In Bulgaria

 

The Balkan Peninsula had always been a very important topic in our European History text books and it was with great interest that I had followed the war in the Balkans during the world war. Balkan may be defined as an area of southeastern Europe. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains, which run through the centre of Bulgaria into eastern Serbia. I was really thrilled when I got a chance to attend an Indology Conference In Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. This was the first time that I was traveling to Eastern Europe and I looked forward to the trip with a lot of excitement. It was a group of five of us from India who landed in Sofia on 23^rd September, 2009. Sofia has a long history and was born 7,000 years ago and is at the foothills of Mount Vitosha. The topography of the place almost looked like Haldwani with all the mountains surrounding it. Some of the important rivers of this region are Vladaiska, Perlovska and Iskar. Sofia was earlier known by the Bulgarian name Sredets. During World War II, Sofia was bombed by Allied aircraft in late 1943 and early 1944. As a result of the invasion of the Soviet red army the Bulgarian country came under the Communist rule. It was only in 1989 that communism was over thrown and now slowly the country is limping back to a capitalist country.

I had gone to attend the Indology Conference and it was for the first time that I met many scholars from Poland, Budapest, Croatia, Latvia, Czechoslovakia, who are well versed in Sanskrit and Hindi. We met many students who are very much in love with Indian culture and its history. I made some very good friends and what really impressed me was that unlike Western Europe people are very hospitable and they welcome you and you get the same kind of hospitality which we Indian give to the outsiders. I met Nicolai and Elena who were very much in love with the Indian culture and planned to go back to India for a second time. It was fun to listen to the students talk in very chaste Hindi. The Conference kept us very busy and we really did not get time to go to the Museums which i would have liked but we spent time in a Church and attended the Mass. It was a beautiful experience of a Christian Orthodox church. The music was beautiful and after this we saw an Museum and art gallery of Christian icons. Walking around the streets in the lovely weather was beautiful and we saw lots of shops on the way selling laces, embroidery and rose perfumes. We bought a lot of kinky stuff which tourists buy and as I left Bulgaria I kept thinking I must come back to see more of this lovely country.and its beautiful and hospitable people.