POSTS WITH ORIGINAL SONGS, KNOWLEDGE AND HUMOUR AS BEN AND HIS TWO UKULELES BACKPACK AROUND THE WORLD
I hope you're well strapped in your horse saddle, and that you've put down your medieval ciders, because things are about TO GET EPIC ! - uprising-against-an-empire kind of EPIC ! ... but with a ukulele.
Right: Peter, Left: Asen
Two Bulgarian Bro's on the loose, to reclaim their land and mountains from Isaac II the Byzantine. It's the Peter&Asen uprising !
If wikipedia is anything to go by, this song if 100% super-factual and hyper-accurate - and full of Bulgarian EPICNESS !!!
BOUM !
I was peacefully making my way though the Bulgarian countryside when, all of a sudden, there it was, the hills, the ruins and everything: Veliko Tornavo, the city of the Tsars !
It's also a nice dynamic city with nice young people. I actually managed to force three elements of said group to part-take in the Veliko Tornavo Podcast ! A Big thanks to Plamena, Simeon and the count of Monte Hristo and his house of coulours for making this so fun to record !
Learn about Bulgarian food, words, facial hair styles and history, in chit chat and in song in just 26 minutes in this Epidode Two !
I still can't pronounce it right, but it's to this sweet little "museum-city" that I have first made my way ! (Ko - priv - shti - tsa ... not that easy eh?)
And to visit Korpsh... this little touristy town, I picked my timing perfectly. A Monday afternoon, off-season. Needless to say I was fairly undisturbed strolling about with my ukuleles. A still and mysteriously empty afternoon it was.
This song came to me while sitting on a bench, the water from the melting snow falling on my jeans and making me look slightly incontinent. It's about taking a deep breath, and enjoying the stillness. Or something like that. And it's called Koprtshi... stist... well, just like the city actually.
In all fairness to this nice little place, it is more of a week-end and holiday destination. Apparently, during the National Festival of Bulgarian Folklore every 5 years, it is so crowded, you can barely walk ! A city of two atmospheres it would seem.
