Good evening Steemians.
A question that I got a little while ago from @teamhumble inspired this post and I think it is a great question.
How different is Bulgaria from the UK.
Ok so there are some similarities to the uk but many differences also lets look at some individually shall we?
The language
Of course it will be the number one different thing, not to mention that learning Bulgarian is not an easy task. Unlike western languages Spanish, French, Italian, Bulgarian is a slavic language think of Russian and it is similar.
So let me give you an example the word Window in English is прозорец (prozorets) so the problem being that it has its own alphabet for one and there is only very small similarities compared to the English language. In the cyrillic alphabet many of the english letters are a different letter in Bulgarian for for example the letter P in english is the letter R in Bulgarian. The letter H in english is the letter N in Bulgarian, the letter C in English is the letter S in Bulgarian. Not to mention you have this letter я which isn't really a letter but combination of letters to make the sound ya. So if we take the Bulgarian capital Sofia in Bulgarian it is spelled *софия (sofiya.) You have to learn the Alphabet because everywhere is advertised in Bulgarian, although more and more now you are seeing the romanized version of the word without having to know the alphabet.
Yes and No or Da and Ne.
It is a very true fact that unlike we do in many parts of the world when a Bulgarian says yes they shake their head, and if they say No they nod their head, the complete opposite to what we do in England. This takes a lot of getting used to, and its far better just to listen to them say Da for yes and Ne for no than watch their head movements because it can get very confusing.
Heating
In England we take heating for granted, as most homes have piped gas going into them so we can flick a switch and radiators come on and its gloriously warm. Here that is not the case the primary source of heating is wood, wood is inexpensive here it has to be really because of the heating aspect.
Bulgarians take wood purchases extremely seriously you cannot just go to a forest and chop down a tree, that is illegal. When purchasing wood you will be given an stamped document and all the wood is stamped also to show it is purchased and legal, if you are asked by the police to provide your document and you cant they can seize the entire stock of wood, and given how cold the winters get here you would not want that to happen.
Housing
In the villages the older residents do not use their houses the same way we do in the west, yes there are many rooms but you will find that they do everything in one room, cook, wash, sleep etc. This is because in the winters the family would share one room for the heat and because they were so poor, it was cheaper to heat one room than it was to heat an entire house. To this day the older generations of Bulgarians still adopt this.
Summer kitchens.
When I first started coming to Bulgaria I noticed that many of the people had summer kitchens, being that they had nice summers I just figured it was nice to cook and sit outside. Well how wrong I was, the reason is partly that but mainly because the summers here get so hot, that your kitchen inside is impossible to cook in because its like cooking in a furnace, so you need to cook and eat outside just to keep cool Don't think of putting an oven on in the kitchen in the summer, because you wont be standing in there for long.
Food
Bulgarians are very proud of the food they make and produce, in some ways many of their dishes are very simplistic so for instance you can order pork, with fries. Which basically you will get a piece of pork that has been chargrilled with fries, now they will automatically serve your fries with cheese on, if you don't want cheese on they will think you are very strange.
Shopska Salad
Bulgarians have a dish called Shopska Salad this is a dish of cucumbers, tomatoes and cheese, they love this dish and many order it with just about everything.
Beef is not really available in Bulgaria because they use the cows for dairy and not for meat, so the meats available are Chicken, Pork and Veal and Goat. Goat is very tasty and very rich almost like lamb in some respects I had never had Goat until I moved here and it is widely available. You can buy whole Rabbit at the supermarket too in the freezer which many buy to make stews in the winter.
Fish
The fish here is very different because it is river fish that they sell, the coast of Bulgaria is the Black sea coast on the other side of the country from where I live, so if you want fish you find that you will get catfish, carp and trout mainly. Personally I don't like the fish because of two reasons, it will have bones in them which puts me off, and the flavour is more strong to my liking than what I am used to, if it were with a lemon kind of creamy sauce I think I could get away with it.God I do miss fish and chips back home thinking about that.
Butter.
I don't like Bulgarian Butter i'm afraid, it has a funny aftertaste to it, thankfully there is a Lidl here and they do english butter which is the same price, so I stick with that as I cook a lot with butter.
