The Unknown Neighbour: On Romanian-Bulgarian Travel Encounters

Authors:

Pages: 101-120
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/HOPG5808

Abstract:

As we ever more easily travel far and wide, references about Romania and Bulgaria have become increasingly available. An internet search on either provides millions of results, ranging from country profiles to travel guides and accommodation ads. Since numerous websites and blogs offer access to useful details and unmediated experiences of the two countries, it may seem they are quickly accessible and easily knowable to all. This assumption, however, has been contradicted by my experience as a Romanian travelling to Bulgaria. Not only was the destination quite difficult to reach in spite of its geographical proximity, but it was also linguistically impervious; aside from some touristic commonplaces, it seemed culturally remote to an unprepared traveller. Apparently, the more information we have at our disposal, the less we actually know; the fact that we could get to know our neighbours readily does not mean that we do – quite the contrary. Hence this paper turns to Romanian-Bulgarian encounters as reported in published travel writing; more specifically, it will provide an overview of Romanian travel writing about Bulgaria, exploring several such texts, old and new, in order to examine the place of Bulgaria in the Romanian imaginary. The paper does not deal with the corresponding representations of Romania in Bulgarian travelogues, but wishfully invites a response in that sense, in the hope of starting a self-reflective dialogue between neighbours.

Keywords:

Romania & Bulgaria, travel writing, travelogue, West vs. East, Balkan, othering, concurrent discourses, the double

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