bulgarian rose festival

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New vacation fantasy: attend the rose festival in Bulgaria! Did you know that Bulgaria's Rose Valley produces 85% of the world's rose oil and has been doing so for centuries? It takes 1300 rose blossoms to produce 1 gram of rose oil! Each June, they hold a week long rose festival. I'd love to attend but I'd also love to work plucking those petals. Sign me up for any type of physical labor, as long as it includes flowers. Bonus if I somehow get to look like this Bulgarian beauty. Have any of you been to Bulgaria? What is it like?

Photos: Found on two news sources ( CNC, chinaeconomic.net). Both cited the credit as Xinhua/Wang Meng. Facts found on Wikipedia + Rose-Festival.com.

22 comments

  1. I’ve been! It’s probably my favorite trip to date. It was wonderful. A learning experience, but wonderful. Spent a week there tooling around Sofia and went up in the mountains to the Rila Monastery – completely fantastic. Would do it again in a heartbeat!

  2. YES. I’m coming with you. Bulgaria is a beautiful country and full of surprises. The best night out I’ve ever had in my life (other than my very silly bachelorina party) was in Sofia at a bar with a white Bulgarian rapper. The countryside is gorgeous as well – and what’s not to like about a rose festival?

  3. its GORGEOUS! fields and fields and fields of roses and sunflowers(slun-go-gled- smiling at the sun ). NB: do not try to RUN in a sunflower field! You will get scratched and will not be able to get out once you get in![I beggggged and begged to stop on the side of the road, but my Bulgarian friends thought I was craaaazy wanting to “run” through sunflower fields. After FINALLY convincing them and LEAPING across a deep gully to reach the field and excitedly dashing into the tall maze, I realized my rookie mistake. Those stalks are KILLER strong and prickly! I did not ask to run through any rose bushes after that~

  4. This would be so wonderful, Chelsea! Totally agree with you physical-labor sentiment. I was thinking about applying to pick Lavender in Provence. How bad could that really be?

  5. I just spent 10 days there last September. It was gorgeous and it actually reminded me of Oregon a lot – had many of the same trees/plants/landscapes. Of course scattered in were remnants of its Eastern Bloc past, but I love the gritty feeling. I was completely enthralled by the contrast of deserted factories and flowering meadows (on ride from Sofia to Rila). Stark and stunning. Oh, and then there’s the “am I on a movie set?” feeling when you pass a little old man with his donkey and cart on the road! Food is great, beer is awesome and despite the language barrier, people were very helpful and kind.

    P.S. I can send you a link to my pics if you like.

  6. Chelsea,

    Why are we still here? Let’s go. Grab the plane and camera and I’ll bring dresses. My goodness it’s gorgeous! The light in those photos. The petals. Where’s my fainting couch?

  7. Chelsea! I just returned from a two-week trip to Bulgaria (pretty much explored the entire country). My fiance is from there and we were visiting his family. We actually went to the official rose museum/valley of the roses located in the south of the country and while the season was nearly done (it peaks in late may/early June), I was able to capture a lot of great shots and learn some fascinating history. I’ll email you when I do a post on it (in a few weeks most likely).

  8. I’m from Bulgaria! Happy to see those pictures and the attention they’ve brought!
    I definitely recommend visiting Bulgaria – beutiful nature, lots of history and places to visit! If you want some tips and help – just e-mail.

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