I can't remember when it was the last time I have been waiting for spring so impatiently. After such cold two months and enormous amounts of snow it has finally got a bit warmer. Sofia streets suddenly seem so wide as immense piles of snow have started melting and as it has been sunny more often the whole city really seems lovelier.
Over the last few days the city has turned all red and white, thanks to a special Bulgarian holiday to shoo away winter and welcome spring. It's called Baba Marta and everyone, but seriously everyone, is celebrating it. It's celebrated on March 1st and the tradition is to exchange and wear a martenica - a small piece of adornment made of white and red thread, wool or other types of yarn. Martenica comes in all shapes and sizes and people wear them tied around their wrists, pinned on coats or tied on bags. A martenica has to be worn from March 1st until the first stork, swallow or budding tree is seen. Then, it has to be tied on a tree to give it strong health. I have to say, it's a beautiful tradition and I have quickly become very fond of it. Having received more than ten martenicas and having them tied around my wrist, I felt like a Christmas tree, so I have decided to tone it down a bit and wear just one or two at once.
However,
having a martenica tied around your wrist or
wear it as a brooch is, obviously, not enough to dispell
winter. People have tied martenicas on dogs,
windows, doors, on ropes between two buildings, bicycles, etc.
There's a small street in Sofia that reminds more of an Italian
street where neighbours have tied a rope between houses to hang wet
clothes, but is in fact just a rope from which martenicas are
hanging. Then, on some other building, there's a huge martenica in
a shape of Pizho and Penda, which is one of the most typical
Bulgarian martenicas.
Apart
from the whole Baba-Marta enthusiasm I have started learning Bulgarian (meaning not just looking at the book, but actually doing exercises and learning new words and grammar rules too),
which could be a lot easier if I actually put a considerable amount of effort into it. I
try to learn while I'm at work, when there's nothing to do, but it's far from
being sufficient. The only thing that's saving me when it comes to
understanding Bulgarian is the fact that many words are the same or
very similar to Slovenian or Croatian words. However, this can
sometimes cause quite a misunderstanding as similar-sounding words
may very often be false friends. One
of the phrases that I use a lot when I'm talking on the phone with
clients is in
fact. In
fact in
Slovenian (v bistvu) sounds very similar to убийство,
which in Bulgarian means murder. The
other day one of my Bulgarian colleagues carefully asked me what
I was talking about on the phone cause she had heard the
word убийство and
she didn't understand why would I be talking about a murder. I had no
idea what she meant with that, but when she explained what
she had heard, I just started laughing and so did she, when we solved
the mystery. The "murder" joke has quickly become our
inside joke.
Having
such beautiful weather this weekend I have had many things planned,
such as visiting a few museums, checking out the Kambanite park
outside Sofia, where more than 70 bells from differents parts of
world can be seen, making marmelade, ... By now I have only managed
to do my weekly shopping and tidy up the flat a bit. My productivity level is on minimum and
it doesn't look like it going to change by the end of the day. My neighbours have been honouring me with free piano concerts all weekend and even though it was very soothing at the beginning, after an hour it got annoying and I'm only happy my radio is loud enough to override Beethoven and Liszt. Ah well, as long as they're not playing an accordion or any kind of chalga music, I'm not really complaining.
Now, if you'll excuse me, it feels like my productivity level is up a bit and the least I can do is get myself outside and soak up the sun.
