Valencia District

We are always happy to write about something that Bulgarians have done together, especially if it has brought joy and amusement in the tense everyday life. Several people told us about one such event last Sunday, on March 16, in the Bulgarian picnic in the Pinosol Park in Xabia - a town between Valencia and Alicante.

According to the artist Ivo Simeonov also known as Gal Grabby (whom we wrote about a week ago), who's been living in Denia recently, the Bulgarians have gathered on suggestion of Yulia Goycheva - the teacher thanks to who for 24 kids studying Bulgarian language and national history every Sunday. The children are currently enlisted in the filial of the Denia Sunday School at the Madara Association, Gandia. Undoubtedly the new establishment from last year pushed on the life of our fellow-countrymen there.

Yulia herself told us that the proposition for the event came on behalf of the parents who also took part in the organization. The idea was to celebrate the start of the Easter holiday - March 14-31. The teacher however warned that there will be classes on March 30, Sunday, in order to avoid slowdown of school material assimilation.

We've learned from Yulia that Gal Grabby took great part in organizing the festivity. "The community here is very self-contained but the ice has started to break lately. Ivo organizes gatherings every week and we are extremely pleased with the fact," she shared.

The picnic was in anyways traditional: music, football, four barbeques, for which everyone has brought something. Rena and Petar Petrov of the Bulgarian goods import firm Balkanika surprised the participants with meat balls and meat sticks, rakia and Bulgarian beer - for improvement of amusement and loss of nostalgia.

Gal Grabby, who is an artist and chairman of the IANA Association (International Academy for Non-Traditional Arts), cheered up the happy kids by painting temporary tattoos.

The picnic was attended by about 60 people. We wish them be a lot more next time, because all of them we spoke to are unanimous: "We had great fun." As Ivo Simeonov-Gal Grabby summed up, this is because "there were nice people gathered for nice things in order to remain nice memories".

We can only hope that other Bulgarians in Spain will follow the example of the fellow-countrymen in Denia.