Balkan

A small selection of photographs from a hitchhiking trip through Bulgaria and Romania in the summer of 2020. The journey began in Varna, where I photographed, among other things, a notable example of socialist Brutalist architecture.

We continued through Burgas and Stara Zagora to the village of Shipka, below Mount Buzludzha, to photograph the iconic monument – and even spent the night nearby. On the way back, we were picked up by a Bulgarian architect involved in its gradual restoration, who shared the story of the building and its complicated status in local memory.

From Buzludzha we travelled through Ruse to Bucharest, where we flew back to Prague. The entire trip – about 650 km – was done by hitchhiking. As a small bonus adventure, my friend lost her ID right before the Bulgarian-Romanian border.

Camera, 35mm film:
Pentax MG – Kodak ColorPlus 200, Ilford PAN 400