Bulgaria claims to be the home of yoghurt – probably for two reasons: a) the Thracians (yes, them again) were very good at milk products and the word yoghurt is believed to come from the Thracian language; b) the Lactobacillus bulgaricus, the secret of Bulgarian yoghurt, was discovered in 1905 by Dr Stamen Grigorov. Since yoghurt is my favourite food, I wanted to visit his home which is now the Museum of Yoghurt, but alas – it’s too far to go.
So I had to make do with second best: a trip to Shipka Memorial Church with a small cafe next door selling, apparently, the finest yoghurt in Bulgaria. First, the church.
It was built in 1902 as a dedication to soldiers who died at Shipka Pass during the Russo-Turkish War in 1877-78 (see the earlier blog about Pleven) and is obviously influenced by Russian architecture, with five golden domes and 17 church bells, made of shrapnel. They rang out for us:
Inside, there were lots of Bulgarians kissing the various icons and lighting candles – we think religious tourism is quite significant in the country, given what we’ve seen in various churches we’ve visited:
And then, we found a sign indicating that we’d come to the right place for yoghurt:
And it was indeed delicious yoghurt, sharp and tangy and thick.
But there was far too much – so we now have 450g of yoghurt to carry around with us.
Quite a ding to those bells! And: how long will that yogurt last? Glad to hear you enjoyed it! You looked very happy!
Gxx
Gabriele Griffin
Professor of Gender Research
Director of Graduate Studies
Uppsala University
email: gabriele.griffin@gender.uu.se
Coordinator: Nordic Centre of Excellence ‘Beyond the Gender Paradox’ http://www.gender.uu.se/nordwit (2017-2022)
Extraordinary Professor, Centre for Gender and Africa Studies, University of the Free State, South Africa
Recent publications
Our new book, Gender Inequalities in Tech-driven Research and Innovation: Living the Contradictionhttps://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/gender-inequalities-in-tech-driven-research-and-innovation is now out and available Open Access from Bristol University Press. https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/women-in-supramolecular-chemistry
Griffin, G. (2022) ‘The “Work-Work Balance” in higher education: between over-work, falling short and the pleasures of multiplicity’, Studies in Higher Education
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2021.2020750.
Griffin, G. (2021) ‘Feminizing innovation: challenges in science and technology studies (STS)’, Feminist Encounters 5(2): 24. ISSN: 2468-4414. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/11161.
The jar of yoghurt is in the hotel mini bar – not at all confident how long it will last but we leave tomorrow. Bit of a peak experience for M…
When you return, I will give you a scoby so you can make your own kefir each day, which I do. It takes seconds.
Okeydoke, Tash – not holding my breath that M will do this but worth a try..
Church bells curiously unmelodious with that metronomical beat being banged out over the usual rhythmic pealing. What do you think – inexperienced bell-ringers or an attempt at modernism in church music? Not exactly my area of expertise so I may be misjudging it entirely…..
Completely agree about the bells – a long way from the carillons of England ( that’ll be with a capital E) – this was dissonant and raucous. I put it down to a) Russian designed church and/ or b) the bells were made from shrapnel and shell cases…
So was the beautiful church and its odd flat clangings sufficient compensation for the yogurt museum? But you look very well pleased with the yogurt itself!
Yes, I think so – the yoghurt museum turned out to be a bacillus too far and the golden domes/ hard to listen to bells were very lovely ( and with less reading, I suspect, than the yoghurt museum)..
I could have helped you Miriam to lighten the yoghurt load.
Of course you could! Sadly we left the luscious buffalo yoghurt for the hotel staff in Kazanlak.
I think that the claim to be the first to discover yogurt is hotly contested territory- being as it seems to have been around since humans kept livestock! Anyway, sounds delicious
You’re right of course – I think the Yoghurt Museum just a bold Bulgarian way to claim the crown. And yes, it was delicious