The Streets in Adzhissana

Even though the street is not an entirely male space because children are outdoors all day, and women who are not busy with their housework get together and take walks around the neighbourhood, it is the place where men spend more of their time, as they stay less at home. In the street they communicate with the Bulgarian residents of the neighbourhood, they sometimes busy themselves with trade, discuss politics or gather for a drink or a game of cards with friends. In the neighbourhood, according to locals, there are cafes visited by men only and by women only, but I have to say that I have not come across exclusively “female caffs”. The places where women meet are not regulated; everyone usually takes out a stool in front of someone’s house or shop but most often they gather in the yard. As Raya reveals, it is “shameful” for men and women to sit together, this is evidently lack of respect to the dominant sex.

Men gather elsewhere, at the Alexander Malinov Square, right next to the excavations at the Eastern Gate of the ancient city of Trimontium. Some like sitting under the monument at the foot of the Old Town, watching the street below them. I remember having seen in the past groups of men who hold ropes and wait for someone to hire them to carry burdens. Nowadays, men hang around in their cars, probably to operate as taxis for the residents of the neighbourhood. Young boys often just drive their cars through the streets of the neighbourhood.

From Ralitsa Ivanova’s thesis in Ethnology, 2010..