snoozed for 30 minutes or so.  I also saw Black Panther Wakanda Forever. Usually the Frankfurt and Munich airports are madhouses, with taking busses from one terminal to another, etc., but I lucked out, and the flight to Sofia was at an adjacent gate.  I was met there by Aimee Bell, the head of the Worcester, MA dojo, and Andi Thurber, one of her senior students.  Aimee is a high school history teacher in real life, and Andi is a graphic artist for a firm whose major clients are patent lawyers.  I waited in the gate for about an hour (Aimee and Andi had already been there for hours), and we took a bus and stairs to the very full flight to Sofia.  I kept waiting for someone to bring in a cage of chickens or a goat.

Aimee Bell and Andi Thurber

We flew over the eastern Alps, and then the northern Balkans.  Sofia is in a plain just south of this mountain chain that cuts the country into southern and northern halves, next to a large, dramatic mountain named Vitosha, on which people hike and ski.  You can also see many crumbling soviet era apartment blocks from the air, but on the ground you could also find multiple city blocks with construction cranes building new structures.

The three of us were picked up by Stefan, who is a blue belt in the dojo, and was to prove our most regular chauffer for our stay. The airport is east of the city, and we were staying at the Zoo Hotel (so-called because it was near the Sofia Zoo) which is in the southern portion of the city.  When it was time to check in I was shocked to realize that I had made reservations for March instead of February!  Luckily, they were able to find a room for me.  The rooms were actually quite large - - I had a bedroom with a king sized bed, a separate room with a pull out couch, mini fridge, etc., and a large bathroom.  A good breakfast was included in the room charge, which was about $100 per night.  Strangely, a lot of sports teams seemed to use this hotel - - we could see their buses and the athletes at breakfast.

Stefan

We got into Sofia around 2:00.  We showered and rested up for a few hours, and then Stefan took us to Germanov’s dojo where Aimee taught kids’ class with the help of Ed’s wife Yanitsa Kraleva, Stefan, Andi, and me.  Because I was dependent on Stefan to drive me around, I ended up participating in kids’ class every day of my stay.   Germanov’s dojo, “Tendokan” is in the far south of the city, located in a business park.  We taught the kids’ class, and then instead of staying for the weapons class, Yanitsa took us to the St George sports complex.  Germanov was there with Makoto Ito, the special guest star 7^th dan from Hombu dojo Japan. They were at a different dojo to help celebrate a 30^th anniversary, and to distribute black belt certificates that Ito had brought from Japan. The Germanov’s eight year old son was also there. Afterwards we went out to a restaurant/pizzeria.  Their son was a bit like Lucas at that age - -jumping over the bench seats in the restaurant, running around.  He ate an entire pizza- - definitely a kid running on jet fuel.

Yanitsa

The next morning we were picked up around 10:30 by Valentine and Milko.  Valentine is a yellow belt in the dojo, but Milko is a 4^th dan senior. They took us into the city center where there are free tours offered every day.  Since it was Friday, there was also a special tour of Jewish Sofia, and I convinced our group (Aimee, Andi, Valentine, and Milko) to take it instead of the general tour.

Milko, Andi, Valentine, Aimee, me

Sofia was once known as Serdica, and Jews have been living there since the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD.  We know that Jews were there because archeologists have found tombstones with Hebrew on them.  Jews have lived in the area since then, staying put when the Bulgars pushed the Romans out in 680. 

The Bulgars held power until the 1100s, and then intermittently fought the Byzantines for another few hundred years. In the mid-1300s, a Bulgarian king divorced his first wife (and forced her into a nunnery), and married a Jewish woman, Sarah, who converted and changed her name to Theodora. She was no Esther; however, and actually acted against Jews and promoted Eastern Orthodoxy.  She also split the kingdom in favor of her children versus the king’s previous kids, which did not help in their battles against the Ottomans, who took over the country around 1400.

The Ottomans kept control for 500 years, during which there was an Inquisition driven influx of Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal, who contributed a lot to Bulgaria and Thrace (Thessaloniki was once one of the biggest Jewish cities in the world).

Bulgaria became independent of the Ottomans (with Russian help) in 1870, and their new constitution gave equal rights to all citizens, which was a big bonanza for Jews, since they had been second class citizens under the Ottomans.  The next 60 years were very good to them, and this is when they built a very large synagogue (unfortunately, we did not have time to go in - - everyone has to go through security measures to enter).

