Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey (1995) | By Isabel Fonseca
Going around gypsy settlements in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and as far as Albania, Fonseca records the stories of all kinds of characters.
Her book describes in detail the Roma's traditions and the way they have been layered with their modern ideas and life – on anything from food and music to religion and taboos. Bury Me Standing is a good cultural guide for journeys to the numerous Roma-populated regions in Bulgaria and Romania. It would also be a useful read for the local ethnic majorities, which – despite a long-term cohabitation, don’t know the Roma communities well and continue to feel a traditional hostility towards them.
Epicure
Turkey
Sherbet or Sorbet? An East-West Beverage Tradition
Sherbet and sorbet are a pronounced example of the contemporary gastronomic approach to the “Eastern-Western” synthesis. Full Story
Curiosity Chest
Balkans
Stecci to be Nominated as Joint Cultural Heritage by 4 Balkan Countries
5 November 2009 | In a rare move of cooperation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro recently agreed to nominate the medieval tombstones, known as stecci, scattered across the four countries as their shared cultural heritage to the UN World Heritage List. Full Story
Useful Reads
Montenegro
Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro (2007) | By Elizabeth Roberts
Although released just in 2007, Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro comes from a much older school of scholarship. With this much needed work, former diplomat Elizabeth Roberts has produced the newest and best introduction to the full history of a storied and sometimes inscrutable land the identity of which was formed equally by its forbidding mountains and balmy Adriatic coast- still the features most representative of Montenegro today and most enticing to its increasing number of foreign visitors.
Full Story
Music
Macedonia
Macedonia: Esma Redžepova's Passion for Humanity
"A Gypsy from the city of Skopje", as she calls herself, Esma Redžepova has more than 40 years of singing and humanitarian efforts under her belt. 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