We decide to visit Stara Zagora, a town about 35–40 kilometres east and south of Kazanlak. The basic aim is to meet up with A and P but it is really not a strenuous excursion day, more one to catch up with notes and queries. We leave the car near the central park—where we were supposed to meet A and P again—and walk through the market. Returning to a park bench with shade to write up some notes I notice a young boy, perhaps seven years old, standing in front of a statue of what appears to be St. George in the process of killing the dragon. St. George stands aloof, busy with his bravery, on a column about 15 feet in the air. The boy, his oversize baseball cap askew, but not fashionably reversed, is concentrating on throwing a tiny Spiderman figure upwards. At the dragon or the hero? It’s immaterial really since it never reaches farther than half way up the pedestal. The power of his imagination only dwindles after ten or twelve tries.
After writing a sentence or two I notice a Roma couple going by with a dressed up monkey on a lead. The man carries a musical instrument I don’t recognise. A woman passes, coming from the market, eating fresh cherries. One drops from the bunch and rolls into the sunlight, a perfect cherry, she doesn’t notice. Nearest the market there is an invisible demarcation line – all the benches are occupied by men talking, reading the newspaper and smoking. Further in towards the centre of the park there are women with babies in prams and young children, especially around the statue and the fountain.
Stara Zagora has a Roman amphitheatre and is also the home of the Svetlina street lights we have seen in many parts of Bulgaria. They are simple, elegant and slightly insect-like. I leave the park to meet the others, passing a building with a fading mural of 1960s space euphoria juxtaposed with present day aspirations. A and P have not appeared and we go to the post office which turns out to be housed in a building built over an archaeological site. |
|
Inside business is conducted around and above some 4th-century Roman mosaic floors. Later, over coffee, the sky darkens and there is a cloudburst. We sit, protected by the café awning, and watch the downpour clear the tree-lined main street. Returning to Kazanlak the same storm has flooded the streets.
|
