Tabibito's Bulgaria Guide

Tabibito's Bulgaria Guide
Language: Bulgarian. This language belongs to the South Slavic language group, which is part of the satem branch of the Indo-European language family. ...
Tabibito's Bulgaria Guide
Bulgarian their mother tongue, which means that it's a minor language. Bulgarian was almost identical to Old Church Slavonic, and so it was the third most important written language in medieval Europe. Bulgarian is quite close to Russian (with Russian deriving from Bulgarian, not vice versa). uses azbuka, better known as Cyrillic letters. Bulgarian, it's a mix of [ a ] and the schwa [ ə ]. Bulgarian, it is pronounced as [ Bəlgaria ], with a very short vowel. Bulgaria, but there are also some distinctive Bulgarian dialects which are hard to understand. Bulgarian and other Slavic languages →click here.*Source:CIA World Factbook   GeographyBulgaria occupies a wide part of the central Balkan peninsula. Bulgaria shares borders with Serbia and Macedonia, in the south with Greece and Turkey. mountain ranges Stara Planina, Rodopi and Strandsha dominate the small country, but there are also some small but highly impressive massifs such as Rila and Pirin. used as Bulgaria's granary.Although the country is comparatively small, it offers an amazing variety of landscapes, with more than a few of them protected by national parks. (see →Smolyan), Rila national park(see →Rila and the amazing national park along Ropotamo river in the south-east of Bulgaria are definitely worth a visit. cenic roads in Bulgaria, but my personal favourite (although it's hard to pick a favourite here) is the road connecting Michurin (south of Burgas) with Malko Tarnovo (at the Turkish border) - a highly interesting landscape with some sleepy little villages. Bulgaria: Mosques, Churches and moreOnce, Bulgaria was part of the vast →Kingdom of Macedonia andafter that a province of the Roman Empire. o-Bulgarians, originally a Turk tribe, were culturally assimilated by Slavic tribes.Tsar Boris I., one of the emperors of the First Empire, managed to unify and chrisitianize the nation. Bulgarian Empire reached its biggest extent - it occupied almost all of the Balkan. Bulgaria, was conquered by the Byzantine Empire. resent-day Macedonia.In 1018, the Byzantine Empire controlled the entire empire. Asen and Peter, led a successful uprising against the occupants in 1185. Second Bulgarian Empire with →Veliko Tarnovoas the new, shining capital.This second Bulgarian heyday was over in 1396. Bulgarians, can still be found here and there in Bulgaria and north-west Turkey.The situation shouldn't change during the following centuries. Bulgarian culture and its symbols gradually perished. Bulgarians initiated the Koprivshtitsa uprising, but this was brutally put down by the Ottoman rulers. Bulgaria, and so Russia declared war on the Ottomans. Bulgarians dead (the number of Ottoman victims is not known). Bulgaria, covering a large part of the Balkan peninsula. vised in the Congress of Berlin in the same year. Bulgaria aka East Rumelia, parts of present-day Greece and Macedonia became parts of the Ottoman Empire again.In 1879, the first National Assembly took place and agreed on a constitution. Bulgaria cann't declare full independence before 1908. Bulgaria, together with Serbia and Greece, started the First Balkan War to drive the Ottomans out of Europe. Bulgaria was the Second Balkan War, which broke out between the former alliance a few years later. Second World War, Bulgaria formed an Alliance with Nazi Germany, but its leaders refused to hand over the Jewish minority. September 1944, the Red Army occupied the country, and the Bulgarian Fatherland Front gained power. started some reforms but remained in power. imself in trouble as well (as of 2003, check for recent news).Nowadays, the country has a serious population problem. Bulgarians are living at or below poverty line (much less than years before), but unemployment rate is around 18 %. Bulgaria joined the NATO, and additionally the country is trying hard to gain full membership of the EU. Black Sea coast and tourist ghettos lining up along the seashore. beaches are nice, but the real jewels of Bulgaria can only be found in the hinterland.Visa: Most nationalities do not require a visa any longer - travelers from the EU, Canada, USA, Australia, UK, Japan etc can stay one month (some even 3 months) in the country with nothing more than a valid passport. eased considerably as well - corruption at crossing points seems to have vanished. Bulgaria!10 Leva billMoney: The Bulgarian currency is called Lev (Plural: Leva), with 1 Lev consisting of 100 Stotinki. cities, accepting most credit cards as well as Maestro and Cirrus bank cards (for the latter, the usual fee per transaction is € 4). Bulgaria is still one of the cheapest destinations in the area. Bulgarians manage to sell things that cheap, but somehow they do. prices at the seashore are substantially higher (but still cheap). r;Sofia and →Plovdiv as well as countless charter flights to →Burgas and →Varna at the Black Sea - of course not in winter. started to wobble, and the wing almost touched the ground - it was a few inches left only. buses run from several destinations in Europe to Bulgaria. several border crossings is not everyone's cup of tea. buses are the easiest way to get there (except hitchhiking of course).Some international trains connect Bulgaria with the rest of the world. r;Varna - which takes more than 36 hours.Another option are trains from Germany or Austria etc to →Zagreb and from there via→Belgrade to →Sofia.Additionally, there are direct trains to Thessaloniki in Greece, to →Istanbul, Moscow, →Kyiv (Kiev) and so on. Serbia.Border crossings: Some remarks on border crossings I have used during my trips to and from Bulgaria:Burgas Int'l airport: Probably the easiest and most hassle-freeway to enter the country.Giurgiu (Romania) - Ruse: Here, the wide Danube river marks the border, with a long steel bridge linking the countries. Bulgarian side, a regular bus takes you to the centre of →Ruse, which is around 8 km away. Sofia: In 1996, it was not possible to cross the border here in your own car without bribing the officials. Sofia to Skopje: Crossing this point is quite a hassle and treatment can be called a harassment. Sofia to Skopje costs 20 Leva (€ 10) per person, the ride takes around 5½ hours.Malko Tarnovo - Kirklareli (Turkey): A funny, deserted border crossing this is. Mountain Range: Just for the sake of the marvellous landscape it's worth crossing the border here. ause the Bulgarians had lunchbreak as I found out afterwards.Transportation in Bulgaria There are some train connections, but most trains are very slow. buses are much faster and more convenient. buses, and as with the long-distance buses, most of them are fast and modern. Bulgarian cuisine is definitely worth mentioning. asking a Japanese, what he will associate with "Bulgaria", around 99% will answer "Yoghurt". Bulgarian dishesMany traditional dishes are based on plain, slightly sour yoghurt. (see picture, top left). resent sheep's milk cheese (Sirene): This salty white cheese can be found on the top of salads (shopska salata), on gratins, pasta and even on chips (French fries). see picture bottom right) are from the Ottoman area, minced meat-eggplant-casseroles (moussaka) belong to the Greek staple diet. Bulgarians are probably clever: They keep the good stuff for themselves and dump the rest at foreign countries. Bulgarian wine here and there in the country itself. urse, beer is quite popular as well. Bulgaria, too: Slivova and other Rakiya (fruit brandy), Mastika (aniseed based brandy, similar to the Greek ouzo or the Turkish rakı) etc are highly common. Bulgarian shibboleth: In almost all western countries,shaking your head means "no" and nodding means "yes". ease.assistant: To Burgas?tabibito: (is nodding)assistant: What!? serious now, trying hard not to move his head)assistant: Got that. Bulgaria), so it's the best thing to try not to move one's head at all. Bulgarian government - with useful links and information. Bulgaria and Turkey with loads of pictures. w.bulgariatravel.org/Official tourism site for Bulgaria. ease note that commercial websites will be declined.