An expat's experience of living in Bulgaria

In seven years, Konstantinos has not had a single bad experience in Bulgaria, he says.

KONSTANTINOS Soupilas has been living in Bulgaria with his family for seven years and so far has not had a single bad experience.
Because of the nature of his work, he has been travelling a lot, both in the Balkans and in other parts of Europe, but likes to think of Bulgaria as his second, if not his first, home.
His son, Dimitris, is six years old, has lived most of his life in Bulgaria and is rather fluent, even to native-speaker level, in Bulgarian.
“When they ask him what his name is, he replies ‘Mitko’,” Soupilas said.
He came to Bulgaria seven years ago to work as an adviser to the Bulgarian Government on cross-border PHARE programmes between Bulgaria and Greece but had been visiting the country on and off for several years before that.
“When I first came to Bulgaria, I did not know much about the country, even though I come from Thessaloniki, which is not that far away,” Soupilas said.
Even though Bulgaria is quite different from Greece in terms of climate, architecture, the sea and the mountains, both Soupilas and his wife were pleasantly surprised by the country.
He finds the differences between the countries quite stimulating. “It has happened that I left Thessaloniki in 18 degrees C and arrive in Sofia at minus 2,” he said. “In summer, though, when it is very hot in Greece, it is cooler and more pleasant in Sofia. So I think that it is a very good combination in many aspects.”
It is really hard for Soupilas to remember what was the first thing about Bulgaria that surprised him but one clear memory is the snow, when he arrived in Sofia in January.
“I was not used to the snow, although I was living for a long time in France and Brussels, but I was not used at all to such snow,” he said. “To me it was a shock to have so much snow so close to Greece.”
Another thing that really impressed him was when he visited Bulgaria for the third time, which happened to be on the first day of March. “As I was crossing the border, there was a group of people going from one side of the border to the other, giving martenitsi to people,” he said. “I was really impressed because we don’t have this in Greece. I remember hearing something about this when I was a child. And then on the next day when I go to the office, I was almost attacked by co-workers who were trying to give me martenitsi. I found this something really special because it also has a pagan approach and brings good health and is very traditional,” Soupilas said, smiling and showing the martenitsa on his wrist. “And because it was spring I have very fond memories of this.”
He could not remember what was the first word he ever learned in Bulgarian, but said that his knowledge of Russian helped him a lot in learning the language.
“I did not know for how long I was going to stay in the country but I really wanted to learn the language,” he said. “I even took some lessons and now I can understand almost everything and talk to people. What gave me lot of trouble to learn was “s udovolstvie” but the first words I learned were “smetkata” and “menuto” because I needed food from the very first day I arrived.”
The knowledge of the language helps him a lot in his travels, both on business and with his family and there are very few places in Bulgaria he has not been to.
“We like to spend our weekends in places like Arbanassi and Kovachevitsa and in Bansko,” he said. “We love the mountains a lot, particularly the Rhodope mountains between Smolyan and Kurdjali. There are places that are really unique and we like going there again and again. The Trun region for instance, near the Serbian border is very wild and beautiful.
Soupilas said he thinks that Bulgaria has changed a lot in these past seven years.
“People smile a lot more than back then,” he said. “You feel that there is another open side of the Bulgarians, which you see more. Of course, outside big urban centres like Sofia, Varna and Plovdiv, there are still a lot of things that have to be done and life is not easy.
“But what I have observed from the beginning is that the Bulgarians take a long time to understand you and to observe you but once you gain their confidence, they are yours,” he said. “From the very beginning I came with a lot of respect for the people and their traditions, because I think that this is the only way to learn more. I must say that because of this, I have received a lot of respect and got many friends. This is the important thing and I have discussed it many times with expatriates - we have to understand that here we are guests and we have to understand the momentum of the country, the circumstances, the tradition, because the easiest thing is to come and take a certain model and start saying ‘I don’t like this and I don’t like that’. The important thing is to understand what is happening and why things and people are like this.”
Another striking thing about Bulgarians and Bulgarian is that there are many common expressions, idioms and slang with Greek, even though the languages are totally different. “And people have a similar way of thinking,” he said. “The sense of humour is very close as well.”
Soupilas said that apart from the climate and the geography, Greeks and Bulgarians have more things in common than differences. “And there is definitely one common future within the European family and when Bulgaria joins the EU, Greece would have for the first time a common border with another member state,” he said.
Soupilas said that unlike in Greece, Bulgarians tend to celebrate their traditions a lot more. “I went to a Trifon Zarezan celebration once and I was impressed,” he said. According to him Bulgarians don’t celebrate name days as much as Greeks do, even though they observe certain traditions connected to those name days, like St. Theodoros (Todorov Den) and St. Atanassios (St. Atanas). “I realised that there is a lot of tradition behind some of the name days, while in Greece the most important thing is to congratulate the person on the name day,” he said. “Here people get more upset if you forget them on their birthday.”
Soupilas said that living in Bulgaria has changed him a lot. “This is a very dynamic period in my personal and professional life,” he said. “I think that Bulgaria has become a part of my life and I will come back when I have the chance. What I will miss would be that period of my life. Bulgaria is a part of my life and sometimes I regret that I did not try to by an apartment or a piece of land so that I have a point of reference to come back to.”

From The Sofia Echo 28/03/2005