In days gone by we did international folk dancing with groups in Florida and Pennsylvania. I led the group in Pennsylvania for several years. Among our favorite dances were those that came from Bulgaria. While in Sofia we found a performance at a restaurant and walked the 1.8 kilometers for the performance starting at 8 pm. It was dark and pretty cold but the trip was worthwhile.
I shot the first video from our table, so there are interruptions and imperfections, but you can get a good feel for the event. Pretty good food and wine too, by the way, all for about $50. More about the Bulgarian cuisine to come. The second video is a performance of a professional group with professional filming.
We visited the Socialist Art Museum and the Museum of National History in Sofia, both small museums. They are on opposite sides of the city, about 7 kilometers apart. We traversed the distance by city bus, scanning our credit cards to pay the fare. The Sofia we saw on the route is not pretty, unlike the city center where we are staying with its some sparkling monumental buildings, parks and public art. The center has a large pedestrian area lined with upscale shops, mostly ones I have never heard of unlike much of the rest of Europe where brands predominate. But here there’s only the dreary architecture of Communist era concrete block apartment buildings erected in response to the housing shortage in the lousy economy that characterized that era, and smaller, older and generally neglected housing.
First we went to the Socialist Art Museum. We assumed It would display the poster art we were familiar with, like the ones we saw in St.Petersburg, Russia, for example. Instead there are paintings, good ones too, mostly in oil, celebrating the life of working men and women.
Night Threshing, 1954 Ivan Petrov
After the Shift, Gaidarov
There is also a very long propaganda film touting the communist regime’s achievements. Everyone is smiling, there are lots of ceremonies with appearances by high government officials, a visit to the hometown of one of the Communist party heads complete with reconstructed humble home. Outside are dozens of statues, many of Lenin, as well as other big wigs and odes to the common man.
The Communist Party lost power in November 1989 when party head Zhivkov resigned and Bulgaria began the transition to a parliamentary democracy. In the Bulgarian History Museum, however, history ended in 1946. It’s not like people are afraid to talk about it. The one guide we met spoke about it freely on the way to Ploviv. He recounted how his father bought a new car. There was one car dealer, the government. He had to make a 50% down payment. Eleven years later his car was delivered. He ordered a red car. He was provided with a black one and had no choice in the matter. As was the case throughout the Eastern block, consumer goods were scarce, expensive and often of poor quality. There was no competition providing incentives. This sort of discussion is openly held, not a secret. And there are people who think things were better under that government, and they are not afraid to say so.
The first election in June 1990 was won by the Bulgarian Socialist Party, just a re-branding of the Communist party. Conditions remained difficult, as was the case in most countries of the Soviet block. After 2001 conditions improved greatly. Bulgaria became a member of NATO, joined the European Union and the single market in 2007. It’s orientation to western Europe followed not only the long period of Soviet domination, it also marked a change in attitude that went back to the 19th century. While the 1878 treaty gave the country its freedom from 500 years of domination by the Ottoman Turks, Bulgaria was angered by the Berlin treaty of 1887. That treaty lopped off a significant number of native Bulgarians from the 1878 principality. As a result of its anger toward the western European powers, Bulgaria backed Germany in both world wars. It handed over many of the country’s Jews but a popular outcry saved about 27,000 lives at the end.
These days the Bulgarians are struggling with democracy. They form coalition governments, and since 2021 there have been seven elections. My sense is that they very much appreciate their independence, whatever else they disagree about. There is no great desire to be part of any other country. Whatever it means that the National History Museum stops in 1946, it does not mean a desire to go back to the old days of Russian domination.
There is still a lot of clean up left to do. This photo shows this location unchanged since the flood. This does not signify a lack of effort but more likely insufficient resources despite nation-wide efforts. Valencia rejected offers from abroad which may have helped, coordination difficulties aside. From Las Provincias
There are many volunteers at the Feria, a site normally used for expositions. It has large areas ideal for collecting and distributing donations. Large amounts go in and out, out on off road military transport vehicles that can go just about anywhere. Friends in Picanya report an abundance of goods and volunteers still. They are concerned that support will fall off too soon however. They also report that there is no school for the children. The day care center they use for their youngest is housing soldiers.
