"Balkan Express" is a series in its second decade of presence in the ERT3 television program. It is an ongoing trip to the Balkans that seeks to reconnect the Greek audience with an area of our geography that is important for our history, culture, economy, and future. The Balkans are the bible of European culture, a laboratory for the production of history, a geostrategic crossroads, and a place of development of Greek extroversion. "Balkan Express" makes an acquaintance with a neighborhood that we are called to coexist in, in a European context, and to manage vital issues together. It is an exciting experience in a part of an unexplored Europe with unique natural diversity, gastronomy, music, and folk culture, but also with modern life and innovative spirit, having a lot to offer in today’s world.

On this episode we travel to Sozopol, one of the ancient cradles of Hellenism on the coast of the Black Sea, Bulgaria. A town founded in the late 6th century BC by Greeks of Miletus and originally bore the name of Apollonia; its founder was Anaximander, a philosopher. A town of Thracian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Bulgarian origins, with several layers of history and cultural. We speak with the mayor of Greek origin and visit the small island of Agios Ioannis, where archaeologists have discovered the relics of St. John the Forerunner. The tour continues with a visit to the Sozopol Archaeological Museum where, among ancient amphorae and coins lies the skeleton of a medieval “vampire”, which was discovered in the courtyard of a Byzantine church in the early 14th century, when the pandemic of the plague was ravaging Europe. We meet the remaining Greeks of the most “Byzantine” and artistic town in Bulgaria. They recount their stories, filled with memories and emotion, and share their anxiety about the future of the last hub of Hellenism of the Black Sea.