The day Ellis got a 5 Leva haircut

I had passed the barbershop/beauty salon many times on my way to work. I had seen men getting their haircut there, but there was always a line waiting for the scissors. The opening hours were posted on the door - from 07:00 to 19:00. Today, on my way home from work, I bravely stepped in.

"Dobre vecher," I said. I knew how to say "Good evening." I followed that by "Ne gevorya Bulgarski," informing the entire room that I didn't speak Bulgarian.

There were three women working in the shop, and none of them spoke English. But under a hair drier, her hair rolled up in curlers, one customer knew English. She stood up and asked me, on behalf of the staff, what sort of haircut I wanted.

"Kus," I said, proud that I had learned the Bulgarian word for "short" in preparation for my visit.

"How short," the lady in hair curlers asked. "1, 2 or 3?"

I hadn't realized that there were these variations of the adjective "short." Maybe it was a Bulgarian thing. "Very short," I replied.

Language barrier or not, women barbers the world over know how to use an electric razor and my excess hair was soon on the tiled floor. Not a bad job, even Jodie agreed later.

How much? I indicated as I stood up to leave.

"Pet Leva." Five Leva. That works out to 14.50 shekels.

I paid her and thanked her with a robust "Blogodariya". Thank you!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The “Pogacha”

Image
Pogacha is a traditional, round bread which is used in many Bulgarian ceremonies and celebrations. This was also the name for the celebration that we were invited to by one of my colleagues, Luca, and his wife Iva, in honor of the birth of their son, Nicola. Although the customs surrounding the birth of a baby had their origins many centuries ago, and most of them have not survived, there are still some customs which have made it to modern times and are generally followed by all women after giving birth. When a baby is born, the baby is not taken out of the house for a period of 40 days. During this time, only close family members are allowed to visit and to see the baby. In ancient times, this was due to the fact that a woman was considered “unclean” and as a result, she and her baby were at great risk from evil spirits. Today, it is more of a feeling of protecting the baby from germs and keeping him safe. At the end of the 40 days, there is a celebration, which only the women family...
Read more

Top 15 Favorite Bulgarian Places

Image
At a distance of one month, it's sometimes hard to believe that we spent two wonderful years living in Bulgaria. We look back with fond memories at the many places we visited, the many people we met, and the many things we learned about Bulgaria, its culture and history. This started as a Top Ten list, but there were too many places to list, so it became a Top 15 list, and still, some of the colorful destinations we visited are not included. The list is presented in alphabetical order. Balchik . On the Black Sea coast, this town was the summer home of Queen Marie of Romania . We enjoyed walking around the botanical gardens, seeing the old style houses and the simple palace that captured the heart of the Romanian queen. Belogradchik . Belogradchik is a town in northwestern Bulgaria and also the name of a fortress and nature reserve of bizarrely shaped sandstone, limestone and other rock formations. The Belogradchik Rocks were Bulgaria's candidate in the campaign for N...
Read more

The Chinese Market

Image
On Sunday we went with our friends Sima and Shlomo to the northern neighborhoods of Sofia to an outdoor shopping bazaar known as the Chinese Market. Stokov Bazaar, or Ilientsi, is a huge area of stalls selling everything from kitchen appliances, toys, clothing, and car parts, and at very cheap prices. Many of the shopkeepers were indeed Chinese, and it was interesting to see so many Orientals in one place, speaking Bulgarian. We managed to buy a few things we needed but it was hard to fully enjoy the experience as it was freezing cold. Either the cold, or the after-Christmas mood kept the crowds away, because we heard that the bazaar attracts many Sofia shoppers.
Read more