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BETWEEN THIRD-WORLD TYRANNY AND SECOND-WORLD OLIGARCHY
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Borisov's Bulgaria sleepwalks into increasingly undemocratic future -
ERIC LEBEDEL
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French ambassador on Bulgaria's quaint villages, storks and why he is not eager to talk with Ataka -
GOD'S BRIDGE
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Mighty stone arches loom over a tiny river, the moist air hangs over misty greenery, and the flutter of wild birds' wings is amplified in the dark caves; the atmosphere of Bozhi Most, or God's Bridge, is as intriguing as its mysterious name. -
NOT TO AN US COMPANY
Pavel Shopov, the MP for Ataka, was nominated for deputy transportation minister in charge of information technologies. Except for his extreme nationalist views, Shopov is also known for his inability to put on a pair of simple headphones.Be the first to comment! Read more...
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AMAZING SINEMORETS
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The Bulgarian southern Black Sea coast might be overdeveloped, but a few corners of pristine nature and immaculate beauty still survive amid the concrete, the lack of proper sewage systems, the hideous new buildings and the jam - packed beaches. Sinemorets, one of the last Bulgarian villages before the border… -
THE ART OF ART MANAGING
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Can culture industries become a thing in Bulgaria? Trailblazers Shelagh Wright and Peter Jenkison provide advice, optimism and inspiration -
VELIKO TARNOVO CHURCHES
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As a city that remembers its glorious past as one of Bulgaria's mediaeval capitals, and its importance in the 19th century as the nascent Bulgarian nation struggled for independence and recognition, Veliko Tarnovo has a collection of churches that have witnessed or played a part in many historic events. -
QUOTE-UNQUOTE
"Who knows what sort of funny pictures we must have taken at Buchenwald."Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov, of the extreme nationalist United Patriots, on his party's deputy urbanisation minister-designate's snapshot giving a Nazi saluteBe the first to comment! Read more...
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THE SILENCE OF BULGARIA'S ABANDONED AIRPORTS
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Being a flight attendant was a glamorous job during Communism. Uniformed beauties on calendars for Balkan Airlines, the state air carrier, reinforced that the job as an aspirational one, while for the more practically minded, the profession had another advantage. When local shops lacked essentials like toilet paper, working on… -
INITIATION, An excerpt from a novel in progress
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This current issue presents a text by the 2016 Sozopol Fiction Seminars fellow and CapitaLiterature participant Charlotte Crowe -
IAŞI SURPRISES
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The lady at the ticket booth of the Iaşi Philharmonic Orchestra is surprised. She is not used to seeing tourists entering the building and asking for tickets for a classical concert. We, too, are surprised. We are not used to tickets for classical concerts costing about 18 euros for two. -
SENSE OF DEADENDS
Fear, hate return to Bulgarian politics ahead of upcoming EU presidencyBe the first to comment! Read more...
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EUROPE DAY VS. DAY OF VICTORY
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If you think that 14 February is the high point of the Bulgarians' ability to squeeze culturally different feasts into a single day, think again. -
THE ART OF MAKING MONEY
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For Dimitre Tzonev, CEO of Admiral Markets BG, to be a successful trader you need to have the right information, perseverance and the wisdom to manage the volatility of the markets -
ENDANGERED KOPRIVSHTITSA
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Will traditional town survive threat of losing heritage status? -
BERSERK BELLES OF GRADUATION BALLS
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If you are visiting Bulgaria in the second half of May, do not be alarmed by the excited hoards of heavily made-up, eccentrically-dressed teenagers roaming the streets and frantically screaming out something (more on this later) at the top of their voices. Despite appearances, they are not members of some… -
WHO WAS KRALI MARKO?
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Folk memory moves in mysterious ways. One of the best examples is Krali Marko, the legendary hero venerated for centuries throughout the Balkans as the mighty man who protected lands and people from the Ottoman invasion. For centuries, legends and epic songs were told and sung; they spread, transformed and… -
BLOOMS OF YAYLATA
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Endangered, rare and ephemeral, wild peonies are to be found in just a few locations across Bulgaria, but on Yaylata Plateau, if you have the luck to visit in late spring, you will find scores of them. -
ZGORIGRAD FORGOTTEN TRAGEDY
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Remains of mining disaster linger on near Vratsa -
MONEMVASIA, INCREDIBLE GREEK FORTRESS JUTS OUT OF AEGEAN
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Isolation and security were both in short supply in 6th century continental Greece. Avars and Slavs were ravaging lands and cities, sometimes retreating and sometimes settling, and for the local population there were only two options: fortify or flee. The people who founded what is now Monemvasia did both. They… -
SOFIA IN THE PAST
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It Grows, but It Does Not Age, reads Sofia's motto, but when you check what the Bulgarian capital looked like a century ago, you could be excused for thinking that It Changes, Yet It Stays the Same might have been a more appropriate slogan for the city's coat of arms. -
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR VOLEN
They haven't been exactly friends. They are now.Be the first to comment! Read more...
