This blog is part of our special rubric: EAT.TRAVEL.LOVE
Somewhere between the fourth coffee and the first whiff of linden in town, I realized - May is not a month you simply live. The month of May is felt. With your heart, with your skin, with your bare feet in the grass. And most of all - with the palate.
Because right now, on the edge between spring and summer, everything is starting to taste like... cherry. 🍒 And I'm not just talking about fruit. I'm talking about that feeling that life is sweet and sour, enticing and slightly messy - but that's precisely its charm.
EAT.
The first time I realized that cherries are more than just a fruit was when I was 12, when an aunt from Plovdiv told me that they are not eaten, but ‘kissed’. Since then, I have perceived them as a fruit that you don't eat, but flirt with. A kind of prelude to summer love.
Maybe that's why cherries excite us so much - because there's something ancient about them. Not just a fruit, but a symbol. Since antiquity, the cherry has been associated with love, fertility and... a slightly mischievous charm.
In ancient Greek mythology, cherry trees are believed to have been dedicated to Aphrodite herself - the goddess of love and beauty. It's not hard to imagine her - barefoot, dressed in silk, wearing a wreath of cherry blossoms, smiling in a way that says, ‘I know exactly what I want.’
According to some legends, cherries bring good luck to lovers. A couple who shares their first cherries from the same branch will stay together - so say the old legends. Is it true? It may be superstition. But there's something about the way you share cherries with another - gently, with a smile, with a drop of juice on the edge of your lips - that brings you closer faster than any Tinder match.
"I want to do to you what spring does to cherry trees"
Pablo Neruda
And if you ask me, cherries are not for eating in front of the TV. They're for rituals. To serve them with a smile. To arrange them on your cakes. To paint them on a canvas with a glass of wine in hand - literally, like with that acrylic art class offered here: GiftComeTrue wine painting. A gift that gives art, experience, and at least one nice photo for your story.
Paint & Wine – artistic workshop
Duration: 2 hours
Location: Decollage Studio, Sofia
Have fun and unleash your emotions with a brush, acrylic paints and a glass of wine for pure inspiration and bold creativity.
TRAVEL.
Cherries grow everywhere, but true memories are cultivated when you pick them by hand - on the road, on unexpected detours, on wine routes, in the scents of vineyards and early sunsets. Spring doesn't wait. Spring grabs you by the hand and leads you.
Sometimes to Kavarna, sometimes to a small winery in the Thracian valley, where you taste red wine and say to yourself, "This is life." Just stay. It's a moment when no photo will capture well enough. This moment is for you.
Wine tour & gourmet escape for two at Zaara Estate
Duration: 1 or 2 nights
Location: Zaara Estate boutique winery & complex, Glavan village
Indulge in total relaxation and sensory delight at Zaara Estate winery. Pair this memorable stay with a visit to Uzundzhovo Church, built on the foundations of an ancient Thracian sanctuary.
And if you're looking for a wine-cherry getaway, here's one for you: a Weekend Wine Tasting Tour. Two glasses, two smiles and plenty of opportunities to say cheers to new beginnings. A wine tour isn't just a location. It's an experience with the pace of a Saturday afternoon - slow, lavish and full of surprises.
Oh yes! And let's not miss the theme of cocktail cherries and their (surprisingly chic) relationship to wine. You can take it as a new indulgence, aesthetic or taste discovery.
You might be offered a cocktail at one of these small, artisan wine places. Not just a glass of wine, but a wine cocktail. And just when you think you've seen it all, there's a maraschino cherry at the bottom, like a little gem waiting to be discovered.
You know those cocktail cherries - shiny, juicy, sweet, almost unreal? Turns out they're not just for whiskey and old fashioned. In fact, they pair wonderfully with some wines - especially sparkling and dessert wines. A little cherry in a bubbly rosé? Absolutely. A cherry in a prosecco with rosemary? Yes, please. It unlocks new nuances in the wine's flavor. It's not just a combination; it's a little ritual.
LOVE.
Love May. Love the colors of spring and the caressing rays of the sun. Love yourself when you're with your hair in a bun, no makeup, but with confidence that you're exactly where you need to be. Love not only the one who will buy you cherries, but the one who will wash them for you.
Sometimes love is quiet. Like that spa ritual you don't flaunt on Instagram but that makes you glow inside. Because fine living means taking care of yourself with care, not speed.
Whole-body therapeutic massage
Duration: 2 hours
Location: “SaltyFantasy” salt room, Mladost 1, Sofia
Treat yourself to well-deserved rest and say “goodbye, stress!” This therapeutic massage is ideal for people with specific aches and pains, as well as anyone who simply needs to unwind from a hectic routine.
In Japan, they understand these things. There, cherry trees are called sakura (literally meaning ‘tree on which God sits’). Every spring season, the country immerses itself in an almost magical state called hanami - the practice of contemplating the blossoming trees. And not just with the eyes. But with the heart.
Blossoming trees are a symbol of the moment passing. Of the ephemeral. Of the fact that beauty is temporary - and that is exactly why it is so precious. They only bloom for a few weeks, but during that brief period, people stop, gather under the rose branches, drink tea or sake, and just... empathize. This is living with open senses.
Every May comes with a promise - of new beginnings, of a little more freedom, of fresher emotions. And we, the women of Eat, Travel and Love, welcome it with cherry-hued lipstick and slightly flared dresses.
