Adventures from Bulgaria: The Peony Mountain

By Valeria Idakieva

As time goes by, and the mind and the body, driven by curiosity, have wandered off to faraway places, the mind starts longing for familiar sights and feelings from the past, and the body has no other choice but to follow it. As years passed by, memories from my childhood started popping up more and more often and my mind started longing for the scents, colors, and sights of the mountain near which I was born. And I couldn’t help following my mind to the fragrant meadows of my childhood.
    That is how on a sunny day in May, I convinced some friends to go to Konyavska Mountain. It is not high, but it is covered with carpets of flowers and luscious green pastures.
    We started on a wide path taking us through blossoming meadows to the gentle green of the new beech leaves.

    The peak was in front of us, but the path was revealing its secrets, little by little, weaving through blossoming bushes.

And charming peonies.

    A lot of people go there to see the peonies and take pictures of themselves among them. The peonies mingled with other flowers and bushes and made us run all over the place like overexcited children.

    Every slope surprised us with a different view.

    It was difficult to take our eyes off the colorful carpet we were walking on, but when we did it, we saw that we were near the peak and high mountains were pricking the horizon.

    After a short rest at the peak, we had to start ascending, until again, through the gentle hues of the flowery earth and soothing forest, we went down.

    And finally we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset.

Of course, it was not and is never going to be as it was in my childhood, but still, it brought me back to that happy and magic time.

Copyright © 2020 by Valeria Idakieva