1936 On the Continent

a small cost.
    Varna is always crowded in the summer with the élite of Sofia society and a large number of visitors from foreign countries. It combines all the modern amenities with the picturesqueness of the Near East.
    Yachting and boating can be indulged in at an infinitesimal cost.
    The English visitor who likes to record what he has seen is advised to take his camera with him. There is lovely scenery everywhere, as well as interesting peasant types as subjects for the lens. A good photograph of the Valley of Roses is a beautiful and pleasant souvenir of a visit to Bulgaria.
    Lady visitors will probably be unable to resist purchasing a collection of Bulgarian embroideries, which are obtainable in every town and village, and can be used to trim blouses,night clothes, and even the most expensive evening gowns. Coloured reproductions of a variety of patterns, which are published by the Government, can be obtained for a few levas at any bookshop.
    Gramophone records of Bulgarian music ought to be intensely interesting to the musical visitor. Bulgarian music has a melancholy fire, a wild abandon that distinguishes it from the more “polite” music of the Western world.
    Bulgarian national dances are also characterised, in the main, by this wild abandon. The visitor will be bound to see a great deal of folk-dancing at one or other of the popular festivals that are celebrated in summer. At all events, the peasants make merry at the taverns every Sunday afternoon, and even in Sofia the visitor can go to the outskirts of the town on that day, or to a nearby village, to watch the folk-dancing. The Bulgarian peasant will always be prepared “to oblige” if you ask him.
The Bulgarian Peasant
    Talking about the Bulgarian peasant, he is a type that is sure to interest you. I say, unblushingly and without false modesty, that the Bulgarians are a handsome race. The men are tall, muscular, with frank, bold eyes; the women are graceful and beautiful—not pretty, but beautiful. Much has been said and written about Bulgarian komitajis and bandits. Well, you are not likely to meet any of these gentry in the streets of Sofia or anywhere else for that matter. But you will meet the
type
of man you have seen depicted as a komitaji in
The Tatler
or
The Sphere
.
    The chief characteristics of the Bulgarian peasant are a capacity for hard work such as Englishmen cannot conceive, for he works, as a matter of course, eighteen hours a day for months on end; and a simple-hearted. hospitableness that cannot fail to charm the sophisticated visitor.
    You may also have heard that Bulgarians are longlived. We have more centenarians per million of inhabitants than perhaps any other country in the world. I myself know a man who was so weak that he could not even stand when he arrived in Sofia; he could not speak,could not eat solid food, could not lift a cup in his hand. Within a year he could not only walk, but run. In fact, he was perfectly normal. And to-day he is a strong, healthy man, sound in wind and limb.
    You see, when the man in question arrived in Sofia he was one day old.
    The above is only a sample of Bulgarian humour, but it is nevertheless true that Bulgaria is a healthy country.
    Well—“Come down and see us sometime!” Won’t you?

GREECE
by
B. DIMITROPOPULOS
    TABLE OF CONTENTS

GREECE
Introductory
    T HE kingdom of Greece occupies the lower extremity of the Balkan Peninsula and also a large number of islands in the Mediterranean, Ionian and Aegean seas. Both mainland and islands are mountainous, while the conformation of the land is such as to give a coastline extremely long in comparison to the area of the country. The landscape, therefore, is never monotonous, but an ever-changing panorama of rugged mountains, many with snow-topped crests, restless sea, and over all the clear sky and brilliant sunshine of the Eastern Mediterranean.
    Greece has always been a shrine to the classical scholar, but of late years its significance has become more generally understood and people of all vocations, from all parts of the wide world, turn their steps to this country. The traveller’s interest may be primarily archaeological, or historical, or artistic, but whatever the object of his visit, Greece offers a real reward.
    No matter which part of the country you visit, it is impossible to escape the feeling of being in a land different from all others, where material things matter little and thought takes a nobler form.
Ways of reaching