Photos from the Bulgaria gathering

[Eric_Methven]

Here's some photos I took at the gathering. There are many others, but I selected these for the moment.

The village of Bojenci

The local Taxi

The hill we climb to get to our place

Our attempt at a forge. We had minimal equipment and after experimenting, settled for a hair dryer aimed at the fire. It worked OK - sort of.

Then we had to make over kirtles for the women when we saw that their under kirtles were see through with the sun behind them. A bit of a rush on the Saturday as the event was next day. Still, team work and all that.

The leatherworking proved popular, and all who wanted to make a quiver managed to do so.
Firstly we made belts and pouches for the historical event.

Then it was out for a wee bit of retail therapy

Feeding time at the zoo

The rest are shots from our little corner of paradise.

That's it for the moment. Most of the other photos I took were for tutorials at a later stage.

Eric

 

[Toddy]

So.....you'll be saving up for next year then ?

Seriously, it looks like you were in your element

Thanks for sharing

atb,
Mary

 

[bushwacker bob]

The place looks medieval and very relaxed. Thanks for sharing

 

[Barn Owl]

I've a slow connection at present but i can see three pics.

Looks lovely Eric.

 

[Peterlee_Paddler]

What a charming looking place that looks, Eric. I have been waiting for the first lot of piccies since Sunday, and how nice they look too!
More piccies to follow, I assume?

Cheers.

 

[Nagual]

Brilliant, Eric. Thanks, you must have had a truly wonderful time!

 

[susi]

The place looks medieval

You're not wrong, it's a bit behind the times. One of two countries that doesn't make any contribution to the EU:





Nice pics by the way!

 

[freespin]

Great shots Eric
Makes me homesick for my adoptive home..... moving to Bulgaria in 2 weeks. Cant wait.

 

[dwardo]

Fantastic photos Eric i would love to see more, especially of the bow making. Uri ? is a gifted bowyer and are many others. I would love to get to a meet over there one day, one day !

 

[korvin karbon]

Excellent pics, would love to visit there.

 

[BOD]

Great stuff and very interesting. I do hope you post more.

Waht was the gathering about? Was it a paleoplanet thing?

 

[morch]

Looks like a great place mate, thanks for sharing the photos

Dave

 

[nolightweight]

Thanks for sharing that. Reminds me of some of the places I saw in Poland during my visits there.
Good memories.

 

[mark wood]

Brilliant stuff Eric. I'd love to see any of the additional photos.

Mark

 

[Eric_Methven]

Great stuff and very interesting. I do hope you post more.

Waht was the gathering about? Was it a paleoplanet thing?

Yes, it was a Paleo Planet bowyer's gathering that we have every year in Bulgaria. This was the third year. The first two were just for a week, but everyone decided a week was not enough so this year we did 12 days. We also incorporated leathercraft and blacksmithing workshops, and Michael Bootz from Germany did quill work and beading as well as flint knapping. It was brilliant and I learned lots of new skills as well as passed on many of my own skills techniques. A completely free exchange of skills all round.

It was also incredibly cheap. We got a fantastic deal on the accommodation. 20 of us booking for 12 nights. It cost 300 Levs (£130) for bed, breakfast and lunch thrown in for 12 days. I was sharing a room with a guy from New Zealand and each room had a shower and sat TV, although we never bothered with the TV.

We were spread across three houses - all part of the hotel complex, and we had a large room downstairs which doubled as a bar and kitchen where we prepared our own evening meal. Lots of beer and rakia - some of it home made, and it was part time every night.

I got the sh1ts in the second week though (the food was too greasy for my taste) and it went straight through me. Maybe the 100 degree heat during the days had something to do with it.

On the Sunday we were supposed to do an historical archery event against some Bulgarian re-enactors. It was meant to be a private party. We got dressed up in medieval kirtles, and made ourselves belts and pouches. Some of our party wanted to wear denim jeans and I expressly forbade that so they went bare legged (it was so hot it would have been appropriate in the period anyway) and those who had them, wore sandals.

We got a hire bus to the old Roman arena where this was to take place but apparently when you apply for permission to use an ancient site for an event, the local mayor has to be informed, so we were met by the local mayor who insisted on giving everyone a tour of his town. People kept tagging on and by the time we got to the arena there were around a hundred people following.

Then we entered the arena to find an audience of some 400 waiting. But the biggest shock was the three television crews.

Anyway, to say we were hacked off would be an understatement, so we just decided to do some interviews and wait for the crowds to get fed up and go home.

They all disappeared by the time we had lunch and we could get down to some serious archery, well, when I say serious I kind of mean it in a health and safety aspect for these people have never heard of the words.

We soundly trounced them every which way and before long they too started going home, taking off their shiny nylon tunics that were meant to be silk, their shiny nylon trousers and their east german army jackboots. Then they put away their puny glass fibre bows and just gave up in disgust. But not before they scared the crap out of us with their lax discipline on the field. We'd be lined up waiting to shoot and at full draw, an arrow would come whizzing past our ear form some dickhead to the rear who just decided to loose off an arrow independently.

Same when we were retrieving our arrows. We'd be pulling arrows when new arrows started thunking into the target from the bulgarians. Then some of them produced flintlocks and started shooting at the targets with black powder and ball, right beside us, with no warning or anything. Knock, draw, aim, prepare to loose and BANG! right next to your ear.

Safe to say we won't be doing that again.

On the whole though it was a really great experience and I'm already saving to go next year.

There's plenty of photos from some of the other participants over on Paleo Planet. You can view them by following THIS link.

Eric

 

[BOD]

Thanks for that Eric.

I don't go to the bowyers section of paleo and missed it entriely. Sorry to hear of the organisers loss.

Sounds fantastic. So now you know how it feels to be under archer and gun fire!

I find the roofs fascinating. Slate is it?

 

[Eric_Methven]

I find the roofs fascinating. Slate is it?

No, it's stone slabs. The geology of the area lends itself to these big slabs that have turned on their side through geological upheaval. They just come away in 2 - 3" slabs that can be cut to shape. You can see the stuff in small cliffs as you drive down the road. It's a case of building your houses with the local resources available. There's very little ironwork in the buildings too. Just strong timber and wooden pegs with some very neat joints.

Eric

 

[Tony]

Excellent stuff Eric, glad you had a good time

 

[Tengu]

it looks fantastic, my uncle loves Bulgaria.

 

[Mistwalker]

Great photos, and a great read. Thanks for sharing it