It is no secret that the capital Sofia, with its fast expansion, has serious problems with maintaining a clean look. The factors that directly influence this are the culture and behaviour of all the people, streaming to the big city. The districts in the outskirts of the city are quite dirty, but – alas – the picture is the same in the city centre. Krasimir Martinov took a morning stroll around the National theatre “Ivan Vazov” in order to check the cleanness there at the beginning of the day. The theatre is the oldest and most authoritative one in the country and one of the important landmarks of the capital of Bulgaria. It is located, as we mentioned, in the centre of the city, with the facade facing the City garden. Founded in 1904, it was initially called simply the National Theatre, but after that it was named after the prominent writer Ivan Vazov. The theatre’s Neoclassical building, was designed by famous Viennese theatre architects Hermann Helmer and Ferdinand Fellner and was finished in 1906. The two famous architects have also designed operas and theatres in Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Odessa, Zagreb, Wisbaden. The building of the National theatre even today is one of the most beautiful in Sofia. The two architects however hardly envisaged that 100 years later the hurrying passer-bys will step on plastic and glass bottles, beer cans, empty chip bags and cigarette buds. It is 9 o’clock in the morning and I come upon a well dressed lady. It turns out that she is just back from Vienna. She shares that there – too – things are not as they should be with the cleanness of the city.

“The big probem is not the rubbish that is littering the streets but the one that is in our souls”, says she indignantly. “And with regret I have to add that we are very “skillfull” at making litter. I am just back from Vienna and it is a fact that ever since it opened itself to Eastern Europeans it is starting to resemble Sofia, because it is definitely dirtier than before. I sincerely hope that we will pick up their cultute in this respect and not impose ours on them”.

A woman is sweeping round the fountain in front of the National theatre.

“We start work at 7:30 am”, says Maria. “We find a lot of litter in the morning but try to collect it quickly so that the visitors will have the possibility to enjoy the peacefulness of the garden in a pleasant atmosphere. But in the morning we find here what not…

It turned out that almost every evening groups of teenagers gather in the garden. They hang around, play cards and talk. Their activities however are often accompanied with consumption of alcohol after which the empty bottles are left by the benches. Few of the young people make the several steps to the trash bins to throw away the useless litter. It is far easier to throw it on the ground. Another of the women who has the task to keep an eye on the garden shares:

“There are trash bins everywhere. All people have to do is go to them and use them accordingly. The young people must be taught to obey the rules”.

The recommendation of this woman is sensible but hard to follow because:

“No matter what efforts we make to keep the alleys and paths clean and tidy, if the citizens are not conscientious, no one can stop them from littering”, is the opinion of yet another woman, hurrying to work. “It is not normal to throw litter on the streets and it cannot be seen in any other European city. If I scold someone I risk to be insulted or scolded back. People are so nervous that they are not ready to absorb such rebuffs”.

Despite the early hour an elderly woman is sitting on a bench. She says that she enjoys the early morning hours here to read a book, a newspaper or just watch the passer-bys.

“I enjoy sitting by the fountain. It is calm and peaceful here. Regrettable the litter is something I cannot put up with. The picture is the same in all the gardens in the capital. I do not understand why we tend to throw something next to the trash bin and not in it. I visited my son in Chicago and he took me to a big park there. Everything was spick-span clean regardless of the fact that more people live in Chicago than in the whole of Bulgaria”.

This is how my morning stroll in the centre of Sofia ended. I felt disappointed by the litter left by the unconscientious citizens, but at the same time hoped that there are well-mannered people as well who are not indifferent towards the cleanness of the city.

English version Ivaila Bozhanova