The Truffle Rush
If the price of gold on the international market is 17.5 euro per gram, the truffles that these groups are after reach up to 10 euros per gram. Unlike the search for gold, going after truffles requires a physical exertion no more difficult than a walk in the forest with a suitable dog. Besides, the precious mushrooms tend to grow in massive lumps, weighting up to a kilogram and a half.
The discovery that the Croatian peninsula in the northern Adriatic is exceptionally rich in truffles, of course, was made by an Italian. This happened at the beginning of last century and the business in Istria has been growing steadily since, together with the price of the mushrooms on the international market.
Unlike other places in Europe, however, in Croatia it takes place illegally. The local truffle “hunters” are grateful that the government hasn’t yet calculated its losses from taxation and hasn’t made moves to cut down on the illegal trade. According to the registers, the licensed pickers of the precious mushrooms are around 500, but eyewitnesses claim that, between October and January, during the season, they might be as many as five times more than that. The fact that every single one of them raises a dog breed specialised in the search for truffles – brek, is a pure coincidence.
Curiosity Chest
Serbia
Serbia: Tito's Mausoleum in Belgrade
Whatever your opinion on communism, many people across Eastern Europe and the wider world have a romanticised view of the former Yugoslavia’s grand leader Josip Broz Tito. Full Story
Useful Reads
Serbia
The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History (2010) | By Jason Vuic
No other car, save perhaps the equally admired Skoda, has inspired as many jokes as the Yugo, the product of “cutting edge” technology from the former Yugoslavia which was ranked by US auto journalists as only the eighth most deadly car on the road. Full Story
Music
Serbia
EXIT Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia: Overnight Exile in the Fortress
Located roughly in the middle between Bulgaria's Black Sea and Croatia’s Adriatic coasts, which are both shaken by high-energy rock parties each July, Novi Sad hosts one of the most significant summer festivals on the Balkans – EXIT. As fans from all parts of the region start to gather in the town for for this year’s event, scheduled to take place between July 10 and 13, Mila Popova recounts about the time she spent at the festival last summer.
Full Story
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Photogalleries
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A Perfect Shot
In Homo Urbanus Europeanus, exhibited May 9-24 in front of the National Theatre in Sofia, Jean-Marc Caracci presents his photographs of people in the urban environment of European capitals.
RED&WHITE SOFIA. On the 1st of March Bulgarians say goodbye to the winter. They buy each other red&white threads to carry around until they see a stork and spring can begin. Photography by Lode Desmet
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs