Severozapadna is the north-western region of Bulgaria. The time here seems to have stopped, the inhabitants live in small towns and are back to a rural life. Nostalgic about the past economic and industrial wealth, many of them regret the soviet times, when precious metal mines were giving thousands of people a job. While the towns and the bigger cities are depopulating, fog and rain are wrapping the landscapes. On the old mines goats are now grazing, and the industries, of which today just the remains are left, are now taken over by wild nature.
Severozapadna today is the poorest region of the whole European Union, its GDP is €9.300 (31% of the EU’s average). People here are kind and always open to talk, walking around, if they don’t recognise someone they ask “Chiora si?” (“Whose are you?”). They will always be happy to give you anything they have (a bite of cheese, a coffee, a chocolate), just to show their gratefulness for the smallest things. The people really care about their traditions: some are still weaving carpets as in the old days (they have museums about it), some other pass on the recipe to make Sirene (a cheese similar to greek feta) or organise little shows where people from the towns sing and dance the traditional songs of the region.
The locals here live by the smallest things, preserving them as the biggest wealth.
