A warm welcome by a lovely family
Other Bulgarians I have told about going to Sliven looked at me in bewilderment: why? Most Bulgarians know Sliven only because of its large gypsy population. I went there to visit my buddy Stanimir who lived there and who I met before in Burgas.
On the lonesome journey by train from Varna I passed countless sunflower fields. Bulgaria is the biggest producer of yellow flowers in the EU after Romania.
My buddy picked me up right at the train station. His family gave me a very warm welcome. The mother made lunch for us both and staying overnight with them was absolutely no problem. Later in the day my buddy and me drove to the family's summer house, where the parents had prepared a delicious dinner, including salad with delicious vegetables from their own garden, as well as a kind of omelette and watermelon.
Visiting the blue mountain
Together with his other buddy we drove to the blue mountain overlooking the city in the background. Formerly popular with tourists, nowadays there are only a few left. An abandoned and dilapidated hotel indicates the decay of the place.
What a pity, because the panorama and the serenity up here are really wonderful. On the way down, we first almost crashed into a fallen rock, later into a horse standing on the road and then into a car that cut the curve. Crazy! In the afternoon we strolled through the center of the city and it reminded me of my hometown, because there was absolutely nothing going on here. The surroundings of the city are more beautiful than the city itself.
Watch a junior soccer game
In the evening we went to a soccer game of two junior teams. Strangely enough, the city no longer has an adult team, because the former football legend Letchkov ruined it when he put the club's money in his own pocket. So football fans here have to live by watching the games of the junior teams if they want to see live football. Some of the few men who were in the stadium screamed their hearts out. After all, football is also a good place to let your emotions run free.
Lost in the dark and getting barked at
Afterwards Stanimir, me & his buddies enjoyed a few beers in the local park. We shared some of the huge 2 liter plastic bottles that are so popular here. My buddy finally told me that his friend wanted to see us.
In all darkness we walked through the outskirts of Sliven. Eventually we came to a small settlement of small huts. Again and again we were barked at by some guard dogs from their properties. My buddies had trouble finding the house in the pitch dark. They then went for the house where the dogs barked loudest and most aggressively. Oh dear...!
Bulgarian brothers adoring Adolf Hitler
The two owners came out and took their biting pit bulls by the curb, otherwise they would have mauled us. The first thing I noticed in the apartment was the portrait of Adolf Hitler hanging above the TV in a very central location so that everyone could see it first. They both praised the ideas of this man frenetically. Everywhere were also other objects with nationalistic or military reference.
A couple of brothers lived in the house. They had previously worked as low-wage workers in construction in Germany. My buddy told me in advance that it would be better not to say anything wrong to one of them, otherwise "it could end badly". Just after a brief glance I already knew who he meant. One of the two had a hooligan stature like in the textbook: bald, with a free upper body, a grim expression on his face and a broad cross. His head turned more and more red as the evening went on, as he and his brother were drinking a Rakia, the fruit brandy.
Getting presents
Whatever their political views, they were both very nice to me. One of the brothers even gave me all kinds of presents: home-made honey or the prepared head of a fish with extremely sharp teeth. Both of them spoke relatively little English, but at least one of them tried to communicate with me through my buddy or showed me pictures of his daughters.
Family as soft spot
The evening was drawing to a close and we were about to leave. Reluctantly one of the brothers let us go, he accompanied us to the street. He actually wanted to drink away his worries even more. His wife and children had left him just shortly before.
When we finally left, he was close to tears and hit his foot with full force against one of the garbage cans, so that the whole neighbourhood was woken up by the bang. Like the tough mafia man I met in Sozopol before, he became snivelling when it concerned family.
The very next morning I took the bus to Plovdiv, the second largest city in the country.
