1.4 KiB
| title | date | draft | slug | categories | tags | description | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tanks Rolling Down the Streets of Sofia | Thu, 05 May 2016 14:10:12 +0000 | false | tanks-rolling-streets-sofia |
|
|
My evening commute is disturbed by tanks rolling down the street. |
Last night my trolley ride home from downtown Sofia was interrupted by a police roadblock and some rather unusual traffic on Aleksandar Dondukov Boulevard.
{{< video src="tanks-in-sofia" >}}
Welcome to Bulgaria, where military tanks roll down the streets of the country's capital in preparation for the annual Armed Forces Day parade. I've seen a dozen or so airshows, but this takes the cake! Nevertheless, this was pretty surreal to see.
Bulgarian Holy War
Bulgaria's Armed Forces Day coincides with Saint George's Day — you know, the guy who is depicted as killing a dragon in folklore and monuments all over Europe — on May 6th, as Saint George is the patron saint of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Holy War."
Update (May 6, 2016): Discussions with at least three Bulgarians about the strangeness of having a patron saint for the army have been extremely unproductive so far.