In 1928, a young Bulgarian woman boarded a steamship to sail to the other side of the world. Endowed with a brave heart and a thirst for knowledge, she began her adventurous life filled with discoveries, altruistic gestures and patriotism.

Anka was born in 1895 in the town of Karlovo in a poor family of five children. Although she faced a series of difficulties that would make any weaker soul give up, Anka vowed to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. Anka Lambreva was left an orphan when she was only twelve and had to take care of her brothers and sisters. However, she managed to graduate from a high school in Plovdiv while working as a maid. I will graduate from school, even if I have to sleep in the streets and read under the light of the street lamps, Anka said back then. And she succeeded indeed.

Anka won a scholarship for the American College in Istanbul and slowly took on the path towards her dream. After Kemal Ataturk’s cabinet closed the college, she graduated a nursing school and started working at a hospital near the Bosphorus. There, she made her most valuable acquaintance which would change her life completely. One night, Anka saved the life of a patient who would never forget she did for him.

She was invited to New Zealand to take care of Mr. Taken and his ill daughter, Delyan Momchilov who wrote the book “The Bulgarians - the Forgotten Achievements” told Radio Bulgaria. The grateful Englishman sent Anka a ticket and she boarded a steamship to Dunedin, New Zealand. During the three-month journey she visited Egypt, India, Ceylon and Australia before she arrived in New Zealand.

It turned out that Anka Lambreva was the first Bulgarian woman in the Pacific country. Led by patriotic feelings, she gave many lectures in this country to acquaint the local people with the Bulgarian history and culture. All major newspapers published her articles themed “The Unknown Bulgaria”. In an open letter to the Bulgarian government, Sir Thompson, Professor in Philosophy, called Anka Lambreva “a favourite of the whole country”

Caught up in nostalgia, Anka Lambreva departed to her home country in 1929, thus putting an end to her first journey around the world. Unfortunately, historiographers have not found credible stories as an evidence of her flight across the English Channel in the same year. However, a photo of Anka Lambreva posing in front of the airplane proves that she was the first Bulgarian woman and most probably the first woman in the world to cross the English Channel by airplane.

During her second round the world trip Anka visited and explored 42 countries.

In each country she stayed a little longer, Anka worked as volunteer and did her best to refine the local environment, Delyan Momchilov says.

She worked as a carer in Iran. Many new houses replaced the clay huts at her initiative. She also contributed to the construction of a water supply system, hospitals, schools and a cultural center. During World War 2,  Anka Lambreva was sent to a concentration camp in Lebanon where she took care of wounded captives. One of them would become her future husband  - Persian Rayad Ahmad Din. After the war they settled in Iran and continued to tour the world.

She remained in history with her example, her power and her ambition, because at the beginning of the 20^th century, when women did not even have the right to vote, she managed to travel around the world twice, Delyan Momchilov went on to say.

After her husband’s death in 1970, Anka Lambreva returned to Bulgaria and spent her last days in her native town of Karlovo. Her book “My around the world tour. The queen of south seas” describes her meaningful and adventure-filled life. 

She passed away at the age of 81 and was buried next to her parents.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov