20 YEARS OF VAGABOND

Two economic crises, a pandemic and a war that threatens to turn global were still in the future. Bulgaria's Boyko Borisov was just a rising star, not a cunning politician who would rule the country for close to two decades. Social media was yet to be born. Targeted advertising was in its infancy. Print media prospered. There was no AI slop.

At that time, Bulgaria was a very optimistic place. The local economy boomed and the entrepreneurial spirit was high. The country was scheduled to join the EU. People genuinely hoped for future prosperity and stronger democracy. Scores of foreigners, most notably from the UK and Ireland, were moving to Bulgaria attracted by its warm climate, beautiful nature and low property prices. Some were pensioners looking for their next "place under the sun." Others were young professional people who moved to Bulgaria hopingthey would be able to continue doing their jobs online while partaking of the much lower cost of living in southeastern Europe – not forgetting the fun factor as well. The fresh expats needed a source of reliable and objective information about everything in Bulgaria – from the politics of the day and the social issues, to local history and the travel options, and – crucially – the red tape and the really good places to eat, drink, stay and have fun at – beyond and away from Sunny Beach.

Vagabond Magazine, issue 1

Ostensibly, the formula for Vagabond was pretty straightforward. The new magazine would apply Western journalism standards to report on, put in context and explain the sometimes overwhelmingly complex Bulgarian realities. Anyone who has tried to decipher a Bulgarian government document or a travel brochure sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism will instantly know that this job would require enormous insight and perseverance. It is not just a matter of translating the language. In an extremely politicised environment anything – even rural tourism or exploring the wonders of the Rhodope mountain range – could instantly be turned into a tool for political arguments and bickering. We realised that the moment you pointed out that "Roman" bridge in the Stara Planina was in fact built in the late 18th century by the Ottoman Turks (most likely using local manpower) you were slated for exposure as at least a "traitor."

Yet, figuratively speaking, we were determined to do away with the decades-long Bulgarian practice of producing road maps that depicted roads yet to be built. No more wishful thinking. We wanted to explain in plain English what the actual Bulgaria, rather than an idealised version of it, was about – with its history, beauty, traumas and idiosyncrasies.

A team of talented journalists, photographers and contributors – Bulgarians living in the country and abroad, and Britons, Irishmen and Americans – was formed to turn the idea into a reality.

Our first issue's cover story was the Bulgarian violinist, Vasko Vasilev, an international star in classical music. Many others were to follow. In each issue we provided an engaging mixture of current political, economic and social issues, travel destinations, tried-and-tested advice on how to navigate Bulgarian bureaucracy, and even modern Bulgarian literature in English – a rare glimpse into this nation's cultural life. Later, together with the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation, we started publishing short stories and excerpts from Bulgarian and English-language participants in the Sozopol Fiction Seminars.

This was how expats and diplomats, and also Bulgarians with foreign families who wanted to know more about Bulgaria, learned about the real and imaginary mysteries of famed sites like the Rila Monastery and of lesser known places such as Gumoshtnik, the tiny Upper Balkan village that lost seven men on the Titanic. Vagabond explained who was who in the Bulgarian elections, how to invest in the country and what to look at when buying property.

We carried features on expats already living in Bulgaria who shared the good and the bad they had lived through here – from the laidback lifestyle to the petty crime, the crazy traffic and the sorry state of government health care. We ran a series of articles on Bulgarian history, written by the prominent history professor, Hristo Matanov. In all of our articles on travel in Bulgaria we provided the much needed background to this nation's past and how it affects the present – which it does to a much larger extent than in, say, England or France. We also ran travel pieces about Bulgaria's neighbouring states – the country is an excellent starting point for exploring the region.

The 2008-2009 economic and financial crisis, however, hit hard. Many Vagabond readers left Bulgaria. They realised that after the warm Bulgarian summer when life is pleasant and the beer is cheap there comes a Balkan winter – and you find yourself snowed in in a village and you need to go to hospital. The one in Gabrovo... A significant part of our advertisers were either out of business or struggled to survive.

Many magazines in Bulgaria went bust at the time. Vagabond pulled through – thanks to the dedication of its team, the painful corner-cutting, finding new partners and projects, and of course some luck.

One of the crucial changes we had to make was to adapt our editorial content for the new audiences. By the early 2010s, the diplomatic community had recognised the magazine as an important source of information on what was going on in Bulgaria. Many English-speaking Bulgarians were also reading for our unbiased and fresh view on life in the country. Our editorial content changed accordingly – we discontinued our red tape pieces and focused on politics, social life and travel in Bulgaria.

We also expanded our activities and started publishing books in English about Bulgaria and its cultural, historical and natural heritage. The first, in 2011, were A Guide to Jewish Bulgaria and A Guide to Ottoman Bulgaria. Both became bestsellers and went into second editions. The Turks of Bulgaria, which focused on the Ottomans' non-material heritage in modern Bulgaria (language, folklore, music, dance, cuisine and so on) was published in 2012.

Establishing new partnerships was crucial for our survival in those times. The first significant one was with the Open Society Institute that supported a series of articles dedicated to living in Bulgaria.

The most crucial partnership that we struck in the 2010s is still ongoing.

The America for Bulgaria Foundation recognised Vagabond's potential to promote Bulgaria as a travel destination, encourage incentive travel and thus help local communities and businesses to attract new customers. This was how the sponsored section of High Beam, later rebranded to Vibrant Communities, appeared. It makes up a significant part of Vagabond's pages and is dedicated exclusively to travelogues and features about Bulgarian sites of interest, customs, culture, heritage and not-to-be-missed experiences.

In 2014-2016, our partnership with the ABF expanded, as the foundation helped us to start publishing more books on Bulgarian heritage: Hidden Treasures of Bulgaria 2 (2014), A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria (2015, 2022), A Guide to Roman Bulgaria (2016), Shadow Journey: A Guide to Elizabeth Kostova's Bulgaria and Eastern Europe (2018), Hidden Treasures of Bulgaria 3 (2018), Bulgaria of the Religions (2019), A Guide to Millennial Plovdiv (2019), A Guide to the Strandzha (2022), A Guide to the Rhodope (2023), A Guide to the Valley of Roses (2024) and A Guide to the Danube (2025). Our ultimate bestseller, A Guide to Communist Bulgaria, went to four editions between 2018 and 2024.

Vagabond would not be a true vagabond without its trademark photographs of Bulgaria and its people. Relying on the old adage about the single image being worth a thousand words, with the help of the ABF, we prepared several travelling exhibitions and had them on display in London, Budapest, Prague, Vienna and elsewhere, in a bid to promote Bulgaria as a tourist destination.

Our experience in telling Bulgaria's past in a compelling and comprehensible way was also applied to two of this country's most fascinating historical attractions. Vagabond Media developed the information aspect of the Small Basilica and the Bishop's Basilica in Plovdiv, two projects initiated and sponsored by the America for Bulgaria Foundation.

Working in media is a weird thing. Once you do your research and put out an article you never know in what hands it will land, and it is impossible to tell what consequences it will have. In 2014, an article that we published almost by coincidence, became one of our most oft-quoted texts. We learned that during the Second World War there used to be a POW camp for American, British and Australian pilots downed over Bulgaria, at the time an ally to Nazi Germany. In search of more information, we found a Shumen University professor, Stanimir Stanev, who had written a book about the camp. We got in touch with him and he proposed to write an article. Over 10 years later, we are still being contacted by relatives of former POWs who have stumbled upon Professor Stanev’s piece online, Forgotten POWs.

One of the biggest changes that the magazine went through in its history took place in 2014 – after 88 issues in a large format we scaled down. Issue 89 was our first in the smaller, more practical size and rehashed layout that everyone is familiar with today.

Meanwhile, we continued to transform Vagabond's editorial content to fit our new readership. In the late 2010s foreigners were again returning to Bulgaria, and their numbers grew even during the Covid-19 pandemic, stimulated by Bulgaria's laxer, or even non-existent, social distancing rules and lockdowns and by the new culture of digital nomads attracted by the country's good Internet connection and generally cheaper living expenses. However, these people did not need a print magazine to tell them how to deal with Bulgarian red tape anymore – there were Facebook groups for this already.

Instead, we found new meaning as a source of inspiration for travelling – no screen can beat looking at great photos in print.

We also focused on presenting new and existing Bulgarian businesses to our readers – from the ever growing IT sector to healthcare and from real estate to beauty care and property management. Nowadays, our interviews with established or up-and-coming entrepreneurs in Bulgaria are as popular as our travel articles.

For 20 years, it is tempting to look back at the famous and/or important people who were featured in the magazine. These include, but are obviously not limited to, Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk (Turkey); acclaimed authors Kapka Kassabova (UK) and Rana Dasgupta (India); the popular German actor of Bulgarian origin Samuel Finzi; intellectual Georgi Lozanov; diplomats John Beyrle (USA), Ismail Aramaz (Turkey) and Terry Stamatopoulos (Greece), who later became respectively the US ambassador to Russia, NATO's ambassador to Afghanistan and NATO's Assistant Secretary General.

All of these would be impossible without the people in the editorial office, both past and present. The list is long and for the current staff you only need to look at the magazine's mast. These include, but are in no way limited to, editors Ani Ivanova, Gabriel Hershman, Katherine Watt, Lucy Cooper, Nelly Tomova and Yekaterina Syrtsova; graphic designer Gergana Shkodrova; and contributors Antoan Bozhinov, Christopher Buxton, Dragomir Ushev, Kalina Garelova, Lyudmil Fotev, Mike Diliën, Milen Radev, Radko Popov, Richard Cherry, Silvia Choleva, Stanislava Ciurinskiene, Velislav Radev and many others.

One person in particular needs a special honorary mention: our sub, Jane Keating, has been with us through thick and thin, while changing residence from Sofia to Singapore to Dublin – a true and dedicated Vagabond.