In the Centre of Bulgaria
I don’t know if you have ever been at the Bulgarian Geographic Centre. I have - countless times. Why am I so attached to it? Primarily the fact that it is the beginning of the shortest ski slope you have ever seen. If you have ever stood on a real slope, you wouldn’t even take this gradual hill for an active participant in winter sports.
And yet for the hardly-skier that I was, this was the only option. Of course not counting the scary option of the next slope with its whole one kilometre length. You must be crazy to ski on it! Or at least an Olimpian or something.
But nevermind that… On the top of our little slope with its full two meters (!!!) stands the Bulgarian Geographic Centre. As described online - a simplified pyramid painted in the colours of the Bulgarian flag with a hanging pendulum (shifted with time) pointing at the exact centre of the country.
Now you are probably wondering why I am all of a sudden thinking about this place that I haven’t stepped foot in in so many years! Well, you are wrong. Not only was I there this year but I was also with “Over the Hillock” – the one and only mountaineering group I would ever want to be with.
So we’re walking from Uzana chalet to the Centre and I keep asking myself “How exactly did they measure this?”. It’s forunate, of course, that we have our own surveyors in the group so I can ask my question, offering two possible answers:
1. Based on the westernmost, easternmost, southernmost or northernmost points of Bulgaria;
or
2. Based on the points on the geographic lengths and widths according to their crossing t this point.
Someone added a third option:
3. Based on the average lengths and widths of the borders in all four direction.
The professional’s answer was, of course: “Why, would you think I know!”. And that’s how our fierce Googling began. After going in and out of a few websites, we finally read how the scientiscs of BAS (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) got together and made “complicated calculations”. But what those were, nobody knows…
With a certain attitude of “Well-that’s-how-it-is-in-Bulgaria” we get down the small peak and quickly forget our scientific struggles. Instead we get back to the chalet for dinner.
In conclusion… Some things we just aren’t meant to know in this life. Therefore, if you know the answer to my question, or you got to the geographical centre and someone is there to explain, don’t tell me! This information isn’t meant for me.
Stay Vivid,
Vassya
*Picture credit to Titi