remembrance

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This post is about a 21km walk from Lyubimets to Harmanli. It’s cold and grey, and there are a few reminders of the finitude of existence.

I woke up to the sound of rain on a tin roof. Beautiful. I lay there, listening to it, then I drifted back into sleep. I dreamt of snow and our family dog and of times long past.

When it stopped raining a few hours later, I started walking. The air was piercingly cold.

the grey

From what I had seen so far, Bulgaria had a more somber vibe than Turkey. There were more grey buildings, more prefab buildings, and more abandoned buildings. I hardly saw any shops or places to eat along the road. The dogs seemed angrier here, too, but luckily most of them were leashed to trees or to dog huts. They just hated me from the distance.

I walked along a grey road through a grey world. Every time a car came my way I ducked to the side. The truck drivers generally gave me generous space, but the car drivers didn’t. Many of them seemed pretty aggressive.

Once I saw a memorial for a young man who had died on this road, presumably in an accident. Then I saw another memorial, this time for a young couple. Someone had left flowers for them. They were made from plastic. Plastic flowers don’t fade.

five years without Andrey

When I arrived in Harmanli, the first thing I saw were industrial ruins. Restaurants and factories that had presumably once been big and fancy lay crumbling by the roadside. I decided to leave the main road and walk through the residential areas of Harmanli.

That’s when I noticed the obituaries.

They were printouts that people had attached to walls, to gates, and to lamp posts. All of them had the same layout: on the top they said REMEMBRANCE, then there was a measure of time with the word WITHOUT, and then there was a photo of the deceased person along with their name.

REMEMBRANCE – TWENTY YEARS WITHOUT HRISTO – REMEMBRANCE – EIGHT YEARS WITHOUT EVTIM – REMEMBRANCE – SIX YEARS WITHOUT MARA.

Sometimes there were a few of them next to each other, with the measure of time increasing as the years went on.

One guy whose name was Andrey had two pictures of himself playing his keyboard. He looked happy. The first picture said FOUR YEARS WITHOUT ANDREY. The second one said FIVE YEARS WITHOUT ANDREY.

He looked very happy playing his keyboard.

pictures

These gaming clubs were everywhere:

Trailer in a field:

The grey road to walk from Lyubimets to Harmanli:

Freight train:

Snow drops being absolute badasses in the cold:

Memorial to Margarit:

The grey world on the road from Lyubimets to Harmanli:

Memorial to Georgy and Galina:

Bulgarian Savoy vodka ad:

Abandoned restaurant near Harmanli:

City monument of Harmanli:

Dog (chained):

Abandoned factory in Harmanli:

Entering Harmanli:

Wall:

Remembrance of Hristo, Evtim, and Mara:

Remembrance of Andrey:

Church in Harmanli: