ABSTRACT
Bulgaria is a small country where distances are short. This determines the migration on Saturdays and Sundays from the big city to the village where the urban inhabitant has either a Sunday house with a vegetable garden and fruit trees, or takes part in the farming activities of his parents and relatives (cf. also Stamenova 1995: 103). Departing from the big city, the cars are overcrowded with people, empty bottles and jars, instruments and all kinds of things. Coming back, the cars are ‘sprawling’ under the weight of a variety of foods, taken from the village. Similar sights can be seen of trains and buses on Saturday and Sunday. This picture is typical both for the socialist and for the ‘transition’ period. This is part of the specific dimension of rurbanization (cf. Prosici-Dvornici 1992), brought about not only by the operation of cultural and historical factors, but also under the impact of economic coercion.
