We’re on a boat, cruising down the Danube river. The cruise started in Vienna, Austria, and will go all the way south to the Black Sea. Yesterday we stopped in Belgrade, Serbia. Now it’s onward to Bulgaria.
On the way to Vidin, Bulgaria, we cruised through an area on the Danube called the Iron Gates. Sounds menacing, eh? They were, back in the day, but today they’re just neat to look at.
The Iron Gates
The Iron Gates are two places where the Danube passes through a gorge with high cliffs on either side of the river. Today, the water level is managed with dams and locks, but this area used to be a nightmare for traders.
The Danube river used to be an important trade route north from anyplace south of the Black Sea. Vienna was the back door into Europe. But ships had to be piloted through the Iron Gates to get there.
On this part of the Danube, Serbia is to the west, and Romania is to the east. Bulgaria is a little ways farther south. I know – I’m lost, too. Can we get a map here?
We docked in Vidin, Bulgaria in the morning. It’s a small port town on the Danube. It’s history is similar to Bratislava’s history , except here, it starts with the Bulgars.
Bulgaria is the result of successes in this region 1500 years ago by a nomadic tribe called the Bulgars. They moved in and took up residence on a permanent basis.
Vidin
If you’ve been following along, the rest of the story should sound familiar by now – conquered by Byzantines, retaken, conquered by Ottoman Turks, retaken, then sucked into the communist Eastern Bloc until its dissolution in 1989.
We disembarked in Vidin and boarded a bus to have a Bulgarian lunch at a restaurant in the woods. We ate a hearty lunch in a beautiful setting, sitting at tables outside, underneath a canopy of big trees.
Entertainment was provided by a wedding and reception that happened to be taking place indoors while we were there. The building’s walls were glass, so we could see everything, and hear most of it. They were having some fun in there!
In the afternoon, we had time to wander around. There’s not a lot to see in Vidin, but I found one thing particularly interesting. Bulgaria uses the Cyrillic language. If you want to figure out where you are by looking at street signs, you’re out of luck.
We’re not in Kansas Anymore
The first time I noticed signs in Cyrillic was a “We’re not in Kansas anymore,” moment. Cyrillic writing looks like nothing I’d ever seen before, at least up close and personal.
Bulgaria has been using the Cyrillic language since the 9th century. In those days, a large swath of Eastern Europe was called Great Moravia. The king of Great Moravia wanted to school his subjects in the Orthodox Christian religion.
He sent an emissary to Constantinople with a request addressed to the Emperor of Byzantium, Michael III. Would he please send someone to Moravia to teach the people there the Orthodox Christian religion?
Michael III did better than that. He sent two guys. Their names were Cyril and Methodius. They went to Moravia and brought the Cyrillic language with them. But it wasn’t as simple as that. (Of course it wasn’t!)
To be continued…
Photo of the Iron Gates aat the top of this post, credit: nikola19/istockphoto
