• 001 - the logo.jpg
  • 002 - Hiroshima sunset.jpg
  • 003 - Auschwitz-Birkenau ramp.jpg
  • 004 - Chernobyl contamination.jpg
  • 005 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 006 - Berlin Wall madness.jpg
  • 007 - Bulgaria - monument at the bottom of Buzludzhy park hill.jpg
  • 008 - Ijen crater.jpg
  • 009 - Aralsk, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 010 - Paris catacombs.jpg
  • 011 - Krakatoa.jpg
  • 012 - Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Hanoi.jpg
  • 013 - Uyuni.jpg
  • 014 - DMZ Vietnam.jpg
  • 015 - Colditz Kopie.jpg
  • 016 - Glasgow Necropolis.jpg
  • 017 - Hashima ghost island.jpg
  • 018 - Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 019 - Arlington.jpg
  • 020 - Karosta prison.jpg
  • 021 - Kamikaze.jpg
  • 022 - Chacabuco ghost town.jpg
  • 023 - Eagle's Nest, Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden.jpg
  • 024 - Kursk.jpg
  • 025 - Bran castle, Carpathia, Romania.jpg
  • 026 - Bestattungsmuseum Wien.jpg
  • 027 - Pripyat near Chernobyl.jpg
  • 028 - Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 029 - Pyramida Lenin.jpg
  • 030 - Falklands.jpg
  • 031 - Majdanek.jpg
  • 032 - Soufriere volcano, Montserrat.jpg
  • 033 - moai on Easter Island.jpg
  • 034 - Sidoarjo.jpg
  • 035 - Hötensleben.jpg
  • 036 - Natzweiler.jpg
  • 037 - Polygon, Semipalatinsk test site, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 038 - Srebrenica.jpg
  • 039 - Liepaja, Latvia.jpg
  • 040 - Vemork hydroelectric power plant building, Norway.jpg
  • 041 - Enola Gay.jpg
  • 042 - Pentagon 9-11 memorial.jpg
  • 043 - Robben Island prison, South Africa.jpg
  • 044 - Tollund man.jpg
  • 045 - Marienthal tunnel.jpg
  • 046 - Aso, Japan.jpg
  • 047 - Labrador battery Singapore.jpg
  • 048 - Artyom island, Absheron, Azerbaijan.jpg
  • 049 - Treblinka.jpg
  • 050 - Titan II silo.jpg
  • 051 - dosemetering doll, Chernobyl.jpg
  • 052 - Holocaust memorial, Berlin.jpg
  • 053 - Komodo dragon.jpg
  • 054 - cemeterio general, Santiago de Chile.jpg
  • 055 - Tuol Sleng, Phnom Phen, Cambodia.jpg
  • 056 - West Virginia penitentiary.jpg
  • 057 - ovens, Dachau.jpg
  • 058 - Derry, Northern Ireland.jpg
  • 059 - Bulgaria - Buzludzha - workers of all countries unite.jpg
  • 060 - Sachsenhausen.jpg
  • 061 - Tiraspol dom sovietov.jpg
  • 062 - modern-day Pompeii - Plymouth, Montserrat.jpg
  • 063 - Pico de Fogo.jpg
  • 064 - Trinity Day.jpg
  • 065 - Zwentendorf control room.jpg
  • 066 - Wolfschanze.jpg
  • 067 - Hiroshima by night.jpg
  • 068 - mass games, North Korea.jpg
  • 069 - Harrisburg.jpg
  • 070 - Nuremberg.jpg
  • 071 - Mostar.jpg
  • 072 - Tu-22, Riga aviation museum.jpg
  • 073 - Gallipoli, Lone Pine.jpg
  • 074 - Auschwitz-Birkenau - fence.jpg
  • 075 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 076 - Atatürk Mausoleum, Ankara.jpg
  • 077 - Banda Aceh boats.jpg
  • 078 - AMARG.jpg
  • 079 - Chacabuco ruins.jpg
  • 080 - Bucharest.jpg
  • 081 - Bernauer Straße.jpg
  • 082 - Death Railway, Thailand.jpg
  • 083 - Mandor killing fields.jpg
  • 084 - Kozloduy.jpg
  • 085 - Jerusalem.jpg
  • 086 - Latin Bridge, Sarajevo.jpg
  • 087 - Panmunjom, DMZ, Korea.jpg
  • 088 - Ijen blue flames.jpg
  • 089 - Derry reconsilliation monument.jpg
  • 090 - Ebensee.jpg
  • 091 - Mödlareuth barbed wire.jpg
  • 092 - skull heaps in Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 093 - Nikel.jpg
