Let’s get on the van and follow us in our trip to Perushtitsa! 

In the morning we went to the local high school to present our eco movies. In the previous week we worked in teams to create eco movies and we produced three different short movies about ecology and sustainability. Our goal was to present  them in schools in order to share with students the importance of respecting our planet, to promote sensibility about ecological topics and to increase students consciousness about such issues. Unfortunately it was not possible to enter the school because of the Covid restrictions, but we had the opportunity to meet the director and the students in the courtyard and we took some pictures together as a memory. Luckily we could send our eco movies online to the high school of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Nikola Obreshkov  in Kazanlak accompanied by some questions to make them think about the message of the movies. They gave us their feedback and opinion so even if we didn’t meet in person it was a great way to communicate and exchange impressions.

We continued our trip visiting Perushtitsa. We have been led through Bulgarian history and traditions thanks to a very nice local guide that explained us everything in the history museum, then we visited the massive stone historical church of St. Archangel Michael, which has been refuge of insurgents protectors of the town against the Ottoman empire in 1876. Next to the church there is the first school funded in Perushtitsa. Inside we could see some pictures of the first teachers and discover how a typical classroom was organized. The different steps of education were writing in the sand, writing on a little blackboard and for the most educated students writing using a feather pen. It has been like a walk in the past.

Our day couldn’t continue in a better way than with a wine tasting experience in Perushtitsa wine cellar with an amazing Bulgarian woman who showed us the tools used for grapes and wine and explained all the details and secrets about wine production. We had a delicious wine tasting of typical Bulgarian wines: we started with the white wine, we continued with the rosé and finished with the red wine. The secret is to taste from the youngest one to the oldest one.  Wine tasting is an art that involves different senses, it’s an experience that involves eyes, nose and mouth. In fact the first step for degustation is to look at the color, the second is to smell the perfume and the last is to taste the aroma. Some important elements that make the wine more delicious are the year of production, the temperature of serving, the food that combines with the wine but the most important one is the good company to enjoy it with!

In the afternoon we finished our trip at the stunning Bachkovo monastery. It is a major Eastern Orthodox monastery in Southern Bulgaria, the second largest in Bulgaria and the second most visited in the country. The monastery is known and appreciated for the unique combination of Byzantine, Georgian and Bulgarian culture, united by the common faith.  It was a pleasure for the eyes, not only the external architecture but all the amazing decorations and colors that you can admire from the inside.

Our trip has now come to an end but we will have a beautiful memory of it and we hoped that our words have let you travel with your mind in Perushtitsa and its surroundings too.

Sara

The article is part of the project “Forest tale” of AYVOB, funded by ESC of the EU.