The metro is set to be fully operational as of December 6th. Green buses lent by Madrid are replacing metro service where possible in the meantime. Because the metro to the airport is not working you can go by bus or taxi. We went by taxi the other day. The driver took a route we’ve never been on before. He explained that the normal route is still closed to traffic due to flood damage. He also explained that taxi drivers were protesting recently over the local government’s decision to allow them to work seven days a week. They are normally limited to five. As a result of the loss of tourism including cruise ships there is less work for taxis now than before. The government mistakenly believes, he said, that because the metro is not working and some bus service has been disrupted that there is more demand for taxis. Now with seven day permission more taxis will be out looking for fares, resulting in them spending money just driving around.
I found this photo in an AP story. It shows the before and after satellite images of Valencia. AP story
Sofia is situated on a plane set between hills and mountains, including ski areas within thirty minutes. This can make for a swinging descent all the way to the runway. This caused the young, brightly lipsticked English fluent Bulgarian woman seated between us to do the Bulgarian-Orthodox double cross as if this were her last, yet she does this trip frequently.
We were told clearly by a retired Bulgarian couple living in Valencia that this was not the best time of year to visit Sofia, nor was Sofia the best place to visit in Bulgaria. Plovdiv, they said, is much more beautiful. Take a bus tour, they said in their very good albeit Boris accented English. Of course we’d already laid the plans and were leaving the next day. It’s a young city architecturally, they explained, and little to brag about from a tourist perspective, though worth three days. I breathed a sigh of relief, as we have only five, take off one for the bus tour and we probably won’t die of boredom. As we flew in we could see it’s large collection of what we call Communist Blocks: apartment towers in all the grayness of concrete. Fortunately there are some sites of interest in Sofia.
We saw some after we meandered (being somewhat lost) to our roomy warm flat in the center, located in a turn of the century behemoth with an ugly entrance hall and an ancient elevator with no inner door and barely room for the three of us, as our landlord took us in to show us around. A tiny bit later we walked past the 6th century all brick Church of Saint Sofia on the way to the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky, a magnificent structure not far from chez nous (our place). It has those beautiful if gaudy golden domes common to Orthodox architecture. As we came upon it the disharmonious bells rang out, perhaps to announce the solemn procession of the long bearded priests soon to begin. Check it out:
Inside are the huge portraits of venerated men on the tall walls, along with Mary and Joseph in the iconic Byzantine style. There are several icons to which the Orthodox pay their respects, bowing and kissing of the item. There is one icon in the very middle of the main aisle. After stopping there many were visiting another of the icons, then greeting other priests and the occasional lay visitor. It all looked very chummy, friendly, happy looking bunch.
Shortly a large procession of all male priests began, following what was clearly the head priest, who diverted into a throned canopy to receive ring kisses, preceded by his sign of the cross blessing posted at breakneck speed. The priests then walked into the area behind the huge screen. You can see through its entrance but much remains invisible from the audience area.
It was dark and getting colder, on its way to -3c/25f overnight, so we started home. We came upon an outdoor market, festively lighted and wafting aromas of sausage and baked goods and emoting enough good cheer to get you through the long cold winter nights.
Sausages galore. Some lovely baked yummies. Wine, which according to our air travel companion is the favorite beverage over beer. For dinner we ordered a white made by the restaurant we chose for dinner, which turned out to be a rather odd tasting Sauvigon Blanc. Hoping for better. The salad, which the Bulgarians consume in great variety, was not, on the other hand, a disappointment.
Friends report the presence of many volunteers in their communities, including some from Madrid and Barcelona. There are many heartwarming stories of efforts to provide on site assistance, food, clothing, shelters for pets and pet food.
