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*Exploring Bulgaria (1993)

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Bulgaria is a country locatedon the coast of the Black Sea. The main ethnic group is Bulgarian of South Slavic, accounting for 90%. Geographically, there were frequent visits of immigrants here, and there were frequent struggles between ethnic groups. There was a war between Russia and Turk in 1878 throughout the Byzantine period (11-12th century) and the Ottoman Turk occupation period (14th-19th century). When Russia won this war, Bulgaria finally escaped from Turkic rule and established a dynasty.

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Later, Bulgaria joinedGermany and Austria during World War I, but lost part of its territory as a defeated country and lost part of its territory. They also participated in World War II to recover, but eventually belonged to a war criminal country and lost. They collapsed the communist system and were born as a republic due to the democratization movement in November 1989. However, they faced economic difficulties due to increased confusion caused by the rapid introduction of the market economy system. Most of the people believed in Bulgaria Orthodox. But they were not religiousists.

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I was in Istanbul at that time. I tried to go to Bulgaria by bus from here. It took about 12 hours to get to the capital city of Sophia. Somehow I thought bus travel would be more fun than train travel. The starting point was Istanbul Bus Terminal. The interesting scenery has already begun here. The bus, which originally departed at 6 p.m., was delayed by as much as an hour. In the meantime, the area around the bus was noisy. It was the height of disorder.

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Most of the bus passengerswere bundle merchants. A huge amount of carpets were piled up next to the bus. When loading them all in the bus compartment, a fierce physical fight was inevitable. I realized the law of the jungle. However, just as there are no rules without exception, this was the case here. Those with weak physical strength were replaced with money (bribery). Even if merchants struggled to load their belongings, the bus company employees stood with their arms folded as if they were watching. When someone approached him and gave him the money, the effect immediately worked. The employee dragged down the carpets that other merchants had barely loaded in a physical fight. And the goods of the merchant who gave the money went in there. Such tyranny continued, but it was embarrassing to see. Unlike me, however, merchants did not protest or resist it. It was a site where the differences between developed and underdeveloped countries were well revealed.

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The bus left downtown Istanbul. The faded apartment group also disappeared from view. The bus arrived at the border about four hours later, at 11 p.m. Turkey's departure screening was simple. The problem was the entry screening into Bulgaria. Tourist buses that had already been screened or waiting were lined up.

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The bus driver told the merchantsto take out all their luggage. They soon went into action. After a considerable amount of time, a Bulgarian immigration official approached the bus with an arrogant attitude. After kicking the merchants' things, he got on the bus. I knew that Korea was a visa waiver agreement with Bulgaria. Of course, I sat quietly because I didn't have anything to be inspected. But for some reason, his rugged impression and sharp eyes were scary. Finally, the moment he looked through the passengers on the bus, I was very nervous. It was a really unpleasant look. Badly, uglily, it’s what the communists I saw had in common.

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I sat in the middle of thebus and three Chinese people sat on my left and front seats. And on my right side, there was a black gentleman dressed up as if sleeping with his eyes closed. The rest of the passengers were white people in the East, except for some Turks. But the grumpy-looking immigration official stopped looking at the black gentleman next to me. He immediately approached the black man with a stiff look. And he asked the black gentleman for a passport as if he were treating a criminal. And he looked up and down at the passport. -be continued-

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*Thank you.

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