Author: Dr. Lyuboslav Kostov
We are the country where “knock on wood” is a more reliable strategy than pragmatic economic policy. We are the place where asphalt melts faster than snow, and corruption is so institutionalized that if we removed it tomorrow, half of the economic processes would collapse from the shock of having to operate by the rules.
And yet, you know what I think? While we complain about potholes, we forget that here you can travel from a mountain peak to the seashore in less time than it takes an American to get out of traffic in Manhattan. Bulgaria is the place where the internet is so fast that while in London they are still trying to load Google, here you’ve already downloaded the entire Zamunda archive.
Bulgaria is not just tomatoes and cheese (although those are extremely important). We are a technological hub. There is a high probability that the software in your car or phone was written by a kid in a Sofia apartment drinking ayran and listening to rock music. We are the nation that gave the world the father of the computer. Moreover, we gave literacy to over 250 million people and saved Slavic culture from extinction.
We have more plant species per square kilometer than almost any other European country. We lie on an ocean of healing water. We rank second in Europe in the number of mineral springs. While others are figuring out how to purify wastewater, we are wading in health.
We are the only country that has not changed its name since 681. Not because we are lazy, but because we knew who we were even then. We have survived Byzantines, five centuries of Ottomans, world wars, and socialist experiments. We don’t just survive—we are like couch grass in the garden of history. You can trample us, you can spray us with chemicals, but next spring we’ll be there again, greener and more alive than ever.
The truth is that Bulgaria is beautiful because it is raw and real! It is not a sterile office in Brussels or a concrete jungle in Dubai. It is alive. It is a chaos of intelligent people who speak three languages but swear in one.
They will say we are backward? Maybe. But here we still have the luxury of knowing our neighbors by name, eating tomatoes that haven’t passed through a laboratory, and spending three hours at dinner discussing everything and anything. If this is backwardness, keep your “progress” to yourself.
We are a people who can curse our country 364 days a year, but on March 3rd you will see tears in the eyes of even the biggest cynic when they hear the bagpipe. We are not a country of subjects—we are a family of rebels just waiting for someone crazy enough to lead us in the right direction. And when that happens, the rest of the world will have to take notes.