Bulgaria – The Golden Period in My Life

by Sarah Lampert

Sarah Lampert was Third (later Second) Secretary Political in Sofia from 1991 to 1994. Her memories of Bulgaria are of the challenging time of transition between the old guard and the old way of doing things, and the new, but also of the relaxed and sunny atmosphere in Sofia, the stunning Bulgarian countryside, the taste of the local cuisine, and more than anything the warm Bulgarians.

“Shopska salad would never taste as good with English tomatoes! We also did some beautiful walks in an Embassy group […] you have the most beautiful mountains!” – Sarah Lampert

I worked as Third (later Second) Secretary Political in Sofia from February 1991 to December 1994. I feel immensely privileged to have lived through such an important political period, when Bulgaria was opening up to the world. The Chiprovski Bulgarian rugs on my floors, and the Bulgarian bowls from which I eat every day (they’ve survived twenty years, even if they are a bit chipped!) are constant reminders of a golden period in my life.

It was not all plain sailing, especially for ordinary Bulgarians. When I arrived in January 1991 to do my immersion language training with a Bulgarian family (the first person from the Embassy ever to do so) Dimitur Popov’s “independent” government was in power. There was almost nothing in the shops. Certainly no meat. The shops all had signs saying “Niama stoki”. One of the first phrases our English visitors learned was “niama tok” – and I did once get stuck in the lift going to see my Bulgarian teacher, Elga, opposite South Park. The Embassy used to send a van down to Serres once a fortnight to buy vegetables. Thank goodness for cellars full of burkani, which kept most people going through that difficult time. Pecheni chushki, kiseli krastevitsi, turshia, liutenitsa. New Bulgarian acquaintances were so hospitable, despite the hardships, that my now husband and I tasted them all. We hope that those skills have not been forgotten in the age of freezers and supermarkets. I remember the excitement when the first supermarket opened in Mladost, probably late in 1993 or early 1994.

We have so many memories that it’s impossible to choose only one. Here are my top five:

Our Bulgarian dog, Koochimir Koochimirov, a stray we rescued from the car park in Ovcha Kupel. He became a regular at the Ambassador’s Residence, barking his way through a dinner with the British author Julian Barnes, and once appearing on national TV (Efir 2) when he got lost – he was terrified by New Year’s Eve fireworks and ran all the way to Boyana;

Rock concerts for the then UDF. Rock music was a huge part of political life, because it had previously been suppressed and controlled. John Peel, a well known British DJ came in 1991 to experience the rock scene, and we held a very untypical diplomatic reception at the Deputy Head of Mission’s Residence in Boyana. The TV coverage focused mainly on Milena’s leather shorts-clad bottom… In the run up to the 1991 elections, which saw the anti-Communist opposition come to power for the first time, rallies resounded with the sounds of “Chetiriset i pet godini stigat. Vremeto e nashe…”, and I also remember very clearly the concert where Sofianites said “Sbogom” to Georgi Dimitrov’s Mausoleum (though it stayed in place for several years afterwards);

The first Bulgarian International Business Association Ball in 1993 in the Sheraton Hotel. My now husband worked part-time for BIBA which he had helped set up the previous year – in addition to teaching Economics in the re-established Economics Faculty at Sofia University (it had been closed down in the 1940s). One of the ball’s chosen charities was an organisation founded by the late Dimi Panitsa, which worked with the street children who hung out in front of the hotel. Some of the children came in to the event, chaperoned by the Roma poet Sali Ibrahim. This was the first time those children had ever been in such a place, and they acquitted themselves admirably;

The Bulgarian countryside. In those days, particularly with the collapse of the cooperative farms, agriculture had gone back to the romantic if back-breaking days of donkey-pulled ploughs and carts. You never saw a tractor. Village houses were festooned with strings of drying peppers, bundles of maize, and colourful gourds. We once had the joy of spending the weekend with a family in the Rose Valley during the rose harvest. Shopska salad would never taste as good with English tomatoes! We also did some beautiful walks in an Embassy group – from Borovets to Rila, Sedemte Ezera. The Balkans, Pirin, the Rhodopes – you have the most beautiful mountains! And remembering our first sight of Belogradchik, rocks glowing in the evening sun, still makes my spine tingle;

My Embassy colleagues. It must have been a challenging time for the Bulgarian staff, transitioning between the old guard and the old way of doing things, and the new. I had some fascinating and lovely colleagues, some who had been there for years but did their very best to help us get to know the new political scene (Marta) or familiarise us with Bulgarian culture (Vassil the driver, who on long drives always stopped for a tripe soup breakfast); others who came in new – Maragret and Madlena who worked most closely with me, Iliana and Toni who threw themselves into spending the new British Know How Fund with gusto. I want to mention in particular Marina Stoinova, who worked in Commercial Section, and who did so much to help me settle in outside the office, introducing me to Sofia’s burgeoning night life. Marina was tragically killed in a car accident in Romania in 1992, but I will never forget her.

I went back to Sofia with my children for a short visit in 2007. Much has changed, but the relaxed, sunny atmosphere in Sofia, the hospitality and humour, the beauty of Vitosha mountain and Rila Monastery, are still there. They would all like to visit again…