Feb. 14

Vineyards on the hills outside of Blagoevgrad.

In many places, February 14 is Valentine's Day.  But in Bulgaria, they celebrate St. Trifon's Day.  Who is St. Trifon?  Apparently, he was a guy who was REALLY dedicated to his wine.  So much so, in fact, that one day while pruning the vines he was sampling his product.  He sampled so much of his product that he got a little out of control and ended up pruning his own nose off.  Oops.  What makes that worth celebrating?  I'm not sure, but everyone seems pretty impressed by the idea that he went on ... sampling.

In any event, St. Trifon is the big deal on Feb. 14 here, and when you think about it, it's not difficult to understand why.  Valentine's Day celebration: chocolates, flowers, fancy dinner.  Trifon's Day celebration: go to a vineyard, prune a few vines and then spend the rest of the day sampling the product.  It's no contest folks, Trifon wins in a landslide.  (the success of Valentine's Day is, no doubt, the result of a plot concocted by the Hallmark Corporation)

Anne and Mark are fortunate in many ways.  One of these ways is that they have been "adopted" by a local family headed up by Krasi (wearing the blue hoodie in this post) and Zlatina (white sweater).  Krasi and Zlatina are very generous with their time, helping Anne and Mark to learn about the local culture on many occasions (including St. Trifon's Day), as well as with their home, having invited Anne and Mark over for Sunday dinner with the family.  Spending time with them is probably the closest thing Anne and Mark will get to acting like "locals," so it is quite a treat.  This good fortune was extended on St. Trifon's Day when Krasi and Zlatina invited Anne and Mark to their Trifon's Day celebration.

Many people in Bulgaria grow their own grapes and make their own wine and/or rakia.  Rakia is a very strong drink (40% alcohol) that is the pride and joy of this country.  Traditionally, the Bulgarians drink it with their salad, before moving on to wine and maybe an after-dinner cognac.  (and that's the LUNCH menu).  Krasi is an accomplished rakia maker.  His father was in the distillation business and Krasi knows his way around a grape.  Although the vineyard we visited was not theirs (they have one, but it is located quite a distance away), we were assured that it was appropriate for the celebration.

So, Anne and Mark watched the ceremony performed by their hosts and then listened to the instructions. It was basically, "Cut here, cut here, pour wine, start drink."  Ok, got it.

Demonstration by the experts

Mark operating a gardening tool

It is fair to say that Mark has some apprehension about this activity.  Mark is neither an outdoorsman, nor a gardener.  It is fair to say that he is not handy with a garden shears (he wanted to call it an "outside scissors," but that seemed silly).  But keep in mind, the guy being celebrated on this occasion actually cut off his OWN NOSE.  So, that's a pretty low bar.  Any shearing accident up to and including a self rhino-ectomy would be pretty impressive.

Pouring some for my hom-eez

In the photo above, Anne is pouring some wine on the vine (no, that is not Coca-Cola - that is the "travel bottle" for the wine).  Initially, you might consider this to be some kind of weird grape cannibalism, but it is actually just symbolic.  Go figure.

After that, the ceremonial niceties were completed and it was time to celebrate.  Trifon's Day, in addition to being a great day to enjoy a little vino, is the unofficial beginning of spring (think "Opening Day" but with wine and sliced off noses instead of beer and "peanuts and cracker jack").  Our hosts prepared a huge cook-out feast featuring chicken, pork and shish kabob.  Everything was delicious.  Then we "sampled" until we were darn good and sure that every single bottle was adequate.  Happy St. Trifon's Day!