The Closest Thing We Have to Time Travel- Etar

Etar is an Open Air Ethnographic Museum located between the city of Gabrovo and the Bulgarka Nature Park, in the Troyan Balkan Mountains. It is a time portal to life in Bulgaria from hundreds of years ago, including culture, craftsmanship, architecture and even food. In this entry I will take you on a journey through time, so let’s talk about history.

One thing I could not get out of my mind the whole time was “imagine living here”.I say this about a lot of the places I write about, but this place was stunning. Stretches of olden day architecture surround you wherever you go, the smell of the bakery as you walk past, the crafts of the people who would have lived here in the past. Even as someone who isn’t very interested in history, I was interested in every single aspect, I went into every building and every shop and made sure I didn’t miss anything. I tried the food they offered, baked like it would have been back then and was impressed, though I didn’t quite like the “chocolate” (which actually was not chocolate and was made from some kind of fruit which I cannot remember the name of- but they would not have been able to make proper chocolate back when people lived there).

All the equipment is water powered and combined with the hyper realistic recreations of the clothing, jewellery, home wear and every other aspect of renaissance Bulgarian culture you can name. You can really appreciate how much work was put into this museum to make it into an exact replica. And it’s all definitely worth it, thanks to Lazar Donkov (the primary creator of the museum) and everyone who helped him we now get to enjoy living in the past, even if it is just for a few hours. The attention to detail really left me shocked, every small crevice of the museum was detailed to perfection, from how they worked with the environment rather than around it, to the shops with crafts (toys, jewellery, sweets, belts) which I was not allowed to take photos of. But I guess that gives you even more of a reason to visit!

For all the hobby tourists, there is a chance to indulge in activities and crafts (dyeing with natural dyes, a wood carving workshop and much more, visit https://www.etar.org/hobby/hobbyen.htm for more details) . As said on the museum website, “some call it an attraction, others a real fairy-tale”. And I couldn’t describe it better myself, this is one of the most interactive museums I have ever had the chance to visit, certainly the most interesting one. All day long, we didn’t run out of things to see and do and were quite disappointed when we had to go early. But even from the relatively short time we spent there I felt inspired enough to visit again- hopefully in the near future.

Some of my personal favourite parts are the colourful homes (which I think add onto the beauty of everything), the school, with sandboxed for writing and labels you could wear, which would have been put on good and bad students as a reward or punishment. And as you may have noticed by now, the baked goods, which I tried a few of and all I have to say is, the Etar bakers are incredibly talented.

Before we end this blog entry, I want to thank everyone for the 160 readers (as of when I am writing this). I never thought I would gain so many readers so fast and it really makes me happy to see so many people interested in my blog – thank you all.