I grew up in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria before emigrating at the age of 10, so all of my experience with the city is as a child. I also visited last summer and got that familiar feeling of everything being smaller, though, in comparison to Chicago, everything really is smaller. Understandable and more accessible. Not physically, disability accommodations in Blagoevgrad aren't great, but that's outside the scope of this blog post.
So, this is part of the town square in Blagoevgrad. Pictured on the left is a government building and on the right is the cinema. Movie tickets in Blagoevgrad are cheap so going regularly is much more affordable. The middle are these cool fountains that light up at night. A lot of city-wide events happen in this square and the "downtown" is a short walk away. One holiday celebrated in Bulgaria is the Day of the Child, which as it sounds, celebrates children. It is a good excuse to use when trying to convince your parents to let you do something: "It's children's day, I make the rules today!" There is a tradition of such celebrations which inverse power dynamics in many areas.
When I was in 1st grade I was walking with my mom and being characteristically bad at directions. She told me that I have to learn how to navigate because when she was my age she can move about the city on her own. In grade school we could go wherever we wanted to get lunch. This was not a special privilege, but felt commonplace. I could take a brisk walk from my school to the pizza place in the center. I could also walk home and get food, but that was too time-consuming so I almost never did. In 30 minutes I can walk from my school to the town-square to the downtown shopping area to the "old city."
The old city are a couple of old buildings that were delegated as public buildings for the artistic education of children. This happened when Bulgaria was a dictatorship of the proletariat. I was enrolled in art/ceramics and piano lessons from a young age. They are paid now, but I am under the impression they were originally meant to be free. The old city is definitely a great place to emerce yourself in art.
The activity of choice for active people on the other hand is walking a forest filled path called Bachinovo. There is a public sink of clean water at the start of Banichinovo and restaurants soon after. At the end of the path are more restaurants and a rope course for different levels of ability or age. I recently completed it again when I visited last summer (pictured on the right) .
As I was growing up in Blagoevgrad there was a large construction project of a mall. As a child I thought that was cool because it lit up and I can see it from our house. I lived higher up close to the Romani neighborhood and definitely unethical zoo.
The mall is mostly H&M which I hate. I much prefer the small shops that run individually. I do see the value of having a more teen specific mall culture, but the city does not need that with all of the public space available. The economy is not super robust in Blagoevgrad, but that does not justify this choice for me. I would hate to see a move to more corporations and less personality in the city. The terrace is really cool though (pictured on the right).
As a child in Blagoevgrad, one is expected to play outside, explore, and stop at the store to pick up stuff for their parents. This is something I only realized the value of after leaving.
There is also knowledge you gain from being allowed more freedoms and participation. I know how the city works and I know where to go when I want or need something. The understanding that adults have of a city is made accessible in a way it is not for children in Chicago.