 THE BULGARIAN MAGIC
Bulgarian folk clothes are very colorful and nice. Both women and men wear white shirts with an embroidered bodice and skirts, richly ornamented as well. The types of folk clothes vary according the region and some times are very different, as though from different countries. The clothes, made exclusive of home-woven cloth, are so colorful and pretty that it seems they reflect all the colors of nature. It is not possible to describe, it can only be seen.
It is not possible to see people wearing traditional clothes in the streets, as with kimonos in Japan. Bulgarians wear modern dress, which are quite the same as anywhere in Europe. But there are a lot of Folklore schools that study and preserve national traditions - dances, clothes and folk music. When speaking about folklore clothes it is not possible not to mention Bulgarian folk dances and music.
The Rhodopes, known as the birthplace of Orpheus, is one of the numerous regions in which traditional folk music can be heard. On the "Voyager" satellite, sent to another possible civilization, one of the messages included was a song from this mountain. Maybe the variety of the Bulgarian folk is one of the explanations of Bulgarian voice magic. A large number of world famous opera singers, instrumentalists and choirs have popularized the power and beauty of Bulgarian performing art.
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During the Ottoman rule the influence of European architecture was weak. For this reason it is not possible to find big buildings with architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries. Instead of that there are a lot of houses and small towns that keep the original beauty of the Bulgarian National Revival (18-19 centuries). One of the most famous is Plovdiv's Old Town. Behind stonewalls and wrought iron gates along the steep cobbled streets are lovely gardens with flowers and symmetrical houses with colorful painted facades, bay and lattice windows. Lovely carved ceilings, murals and exquisite furniture adorn the interiors. Many of these houses are now museums, others are folk-style restaurants, and the remainder is inhabited.
Monuments, buildings and archaeological excavations from different times can be found all over the country. Here are some of them: Varna's ancient necropolis which revealed proofs of the first European civilization and the world's oldest gold dated to 4600-4200 b.c.; the Kazanluk Thracian Cupola Tomb dated to the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd century b.c., containing unique murals - the only surviving monuments of Hellenic painting, included in the List of World Cultural Heritage; a Roman Amphitheater from the 2nd century - the biggest one in the Balkan Peninsula outside of Greece; the Rila Monastery founded in 9th century - the biggest monument of Bulgarian Architecture from that time; Kotel and Zeravna - two villages in the Balkan mountain that have saved their original architecture from the National Revival. The spirit of these villages cannot be described; it can only be seen and experienced.
Apart from the old buildings, there are a large number of modern resorts at the Black Sea's beach and mountains. They have a different modern architecture that provides a good holiday and refuge from the noisy 21st century.
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