In the early morning of St. George's Day, people from all over the country will take a journey back in time to get in touch with the beauty of nature and the purity of the human soul. And while the train is moving along the narrow-gauge line from Septemvri to Dobrinishte, people will be preparing for celebration on the meadows near the town of Yakoruda.

For a second consecutive year, the people fromYakoruda will share the feast St. George with people from near and far. Organizer of this meeting is the Save the Narrow Gauge Railway Association, which promises to turn the celebration into a tradition.

“Many people, who have heard of Yakoruda, associate it with being a town with predominantly Muslim population, but they are wrong,” Kristian Vaklinov says. “In fact, Yakoruda has a rich history since the time of the Thracians and Christian traditions are aliveto this day while there is peaceful cohabitation between Bulgarian Christians and Bulgarian Muslims. It is unique that on St. George's Day, which is also the feast of the city, both Christians and Muslims fill up the yard of one of the oldest churches in this country also named after St. George. The community celebrates together and families gather. That is why our goal is to show that we must be united and good, and that we should not be separated, especially in the times in which we live.”

The first contacts with local people take place in the train, as people use it to reach their work places. Tourists are curious how these people live in places where sometimes no roads go.

“In the Rhodope Mountains we see bare meadows and huts, cottages, and small villages here and there. People live peacefullytogether; they spend the winter without electricity and they survive thanks to the train. The atmosphere in which we immerse meeting them is from the beginning of the last century. People carry huge bags selling milk. Every day one sees women carry 50-60 liters of milk for a kilometer to the nearby train station. Locals walk to the train in the dark in the snow, in sunny and rainy days. People from the Rhodope Mountains are also citizens of Bulgaria and the EU, buttheir way of living fascinates tourists.”

Kristian Vaklinov remembers with joy the last year's edition of the St. George’s Day meeting when people had great time together, and finally with hugs and tears in their eyes they promised to meet again next year.

“The local people have prepared a modest yet warm welcome at the station and then on the meadows, where they put up tents and cook food,” Kristian Vaklinov says. "They told us not to worry if it rained because every guest would be sheltered. And this is something we do not often see in everyday life. Unfortunately, we have become cold and alienated from each other, but that does not apply to the town of Yakoruda. Here people cry with joy that something positive is happening in their city. So there is no need to do anything special - it is enough that people welcome us very warmly, that they are ready to give us shelter and that they invite us again and again to come back.”

When more than 200 people poured out of the train last March 3, an elderly gentleman exclaimed that he had not seen so many guests coming to the town from all over the country. That was the first time when this togetherness happened, Kristian Vaklinov says. And this is a true unity between people, able to open their hearts to others and show warmth.

English: Alexander Markov