Oscar Puente, head of Transportation, says that lines C1 and C2 of “Cercanías” (regional trains) will be reopened before Christmas, perhaps C5 and C6 as well. Line C3,the one going south, suffered the most damage. A reopening date has not been estimated. He went on to say that the main highways should be more fully operational in the near future. Secondary and smaller roads are going to take months. On the A7 they are building a bypass for military and emergency access. The A3 to the south was closed due to a collapsed bridge, but they are paving an alternative route. The 330 should be open by now. Source La Sexta
Mazon, the President of the Generalitat (Valencia province) apologized for the much delayed warning. Some 130,000 showed up at the Ayuntamiento (City Hall) in downtown Valencia to protest. There was another protest at the Borja Palace.
On November 11, 2024, La Dirección General de Tráfico says there were more than 22 kilometers backed up. Various important roads in the effected areas are still closed to traffic: the A-7 between Quart de Poblet and Torrent, the CV-33 in Torrent, the CV-36 from Picanya to the A-7, the CV-50 in Chiva. There are 31 smaller routes that are not usable at all.
We took the bus to El Perelló, .located on the beach to the south. Just outside Valencia city we drove past huge numbers of damaged vehicles. We saw no damage to property the entire distance to El Perelló other than the expansion of the lake, called the Albufera. Some farmland is underwater on the east and northern sides. The beaches are littered with reeds. These no doubt came from the Albufera and were washed out to sea before being carried back in. We saw about a half dozen Guardia Civil on horseback looking for bodies. Access to the beach is blocked north of the Estany de la Plana in El Perelló.
Debris washed up in El Perelló.
Reports from a friend in Catarroja: One of the first things they did was to clean out the storm sewers, removing mud and debris. Heavy rains this week would have resulted in additional flooding.
The bus information screen informed us that fishing in the Albufera has been suspended until conditions return to normal. The Rambla del Poyo that funneled the flood waters empties into the Albufera, causing the conditions leading to the prohibition. Emergency workers have been combing the reeds looking for bodies carried by the Rambla del Poyo.
The screen provided recommendations to volunteers working in effected areas. Equipment: mask, gloves, rubber boots, long sleeves and trousers (no shorts), head and eye cover. They are telling people not to eat or drink while in those zones, and to not put mobile phones next to your face and ears until you have sanitized all surfaces. Where there is no running water people can not use toilets so may be forced to go outdoors. Sewer lines may be broken, spilling sewage. There may be toxic materials in the mud and standing water.
The death total has reached 212. Five children are confirmed dead in the flood. Two are missing per the latest reports. Policía Nacional y la Guardia Civil have 28 cases of missing persons as of November 12, down from 50 the day before.
No victims were found in the parking lot at the MN4 mall in Alfafar.
Debris and vehicle removal continues but there are mountains to move. The first step is to clear a path for pedestrians and vehicles by piling everything on one side, opening one lane.
Calle Calvario, Torrent
Volunteers by the thousands showing up. This is in Catarroja. Photo by Aubrey Lay.
Day care center in Picanya.
Maribel Alblat, the mayor of Paiporta, probably the most seriously effected community, called the “delegada del Gobierno” Pilar Bernabé García, charged with central government activities in the province, at 7 pm on the day of the flood. “People are dying,” she said. It took an hour before the massive alert was issued. That meant that thousands more were in their vehicles when the flood waters hit.
The Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET) had issued orange alerts the day before the floods for heavy rain. The president of Valencia province Carlos Arturo Mazon has been heavily criticized for the lack of timely response. The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has also been criticized although it appears that the primary initial response must lie with local officials versus those in Madrid.
Mazon, the Partido Popular leader (conservative), voted against a recent proposal to introduce measures that would prevent the risk of floods along the Mediterranean coast. (Alex Dunham and Conor Faulkner – alex.dunham@thelocal.com, 5 Nov, 2024 CET. Updated: Tue 5 Nov 2024 14:30 CE).
Rambla del Poyo in Picanya. You can see the supports for the pedestrian bridge (in yellow)
Volunteer clean up in Picanya
Many people use bottled gas in their homes. Some have to wait in lines for hours for replacement bottles. Water and electricity has returned to at least parts of Catarroja according to a friend of mine with family in the area.
