Category Archives: Firsthand Experience

September is the month of pumpkin in Bulgaria and pumpkin cake experiments. Collected huge fruits will be one of the main parts of a daily diet till July: from sweet milk soup to baked pumpkin with meat. With this post, I share the insights about the most authentic Bulgarian curiosities related to the fruit: the museum devoted to pumpkins and the most known pumpkin cake in Bulgaria – tikvenik. 3 health benefits of pumpkin Before you start cooking the pumpkin cake, first, learn about some unique nutritive values of pumpkin […]

There are dishes for festive and daily occasions, and some for enjoyable weekends – when there is no need to go anywhere, and all family is engaged in cooking. For our Bulgarian-Ukrainian family, the most frequent choices for this season are Lyutenitsa, a typical tomato sauce of Bulgarian cuisine, and Deruny, traditional potato pancakes in Ukrainian cuisine. Ukrainian cuisine & Bulgarian cuisine: a perfect mix of vegetables In their familiar forms, both dishes (summer highlights of Ukrainian cuisine and Bulgarian cuisine:) date back to the 30s years of the 20th […]

On the eve of Orthodox Easter, the post explores how powerful invisible forces – religious narratives – shape our lives with special apps and communities created to deepen one’s spiritual beliefs or expand cultural values. Developing role models For most people, the Easter season is the only time of the year to think about the sacred. A visit to a church, consumption of a traditional dish, or simply a Facebook liking of an Easter post is the frequent expressions of that seasonal religiosity. Connecting with saints through apps (e.g. Online […]

Learn to read the mural painting of the Greek Capital with 4 online sources: a short video, an academic paper, a book and an online map. By mapping your Athens street art tour, you’ll better feel the spirit of the city and understand why creativity and crisis in the Greek capital are tightly interwoven. Colourful Expressions of Crisis Many European cities that are famous for their street art quarters have a bohemian atmosphere there, highlighted by hippie shops and restaurants. It’s not the case for Athens street art where artists […]

This book is a collaborative guide to conservation holidays in Bulgaria focused on volunteering, bird watching and protection of birds habitats. Over 10 conservation projects in different Bulgarian regions, in which I participated personally! part of my ethnographic project, my book was among the 11 best Bulgarian ecological initiatives supported by the Open Society Institute – Sofia and the Open Society Foundations through the Bulgarian Fund for Women. Based on 30 interviews: Birding & Conservation The word ‘collaborative’ implies that the book is based on 30 interviews with participants of […]

The Pomorie Lake Volunteer Brigade has been the landmark fall activity in the region for over 25 years. Every first week of September dozens volunteers gather in Pomorie to work for improving birds habitats. This time, we learned and shared a lot by activating the power of informal volunteering. With my interactive game through Facebook and Instagram, we informed over 500 people in 5 countries about our activities. Mapping sustainable holidays in Bulgaria I was lucky enough to twice participate in the Pomorie Lake Volunteer Brigade, in 2020 and 2021. […]

URL SlugPlovdiv 2019: Volunteers of the Poorest European Capital of Culture Created Community Service from Scratch Go green with peer learning Erasmus+ Climate Action Now! Save the Future ( Moclín, Spain) is an international youth project organized in July by Euro Youth Club – Spain. The Bulgarian team of 7 youngsters was selected by CET Platform Bulgaria. And I was the leader of the group. Moclín is a small mountainous village with 4000 inhabitants, a unique place to visit in Spain for those who favor eco-friendly practices – driving less […]

Where to start sustainable living? Find practical tips from Bulgarian eco-activists who gathered at the seminar “Equality and Climate Justice” (Bankya), where I was one of the participants. All the ideas have proven to be effective in 14 Bulgarian communities and can be implemented elsewhere! Use every opportunity to get food for thought – Bulgarian Fund for Women, Sofia The three-day seminar was organized last week by the Bulgarian Fund for Women in Bankya, a well-known international spa resort and one of the best Bulgarian destinations for sustainable travel. We […]

A post for those who love dolphins) Enjoy! My recent volunteering for marine monitoring expedition devoted to dolphins in the Black Sea brought me to a marvellous world with glorious sea scenery, interesting meetings and challenging tasks. Green Balkans declared November the month of dolphins. Every month they devote to certain species and educate about them with creative activities, quizzes and games. This year the expedition devoted to the counting of dolphins overlapped with the programme but it’s a regular scientific project carried out in Bulgaria twice a year since […]

This post presents the results of 6festhotweek campaign initiated by me two weeks ago in support of the crowdfunding campaign by Momchil Tsonev, the organizer of 6fest Street Art Festival. I travelled over 700 km around Bulgaria, did interviews with all the participants of 6fest and surveyed online the spectators. People from 15 countries have engaged with the 6festhotweek posts on Cultural Insights, and over 1000 user more were reached with Facebook and Twitter posts. The campaign hasn’t had significant financial achievements, but it has offered some useful insights for […]