Vegetables.
Bulgaria was once a communist country and very poor, so people had to adapt and they started to grow their own vegetables, let it be known now that Bulgarians know their tomatoes, they are so proud of them, they grown vegetables very well you will find practically every household in every city are growing their own vegetables. I think this is a wonderful thing and something the uk did during the war, now it is a lost talent and something that they should bring back.
They grow cabbages, courgettes, onions, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes and carrots mainly. They also grow lots of herbs Dill is probably one of the most popular.
Health and Safety.
Bulgaria in some respects takes a more relaxed approach to Health and Safety and compared with many in the west of Europe.
For example if you need lets say petrol to fill your lawnmower you don't need a Jerry Can, just take a large plastic bottle to the garage and tell them to fill it with Benzine (Petrol) and they will.
You could not do that in the uk, it would have to be filled in the appropriate container with a child proof cap on.
Got a load of wood and need to take it home? Oh don't worry about the roof rack just strap it on to the roof and hope for the best.
I can't help but laugh when I see things like that happening, Bulgarians are so laid back nothing is a problem to them and they will deal with the problem however they can.
Staring and being nosey.
Bulgarians will stare at you, you should not take offence to this it just means they are generally interested at what you are doing, they are sociable people and they won't hesitate to stop watch what you are doing and either speak to you or move on.
On the other hand a Bulgarian will ask you openly how much you earn a year, we would take offence to this in England but in Bulgaria they are all very open, so they will ask things like how much was your water bill, how much do you have in savings, how much do you earn a year. I found this extremely uncomfortable at first but now I am used to it.
Windows
Ok I still don't know why to this day but all windows here including double glazed pvc windows open inwards and open two ways, you can open them fully or have it so that the top opens if you just want air to get in the room.
In the uk the windows open outwards I do not understand at all this concept and makes no sense to me.
Internet.
This is by far the best one, when we moved and I got connected to the internet I ran a speed check and it came up with 80 mb's down and 75 up. In the uk this is not the normal more like 30 down and 10 up, so this was a pleasant surprise when I found that out.
Obituaries.
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In each town and city you will find these everywhere on walls lamp posts houses etc, when someone dies notices go up to advise of the person who has died to tell the village. Then each year on the anniversary they are put up again to remind the villagers when they passed so they know how long it has been, as far as I am aware they are never taken down. In the uk we put the obituary either in the newspaper to tell someone or online.
So there you have it these are some of the things I find most different living here than the uk, but in all honesty I can't think of
a single thing that I miss in the uk, other than my family. Which really they are not as huge a miss as I can face time them anytime I want to.
Thank you for taking the time to read the article and thanks again to @teamhumble for giving me the idea.
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Interesting article, do they drink a lot of tea there? I bet you miss some British foods!
They do drink tea here but more herbal tea than the tea that we drink. Fortunately I brought a lot of Yorkshire tea with me before we moved should last a while.
Great job man! You have learned a lot and thank you for informing everyone else that doesn't know :)
A great post, I have newer been to Bulgaria but it sounds like it would be an interesting and great country to visit. I love food, and the salad looks delicious.
I think it's great to travel round the world, not only in "west" countries, thanks for inspiring me:-)
It's such an amazing place to visit maybe I should do a post on some of the most beautiful places to go??
Excellent post. I really didn't know anything about life in Bulgaria before. How long have you been learning the language? Is the alphabet the same as Russian?
Thank you , yes it uses the same alphabet I think most slavic countries do so serbia will also. I have been learning for about two years off and on but now I am learning every day.
oh my word this post was amazing. thank you so much for going into detail like this, i suggest the follow up should be able costs for things vs the uk, great to hear you got a speedy connection, how much is the internet there? also, i'd love to know about transportation and any issues you had there.
It is really me that should be thanking you for encouraging me to write this post and the audience it has attracted I am deeply in your debt thank you for the suggestions those will indeed be future posts in the making.
you are most welcome! :) just trying to be humble ;)
Great Post @crazybgadventure! Looks like you caught a whale