A Spanish Navy vessel landed Monday bringing 104 marines to assist in recovery efforts. There are over 5,000 soldiers already in the area. The ship brought trucks loaded with food, water, support materials, and two SH-60F helicopters. Daily World
Schools in about half of the effected areas are set to reopen on Monday, November 11.
Various fund raising efforts are underway. Last night we attended the tour of the Antiguo Almacen de Dientes. There were more than 50 people in attendance and many more who bought tickets but did not attend.
Source of the above information is the online version of Las Provincias unless otherwise indicated.
Some 1 million were effected by flood waters in 78 municipalities.
Donations to the Spanish Red Cross can be made here Cruzroja.
Spanish television station reporting – Headline reads, “There is still a lot to do.” No kidding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io7jgf82fX8 This video is about Picanya, on the Rambla del Poyo. The first speaker indicates the height of the waters where he is standing. The bridge there is destroyed and he says the next five bridges are as well, but there is one remaining so people can cross the Rambla. The second speaker points to his house. The water having reached a height of 5 meters he was forced into the top floor.
Las Provincias (Valencia based newspaper) reports an urgent need to drain standing water. Cleaning of ground floors and basements have resulted in vast quantities of dirty water creating an unbearable stench (“hedor”). They need every truck in Spain capable of carrying off this water. Some houses were condemned due to structural weakness. Inside buildings there is still much to be discarded but nowhere left to put it given the mountains of debris already there.
Those effected by the floods have two months to request financial assistance. This includes farmers. There are more than 54,000 hectares effected. The main way to request assistance is via the internet. However many do not have the capacity for one reason or the other, and lack the digital certificate needed, so the provincial government (Generalitat) plans to open local facilities, itself a significant challenge under the circumstances.
The two pedestrian walkways and the railway bridge in Paiporta are unusable. The other three infrastructures that crossed the Poyo suffered no structural damage and are operational, per the Levante. Levante also reports that there are still 93 people missing. Levante November 7
Debris and cars, and perhaps cadavers still, effected The Albufera, a fishing and agricultural area south of the city of Valencia. Fishing has been suspended pending further evaluation. Rice, artichokes, oranges and more are cultivated in the area. The Rambla del Poya that carried the devastating flood waters empties into the brackish lake at the heart of the area.
Some statistics: 44000+ vehicles, 21,400+ houses and 2200+ commercial properties destroyed. Endless quantities of perishable goods have been ruined: 800,000 kilos in 32 locations, mostly fresh meat and fish shops as well as restaurants. Authorities have removed almost 3000 farm animal cadavers. Family Cash y MasyMas supermarket chains are donating food, hygiene and cleaning products. Amazon has an aid center at calle Luis García-Berlanga Martí 25 in Valencia for the distribution of food and other primary necessities. Of some 92 schools in the effected zones, 24 can re-open.
The Spanish government has announced direct aid of between 5,000 and 150,000 euros for self-employed workers and businesses, and 75% of guaranteed salary. Pensioners get an immediate 15% increase. Between 20,000 and 60,000 for house repair, 10,3000 for furnishing and appliances, up to 37,000 for residences for the elderly, and 72,000 if incapacitated.
Some 600 building inspectors are now in effected areas to check structures for safety.
The provincial government plans a to create a website to help local governments coordinate with volunteers . Interviews with volunteers suggests that more rather than fewer are needed for the countless smaller scale activities. The transportation department recommends avoiding the V-30. There are huge traffic jams on the AP-7. The beach areas in Pinedo, Arbre de Gos, El Saler, Garrofera, Devesa y Perellonet are closed for cleanup. They are using dogs to find cadavers in these areas.
People with missing relatives are asked to provide DNA samples to aid with identification. The central government intends to ask for aid from the European Solidarity Fund. Various EU countries have offered assistance, however none of the offers have yet to be accepted. The Spanish government is paying for all the costs the municipalities incur in dealing with the floods. A set of measures will be announced.
