EU Inside - 10/03/13, Adelina Marini
Sofia for years has been a city of contrasts, of at first glance conflicting cultures. A city of the beautiful and the ugly, of the best from the European and the worst from the Oriental, a city of clean and dirty, of new and old. A city where alongside a Christian church you will see a mosque or a synagogue. A city of past and present, but with ever more unclear future. Where you can spend a wonderful afternoon in a cosy and amazing tea-room with home-made cake while you watch the tram station across the street where a mother of Roma origin is holding a crying girl by the hand. A city in which it recently became painfully clear that two warring societies live side by side - of those who want a change and stronger integration with Europe and of those who want the status-quo.
How long will the division last and is it irreversible is a question that awaits an answer. For sure Bulgaria will never be the same after this first summer of awakening when the beginning of the end was put. Now what remains to be done is to find will for that unity the 50-year old Valentina dreams of, the protester from the beginning of this story. A unity for the future. A future without a mask, with clean hands and clean thoughts. A future that looks very far but also very possible, too. A hand away - a hand stretched to those who think differently.
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