  • 094 - Fukushima-Daiichi NPP.jpg
  • 095 - Tital launch control centre.jpg
  • 096 - Dallas Dealy Plaza and Sixth Floor Museum.jpg
  • 097 - Auschwitz I.jpg
  • 098 - Stalin and Lenin, Tirana, Albania.jpg
  • 099 - Malta, Fort St Elmo.jpg
  • 100 - Peenemünde.jpg
  • 101 - Tarrafal.jpg
  • 102 - Kilmainham prison, Dublin.jpg
  • 103 - North Korea.jpg
  • 104 - Mittelbau-Dora.jpg
  • 105 - St Helena.jpg
  • 106 - Stutthof, Poland.jpg
  • 107 - Merapi destruction.jpg
  • 108 - Chueung Ek killing fields, Cambodia.jpg
  • 109 - Marienborn former GDR border.jpg
  • 110 - Mig and star, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 111 - Nagasaki WWII tunnels.jpg
  • 112 - Hellfire Pass, Thailand.jpg
  • 113 - Kiev.jpg
  • 114 - Grutas Park, Lithuania.jpg
  • 115 - Zwentendorf reactor core.jpg
  • 116 - two occupations, Tallinn.jpg
  • 117 - Trunyan burial site.jpg
  • 118 - Ushuaia prison.jpg
  • 119 - Buchenwald.jpg
  • 120 - Marienthal with ghost.jpg
  • 121 - Murmansk harbour - with an aircraft carrier.jpg
  • 122 - Berlin Olympiastadion.JPG
  • 123 - Bastille Day, Paris.jpg
  • 124 - Spassk.jpg
  • 125 - Theresienstadt.jpg
  • 126 - B-52s.jpg
  • 127 - Bledug Kuwu.jpg
  • 128 - Friedhof der Namenlosen, Vienna.jpg
  • 129 - Auschwitz-Birkenau barracks.jpg
  • 130 - mummies, Bolivia.jpg
  • 131 - Barringer meteor crater.jpg
  • 132 - Murambi, Rwanda.jpg
  • 133 - NTS.jpg
  • 134 - Mauthausen Soviet monument.jpg
  • 135 - pullution, Kazakhstan.JPG
  • 136 - palm oil madness.jpg
  • 137 - Berlin socialist realism.jpg
  • 138 - Okawa school building ruin.jpg
  • 139 - Pawiak, Warsaw.jpg
  • 140 - flying death, military museum Dresden.JPG
  • 141 - KGB gear.JPG
  • 142 - KZ jacket.JPG
  • 143 - ex-USSR.JPG
  • 144 - Indonesia fruit bats.JPG
  • 145 - Alcatraz.JPG
  • 146 - Chernobyl Museum, Kiev, Ukraine.JPG
  • 147 - Halemaumau lava lake glow, Hawaii.JPG
  • 148 - Rosinenbomber at Tempelhof, Berlin.jpg
  • 149 - Verdun, France.JPG
  • 150 - hospital, Vukovar, Croatia.JPG
  • 151 - the original tomb of Napoleon, St Helena.JPG
  • 152 - Buchenwald, Germany.JPG
  • 153 - Bhopal.JPG
  • 154 - Groß-Rosen, Poland.jpg
  • 155 - at Monino, Russia.jpg
  • 156 - blinking Komodo.jpg
  • 157 - inside Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 158 - Mount St Helens, USA.JPG
  • 159 - Maly Trostenec, Minsk, Belarus.jpg
  • 160 - Vucedol skulls, Croatia.JPG
  • 161 - colourful WW1 shells.JPG
  • 162 - Zeljava airbase in Croatia.JPG
  • 163 - rusting wrecks, Chernobyl.JPG
  • 164 - San Bernadine alle Ossa, Milan, Italy.jpg
  • 165 - USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.JPG
  • 166 - Brest Fortress, Belarus.JPG
  • 167 - thousands of bats, Dom Rep.JPG
  • 168 - Hohenschönhausen, Berlin.JPG
  • 169 - Perm-36 gulag site.JPG
  • 170 - Jasenovac, Croatia.JPG
  • 171 - Beelitz Heilstätten.JPG
  • 172 - Kremlin, Moscow.jpg
  • 173 - old arms factory, Dubnica.JPG
  • 174 - Pervomaisc ICBM base, more  missiles, including an SS-18 Satan.jpg
  • 175 - Cellular Jail, Port Blair.jpg
  • 177 - control room, Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 178 - Podgorica, Montenegro, small arms and light weapons sculpture.jpg
  • 179 - Vught.jpg
  • 180 - Japanese cave East Timor.jpg
  • 181 - Ani.jpg
  • 182 - Indonesia wildfire.jpg
  • 183 - Chacabuco big sky.jpg
  • 184 - Bunker Valentin, Germany.JPG
  • 185 - Lest we Forget, Ypres.JPG
  • 186 - the logo again.jpg

