Different in the similarities: from Razlog to Bristol and from Bristol to Razlog

This post was first published in Nepolitkorektno in Bulgarian. I advise everyone who can read the Bulgarian version to do so 😀 

The trip from Bristol to London, the capital of the United Kingdom, is 3 hours by bus. The trip from Razlog to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, is 3 hours by bus.  

I spent the last year in one of the two universities in Bristol. On the other side, each summer I’m spending at least a week in Razlog. This year the week was cut down to two days and a half, but they were enough to see the Pirin area in a completely new way.

Razlog is situated in the valley of Razlog and is surrounded by the mountains Rila and Pirin. The nature is impressive and the mountain trips are just a matter of choice. Bristol is also a green city. It is even chosen for the European Green Capital for 2015. This “green”, however, is different from the one in Bulgaria (which refers just to the nature and the variety of flora and fauna) is connected with different investments and environmental plans. The planned investments in Razlog are not for ecology, but for building a new ski complex and destroying a forest.

Bristol City Council wants to make the streets in the city center as tiny, as possible, so that less vehicles are being used and the traffic is limited. It is obvious that in Razlog (which, again, is situated in the poorest country in the EU) some of the cars are much more expensive than those in the English city. This raises a lot of questions, including where do the money for those cars come from and is the most important thing showing off with a new car, when you hardly have enough money to pay your bills. Moreover, Bristol is the second home of thousand of young people, studying in its two universities. After they graduate from one of the local high schools, teenagers in Razlog have to choose whether they want to go (and probably study) in Sofia or another bigger city in Bulgaria. Some choose to leave the country

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But let’s take a look at the brighter holidays that will give us a livelier picture of the two cities. Each New Year is an enormous event in

Razlog – everybody gathers on the square. They wear traditional dresses or imitate politicians, stars or just freaks. People believe that this will scary away the bad forces and the beginning of the new year will be good. All this is accompanied by a lot of rakia (a traditional alcoholic drink), kapama (a dish with different kinds of meat) and sweet banitca (a traditional pastry). And this repeats every ye
The St. Pauls carnival takes place in Bristol during the summer. For a day or two the city forgets about its everyday problems and rainy weather and gathers together. There have been years when the festival hasn’t taken place (and this happens in one of the richest countries in the EU).ar, regardless of how hard the previous year was.

The differences in the similarities don’t end here – groups like Massive Attack and Portishead come from Bristol and “Perun” comes from Razlog. Bristol is the home city of the graffiti artist Banksy. Some years ago a group of school children painted some recycling bins in Razlog and I was at least as impressed, as when I saw Bristol’s Stokes Croft for the first time. Moreover, Bristolians and Razlozhani are famous for their strange accents/dialects.

Bath is situated next to Bristol and is well-known for its Roman baths.

Banya is situated next to Razlog and is well-known for its Roman baths.

The baths in Bath are a nicely developed tourist attraction which stimulates the economy of the city. It is fascinating how long the tour guides spend on each single stone and how they manage to take the best out of every corner of the city.

In Banya there are SPA hotels. That’s it.

However, the biggest difference between Razlog and Bristol is the atmosphere – Razlog, for me, has always been a peaceful and energizing place. Bristol is much more dynamic, more multicultural and modern. Undoubtedly, if Mr. Ferguson who is the first democratically elected major of Bristol and Mr. Gerchev who is the next (questionably) democratically elected major of Razlog, decide to swear a brotherhood between the two cities, we will witness a really interesting partnership.

Razlog definitely can learn a lot from Bristol – what is entrepreneur spirit; what is punctuality and how to diminish the dependency from the capital. However, I am not quite sure if Bristol can easily learn the lessons from Razlog in the fields of cr

eativity (not in terms of graffiti, but when it comes to the art of making the ends meet); hospitality; cooking and living outside your smart phone. Probably some Britons will say that this is an unnecessary move towards the past, but I met one who has married a woman from Razlog and he is in love not only with her, but with Razlog, as well.

This is a clear sign that somewhere there in this remote British city, there are people ready to understand Bulgaria and the region of Razlog the way they are – without otiose hotels, cut down forests and cheap alcohol. They just need somebody to show them round.

And when this happens, we can’t be sure if the Bulgarians will “flood” the UK or the Britons will flood Bulgaria!