Inside the Struggle to Save Bulgaria’s Last Narrow-Gauge Railroad

Dressed in a floral-patterned tunic and baggy pants, her hair covered with a colorful head scarf, Sabie Djikova loaded a dozen bottles — 45 pounds’ worth of milk — into a knapsack and a handmade bag, heaved them over her narrow shoulders and headed down the unpaved road toward the nearby train station.

At 65, she carries less than she used to. “When I was younger, I could carry up to 40 kilos,” she said — nearly 90 pounds.

Sabie and her family are part of a small community of Pomaks, Bulgarian-speaking Muslims who have lived for hundreds of years in a remote, mountainous region of the country. As with others in her village, Sabie owns a few dairy cows, which she milks each day before dawn.

For more than 20 years, Sabie has made the daily trek from her village of Ablanitsa to the nearby Tsvetino station, where a small train then carries her about 30 minutes to the market town of Velingrad. There, she goes house to house delivering bottles of fresh, unpasteurized milk. Other Ablanitsa women sell their products, including cheese, yogurt and honey, at the Velingrad open market.

The little money the sellers make helps provide for their intergenerational families. None of their business would be possible without the train, which is the most practical way for them to bring their goods to the market.