Branitsa

Third village in a day! Branitsa. If Hliabovo was among the most 20th century in feel, then Branitsa was the most timeless.

First we drove out to a spot near the top of a hill. On that hill is a large special rock. In this place the girls used to come do their initiation rituals and the period of practicing for them (every sunday and feast day through Lent to Easter) on and around this rock. They said they did these rituals 'Na' stone, which can mean 'to' and/or 'on'.
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More of reactions - in another post, just for the moment say that pretty much everyone but me considered this place the highlight or pinnacle. I can see why, but my reaction is much more complicated and mixed than that.

Bulgari - Nestinarka -

I'll skip the megaliths for now and continue the trek through the villages and ritual dances. Stones endure much longer.

We continued on out to the Black Sea and stayed in village there called Lozenets. We took a trip out to the town of Bulgari with the Nestinarka - fire dancer (Vesselina Ilieva).

( Nestinari ritual in Bulgari )

Lozhenets fire dance

It had been arranged that Vessilina would do the fire dance at our hotel after dinner. The hotel had decided that it would get the local folklore group in to perform for us also.

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oops

Much apologies to anyone who might have seen 4 copies of the Branitsa post.
Apparently I screwed up while I was trying to fix photo urls!

chernomorets

The last village we went to meet dancers in was Chernomorets. The name means black sea, and it was clearly a town centered on tourists going to the beach.

Here the local group did a reconstruction presentation of what the Midsummer (St John's Day ) ritual was. It took place in the courtyard of a restaurant. There was a little 'stream' landscaped into the courtyard with a 'mill-wheel' turning.
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better late than never

jilara has rather gently reminded me of the existence of cut tags. Much cutting has ensued.

Sosopol just for fun

After Chernomorets we went to the seaside village of Sosopol for a few hours.

First we all went into the local archaeological museum and had a look around. Then we variously split around town. Maybe half of us made it over to a restored bit of an old Greek sea fortress.

One interesting artifact they have is a bit of ancient Greek water main, with all of the lead on the _outside_ of the pipe where it wouldn't touch the water.

This is in the room from which the steps go down to the sea.

A few people were climbing around on the small rocky beach looking for rocks and finding some interesting ones, which they were told to feel free to take.

I was too sore and thrashed from all the dancing on cement and stone paving and etc for the last two weeks for that, so I just sat at the end of the steps, took a few photos and enjoyed the sea. One striking thing evident from that spot was how to the left was the old Bulgarian seaside town that Sozopol had been, and to the right was the massive construction of the European town it's about to be turned into.

Then I spotted a flat rock sticking out a little from under some others, near to where I was. I suspected what shape it was going to be if I pulled it out. So I went over and picked that one out. It's a largish flat grey stone heart. I declared my rock hunting done, what could top it?