Valiko Tarnavo and Arbanasi, Bulgaria

Today, we went into Bulgaria to visit the ancient capital, Veliko Tarnovo, and a small village named Arbanasi know for the frescoes in their Nativity Church. It’s interesting that while Romania and Bulgaria had similar histories (e.g., former Roman territory, challenges in bring together different regions and peoples together, Communist domination, and transition to democracy), they ended up in somewhat different places. The first obvious example was that Bulgaria continues to use Cyrillic for its written alphabet. That is in no small part due to the fact that Cyrillic was actually created by the “Apostle of the Slavs” St. Cyril and St. Methodius in the 900s. Secondly, coming together as a country was easier for Bulgaria in that they had already operated as a country for over 1300 years. Integration just meant adding more groups. As with Romania, Bulgaria was also invaded and ruled for around 4 centuries under the Ottoman Turks. Ultimately they defeated the Turks with the help of Russia. To this day, Bulgaria has some sympathy/loyalty to Russia despite their position as a NATO and EU member against them. As with Romania, the Communist Regime ended in 1989 and initial free elections just elected former Communist leaders under a new brand. After 2001, a more reforms were put in place and ultimately they joined both NATO and the EU.