Flicking the Vs

The most frustrating thing about not knowing the language is the inability to protest or argue. You may be able to pick up that you’re being insulted, but you can’t respond in kind. This is why flicking the Vs is so valuable. Bulgarians aren’t familiar with the gesture and will most likely think that you’re suggesting they do something twice. Showing the middle-finger will provoke an instant frenzy of rage, but the Vs will cause confusion while satisfying your own sense of outrage. They may be able to pick up that they’re being insulted, but they can’t respond in kind.

Kovachevitsa

8km deeper into the Rhodopes than Leshten and slightly larger with several shops, restaurants and art galleries. The buildings here are older and very picturesque but keep the traditional style of the region with their distinctive stone plated roofs. The streets are paved with rocks and weave up the hill and down the valley as tributaries from the main road which you shouldn’t drive on unless you’re a local - the side streets are way too narrow for cars anyway. Supposedly the houses were built so close together so that rebels could escape over the rooftops in case of Ottoman raids.

Leshten

Built into the hillside around the road that weaves up through the Rhodope mountains, the village faces the Pirin mountain range so there are views of dramatic peaks and valleys everywhere around it. There’s a shop, a mehana, a sweet little art gallery, two churches, several hotels, and many summer homes. While everything looks quite new, the buildings have all been renovated in the traditional Bulgarian style: the lower halves in rough stone, the upper halves in wood. The most distinctive feature of Leshten - and this region in general - are the roofs which are tiled with thick, flat, stone plates.