However, Bulgaria fell under the sway of the Axis powers, and it was join up or else.  Bulgarians did institute some of the hated laws with the Nazis – depriving Jews of private property, forcing them to wear the yellow star, keeping them from earning livings, etc., but they persistently delayed in ‘transporting’ Jews to ‘work camps’ (by this time many people realized that these were death camps).  At one point of time, the Metropolitan of Sofia stood on the train tracks and declared that they would transport the Jews over his dead body.  So, Bulgaria was one of the few European countries that prevented the worst from happening.

Memorial to honor Boris III, the Metropolitan, and others who protected Bulgarian Jews

When the USSR took over, initially people believed the propaganda, but the reality came home pretty quickly, and in the 50’s over 95% of the Jews immigrated to Israel.  Those that remained were subject to prejudice if their names were too ‘Jewish’.  After the fall of the USSR, the remaining elderly Jews who still remembered a little of the religion got grants to open Jewish schools, thus indoctrinating new generations of kids. 

Our tour guide was one of those children, who learnt about Judaism from his grandparents’ generation - - his parents didn’t know anything at all about it.  He got quite emotional at the end of the tour, because if the Bulgarians hadn’t prevented the transportation, his grandparents would have been murdered in death camps as children.  He also helped produce a documentary about the Bulgarian Jews in WWII as a teenager.

Our tour guide, whose name I have sadly forgotten

After the tour, we went walked back to Valentine’s car, drove a bit in central Sofia, and then back to our hotel for lunch (this was the only meal I paid for in Sofia!), and then rested up for the first session of the seminar that evening.  Of course, Aimee had to get there early to teach kids’ class, and I tagged along.  This is when we first saw Bob Garza, my instructor, and Tajiri; they had just gotten into Sofia that afternoon.  Apparently their flights and connections did not go as smoothly as ours.

Saint Sofia

City Mosque.  Bulgaria still has a lot of Muslims

Street art.  The city is full of ugly graffiti, though

Agia Sofia

Some random Bulgar king

An old bath house or church?

Russian church

New construction

The first session was held at Germanov’s dojo.  There were between 70-80 black belts on the mat, so after Sensei Ito demonstrated some technique, about 1/3 of the class would get up to try it - - and the mat was still very crowded.  This was ok for me, since it prevented my partner from fully throwing me around all the time.  Sensei Ito would walk through the class, and then every once on a while grab a couple of aikidoka and throw them around so you got to experience what it was like to be manipulated by a real expert. At the end of class, Tajiri was given his 7^th dan certificate to much acclaim. Afterwards some of us (including the Americans) had pizza and beer at the dojo.

tokonomo at tendokan

Friday night class

Bob Garza

Ed Germanov

Hiroshi Tajiri and Makoto Ito

The classes on Saturday and Sunday were open to all ranks, and thus held at a different dojo that could accommodate about 150 participants.  Obviously the facility was a lot larger, but it was poorly maintained.  It got quite hot inside, and opening several sets of windows was not a great benefit.  We had both lunch and dinner at a nearby restaurant.  I learnt that the Budweiser of Bulgaria is called Zagorka, which I initially mispronounced Gazorka. ‘Ga’ means asshole in Bulgarian, so this malapropism caused a lot of merriment.  Zagorka is nothing to write home about, but they do make a dark beer called Stolichno that is pretty good.  Meanwhile, I found that a lot of the younger Bulgarians (at least in the dojo) are IT workers.  Their biggest competition is India, and it is a growing industry.

'Dosi' and Milko, Saturday evening

Outside the 'borrowed' dojo

US contingent.  

The whole seminar

Action shot with Tajiri

Action shot with Ito

The seminar was over around noon on Sunday, and Laura took me to the van driven by her husband Vladimir.  Laura and her son Dimitar (Dimi) are current aikidoka, whereas Vladimir used to take part.  Vlad worked for the Bulgarian military as a procurement officer, and travelled to many places around the world.  We drove south around Vitosha, and then passed the snow-capped peaks of the Pirin range.  We descended a long a narrow mountain gorge, and stopped at the border town Kulata for gas, where I bought some olive flavored crackers and some spicy Japanese peanuts.  We went through border control, where they checked our passports and for traffic violations (a harbinger). As we descended down the plain into Greece, Vladimir was caught in a highway speed trap.  The fine was only 20 Euro, but you needed to pay at a post office, which were all closed since it was Sunday.  The Greek cops also insisted on getting your mother’s name on the ticket - - if you don’t pay, they’ll come after your mom!  Otherwise the drive into Thessaloniki was uneventful, and I met Cindy and Lucas at the City Hotel about an hour after they had arrived.

Vladimir and Laura

To be continued....