Then I started to search my knowledge of history in my mind. From the 14th century on, the Balkan Peninsula, including Bulgaria, was under the reign of Ottoman Empire as long as five centuries. In order to conquer Constantinople, Russia must pass Black Sea to reach Mediterranean. Starting from the Peter 1st, Russia launched numerous wars against Turkey and seized the territory and power in Bulgaria in passing. Along with the recession of Eastern empire and Western national countries, the Balkan became a political stage of European countries’ alliances and confrontation, which was nicknamed as powder keg. After the defeat of the 3rd war between Russia and Turkey, in 1886, the grand duke of Bulgaria was forced by Russia to abdicate. The Russian Tsar intended to oblige Bulgaria to vote for the candidate in its favor, but in vain. Then the Balkan was facing the danger of Russian military invasion, which was called Bulgarian Crisis in history. Probably Bismarck made the above remarks at that time. As a descendent of Holy Roman Empire, this reputable iron-and-blood prime minister led Germany to take a perfect debut in the political confrontation between east and west with his ingenious political and diplomatic tricks. 

In the wake of the two World Wars, European history seemed to have returned to the very beginning. Currently, Germany, though twice defeated, is rising by leaps and bounds and still the center of EU Economic Integration. My second flight was just from the center of EU geography, politics and economy to its margin—port city at the western bank of Black Sea, Varna. 

I registered at a skyscraper hotel at seashore in USSR style. This building erected during the socialist period survived the time and still stood above groups of low buildings. With old-fashioned interior decoration, some English songs popular a decade ago was played in cycles in the lobby. The room was small but clean, and the only electronic equipment inside was a mini-TV that was only compatible with the remote control provided by front desk. The remote control didn’t work, or the front desk gave a wrong one or the TV set was already out of order. With a time difference of only five hours, I felt as if that time had been back for two decades. On that night, I felt as if entering an independent low-cost sci-fi drama and was totally at loss. 

Some seagull woke me up before the day had broken. Pushing the window out, I saw a dark and green sea without boundary of sea and the sky. According to Google map, the other side of this vast lake should be Batumi in Georgia. In 1920, a young man called Stalin, Bolshevik of Georgia, organized workers’ strike, which was included into the drama by Bulgakov. Batumi used to be called as KolKhida, hometown of the heroine Medea in Greek tragedy and the place where the ancient Greek Arugo navigators searched for Golden Wool in excursion. The sentimental knot between Jason and Medea actually reflected the Greek colonists’ robbery of the East. In 500 B.C., the war between Greece and Persia joined by Αeschylos, father of Greek tragedy, was ended with Greek victory. There were two impacts, firstly, Delian League was transformed into an empire and slave democracy was conducted inside and imperialist governance was implemented overseas. Secondly, it led to the confrontation between east and west, which was called by Huntington as Confrontation of Civilizations and lasts till now. 

Walking across the city center, I passed by Central Square. On the west side is a renovated European theatre in old ages and on the east side is an official building left by the former socialist government. Though separate, those building still carried out their respective functions. Not far from the seashore, I could find seagulls and wild dogs searching for food, and animals and people waling on each lane. Different from those islands in the Aegean, wild cats were rarely seen nearby Black Sea. According to our guide Asen, seagull is the natural enemy of cats, which totally reversed the version of that classic drama by Chekhov. Bulgarian men resemble Russian in body shape and Turkish people in appearance. Taking a look at the black and white photos of the figures in history, you will find their high hairline and most of men will have bald head at certain age. 

Varna Church is a beautiful Orthodox church with hundreds of seagulls hovering above every night. In this church, the senile and poor grannies with hunch backs were admitted to pray for mental comfort without any payment. The opposite of this church is just the vanity church of bourgeoisie audiences—the oldest theatre of European style in Varna. On that evening, the play was Almost an Evening by Ethan Coen, one of the famous American twin director Coen Brothers. It was self-reflection types of Meta-theatre in blaspheme of religion. The acting God got onto the stage to argue and fight with other actors in Bulgarian dirty words. Owing to lack of subtitles, foreigners were totally at loss, sitting like an idiot. The feedback of the local audiences fell into two categories: some laughed to death and some were terribly bored with sigh. After all, they hardly quit before the play was over. You can call it weird or multi-element, but it was just a reflection of the current situation of Bulgarian culture. 

