FUN

In recent months the telltale Soviet soldier waving a submachine gun is gone and the whole compound has been fenced off. It is being protected round the clock by Bulgarian police. Opponents of the monument, who disparagingly refer to its as the MOCHA, want it knocked down completely and immediately. Supporters however say removing it will be an affront to this country's 20th century history. The anti and pro groups are at their necks as both like to use historical events to justify current political ambitions. Their confrontation is unlikely to subside any time soon.

1. Bulgaria's longest cave is closed for tourists and is called...

A. Devil's Throat

B. Devetaki

C. Duhlata

2. Which town is named after a medieval Bulgarian ruler?

A. Omurtag

B. Sofia

C. Burgas

3. The Bulgarian version of polenta is called...

A. Mamaliga

B. Kachamak

C. Lyutenitsa

It tells of a boy who loved to dive, but a storm once trapped him to his death in a submarine cave just under the rocks. As no one can deny that the naturally formed rock looks a lot like the manmade moai on Easter Island, some 12,000 miles away, a newer albeit less convincing hypothesis brings in some extraterrestrials, who made the link between the Black Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

When it was hammered out last year with the support of Boyko Borisov's GERB (whom everyone left, right and centre of Kiril Petkov, Asen Vasilev, Hristo Ivanov and Gen Atanas Atanasov swore was the godfather of all evils to befall Bulgaria in the past 10 years), it was made clear that the "fixture" would "rotate" every nine months. Nine months since its inception are supposed to end in March.

1. Bulgaria's national day is on...

A. 1 March

B. 3 March

C. 8 March

2. What is a traditional drink in Bulgaria?

A. Ayran

B. Latte macchiato

C. Apple cider

The Bulgarian agriculture sector is in shambles.

Kiril Vatev, agriculture minister

It is crucial to rock the tree, a rotten apple or two might fall.

Judge Neli Kutskova on the links between organised crime and the judiciary exposed after the assassination of Martin "Notary" Bozhanov

1. The lowest temperature in Bulgaria, -38.3ºC, has been measured in...

A. Petrich

B. Svilengrad

C. Tran

2. The Iskar Gorge is in which mountain range?

A. The Stara Planina

B. The Sakar

C. The Strandzha

3. The mummers dancing across Bulgaria before Lent are called...

A. Kratuni

B. Kukeri

C. Kokoshki

The cops by far outnumber the construction workers wielding chop saws inside a ladder hoist. There have been no press releases, nor the obligatory information signs to tell the public what's going on. The area has been cordoned off. No media are allowed behind the metal fences.

Ahead of Christmas, the park in front of Sofia University, once known as Freedom Park but now bearing its restored name of Prince's Garden, looks like a melee zone.

These are long extinct, but the lion has become so popular that Bulgaria has adopted it for its national coat-of-arms. Consequently, visitors to this country can see lions in various sculptural iterations in many Bulgarians towns and even in some villages.

Here you get a pair of the majestic animals proudly guarding a courthouse. Look closer, and you will discover there is something wrong with one of them. His legs are in a very unnatural position. In fact, no lion can actually walk in this manner.

If you have stayed in Bulgaria for more than a week and have conversed with Bulgarians of a certain age beyond business transactions and polite small talk, you have probably heard them reminisce about something from their youth that you might find charming, mysterious and exciting, but hard to comprehend. It might have been something from the times of Communism, the period between 1944 and 1989, that despite its proximity in time and millions of living witnesses is getting increasingly mythologised.