 
Communism Tours of Bulgaria

   
Under this label the Bulgarian tour operator nvision travel offers packages that largely, though not exclusively, follow a "communism theme". That is to say, they are a bit "retro" but not really celebratory of the bygone era of communism. It's thus less for those dyed-in-the-wool communists who wish the "good old times" back, but more for those who are intrigued by the subject, especially Westerners who would like to get a good first-hand glimpse of what life was like in communist Bulgaria and what has changed – all from a balanced contemporary perspective.
 
Some tongue-in-cheek elements are included, however, like being greeted with red scarves (like the young pioneers of the era wore) at the pick-up at the airport … or being chauffeured around Sofia in a vintage Russian "Chaika" limo – the type of big black representational car that only the top party functionaries would have been driven around in back then. It's certainly an eye-catcher on the streets today! Inside the car you also get a pile of old magazines and brochures from the time to browse through – and while being chauffeured outside Sofia, music from the communist era is played, old slogans explained by the guide and so forth.
 
But the remainder of the package is more serious sightseeing – with the predictable thematic emphasis; very interesting in my view. Overall it's a good balance between history tourism, educational travel, off-the-beaten-track exoticness and plain good fun including a bit of tongue-in-cheek black humour, of course. Not least, there is also a culinary element, as you will be encouraged to discover national delicacies too (and astonishingly good wine as well!).  
 
A range of tours are on offer – half-day tours in Sofia, more elaborate 4-day programmes taking in the surrounding area as well, and even more comprehensive 8-day tours of the country. Prices range from a mere 20 EUR for a half-day tour of Sofia as part of a small group to ca. 1500 EUR pp for the full monty 8-day package if done as a private tour for a single client. The latter may sound a lot, but you also get a lot for your money.
 
It's especially the longer packages that include visits to not only major communism-related monuments, architecture and museums (which you could also have seen on an independent basis). On top of that, and much more intriguingly, you also get to see some more unusual and normally far less accessible places. Consider these: an old, crumbling cultural centre and library in Varshets, exploring an old, now mostly empty pre-fab housing block, lunching in the former residence of party leader Todor Zhivkov in Arbanassi, a visit to a technical high school, and even a tour of a Russian-design nuclear power station (Kozloduy)!
 
When I used nvision I picked the very longest programme, the 8-day tour, in the spring of 2011, travelling with my wife, i.e. not as part of larger group, just with one guide and a driver. So the service was very personal. We also shared lunch and dinner times for those meals included in the programme with our guide (as well as a wine tasting), so it was a very friendly setting – we got on with her fabulously. For other meals not included in the tour price, we had time on our own. Also in a couple of places we had the odd afternoon "off" for our own leisure. Again, it's a good balance: full of stimulating offers but not too intense all the time.
 
We were put up in hotels mostly built during the communist era – and some do indeed flaunt that stylistic/architectural quirkiness you'd expect from this period. But the rooms are all pretty modern standard these days, some had even only recently been upgraded or renovated. So it won't be like in the real old commie days of power cuts, no water, broken facilities … just a bit "grim" in places, with regard to interior design as well as, occasionally, in the services department (I remember one totally unenthusiastic barmaid especially well … who was constantly just rolling her eyes as she rudely pointed out that almost everything we tried to order was "off" – it was just like back in the 1980s in the GDR!). You have to have a certain tolerance/liking for such things and handle it with good humour. That's part of the point of these trips.  
 
Not all sights visited on these programmes really are communism-related and/or dark – part of our programme was also the old regal town of Veliko Tarnovo with its old fortress or an ancient Thracian tomb in Kazanlak. Likewise in Sofia you will also be shown the standard prime sights such as the cathedrals and archaeological sites. That may seem off the given topic, but again it can also be seen as providing a more balanced picture of the country.
 
From my experience I can wholeheartedly recommend these most unusual tours. They are professionally put together and provide an experience you won't find on every corner. Unusual, exotic and fun – and with just the right dose of dark elements to make the tours suitable for not only dark tourists (for die-hard, pitch-black tourists it may actually not be dark enough!) but also for a more generally interested clientele with an open mind.
 
You can check out more up-to-date details on the dedicated Communism Tours in Bulgaria website (external link). If you decide to contact/book with them, say you've found it through dark-tourism.com (here's why). If you want to ask me more questions about my own experience on this tour you can also contact me first.
 
 
 --- back to Bulgaria ---

© dark-tourism.com, Peter Hohenhaus 2009-2023

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