COVER N. 419 - BULGARIA

Postmark: Sofia 1408 26.02.2024 

Posted on the 26th February; Received on the 5th March 2024

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The Phantom, that restless wanderer, was on a mission again in the Balkans, and I got word from him from the Capital of Bulgaria. Danke Sehr, Alex!

Alex is a persuasive guy, no doubt about it, (after all, who would say no to The Phantom????). I don't know how, but he always manages to convince the post offfice employees to have his stamps properly postmarked, in whatever corner of the world he goes to.

I have written here about my experience in Sofia, which was  far from easy given that I had some communication difficulties with the lady at the post office, since I did not speak a word of  Bulgarian. In the end, when I asked for a manual postmark, she just looked at me and replied "tomorrow" and I left a bit anxious, but whern I received the cover some days later, back at home, it was properly postmarked on the stamp, although not on the envelope as I had also requested.

Now Alex, this time, got  both the satmp and the envelope postmarked, but the postmark is upside dow, so I consider it a draw between my and his efforts😀.

Alex used a curious one 2 Lev stamp plus vignette souvenir sheet issued on 23AUG2021 in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Bulgarian Folklore Federation. I tried to find some information regarding this organisation but sadly to no avail.

The postmark was applied in Sofia, the Capital, but not in the same Post Office I visited, given the different code.

COVER N. 306 - BULGARIA

Postmark: SOFIA 1000 - 04.08.23

Posted on the 4th August; Received on the 22nd August 2023

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A new entry in the county's list, and this time thanks to my own self. Well done Pedro!😀

During the Summer holidays I spent some days touring Bulgaria. While in Sofia, I managed to go to the central post office and mail a few letters I had prepared beforehand. I had a few communicational problems with the lady at the post office, but in the end I managed to mail all my covers, although, in retrospect, I wish I have had a bit more time to spend at the post office, so that I could have chosen what stamps to use. 

My  company was waiting  though, and I did not want to impose my time taking, so I had to completely rely on the decisions of the lady of the post office who spoke but one word of English: tomorrow.

I put my letters on the table and asked for stamps. She took a folder and for  those bound for Europe, after perusing some pages back and forth, out of it she took the stamp on the cover.

Saint Paisius of Hilendar (1722-1773) was a Bulgarian monk of the Hilandar monastery at Mount Athos. He is credited with being the responsible for kicking off the movement known as Bulgarian National revival, a nationalist movement aiming at liberating Bulgaria from Otoman rule, - something which was finally achieved in 1878, in the wake of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 - with the publication, in 1762, of his historical book, Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskay.

On 28OCT2022, on the occasion of the tercentennial of the birth of Saint Paisius, Bulgaria Post issued a 1,90 Lev stamp celebrating this fact with the image of the monk holding his history book, presumably, in the foreground and the  monastery where he wrote it, in the background.

Of note is the fact that the colours used in the bands in middle of the image with the mention to 300 years, and the face value of the stamp (green and red) plus the white in background, are the colours of the Bulgarian flag, albeit on the flag the white stripe is on top, with the green and red following.

The stamp was glued onto the envelope by the lady herself, who literally immersed it in a damp sponge, so much so that it came out of it dripping....

When all the stamps were glued, I asked her by gestures to postmark them and also to postmark the envelope. 

To this she answered with a quite definitive "Tomorrow", so knowing my stuff was in good hands, I politely said goodbye and went away to meet my wife for a much deserved ice-cream.