La dolce vita

Following our daughter’s birthday, we spent a night at one of the countless spa hotels that have sprung up across Bulgaria over the last few years. There were just a couple of people staying and using the facilities there. We went to several similar places around the city for coffee and deserts, and saw a similar picture – solemnly servile staff catering to a few customers in pompously decorated lobby bars. At the same time, the city was dotted with abandoned construction sites, including the concrete hulk of a performing arts center from the late 1980s in the central square. And we drove along a road consisting mainly of potholes to a lake on the outskirts of the city which had once been a familiar tourist attraction. What better illustration for the proverbial capacity of the market to channel resources and investment with unrelenting effectiveness? Pouring billions into the construction of all those spa hotels catering to a few nouveau riche entrepreneurs and well-paid professionals while the social infrastructure of the country is decaying beyond the point of no return...