The bars opened, Plovdiv residents remembered what nightlife is like

Nightlife has revived after the last restrictions on visiting bars and discos were lifted. Plovdiv, the Bulgarian capital of culture, was looking forward to this moment, which it is celebrating properly. “In fact, it is becoming increasingly clear that no famine, no earthquakes, no germs, no cancer, and man himself is the greatest danger to man for the simple reason that there is no adequate protection against mental epidemics that are infinitely more devastating than the worst natural disasters “, says Carl Jung in his book Man and His Symbols on the Threats Threatening People.

The coronavirus pandemic is weakening, easing measures that have kept some businesses closed for months. The nightclubs, last open on October 24, have just opened their doors, and the operating permit this time did not provoke mixed opinions.

Nightclubs have always been considered social clubs, places where, so to speak, one is treated by man, through man. This made the wait for the opening of restaurants and clubs painful beyond the easy understanding of eating and drinking.

Our midnight walk through the clubs of the city starts from the heart of the old town, because there is one of the most emblematic for the Plovdiv jazz scene club, and jazz, it is a symbol of rebellion, dance and the 20s of the past, which often are compared to the 20s of this.

Wooden tables, Charles Mingus and half-full glasses that reflect glowing faces. Against this background, a visitor to the restaurant told me that beauty is everywhere, but mostly in other people.

The alternative way of life is mostly associated with the TRAP. There is also our next destination, as the cobbled road from the old town to the center has never been so busy in recent months.

In one of the underground clubs we hear performances of one of the iconic songs of Alanis Morissette, during which we shout to each other with an excited person about how life is not life without music.

Rhythm in 2/4, shiny costumes, strong perfume and a noisy crowd of something like a parking lot is one of the places in Plovdiv with the highest concentration of restaurants. After a short, for the night dimensions of the city, a taxi ride, we find ourselves with a colleague in a world full of songs about love and separation.

In the preliminary conversations with the owner of the restaurants we found out that they do not want to let us into the clubs so as not to bother people, but we still managed to enter.

Sooner or later, but certainly sooner or later the clubs close, then you are left alone or with selected people with whom you sit on a bench or go home. In the park behind the Dzhumaya mosque, the silence is already welcoming us, as the weather here is completely Plovdiv – stopped and without regard to anything else.

The small hours of the day prove that something has been missing in the world so far, the night is worn out and it is already the day’s turn. Life is more familiar and normal with one idea, write the colleagues from “Radio Plovdiv”.

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