SlowTours.BG with Ekaterina

15/08/2024

The feast "Panagia - Raising of the Bread" from 2008 is celebrated in Kyustendil on this day - Great Mother of God. The women of the local community centers prepare Virgin Mary pies as it was done in the old days. Their involvement takes place around old churches that need restoration. Everything begins with a prayer, and the wheat is consecrated. Maidens bring silent spring water for the preparation of the ritual bread, and the participants in the ritual wash their faces and bosoms and in complete silence knead the Virgin cakes. The involvement begins with the mother woman and then ends with the maiden who accepts the tradition. When the bread is ready to be baked, it is placed in trays (vessels for baking bread, characteristic of the Kyustendil region). A lid (cover) is placed on them, which is covered with embers from the hearth. Thus, according to popular ideas, the saucer symbolizes the earth, the whisk is the sky, and the dough - life. Making your own bread is the first step towards a sustainable lifestyle, say the participants in the ritual. According to them, bread, in addition to being something sacred, is a kind of art, but also a test of inner peace and the feelings you carry - if it becomes beautiful and tasty, then you feel good. It is no coincidence that in the folk tradition, a sick person is not allowed to make bread. It is very important to share the bread with someone. Ritual breads are characterized by placing a prosphoric seal on them, as well as the fact that they are lean - only salt, water, and flour
The organizers of the celebration in Kyustendil are the Municipality of Kyustendil and the Episcopal Vicarage.

Photos: Marieta Ivanova, Kyustendil

13/08/2024

Returning to childhood as if with a time machine, to pet a sheep, play with a dog, carve a boat out of pine bark, ride a horse, grill potatoes and mushrooms (well, there were venison sausages too 😋), to ride on an old truck, knead mekitsi, and climb in the rope park. 🏞🌳🐑🐎🔥
And all this in the green bosom of the Teteven Balkan, where nature simply takes your breath away. This is what this family from Israel, who lives in London, but returned to their Bulgarian roots to touch childhood again, experienced with us from SlowTours.BG with Ekaterina in Приключенски парк ,, Рибарица". There were so many emotions that very soon we expect them again in Bulgaria! 🇧🇬🥰

@последователи

09/08/2024

The people of this family came from Israel, through London, and all the way to the Teteven Balkan, Bulgaria, to ...make Bulgarian mekitsi! Master Rositsa taught them how to knead soft dough to make the soft ones fluffy. With powdered sugar, cheese, and jam, this is how the glory of Bulgarian mekitsi will be spread around the world! 🇧🇬🥞

24/06/2024

🌺🌾June 24 is one of the biggest Bulgarian folk holidays − Midsummer's Day known as Enyovden (Enyo’s Day) dedicated to herbs, water, sun, and health rituals. We also associate it with the former premarital divinations with bunches of flowers.
🌺🌾 The most common and enduring belief is that herbs picked before sunrise on Enyovden have great healing power. Modern herbalists, as well as people who use medicinal plants in their daily lives, really get up literally in the middle of the night and go to their favorite places to pick Enyovden herbs.
🌺🌾An object of healing and protective properties is Enyo’s wreath, which the girls weaved with herbs. According to popular belief, it must contain 77 and a half herbs. Such is the number of diseases - 77 are known, and "the half" is unknown. Folk healers know which are these 77 herbs for known diseases, and the “half” they are supposed to pick with their eyes closed - a stalk that accidentally falls into their hands. This bunch of herbs is dried and stored, it is believed that it can cure all diseases.

15/06/2024

Purple Bulgaria! Lavender season 💜 Ask us about lavender tours

06/06/2024

I had the honor of being a tour guide to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense in the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Zukan Helez, and high-ranking military personnel from NATO during their visit to Plovdiv. The city under the hills enchanted the delegation with its ancient history, culture and beauty 🥰

03/06/2024

🔥The great mystery of the Bulgarian firedancing 🔥

Tour "In the Hot Footsteps of the Strandzha Firedancers"

Bulgaria

10/05/2024

A dozen ambassadors and consuls of different countries in Brussels trusted the services of SlowTours.BG with Ekaterina for a walking tour of Old Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Despite the bad weather, the diplomats looked with interest at the different cultural layers from the era of the Thracian civilization, the Roman Empire, Byzantium, the Ottoman Empire, and the Bulgarian Renaissance, which left their mark on the oldest living city in Europe.