The director Jernej Loranzi from Ljubljana Theatre from Slovania brought The Thunderstorm by A.N. Ostrovsky, which was probably the most expensive production in this festival. Beautiful actresses filled the stage of grand theatre, plus a quartet band and a jazz woman singer. Though such a dimension is nothing to mention compared with National Performing Arts Center of China, it could be defined as luxury in the East Europe of economic recession. In the theatre festival in Slovania, this drama won all the awards with pride. However, as far as I am concerned, this should be mainly attributed to the literature. As the director intended to handle the relationship between public space and personal space, the showy acting, sexual portrays on the floor and live singing accompaniment weakened literary significance. The superficial acting out of reality also weakened the emotional power. The love and death of Catherine was out of boredom. On the one hand, her desires were vividly portrayed with explicit details and on the other hand, her tragedy was abstractly narrated without sympathy. As a victim to domestic violence, the heroine plunged herself into Volga River to finish her doom. The actor playing Boris was impressive, but ultimately his acting also ended up being hysterical as his neighing song magnified the pain of the role. As to emotional collapse, just like pepper, with proper quantity, it will be OK, with too much, the dish will taste bad as well. We could sense that those bourgeoisie audiences were greatly touched when their inner pain was got off their chest. 

Once my job in the theatre festival was completed, I joined the trip to the monastery in the suburb. During the reign of Ottoman Empire, there were so many ascetic monks of Orthodox lived in seclusion of such rocky monasteries in Bulgaria. Those monks dug the steep rocks and had a difficult life inside with all their necessity provided by hanging buckets from the outside. In the great passion spirit, those people led an isolated life and were buried into the cave they lived till death. Our grey-bearded guide briefed us over the religious faith of Bulgarian people. Most of them are believers of Orthodox and tiny part are Muslim who were converted in the period of Ottoman Empire, which reminded me of the history of confrontation between Islam and Christianity, the profound religious background of constant wars in this peninsula. Roman Empire and Ottoman Empire had its respective reign of 5 centuries and the Byzantine Empire once utilized Orthodox in many ways to put down the indigenous religion in Bulgaria such as by worshiping Madara Rider, an image of horse rider. Nevertheless, the absolute advantage of Orthodox should be attributed to the impact of Russian Empire. 

On the way back from the monastery, Milena, a Bulgarian critic, helped me with a further understanding of the current political situation. She was an Orthodox, and she told me that many atheists had their own faith after 1989. The most interesting thing I found was that all the professionals in the theatre circle of East Europe were unanimously against the propaganda of ideology. Now the publicity from Washington exerted an adverse impact on youngsters’ mind in East Europe. Just take a glimpse of those private building worn down by years without repairs, and you will get the answer. As for today’s democratic life, Milena admitted that the intellectuals of Bulgaria were in face of a choice of no choice, to pick up a better one in two baskets of rotten apples. The reform in political structure failed to bring about economic development and people’s sense of happiness is far from reality. Thus, people returned to the church. However, the economy at low speed made it possible to preserve the natural environment and places of historical and humanist interest. The price was moderate and the people are honest and simple. Like Georgia at the opposite side, the most influential foreign power in the politics, economy and diplomacy of Bulgaria still remains to be USA. 

After this 5-day visit, we left Varna, a beautiful and serene city. I bid farewell to my colleagues of other countries when I took transfer at Sofia. Mark Brownce from UK delivered me a tabloid of British Socialist Workers Party as onboard entertainment. Of course for him, an international loyal left wing member, this paper was not a simple entertainment. Besides supporting the local soccer team with his life, he adhered to the Party Constitution. In Varna, on the coincidence of Prism Incident was disclosed, we had a talk that had nothing to do with arts on the way to the theatre. He said, “USA is not OK. Now it is China’s World. Within decades of time you have done what we had done for centuries. When I visited a small country in Africa, I found that Chinese people were helping erect the government’s building!” Without hesitation, I replied immediately, “ We learn this method just from you”.