Rhodope Mountains and a Kaba Gaida Festival

The bigger part of the people in Bulgaria don’t like our country. They murmur, complain and compare it to other European countries. But there are few that just feel Bulgarian with all their souls, they love every Bulgarian and they would tell you, that there is no better place in the whole world. I know that our planet is a marvelous place, that every country is beautiful, but still I am from the second type. I don’t know how this happened, it wasn’t always like that and some years ago I wanted to travel everywhere else, but not here and I was blind for the beauty of our nature and the richness of the Bulgarian culture and traditions.

I remember that I’ve mentioned it before, we have a proverb saying that you have to get to know your motherland in order to start to love it. It is true. I’ve traveled a lot around the world, but I’ve never felt better somewhere else than in Bulgaria. Mine is the best :).

I’ve never felt the collective energy of love towards Bulgaria, the intensity of the energy that our lands have, the beauty of our nature, better than on the festival that I mentioned in my previous post - the traditional kaba gaida competition in Rhodope Mountains. The goal of that festival is actually to keep the traditions and to promote and disseminate the authentic Rhorope folklore. That mountains are another strong energy place, they are more remote, the nature is unique and it is a distinct cultural region. The Rhodope music is world famous and even one of the few songs included in the message from Earth in Voyager 2 space probe, that is expected to play across space for at least 60,000 years, comes from there. The song Izlel e Delyu Haydutin performed by Valya Balkanska. You can hear it here:

The festival takes place near a remote almost depopulated village - Gela, every summer. It is truly beautiful and going there one feels like traveling back in time. There are no roads to many of the houses and while we were looking for the best place for our tent we arrived near several houses on a hill, again with no roads, we met an old woman and we asked her how to get back to the village and she told us “but you are in the village!”. All the people in the region are super kind and just good. They are always smiling and ready to help you. As I said, many of them have no roads, wifi, computers and even mobile services. But I think they have everything, they are healthy, strong, ageless and live in great harmony with nature. We finally manage to find the best place for our tents on the highest place of all other hundreds of tents with the best view. Walking around these beautiful lands and listening to the magical music, I had chills on my skin through the whole time. If I have to recommend someone places to visit in Bulgaria, this festival would be for sure one of them, because it combines the best things about Bulgaria - the music, the dances, shockingly strong good vibes and unbelievably beautiful nature, many beautiful places to visit around the area, great food and amazing people. They walk around, some of them dressed with the traditional clothes, happy and smiling and asking each other “do you feel the energy”.

Thousands of all kind of people visit it every year and what unites them is their love and support towards Bulgaria. Although many foreigners also visit it. The festival becomes more and more popular every year. I think that was the 16th one.

Here is the whole competition.

The next three photos are screenshots from the video.

The old kaba gaida musicians say that the instrument needs space to sound better and it is actually an instrument associated with the shepherds. There was also a big market where one can buy all kind of typical Bulgarian products - clothes, food, souvenirs.

It really looked great, and I wanted to take many photos of it, but I didn't because I really can't stand two things that were in abundance there - the smell of meat and too many people in one place. They make me feel really sick. That's why I spent most of the time on a hill above the festival.

The place is also considered to be the birth place of Orpheus - the Greek mythological poet that went to hell to save his loved one, and there is a hill above Gela, called Orpheus.

There is also a thracian sanctuary on one other hill. We had to ask a local man how to get there, he told us, that there is not much to see there and we asked him also about the energy. As I said that was a major topic there 😁
He told us “Actually, yes, you’ll feel it. I don’t believe in such things, but I decided to go there once to see it, because I have lived here already for 65 years and I’ve never been there. I was very tired and after visiting the place I felt completely renewed.”

We found it and the view from there was great.

We visited also a peak with an amazing view after the festival because it was on our way. It is a popular place in that mountain - Eagle's eye. Here are some photos from there:

The peak from below

On the way to it

The village below the peak

The village below the peak

Our final stop around Rhorope Mountains was a cave - Yagodinska Cave.

As you can see from the left photo above - there is a Christmas tree in the cave, and because the air is cold and humid there, it is super fresh, although it is placed there five years ago. On the right photo you can see a table. Guess why it is there... For weddings! I don't like caves and I think the idea for a wedding there is quite stupid.

Thank you for stopping by!