TRAVEL | BULGARIA | FARMERS MARKET

A Trip To a ‘Secret’ Bulgarian Market

Where you can find anything that you need

We are currently living near Varna, Bulgaria at a family home. We are volunteering through a platform called HelpX, and we are helping them with some gardening and landscaping projects around their house.

On Saturday, our host told us that it was market day and that we could go with her if we wanted to check it out. Always a sucker for markets, we were all in, with bells on!

At 8:30 am, we headed off. Instead of driving towards the city, though, we headed in the opposite direction. She told us that she feels like this is a ‘secret’ market because it is away from the big city and in a smaller town.

Of course, it isn’t a secret to the local people, but maybe it is a secret to the city folk.

We expected it to be a food market with booths of fruit and vegetables on offer, but we were surprised to see many other things for sale. It turns out that while there was food available, much of it was more like a flea market with lots of used and new items.

From old TVs to electrical chords, ropes to construction gear, and even modern electronics to new knives, this place had it all.

First, our host went straight to the booth to purchase fresh milk. She wanted to teach me to make yogurt with it, and she claimed that the lady sells out fast.

It was also the ultimate reason that we left the house so early.

After that was finished, our host told us that we had to go and eat Kofte and Kebapche for breakfast. It’s not a typical breakfast in Bulgaria, but she claimed that it is part of the market experience.

After that, we were free to wander around and check out what the market had to offer. She took us down the different streets to see what there was. Chris and I are minimalists and not shoppers, so we didn’t really look too hard at anything, but this table of knives certainly caught Chris’ attention as the butterfly knife is technically illegal in Canada.

Our host uses this as her main market to purchase vegetables each week, so we really stocked up on a lot of different items. Plus, she bought 2 HUGE crates of tomatoes so that she could can them for the winter months.

Something we loved, though, was that many vendors were selling their own canned items. When we lived on the West Coast of Canada, many friends that wanted to sell their canned goodies at markets had to pay to get them certified by a government health inspection. Our host says that while they (possibly) technically aren’t allowed to sell them here either, they do anyways.

Most importantly, people buy them!

We also saw many large sacks of vegetables for sale. These peppers will be used to make different Bulgarian foods like Lutenitsa, which I wrote about last week.

There is certainly a real farmers' culture around here, and we have been here long enough to know that there is a HUGE food culture in Bulgaria.

They like good home-cooked and hearty meals!

I asked our host if the market happens in the winter, and she told me that it does. In the winter, they are selling hardier vegetables like carrots, potatoes, beets, and cauliflower. She said that they also sell a lot of homemade sausages and plenty of canned items like sauerkraut.

We also saw a few booths that sell spices. There were dried ones available, like the photo above, but also fresh herbs as well. Our host even bought some small butter lettuce plants that she has sitting in a bowl of water on the counter. Their roots were still intact when she bought them, and I think her plan is to plant them outside for her winter garden.

There was also plenty of fall picks like apples and pears available. The prices on these were incredibly low so that they can get them off the trees and move them onto a place where they will be used. In the photo, you can see that they are 3 Lev per kilo. This equals about $1.50 USD.

In fact, most of the vegetables were incredibly cheap. We have been amazed at the affordability of Bulgaria in all aspects.

And, like I said in the beginning, there were many, MANY booths with both used and new clothing available. Here is a shot of a few women checking out what is available.

And this booth had some really nice jackets! Just one of many that was selling different sorts of clothes.

All in all we were thrilled with our market experience. We feel that these places are where we get a chance to truly see how the locals live, which gives us a better insight into a countries culture.

To us, this is the most interesting and important aspect of traveling.

Thanks for joining us on this adventure in Bulgaria. If you are interested in learning more about our time here, check out this list of articles:

Hi there, we are 2 Canadians, Jill and Chris from Artistic Voyages. We have been nomadic since 2017 living in numerous different countries, and experiencing the life and diversity of our planet on the ground and firsthand. We paint FREE murals in exchange for accommodation. Consider tipping us on Ko-fi!

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