Donation fraud has raised its ugly head. Authorities advise checking the organization out before donating, For now I am recommending only World Central Kitchen. https://wck.org/
Some miscellaneous updates: The Metro in Valencia is not running. It will be opening line by line in the coming days. The regional trains running north are in service, but not to the south, which is where the flooding occurred. There are efforts underway to take care of cats and dogs. Pet stores are collecting donations. Some 15000 military personnel are in or on the way to effected areas. I can not tell how much heavy equipment has arrived and been put to work, though I saw a long line of farm tractors going into one of the towns . The king, prime minister and president of Valencia Comunitat (the provincial government) were pelted with mud in Paiporta yesterday. Trash service in Valencia is back on so that means they can get to the landfills and recycling centers, other than the organic waste. That container is still full.
Picnaya is divided by the Rambla del Poyo. Four of the five bridges are gone, the one remaining carries vehicles. The town of Torrent, next to Picanya, is nearly impossible to get to because of road damage and blockages. It is the second largest town in the province of Valencia.
World Central Kitchen was serving hot meals in Paiporta yesterday. The founder is a famous Spanish chef. I have donated along with a number of friends. It is a reliable charity. Please consider donating World Central Kitchen
Trucks and cars were thrown around like corks
Car and debris everywhere
Flooding happened on streets with parked cars and traffic
After the center street has been cleared
Farm tractors showing up to go to work
This shows where the Rambla del Poyo is. You can see a number of the effected communities along that gully.
At a large shopping center called Bonaire there is a 1700 car underground parking lot. It filled with water. There was much fear that many victims died in their cars. They have been pumping it out for days and finally they can get in. There are no victims, fortunately.
Elsewhere one man spent 11 hours in a tree before he was rescued. Another was taken in by a truck driver. They waited it out in the cab. One woman left work as usual at 5pm. Before long she was caught between two branches of the flood. She took a video, sent it to her brother, who told her to get out of the car or she would die. She exited the car and was underwater immediately. “”But at that moment, one of those white canisters that are in the countryside hit me in the belly, pushing me to the surface and crashing me into an orange tree. With my right foot, I leaned a little on the nozzle of the canister and gained enough momentum to stay afloat.” (Las Provincias https://www.lasprovincias.es/comunitat/pase-horas-arbol-jose-manuel-socorrio-20241105003020-nt.html )
There are many heart warming reports of rescues, in some cases by people risking their lives to help others. Sonia, Carmen, Eva, Pepa y Fran were rescued. They were in the water when a man came swimming to tell them to follow him to where they could join others in a building. The window was illuminated still and they followed him there.
There was heavy flooding in Barcelona yesterday from the same type of meteorological system, called DANA in Spanish, that caused the devastation in Valencia province on September 29. Roads and airport closed.
Flooding in Barcelona on November 4, video in English
My writing here is ordinarily focused on our travels, be it by air, land or boat. I diverge from these now. I think that these stories have some general interest. Also I write about these matters for my direct heirs and other relatives, that they may know about those who came before them.
The Italian side
We were told that my mother’s family came from Palermo, and that on my father’s side the origin was Irish.
In 2010 I decided to seek Italian citizenship by what the Italians call ‘Jure Sangris,” by blood. Under that law I was able to proceed through my mother, as I was born after 1948, when the law changed, allowing maternal proceedings. My mother was born in the US so I went through her father, Giuseppe he was born in Italy and thus had clearly been a citizen of Italy. We were told he and my grandmother were born in Palermo.
.To obtain Italian citizenship by Jure Sangris requires that you obtain the birth certificate of the person through whom you make the claim. So I would be going to be dealing with Palermo’s bureaucracy. I lived in Rome for a year so spoke some Italian but probably not enough to do this task. I also knew that Palermo suffered bombing damage in WWII so documents might have been destroyed. I would be dealing with underpaid and perhaps harried public servants. I wondered how well Italians would care for and organize documents.
I also had to find out if my grandfather had naturalized (become a US citizen) and if so when. If before my mother’s birth then she was not an Italian citizen so I could not become one. Otherwise she was and so was I by law, as the bloodline had not been interrupted.
