It may seem a strange to say but it seems the weather is talked about in Bulgaria more than I remember it being talked about in the UK! Bulgarian weather talk is the number one topic here.
You would think in the villages where farmers' crops depend of the weather the topic would be discussed more than in town and cities but this is not the case, it applies to the whole country. It is a Bulgarian obsession to comment of the weather wherever they are - even to the point of commenting of weather elsewhere in Bulgaria if there is nothing to comment on about the weather in their own area. On such a rare occasion where whole country has a weather where not much could be said about it they would talk about the weather they had previously or the weather that they are going to get or in many cases both!
The weather in Bulgaria is also very regional with the great diversity of land different climates are experienced from the Northern Balkan Mountain Range down to the Thracian Plains and then moving over to the East with influence of the Black Sea. So there can be more than three very different types weather in three different places in Bulgaria at the same time.
Regardless of the comments and discussions on weather this is where the similarity stops compared with the UK.
Whatever the weather in Bulgaria there is this really 'casual' way of dealing with it as things carry on as normal as with most things here.The weather doesn't, 'get to them' in Bulgaria as it is accepted very much as this is what weather we get so what's the problem!
I recall one day in my village working on the land where some serious dark storm clouds gathered overhead and there was I running around like a headless chicken putting things away and gathering up the hay that had been freshly cut earlier in the day so it could be covered with a plastic sheet before the rain came. Around me there were others working out on the fields, as I look up they had all stopped working, not due to the inbound weather but just to look at me running around like a Mad Dog!
The downpour came, like I said it doesn't mess around as the heavens opened. The hot Bulgarian sun returned after a short while drying everything out in the same amount of time it took me to put things back into place before the rains came. Bulgarian folk looking on were wondering what all the fuss was all about and why the waste of energy during that particular episode in fact it was a distraction from the current weather talk.
It seems like a strange contradiction to act so casual about their weather yet talk about it so much. The only way I can think to sum up the contradiction is where you may get two Bulgarians talking about the rainy weather - in the rain!
If you want to get involved in the community here in Bulgaria it would be very useful to learn some Bulgarian words and phrases about the weather. This would go down very well in casual conversation and would be an valuable tool to have which would be used on almost every ocassion you meet people here.
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