I think this is the one of the most beautiful journeys - maybe even the most beautiful journey - I´ve ever taken: Across the Rhodopi mountains from Xanthi to Zlatograd and Smolyan in Bulgaria.
Only half an hours drive north of Xanthi - with it´s university and student life and modern way of living - and we entered another world.
The Pomach village of Smynthi - the Pomach are a small ethnic minority living mainly in a few villages north of Xanthi. They descent from Christians from Bulgaria, who were forced to convert to Islam hundreds of years ago.
In the region of Trake, Greece´s most Eastern province, approximately half the population are muslims. In most villages we saw churches and minarets side by side - and the same on the Bulgarian side of the mountains.
Tiny tobacco fields on every little flat patch between the trees.
A woman coming out of nowhere, with a bundle of tobacco leaves on her back.
It took four hours to drive less than 180 kilometers...the roads are like this...
Winding up and down the steep mountains.
Who got the idea to first settle in a place like this?
To farm this land?
The harvested grass in piles in the tiny fields.
The well-preserved and beautiful village of Shiroka Lake, situated by the Cherna river in a narrow valley south of Smolyan.
Far, far from the madding crowd.
In the region of Trake, Greece´s most Eastern province, approximately half the population are muslims. In most villages we saw churches and minarets side by side - and the same on the Bulgarian side of the mountains.
It took four hours to drive less than 180 kilometers...the roads are like this...
Winding up and down the steep mountains.
Who got the idea to first settle in a place like this?
To farm this land?
The harvested grass in piles in the tiny fields.
The well-preserved and beautiful village of Shiroka Lake, situated by the Cherna river in a narrow valley south of Smolyan.
Far, far from the madding crowd.
Greece is the country that I would love to visit in this lifetime. Seeing all those old towns and historical places will be worth the journey. I enjoyed looking and daydreaming at those photos.
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