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STARA ZAGORA' S MUSEUM OF RELIGIONS
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Former mosque provides glimpse into spiritual past -
BETWEEN BLACK AND BLACK, a short story
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This current issue presents a text by the 2016 Sozopol Fiction Seminars fellow and CapitaLiterature participant Svetlozar Stoyanov -
5 CONCLUSIONS ABOUT PRE- AND POST-ELECTION BULGARIA
Instability is set to continue, so are plummeting living standardsBe the first to comment! Read more...
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FOR WHOM THE FIREWORKS BLAZE
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The crowds gathered in the freezing spring night on the historical hill of Tsarevets, in Veliko Tarnovo, were awaiting Easter. Midnight was approaching, but for the moment it seemed that Easter would never come. On the top of the hill, in front of the church whose silhouette is known to… -
SWEET POWER OF NOSTALGIA
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The factories worked and everyone had a job, there was no crime, the army was strong and every family had two-week holidays at the seaside: for a significant number of Bulgarians, Communism was a golden era of prosperity and security that outshone democracy, with its freedom of movement, speech and… -
BORDER: A JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF EUROPE
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Kapka Kassabova's newest book causes stir in the UK. Coming to Bulgaria soon -
FLOWER POWER: WHY PALM SUNDAY IS ONE OF BULGARIA'S MOST POPULAR FEASTS
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There is a day in Bulgaria when the cities and villages seem awash with blossoming flowers. The flower stalls stock more of their seasonal and all-the-year-round blooms than usual, and the number of pop-up flower sellers on the pavements increases. People carrying bouquets and bunches of pussy willow branches are… -
VARVARA, QUIET GEM OF SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST
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According to a local legend, Varvara village got its name in Antiquity. Back then, wayward Thracians used to live on this rocky part of the Black Sea shore. Raids and pillage were their main sources of income, and their neighbours, from the rich Greek town of Agatopolis, were their usual… -
MOUNTAIN OF TOWERS
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The men's voices appeared suddenly from the darkness that had fallen over Mestia, the most accessible town of the Upper Svaneti region, in northwestern Georgia (the country, not the US state). Their song was strange, three different voices weaved into a single melody that sounded as if from another time… -
SOFIA'S HIDDEN FLEA MARKET
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London has Camden Passage (Portobello is so upmarket nowadays), Paris has the Marché aux Puces de St-Ouen, Rome has Porta Portese, Athens has Monastiraki and Tbilisi has the Dry Bridge Flea Market: local flea markets are one of the most delightful experiences in capitals across Europe. Once they were the… -
WHEN WILL WE CATCH UP WITH THE AMERICANS...?
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At the beginning of the 1990s, when Bulgarian Communism had collapsed and the nation was gripped with pro-democracy fervour, Todor Kolev, this country's perhaps best known comedian actor, put out a song that instantly became a major hit. Loosely picking on the tune of The Beatles's Let It Be, Kolev… -
THE IRISHMAN WHO DANCED THE HORO
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The name, Rachenitsa, may be too difficult for a foreigner to remember or pronounce, but you have probably seen it as a crude copy on the wall of a traditional restaurant, as a reproduction or a souvenir, or in the original in the National Gallery of Art. It is an… -
ALL ALONG THE ISKAR, Part 2
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In Bulgarian, the word Lakatnik means "elbow" and this place is named for a reason: at this point in its course through the Stara Planina mountains, the Iskar makes a sharp turn to the east and northeast, eventually reaching the Danube. -
FLIGHT OVER BULGARIA
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Ever since he touched a roll of black-and-white film, many years ago, Alexander Ivanov knew that his relationship with photography would be for life. Through the 1970s and 1980s Alexander Ivanov was one of this country's most innovative photographers. He was the mastermind of the association of photographers in his… -
MYSTIC BULGARIA
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There are places in Bulgaria that ancient tradition or modern lore have turned into sites that attract not only people interested in beautiful landscapes and history, but also those who believe that they will discover something otherworldly there. Supposedly haunted villages and sites frequented by UFOs rub shoulders with "miraculous"… -
SOZOPOL'S PRIME GHOST
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"Today I went to see that sort of an island with the ruins, but it was closed. I read that it used to be a school for fishermen," a British friend says, incredulously. She sips her white wine, which we are enjoying in the best of Sozopol's restaurants, on the… -
BULGARIA'S TOP CAVES
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How many caves there are in Bulgaria is a question with no definitive answer. So far, more than 4,500 have been discovered and mapped. The number is so high because 22 percent of the country is covered with karst, a topography created when water soaks, dissolves and carves sedimentary rocks,… -
HELL IS NO JOKE
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What first attracts your attention in a Bulgarian Revival Period church? The architecture? The silver-haloed icons of the Virgin Mary? The elaborate carvings of the icon doors? These may all be astonishing, but have you noticed the river of fire, on the outside western wall of most of the churches,… -
MASTODONS OF DORKOVO
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Pliocene museum reveals Bulgaria's unknown prehistory -
IN THE COUNTRY OF SAD SOUVENIRS
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One of the greatest problems a visitor to Bulgaria faces is what to bring home as a souvenir. On the surface, one is spoilt for choice. The tiny streets of traditional towns like Nesebar, the stalls at folklore festivals and the souvenir shops in large cities are all crammed with… -
CONFUSINGLY BIG HAPPY FAMILY
Ask any Bulgarian how their recent family gathering went and the answer will probably sound something like this: "A disaster. My badzhanak got into an argument with my tashta, my strinka showed up with her annoying vuyna, then my shurey got completely tanked and my sister was really upset. Thank…Be the first to comment! Read more...