06/05/2024

Tourists from Hong Kong fulfilled one of their dreams with us today - to see Utrobata cave. Also known as Womb Cave, it is a prehistoric cave sanctuary in Kardzhali Province, Bulgaria. The cave resembles a female v***a and dates to the Thracian period. Historians believe that it was once used as a fertility shrine.

27/04/2024

"Kostenski sharove" is a preserved old tradition of writing Easter eggs in the Bulgarian village of Kostenets. Their painting takes place at the peak of today's Lazarov's Day, as the raw white egg is written using a special "pen" with wax, then fixed in cabbage soup and finally boiled in red dye. So the wax falls, and the egg glows with its wonderful patterns - tulip, dogwood, cock's comb, cross, fish, embroidery, vine, pitcher. Painted eggs are not to be broken, but to be looked at, that's why people say about a girl that she is "looked at like a painted egg".
ИНТЕРКУЛТУРА-INTERCULTURA

08/04/2024

We invite you to experience the amazing beauty of Bulgaria and the Eastern Rhodopes 🌳🏞🌄
WhatsApp +359898471201
Email: [email protected]

05/04/2024

Dimyat and Rubin are among the local Bulgarian varieties that Dragomir Winery Estate is most proud of. We try them with our guests - IT specialists from five American states, who remain fascinated by Bulgarian white and red wines and rosé.

01/04/2024

Original and diverse, Ban cuisine is known throughout Bulgaria for its stewed dishes, unique home-made sausages and appetizers. The most characteristic are kapama, chomlek, katino meze, Banski starets, Banski sujuk and krvavitsa, which are served in all local taverns and restaurants in Bansko and Dobrinishte. We taste the local cuisine, based on old recipes and pure home-made products, to bring our tourists from Canada closer to the distinctive way of life and culinary traditions of the local people

31/03/2024

One-day gastro tour to neighboring Serbia with tourists from Canada - smoked veshalitsa, pleskavitsa, neck with sheep's cheese, sausage, spicy sausage, ushipci, warm bread with cream and of course, soaked with the local beer Jelen and homemade plum brandy

30/03/2024

We are with tourists from Canada at the Tzalapishki Babek Festival! The masters from the village of Tsalapitsa have put their best appetizers and red wine on the table to welcome all lovers of babek, made by the best Tsalapitsa producers.🍖🍷
"Festival of Tsalapishki Babek and Wine" aims to preserve traditions and popularize the taste of the famous Tsalapishki Babek .🍖🍷

29/03/2024

Superb cheeses with walnuts, blueberries, soft sheep's cheese, cheese matured in wine jars, yogurt, string cheese - these are just some of the products of the farm "Golden Fleece" in the Plovdiv village of Brestnik in the Rhodope collar, which our guests from the USA tried in a specially organized cheese tasting. We were greeted by Violeta Krushkova, the owner of the farm, who is a technologist, a trader, an arranger and a perpetuator of the tradition of the family farm. It was created more than 40 years ago with lottery winnings. Today, the family breeds 1,000 sheep of the Karakachan, Sakar, Bulgarian dairy, Lakon, and Avasi breeds. In the summer, the animals graze on the meadows at 1,500 m above sea level in the mountains, so the milk and cheese from them is aromatic and tasty. And what is the difference between feta and white brine cheese, ask our guests who work in the IT sector. 'None,' smiles Violetta, 'ours is just better!'

17/03/2024

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦Today in Bulgaria we celebrate Sirni Zagovezni - a day also called Big Zagovezni, or Forgiveness Day. The younger ones visit the older ones - parents, brothers, sisters, godfathers, kiss their hand and ask for forgiveness, saying "Forgive", "May it be forgiven" the older ones answer. The whole family sits down in the evening for a festive dinner without meat dishes. On the table, there is a "banitsa" (pie with cheese), fish dishes, "tutmanik", milk with rice, walnuts, pumpkin, and, of course, halva.
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦A traditional custom of Sirni Zagovezni is the so-called "hamkane" - or eating of halva. Grandmothers hang a piece of halva on a woolen red thread, which they tie on the ceiling. The children line up in a circle, put their hands behind their backs, and try to bite the halva.
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦Another traditional custom of Sirni Zagovezni is the lighting and jumping over large fires by boys and bachelors. It is believed that as far as the light from the flames reaches, no hail will strike. All night everyone must jump over the bonfires for health and fertility. In many areas, torches and fire arrows are also lit. In the center of the village, there is a dance, which is the last before the strict Easter fasts.

