The city of the lazy and the free

[kafa88]

Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city, prides itself on a reputation for doing things its own way. As soon as you step off the bus from the capital Sofia, you will feel a change in life. A person walking more slowly They seem to have more time on hand. Traffic is not rushed As you make your way through the city center through a park where old men gather to play chess and people lounge and chat in the shadow of an old tree, Plovdiv immediately feel the difference. Plovdiv has a kind of indignation, one that is immediately evident and difficult to put on your finger.


In downtown Kapana, people flock from bars and cafes down to pedestrian streets. Under the brightly painted murals, a group of young people flocked to play with their phones. In a cafe next to the Dzhumaya Mosque in the center of the city, people sip Turkish coffee for hours. Even cats on the cobblestone streets of the old town look more weary than others. They stretch and purr, then they roll over and go back to sleep. If you ask the people here why the city is so laid-back, they'll tell you: Plovdiv, they'll say, "Alyak."The word "aylyak" was not used much outside Plovdiv, although it appeared in Bulgarian dictionaries in the late 19th century. "Homelessness" or homelessness and is derived from the Turkish "aylık", which means month".


Yana Genova, director of Sofia's Bureau of Literature and Translation, said the original meaning of aylyak was that someone was hired to work month-to-month, as a result, knowing that time had to be on hand. The verb that goes with aylyak is “bichim,” a derivative of the verb “bicha,” meaning to strike or cut off beams and boards from tree trunks. The idea of ​​whipping or cutting is a reminder that aylyak is a functional thing. If you want to practice aylyak, you have to set aside time for yourself. You have to take the initiative to cut yourself off from the worries of your daily life.


But no matter which word's origins in contemporary Plovdiv, aylyak has its own meaning and significance, something that doesn't have to translate as much as it lives. When you ask people to explain the meaning, more often than not they tell you a joke, so funny the people of Plovdiv are meeting Spanish tourists in the town of "What is aylyak?" Think for a moment and say, "It's like your manana. Manana. But without stress


In 2019, Plovdiv shared the slotxo name European Capital of Culture with Matera in Italy. As part of one of the city's corporate culture events - the Fire Theater Mime Company, led by Bulgarian actor, director and mime artist Plamenadeev Georgiev, conducted a series of public consultations to explore Aylyak in depth. More He wanted to know what aylyak is, what its origin is and how it relates to Plovdiv.

I met Georgiev in a coffee shop in Sofia. He was born in Stara Zagora, about 80km northeast, and when he arrived in Plovdiv in 2018, he was a sophisticated outsider of Aylyak culture. "Our research is difficult," he said. Tell me, “Someone asked why we were interested in aylyak. They said it was not worth it. It's just laziness.But from the public debate, the broader picture emerged, Aylyak, people said, about finding time. It's about sitting down for breakfast with your friends and finding you still going out for the night. It's about being happy in your environment. It is tied to social status with a dull, walking down the street with nothing to do. And on a deeper level - Georgiev calls this "Zen aylyak" - it has to do with the freedom of the soul. "Aylyak means you can share in the adversity of life. But you're safe from all life's problems, ”he said.


In Sofia, many people I spoke to were skeptical about aylyak, looking at it as nothing more than branding, Capital of Culture, or hipster marketing. I'm not convinced either. So I took a bus from Sofia to Plovdiv to spend days in the city and take my own bus. In Plovdiv, I spoke with Dr Svetoslava Mancheva, an anthropologist and director of ACEA Mediator, an organization dedicated to connecting communities and areas in the city of Svetoslava, originally from Kardzhali, in the southwestern part of the country. Self-confessed aylyak convert She lived in Plovdiv for 10 years and had no intention of leaving. "Many people lived here especially because it was an uncle," she said. Was brought up in Plovdiv But just moved back from Berlin She was glad to go home. She said: Berlin was fine, but it wasn't.


For Mancheva aylyak, it is rooted in Plovdiv's long history of multiculturalism, Mary C Neuberger.Historians describe how the city was a thriving commercial center in the 19th century, out of all the cities in the Ottoman Empire, second only to it. Istanbul only and home to the crowded Greek, Bulgarian, Roma, Armenian and Slavic Jews on the streets and cafes or cafes, Mancheva said the aylyak was a response to the challenges of shared living. With strangers. “It's about finding my space in the city,” she says. “For me, Aylyak's basis is communication. You don't have to like each other. What matters is the willingness to speak, the desire to understand. ”


The historical story of a 19th-century cafe in Plovdiv describes it as a place where artisans and merchants mingle and time slowly passes by. Hristo Danov, a 19th-century Bulgarian poet, wrote disagreeing the way people Spend the day in a coffee shop People go to Kafnee, he writes, smoke, talk, drink coffee and "wait patiently for the sun to go down so they can go on to the plum brandy." On his voyage in 1906, British traveler John Foster Fraser was excited about life in Plovdiv. (Later called Philippolis):The scene picture A garden with many lanterns Under the tree there are many tables, where all "Philippopolis" sit, sip coffee, drink beer and roast a liter of wine. At one end of the park is a small stage, with a Hungarian band playing incessantly… it was Sunday night and Philippopolis Having fun with myself

As I talked to Mancheva and Kapusheva about aylyak, they came back again and again in one thought, Aylyak about finding space. It's a matter of finding space on your free day to drink coffee. It's all about finding the crevices in the city - alleyways, small parks, benches where you can hang out with friends, play music, drink beer or just chat. It's about making space for others when you communicate, and as Georgiev tells me, it's about finding free space amid the hardships of life. For those who develop such talent as Mancheva and Kapusheva, there is no better way to live.After several days in Plovdiv, I lost my doubts and learned how to bichim aylyak, I strolled down the street. I take it easy And, surprisingly, I found that I couldn't be less, just But everything is done with less stress.

At the end of my stay I was wondering if Plovdiv had anything to offer the rest of the world. I emailed Filip Gyurov, a Bulgarian writer who researched aylyak as a philosophy of life and an alternative to economic growth as part of his MSc thesis at Lund University. “It's not about the hustle and bustle of the city. The need to buy the latest tech toys is always climbing the social ladder, ”Gyurov wrote to me.“ People, especially young people, experience the dire side effects of burnout. Therefore, it is necessary to slow down so that it does not grow in order to live in harmony with nature and ourselves.


On my last afternoon in Plovdiv, I was seated in a cafe outside the Dzhumaya Mosque.I ordered a Turkish coffee and part kyunefe, a dessert that originated in the Middle East, and in the rhythm of the culinary brilliance was eclectic. Between Baklava and Cheese, coffee comes with a small glass of sweet rose syrup that removes the bitterness. Beside the mosque, under the bush, the ginger rose and the white cat slept in peace I don't have a watch I feel that I don't need to check my phone. I have no appointment to maintain. I drink my coffee and let the afternoon unfurl, knowing I have all the time in the world.