Day 8 - Friday, August 29 - Vidin, Bulgaria

 We arrived at Vidin at 7am this morning.

On the way to the bus, I thanked Sonja, our program director, about her talk last night and said that I was concerned about the direction of our country. Although we try to avoid politics, she said she was concerned also for the world.

Vidin is a very old city and the area is ancient. It is famous for cave paintings in the paleolithic era, 8,000 years ago. The city itself was an important outpost on the Danube in 350AD, the boundary of the Roman empire. It was subsequently part of the Ottoman Empire, a more free country after expelling the Ottomans, then under communist rule and after 1989 moving to western democracy.

The country suffered greatly with the communist takeover but also suffered greatly after communism. At the communist takeover, all private land and businesses became property of the state and people worked for the state in collective enterprise which was often inefficient as there was no motivation to do well. There was complete repression of religion. After communism, most of the state enterprises collapsed and there was mass unemployment. There were attempts to return property to prior owners but this was difficult after more than 40 years and in the meantime, important infrastructure deteriorated.

In Vidin, most of the old factory buildings were abandoned and empty hulks. In the small villages, many of the homes were abandoned, very similar to Romania on the other side of the river.

Our tour guide told us a funny story about a beautiful new church we passed. A man from a different region in Romania bought an old factory and there was no Catholic church in town so he decided to build one. But there are virtually no Catholics in Vidin which is largely Eastern Orthodox and some Muslims.

We went to the Belogradchik rocks and fortress. This is an interesting rock foundation where people visualize various different creatures.

At the top there was a wooden platform made by the Romans in the 4th century and over time this was more heavily fortified and eventually became an Ottoman fortress. There are cisterns and food storage areas in case of a siege.

After coming back to the ship we went for a walk in the park along the waterfront where there were families with children and people sitting at cafes along the park.

Vidin

Memorial to people who died under communism

Belogradchik Mountains

Belogradchik Mountains

Belogradchik Fortress



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