08/03/2024

The Buzludzha monument is the largest ideological monument of communism in the Balkans ☭
Over 70,000 tons of concrete, 3,000 tons of steel, and 40,000 tons of glass were invested in the construction of the most emblematic and significant buildings of post-war modernism in Bulgaria ☭
If you want to visit Buzludzha - call us ☎️+359898471201 (WhatsApp) or book here 🖊 [email protected]

The Buzludzha monument is one of the most emblematic and significant buildings of post-war modernism in Bulgaria and Europe. It was built in 1981 and abandoned in the 90s, as it represents the previous socialist period. Over 70,000 tons of concrete, 3,000 tons of steel, and 40,000 tons of glass were...

01/03/2024

Happy Baba Marta! Every year on the 1st of March, Bulgarian people celebrate a centuries-old tradition called the day of Baba Marta, which is related to sending off the winter and welcoming the approaching spring. On that day Bulgarians exchange and wear the so-called “Martenitsas” – decorative pieces of red and white twisted threads, symbolizing health and happiness, and luck

24/02/2024

A new wave of producers makes North-east Bulgaria's wine regions worth a trip, reports Caroline Gilby MW, an expert on Eastern European wines

North-east Bulgaria's wine regions

09/01/2024

Plovdiv was declared the best romantic destination in Europe in 2022, but it seems that it will be an attractive place for couples in love this year as well. 🥰
But what are the most romantic things to do in the city? Stop by the Old Town and go on a journey back in time, go for a romantic stroll down the garden of Tsar Simeon, share delicious Turkish baklava with pistachios, Turkish coffee, and rose water, take pictures with the same outfits, as the former inhabitants of Renaissance Plovdiv wore. All this was done by Ellie and Matthew from Canada, who chose SlowTours.BG with Ekaterina to show them the most romantic side of our city.🥰

@последователи

23/12/2023

20/11/2023

Pancakes with Bulgarian saffron, crocus flower, h**p seed, and saffron honey, freshly baked for our group, plus a glass of real fresh milk with a pinch of saffron.
💜🥞🥛 This is how Ivanka Simpson and Pavel Velev welcomed us in their saffron gardens in the village of Zlatna livada.
💜🌱The first bulbs were planted several years ago when some of Pavel's relatives were diagnosed with cancer. They learn that the spice has powerful cancer-healing properties and decide to grow their own saffron crocus. Years pass, Pavel's relatives are in good health, and he continues to extract saffron and even registered his own brand - Wellefeld Saffron. The family already exports Bulgarian saffron to Germany and France, and today they welcomed their first tourists from the gastro tour "On the path of saffron under the Balkans" on SlowTours.BG with Ekaterina
🐝💜🍯While we were picking crocus, Marin's bees kept us company. We also tried his saffron honey because life is sweet and fragrant 🙂 💜💜💜

The tour "On the Path of Saffron under the Balkan" is organized in partnership with the Association of Saffron Producers in Bulgaria (Сдружение на шафранопроизводителите в България)

@последователи

21/07/2023

Lake Kleptuza is the largest karst spring in Bulgaria and is located at the edge of Velingrad. One part of the spring's water is used for the city's water supply. The other part fills the beautiful lake, which is one of the most preferred places for recreation and relaxation in the spa resort town.

28/06/2023

Muslims in Bulgaria are celebrating the holy holiday of Kurban Bayram, also called Koch Bairam. The more affluent slaughter a ram or a calf and give it to the poor for health and prosperity. Happy holiday! 🤗

#кубанбайрам

26/06/2023

🇧🇬🌹🌻 Bulgaria in its most beautiful colors - the pink of Rosa Damascena, the yellow of wildly blooming sunflowers and the purple of endless lavender fields, charmed the girls from the national rhythmic gymnastics team of Taiwan. We spent a magnificently beautiful day with them in the Rose Valley and the Valley of the Thracian Kings - from Plovdiv to Shipka, and we hope that the Asian contestants, with their beauty and youth, will become ambassadors of Bulgaria to the world. Thank you for your trust, Localite Tour Bulgaria!