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TWISTED WISDOMS
Proverbs and sayings are the experience of generations distilled by time until they become pure wisdom offering guidance in life. They also reflect the particular values of the community that has created them.Bulgarians are no exception.Be the first to comment! Read more...
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BULGARIA'S ABANDONED ECO TRAILS
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Neglect ruins many exhilarating trekking experiences -
WHERE WERE BULGARIA'S KINGS BURIED?
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Surprising for a country that is proud of its 1,300-year history, just a few tombs of its grand kings have been identified with certainty.Bulgaria has not changed its name since its founding in 681, as if the 200-year Byzantine and the 500-year Ottoman rule never happened, but the list of… -
ECCENTRIC BULGARIA
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Revival Period monasteries, traditional towns, mountain peaks, beaches: you may think you have seen it all in Bulgaria, but you would be mistaken. This country has a number of eccentric places to visit, a delight for the connoisseur of the strange and the odd. -
C IS FOR SOFIA, A STANDS FOR BURGAS
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In most European countries, licensing cars is a pretty straightforward business. Number plates usually reflect the year of the first registration, or the province where the car's owner resides, or sometimes they give out nothing at all except a unique combination of letters and numbers detectable by the traffic authorities… -
TOP 10 TENETS OF THE BULGARIAN WAY OF THINKING
Even fluent Bulgarian speakers, including people who were actually born in this country, sometimes have a difficulty to understand what's really going on in the minds of their fellow citizens. Applying Western rational thought does not help since it is unable to dissect the thinking patterns of the Bulgarian society.Be the first to comment! Read more...
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BULGARIA'S ODD SCULPTURES
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Strange man-made constructions dot Bulgaria – if you know where to look -
VANGA GOES GLOBAL
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Dead Bulgarian clairvoyant makes international news
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ERIC LEBEDEL
Be the first to comment! Read more...
French ambassador on Bulgaria's quaint villages, storks and why he is not eager to talk with Ataka
-
BETWEEN THIRD-WORLD TYRANNY AND SECOND-WORLD OLIGARCHY
Be the first to comment! Read more...
Borisov's Bulgaria sleepwalks into increasingly undemocratic future
-
AMAZING SINEMORETS
Be the first to comment! Read more...
The Bulgarian southern Black Sea coast might be overdeveloped, but a few corners of pristine nature and immaculate beauty still survive amid the concrete, the lack of proper sewage systems, the hideous new buildings and the jam - packed beaches. Sinemorets, one of the last Bulgarian villages before the border…
-
NOT TO AN US COMPANY
Pavel Shopov, the MP for Ataka, was nominated for deputy transportation minister in charge of information technologies. Except for his extreme nationalist views, Shopov is also known for his inability to put on a pair of simple headphones.Be the first to comment! Read more...
-
VELIKO TARNOVO CHURCHES
Be the first to comment! Read more...
As a city that remembers its glorious past as one of Bulgaria's mediaeval capitals, and its importance in the 19th century as the nascent Bulgarian nation struggled for independence and recognition, Veliko Tarnovo has a collection of churches that have witnessed or played a part in many historic events.
-
THE SILENCE OF BULGARIA'S ABANDONED AIRPORTS
Be the first to comment! Read more...
Being a flight attendant was a glamorous job during Communism. Uniformed beauties on calendars for Balkan Airlines, the state air carrier, reinforced that the job as an aspirational one, while for the more practically minded, the profession had another advantage. When local shops lacked essentials like toilet paper, working on…
-
QUOTE-UNQUOTE
"Who knows what sort of funny pictures we must have taken at Buchenwald."Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov, of the extreme nationalist United Patriots, on his party's deputy urbanisation minister-designate's snapshot giving a Nazi saluteBe the first to comment! Read more...
-
GOD'S BRIDGE
1 comment Read more...
Mighty stone arches loom over a tiny river, the moist air hangs over misty greenery, and the flutter of wild birds' wings is amplified in the dark caves; the atmosphere of Bozhi Most, or God's Bridge, is as intriguing as its mysterious name.
-
IAŞI SURPRISES
Be the first to comment! Read more...
The lady at the ticket booth of the Iaşi Philharmonic Orchestra is surprised. She is not used to seeing tourists entering the building and asking for tickets for a classical concert. We, too, are surprised. We are not used to tickets for classical concerts costing about 18 euros for two.
-
INITIATION, An excerpt from a novel in progress
Be the first to comment! Read more...
This current issue presents a text by the 2016 Sozopol Fiction Seminars fellow and CapitaLiterature participant Charlotte Crowe
-
THE ART OF MAKING MONEY
Be the first to comment! Read more...
For Dimitre Tzonev, CEO of Admiral Markets BG, to be a successful trader you need to have the right information, perseverance and the wisdom to manage the volatility of the markets
