Thursday, 10th August, Kazanlak

Looking at our collection of maps over breakfast this morning, we were again surprised at how disconcerting it is to have place names change—only slightly, but still—in their transliteration. So Kazanlak is a different place for me than Kazanluk or Kasanlack. Here we are in a land of many names and I have to decide how to spell them…

After the map consultation we take advantage of being able to go for a walk again because we spend far too much time sitting in the car. We visit the church with its 18th- and 19th-century icons and walk around another part of the village. Then we start off south again to Sliven where we have a cup of coffee in the modern pedestrian zone before visiting the EVN client centre briefly and then continue on to take a guided tour of the Ecotex carpet factory. It is one of the few still functioning factories of its kind in the region.

Being August means the workers are all on holiday and that only maintenance staff and mechanics are on duty busy servicing the machines. This doesn’t make the security restrictions any less thorough though. The works are huge, weaving all kinds of designs, many in synthetic yarns. To our eyes they appear a little behind the times. Here, amongst the traditional designs there are faux tiger skins and giant roses instead of woolly icons. The company has already been downsized and our guide tells us that the export market is increasingly tough. We take photographs – the sheer size of the machines is impressive and I imagine that when they are all working the din could cause permanent hearing damage.