24/06/2023

It's Enyovden! On the night before the holiday, the stars descend to earth and enchant the grasses and flowers, giving them magical healing power, according to the belief. And to be healthy all year round, before sunrise on Enyovden, you need to wash under running water or rub in the dew. Enyovden - the day of the summer solstice, is one of the most important summer holidays in the national calendar. Many beliefs about the sun, water, and medicinal plants are connected with it. It is also celebrated as a holiday of herbalists. The Orthodox Church celebrates the birth of St. Yoan Krastitel, also called the Forerunner.
Happy holiday!

#еньовден #билки #слоутурс #слоутурсбг #слоутурсбългария
#слоутурс #слоутурсбг #слоутурсбългария

12/06/2023

🌹🥀An invisible, sweet aroma spreads over the entire Rose Valley - the Bulgarian Damastsena Rose is blooming, a symbol of the beauty of Bulgaria. People from 6️⃣ countries - Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, The USA, Belarus, and Moldova, trusted SlowTours.BG with Ekaterina, to enjoy together the wonderful beauty and aroma of roses, pick the delicate flower in the gardens near Дамасцена Скобелево, to see how rose oil is extracted, visit an old plant for its production, celebrate the Bulgarian rose together! Our journey in the Rose Valley continues today 🌹🥀

🌹🥀Tour "Let's celebrate the Bulgarian rose in the Rose Valley!"🥀🌹

04/06/2023

🔥The custom of dancing on embers dates back to Thracian times in the mystical Strandzha. Firedancing was widespread until the end of the 19th century in the border villages, but after the brutal massacre of the Christian population there during the Balkan War in 1912, it was almost destroyed.
🔥It remains in the hard-to-reach parts of Strandzha, where the village of Balgari is located. It became famous for the games of the barefoot fire dancers and its assembly on the day of Saints Constantine and Helena on June 3, in the old style. The popular reverence for Christian saints was superimposed on the ancient beliefs related to the cult of the sun, fire and water. The Fire dancing custom, culminating in the fire games, was performed for health and fertility.
🔥The main participants in it were the "Nestinars". The oldest fire dancer, in a moment of trance during the dance, prophesied what would happen and how the village would protect itself. She was trusted and respected, and her house was considered holy. How and why it happened that a Christian holiday got mixed up with a religious cult of fire - we are looking for an answer in antiquity. Emperor Constantine I was a worshiper of fire, although it was he who legalized Christianity throughout the Roman Empire and was therefore canonized as a saint. He allowed the fire dancers to play, and since then they have celebrated their feast by saying that the saint himself helps them to get in and out of the fire unharmed.
🔥The ritual of the feast of the Nestinars in the village of Balgari, "panagir" as the people here call it, is something worth seeing. With it, the second day of our tour "In the footsteps of the Strandzha fire-dancing" began.
🔥At dawn on the day of Saints Constantine and Helena in the old style, June 3, fire dancers in costumes characteristic only of this region take the icons to the miraculous spring Ayazmoto, where these mysteries began in Thracian times.
🔥The ritual is strictly subject to the unwritten Nestinarian law, which is never fully revealed to the uninitiated. Almost the whole village takes part in the procession. First, the icons are consecrated. The bagpipe sounds, the sacred drum begins to beat. Everyone pours from the water of the spring, because on the day of the saints it is considered the most holy. The procession passes through the village, and the nestinars return to the chapel, or "konacheto", as the locals call it. This is the sacred place of the Nestinarian rite, where the icons of Constantine and Helena and the sacred drum are kept. It is also the home of the saints, where they stay on their feast day.

06/05/2023

🍀🐑☘️ Saint George is the lord of fertility, and patron of farmers, shepherds, and their flocks, which is why it is also designated as Shepherd's Day. On St. George's Day, a sacrifice must be made - a sacrifice in honor of the saint, which is made from the first male lamb born since the beginning of the year.
🍀🐑☘️All over Bulgaria, girls and boys who are already of marriageable age tie swing to a fruitful or healthy tree and swing, singing love songs. Again for health, at the dawn of St. George's Day, both the healthy and the sick roll in the dewy grass.
🍀🐑☘️On this day, all close relatives gather around the festive table, and the table must include dairy products, fresh garlic and onions, pie, wine, boiled wheat, and ritual bread. The central place of the festive Gergiev table is the roasted lamb offered as a sacrifice. The first milk, cheese, and yogurt are also on the table.
🍀🐑☘️Happy holiday, Georgi and Gergana, happy holiday, farmers, shepherds, and military! Be healthy and happy!