The love of flags & parades

This is something that Bulgarians and Americans share and the English do not. The national flag is everywhere here – flying from balconies, painted on electricity substations and bins, even the climbing frames in playgrounds are layered white, green and red. There’s none of the faint embarrassment that an English person feels when the St George Cross is displayed, none of the uncomfortable nationalistic overtones that are associated with it. Likewise, a parade is taken at face value as a straightforward celebratory event without people feeling like they need to gravitate towards the back and mask their awkwardness with smirking cynicism.