FUN

The video, shot in the National Assembly, shows an young MP for the ruling Changes Continued political party who takes up the rostrum to make a statement to the house and then... forgets what he was about to do.

Dudes, you are not gods.

Toshko Yordanov, MP for There Is Such a People, to GERB who wanted a longer vacation in December and January on religious grounds

Fulfilling all of our goals in the set timeframe will be hard, but we all realise that you can eat an elephant a bite at a time.

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov

I will ban the State Railway bosses from using government cars. Let them travel by train.

1. The first census in modern Bulgaria ended on 1 January ...

A. 1913

B. 1944

C. 1881

2. What is a traditional winter dish in Bulgaria?

A. Roast peppers

B. Tarator cold soup

C. Stuffed sauerkraut leaves

3. Which region abounds with ancient Thracian megaliths?

A. The Northeast

B. The Rhodope

An UNESCO World Heritage site, this is the largest East Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. Founded in the 10th century by a man who was so pious he forsook all earthly pleasures and went on to live in a cave the monastery has survived various foreign dominations and several fires. An Irish journalist, James Bourchier (1850-1920), who reported extensively from Bulgaria chose to be buried by its walls when he died. So was the last Bulgarian king, Boris III – inside the church. The monastery now is considered to be one of the symbols of Bulgaria.

As a long-term subscriber to Vagabond it is my pleasure to introduce to you my latest book, Why I Love Bulgaria that was published a month ago by Kibea publishers in Sofia. Until the beginning of this year I lived in Bulgaria. The beautiful stories about Bulgaria in Vagabond have influenced me very much. So have your stunning photographs to which my book makes a powerful reference.

Wishing you continued success with Vagabond

Professor Hans Wissema,

The Hague 

Ahead of the 14 November general election some parties – notably the DB, or Democratic Bulgaria, and the ITN, or There Is Such a People party – insisted on taking away the good old-fashioned paper election ballots that you had to use a pen to put a cross against your preferred candidate on, and substitute them with "election machines": small and not-very-difficult-to-operate contraptions where you press a series of buttons and then the thing spews out a supermarket-style receipt which you have to fold and put in a ballot box.

Borisov's talk is the result of guilty hysteria because he is the reason for the ruinous state of the Bulgarian healthcare system. He had 12 years to reform it, to build a specialised paediatric hospital, to buy medical helicopters and to keep young doctors in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev

We are living in the experiment of a majority that does not believe in science.

1. Which Bulgarian city has a Roman-era stadium in its centre?

A. Plovdiv

B. Varna

C. Burgas

2. Bulgaria has significant depots of...

A. Diamonds

B. Coal

C. Molybdenum

3. Bulgarians believe which dish cures hangovers?

A. Shopska salad

B. Tarator cold soup

C. Tripe soup

Abundant with small coves, some of them underwater, and sporting a jigsaw waterline the coast here is easily accessible, yet full of surprises. You can enjoy it in both summer and wintertime, in calm and stormy weather, and the more adventurous can take in both majestic sunrises and fiery-red sunsets. The locals have devised clever names for the strange rock formations dotting the coastline. The one pictures here has appropriately been dubbed The Ships – and it is not difficult to see why.

In the neighbourhood, I asked a retired woman, who habitually makes a public nuisance by throwing bread crumbs out of her fourth-floor balcony to feed Sofia's uncontrolled population of pigeons, to stop doing that because a uncontrolled population of pigeons carried many diseases that directly jeopardised the health of the other residents.