2015-06-25

【Aiden in English】

        Not to confuse with Zanzibar of Tanzania, the other ancient city of Nessebar in Bulgaria is spelled with an N, not a Z. However, if I didn’t know any better or haven’t visited this stone city in Africa, I probably could pass those two for the same place. 

        Zanzibar is an ancient city of winding and narrow streets paved with cobbles situated in the Indian Ocean. The walls of the city were put up stones, and it looked like a life-size maze. Along the coast of the Black Sea, Nessebar has the 19^th-century wooden houses with broad, lively squares and restaurants everywhere. I mean absolutely everywhere! Out of all the cities that my cruise ship has sailed so far, this city is boasting its seafood to the world the most. I guarantee you that there is a restaurant with shrimps, fish, and scallops on every street, which is quite opposite to Zanzibar. And to add another difference, Nessebar had over 4,000 churches built in the village. Nowadays, only eight churches remain and are full of history. 

        In Nessebar, the first civilization started with the Thracian settlement more than 3,000 years ago, way before the Greeks, Romans, Persians, Slavs, and Ottomans all laid claim to this port city. Its history sounds quite interesting. First of all, the Thracians didn’t have a writing system. So you may ask how the heck we know about these people if they didn’t even record down things. History comes from writing, you know. All we have are things written about them in Greek. In other words, we didn’t know anything about them until after it became a Greek colony at the beginning of the 6th century B.C. Now every empire thinks that its people were superior, and the Thracians were known as barbarians. That statement is not completely a lie since they were not afraid of death. They believed death was just a gateway, which was extremely dangerous during the battles. Imagine facing a warrior not afraid of dying. They would fight stress free, but you would freak-out with “what-if”s. To say exactly how much, women would fight over who was buried with their husbands. It is Nessebar that the Greek myths of Dionysus share the stage with reality tales of Spartacus. 

        After the Thracians came the Greeks and Romans, then the Byzantine. Nevertheless, the Thracians probably had the most achievements out of all. They became the first to work with gold, which is very surprising. Many artifacts were the oldest of Europe, and possibly the world so far discovered. All from a group I have never heard of. 

        The Thracian settlement was a civilization that came out of the blue to me. First it was the Greeks, the Minoans then came after, and now the Thracians showed off. What other crazy and strong civilization is out there that I don’t know of?

【红霞译文】

        千万不要与坦桑尼亚的桑给巴尔混淆在一起，另一座以“N”而非“Z” 打头的保加利亚古城名叫内塞巴尔，然而要不是我曾亲自到访过非洲石头城，恐怕还真以为两个天南海北的历史名城同归一个地方呐。

        桑给巴尔濒临印度洋，鹅卵石铺就的街径巷陌曲折又狭窄，再加石头围墙，亲临此地犹如置身于真人大小的迷宫。黑海之滨内塞巴尔到处布满十九世纪兴建的木质建筑，广场宽敞开阔，餐馆生意兴旺，人头绝对遍地涌动！截至到目前为止，就游轮所停泊的地方而言，内塞巴尔海鲜筵席堪称世界之最，我敢保证每条街上各家餐馆无不提供大虾、鲜鱼、扇贝美味佳肴，这与桑给巴尔形成鲜明对照。两地之间还有一点差异，内塞巴尔有史以来共建造了四千多座教堂，其中仅有八座保持下来，饱经历史沧桑。

        内塞巴尔文明史起源于三千多年前色雷斯部落，比古希腊、古罗马、波斯、斯拉夫及奥斯曼人各自声称自己领土组成部分要早出很长时间，令人玩味的倒是其历史背景。首先，色雷斯从未创建文字系统，你也许会说岂不活见鬼，没有文字记载后人如何了解过去，要知道历史离不开笔迹，而我们掌握的全部来自希腊记载，也就是说，直到公元前六世纪色雷斯变成古希腊殖民地之后，人们才开始逐步了解这个民族。如今，没有一个帝国不认为自己的民族是天下最伟大的，而色雷斯人却被视作野蛮部落，这种结论并非言过其实，因为色雷斯人天不怕地不怕，坚信死亡是一种超脱，战场上跟亡命徒针锋相对该有多恐怖，试想眼前面对的是一帮无所畏惧的勇士，他们视死如归，不令你抓狂才叫奇怪。更有甚者，妇女们前赴后继，誓死鏖战沙场替先夫报仇，难怪内塞巴尔在推崇希腊神话中酒神狄俄尼索斯的同时，尤以色雷斯传奇英雄斯巴达克斯为荣。

        色雷斯人之后，内塞巴尔先后沦落于古希腊、古罗马、拜占庭手中，历史变迁丝毫抹煞不掉该民族所创造的丰功伟绩，出乎意料地，他们是第一个打造黄金的先驱，身后留下许多工艺制品业已成为欧洲乃至全世界年代最久远的古董，并且全部出自我从来没有听说过的工匠之手。

        色雷斯古代文明着实让我耳目一新。此行先目睹希腊文明，再鉴赏米诺斯文明，而今又跃然出现色雷斯其人其事，世上还有其它什么稀奇古怪的文明我尚未听说过？