Georgi Ivanov saw ball lightning for the first time in the Vratsa Balkan, according to an interview stored in RB “Hr.Botev”-Vratsa

The first Bulgarian cosmonaut, Georgi Ivanov, saw ball lightning for the first time in the Vratsa Balkan, according to an interview stored in RB “Hr.Botev” – Vratsa. A copy of the interview was shown by librarian Dorothea Vladeva at the National Press Club of BTA – Vratsa during the online presentation of the latest issue of LIK magazine, dedicated to the 45th anniversary of the flight of the first Bulgarian cosmonaut.
The interview was conducted during Georgi Ivanov’s visit to Vratsa by the journalist Tsvetana Markova and was published in the “Otechestven zov” newspaper. In it, he says that he has been to Vratsa many times, but the most indelible memory will remain for him on June 2, from the time when he was a second-year cadet at the “Georgi Benkovski” National Air Force School. The night before, they found themselves in the company of the great Bulgarian actor Konstantin Kisimov and spent the whole evening with the boys captivated by his speech, and the next day they went up to the celebration of “Okolchitsa”. “As we were coming down to town I saw ball lightning for the first time in my life. Yes, really ball lightning. It was 60-80 centimeters in size. This was my first introduction to lightning. It was something unique, amazingly interesting”, says Georgi Ivanov. He goes on to say that he was excited during the flight, but here on Earth he gets more excited, and what he missed most in space was a pillow.
The press club in Vratsa also showed photos stored in the Regional History Museum and in the private archive of the photographer and municipal councilor Vasko Vrachovski. According to the curator of the “Latest history” department of RIM-Vratsa, Velik Klyunkov, some of the photos captured moments from the reception of Georgi Ivanov on the central square in Vratsa in April 1980, the laying of flowers at the Botev monument, his reception at the atomic plant capital of Bulgaria – Kozloduy.
There are photos from the same period that the photographer Vasko Vrachovski showed. He discovered the photos recently while looking through the archives of his father – the famous Vratchan photographer and photo correspondent for a number of local and national newspapers, Boris Vrachovski. They also have moments from the welcoming of our first cosmonaut in Vratsa in one of the local high schools and in the Computing Center.