Bulgaria: Research

I came to Bulgaria to learn about my grandmother's childhood, and in Gela, I discovered the essence of what she loved so much and missed about her homeland.

On August 18, 2023, at 6:09 PM, a BIKER stops to admire the view in the Rhodope Mountains. (photo: Antonia Chekrakchieva / Unsplash)

My trip began like roots, simple and pure. My late maternal grandmother, Eliza Rachel Nahmia, daughter of Rafael Nahmia and Blanka Farhi, spent the first 22 years of her life in Bulgaria before being sent to Vienna to marry my grandfather, Karl Arenz, who was of Czech descent. In her later years, after several strokes that left her bedridden, she switched to speaking Bulgarian, a language I couldn't understand, but which fascinated me just as much as the stories she told and the food she ate: palachinki; banitsa (cheese-filled filo pastry); baked peppers. Every time she came to London (she lived on the coast in Bournemouth), she would drag me to Selfridges department store, where she stocked up on imported goods that were hard to come by in 1960s England: halva, tahini, figs, dates, and linden honey.

My grandmother was born on Christmas in 1899 in the city of Vidin - a city on the southern bank of the Danube in northwestern Bulgaria, on the border with Serbia and Romania.

While traveling to Bulgaria, I am booking a ticket to Bulgaria and planning my travel itinerary. My route should go clockwise from the west of the country (Sofia) through the north (Vidin), to the east (Ruse and the Black Sea), and then south (Plovdiv and the Rila and Pirin mountain ranges), where my grandmother used to go on excursions from the capital.