The US government keeps records of everyone who has naturalized. If they can not find a record, then they send a document saying so, and the Italian authorities take that as meaning the person in question had not naturalized, so the application can proceed. You get naturalization documents through the Department of Homeland Security at https://www.uscis.gov/records/genealogy. That document states the person’s birth place. When Giuseppe’s arrived I found that he was not born in Palermo, but Partanna, a small town in the province of Trapani. A letter from Kathy Kirkpatrick (no direct relative), whom I had previously employed to find Giuseppe’s birth certificate, brought me a copy of Giuseppe’s birth and marriage certificates from a cooperative and efficient Anagrafe office in Partanna. The marriage certificate in turn led me to grandmother Francesca’s birthplace in Santa Ninfa, 6 kilometers way and over the hills, although in my case nothing about her mattered as I was proceeding only through Giuseppe. Years later I visited both towns in this rural area, neither terribly far from the infamous Corleone.
The paternal side
On my father’s side there were even more surprises. In my immediate family we were told that the family came from Ireland. In 2016 my wife and I were house and cat sitting at a friend’s house in Flackwell Heath, near Oxford, England. There is a library just down the street. I walked over and it was there that I learned that the Kirkpatricks originated in or around the tiny town of Kirkpatrick-Fleming, not in Ireland, but Scotland.
Then circa 2020 I used ancestry.com to try to trace my family origins. Starting with the excellent work of Arkansas relatives whose work went back to around the time of the Civil War, I traced the family back to 12th century Scotland. Ireland came into the picture around 1737, when Dumfries Scotland born James Kirkpatrick’s son Francis was born in Ireland, probably Northern Ireland as that’s where the Protestant Scots went rather than the Catholic area of the island. (The Arkansas relatives were told of a joint Scottish and Irish heritage, per one of my 56 first cousins)
They weren’t there for long. His first child, Francis, was born in Ireland but from the records I have found it appears he was the only one of five born there. So we do technically have Irish roots from Ireland but it was more of a stopping off point. For centuries before then and back to the time before people had family names Scotland was our land.
I was quite surprised to learn that the Kirkpatrick family is well known in Scottish history, starting with Roger de Kirkpatrick, a neighbor and close ally of Robert the Bruce (originally Brus or Brux, a town in France). Robert was king of Scotland 1306-29. The Kirkpatrick family motto, “I Mak Sikkr” (I Made Sure) was granted by King Bruce to acknowledge the role Roger played in the slaying of Robert’s chief rival for the throne, Red Cormyn. See my post at https://garyjkirkpatrick.com/i-mak-sikker-roger-de-kirkpatrick-and-robert-the-bruce-king-of-scotland/
I Mak Sikkr, at the Closeburn Parish Church
During the course of this phase of my investigation I learned of the castle built by Ivone de Kirkpatrick starting circa 1132. It is called Closeburn Castle as it is in the town of Closeburn. It is still with us and is the longest continuously inhabited castle tower in the UK. It remains inhabited to this day. I also found out that the Kirkpatrick family holds an United Kingdom baronetcy dating from 1685. No one is qualified to hold the title is alive today. The last one died in 2010. My connection to any of the people mentioned above is quite distant. See my post at https://garyjkirkpatrick.com/journey-to-century-13th-the-family-castle-in-closeburn
My mother’s side came to the US from Sicily as early as 1913 when a Francesca Augello (my grandmother) went through Ellis Island , and again in 1914 (Giuseppe my grandfather) and 1915. Among those on the ship coming from Naples on January 2nd, 1915 was a young man named Matteo Calzanera. As children we called him Uncle Mathew. He was accompanied by his sister Anna Palermo, aka Annette, whom we called Auntie, and their grandmother, Sebastiana Rubino, after whom my mother was named per tradition. As Palermo was my grandfathers family name, why was Matteo’s last name Calzanera? Why did my grandfather Giuseppe refer to Matteo as his wife Francesca’s son and not their son? If Guiseppe was not the father, who was?
In 2018 I requested a copy of Matteo’s birth certificate in an effort to clear up this mystery. I ordered if from Partanna on the presumption that he was born there, and it turned out that he was indeed. These birth certificates normally include the names of the mother and father. In Mathew’s case, neither the father nor the mother’s name is recorded. Until or unless someone sorts this out, this mystery remains unsolved.
