At a speed that sometimes seems as if it belongs to a sci-fi movie, high technologies change and reshape the way we live, work, have fun, study, travel, take care of our health, consume news, and much more. They have changed the economy and businesses too, often beyond recognition. Outsourcing was born and became a major modus operandi, with significant development in the IT and BP services.
Being laid up in hospital is never a particularly pleasant experience. Especially for children. Especially for children in Bulgaria. The doctors and nurses in paediatric units are excellent, but the underfunding of state-run hospitals has resulted in dark, damp spaces with a depressing atmosphere.
Until three years ago, the chance traveller passing through the village of Staro Zhelezare, in Central Bulgaria, would hardly find anything of notice here, bar the hard-to-pronounce name and the crumbling remains of one of Bulgaria's two prehistoric rock circles. Located near Hisarya, with its mineral water springs and Roman heritage, and Starosel, with its dilapidated Thracian tombs, Staro Zhelezare looked like an ordinary village in the Thracian Plain. Its sun-bleached streets, lined with low houses and lush gardens, were mostly empty.
The site, which has been excavated by archaeologists and restorers joined by hundreds of volunteers during the past couple of years, is yet another piece in the puzzle of this town's extensive Roman heritage, which includes a huge theatre, an even bigger stadium, a forum, an aqueduct, a villa and a number of religious buildings. What stuns about it is its size, its age and the hundreds of square metres of fine early Christian mosaics that sometimes come in two layers. The site will be fully restored and ready for visitors by the end of 2019.
In the past, however, the Stara Planina was an effective natural protection against enemies. One of its major passes, by the 1,326-metre Shipka Peak, is one of the best examples.
The defence of the Shipka Pass was one of the crucial points in the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish war, the conflict which eventually led to Bulgarian independence. Here, between July and December 1877, the outnumbered Russian soldiers and Bulgarian volunteers faced up to the Ottoman forces.
1. What do Bulgarians celebrate on 6 September?
A. Unification
B. Independence
C. Liberation
2. When withdrawing cash from ATMs in Bulgaria, you are most likely to get…
A. 10 leva notes
B. 20 leva notes
C. 50 leva notes
3. When do storks leave Bulgaria for the winter?
A. In late September
B. In early September
C. In mid-October
Near the town, however, one of Bulgaria's most fascinating monasteries, a delightful example of 16th-18th century religious art and architecture, sits hidden in the hills.
At the peak of this summer's season a group of restaurant-goers in Sozopol, at the Black Sea coast, resorted to the currently fashionable Small Claims Court, known also as Facebook. They told the hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians whose chief source of information is Mark Zuckerberg's invention that they had booked a table at a restaurant but not all of them showed up for dinner. Four chairs were left empty.
Zillions of stalls selling kitschy souvenirs, beach towels, jeans and conveyor-belt-produced marine landscapes cover the walls of the medieval churches and 200-year old houses.
Many tourists are actually wondering what they are doing in Nesebar.
The obvious answer is they are visiting what is probably Bulgaria's best known and most visited UNESCO World Heritage site.
I don't eat dry sausages, I have high blood pressure.
I always comply with people who want to protect dolphins, clams and corals.
Only people who don't want to work are unemployed.
You know that when we promise something, the next day it becomes a reality.
Boyko Borisov, Prime Minister of Bulgaria
In Vagabond we usually don't cover theatre owing to the language barrier. For Out of Place, a one-man show by Guerassim Dichliev, however, we made an exception as this Bulgarian artist working in Paris is a mime – and does not use language.
I had a moral dilemma whether I should be visiting Cuba at all. All my friends, who'd been there in recent years, had been urging me: "Go! Go! Go before it changes forever! Go now, because in a couple of years' time Starbucks and McDonald's will be all over the place!"
Listen to me, boy. Sit down and listen to me carefully. I have something important to say to you. Do you remember that forest ranger everybody used to call the Indian? He was no Indian, had never even seen an Indian, but he used to say the only book he had ever read in his entire life was Winnetou, so everybody called him the Indian. Make sure you read the right books, my boy, because you never know what name people may decide to give you…
"He who studies will succeed," is an old Bulgarian saying which today reflects not only the national, but also the global understanding of the importance of education. Without education nothing can be achieved, particularly now, when the world trends on the labour market change every few years, when the ability for innovative thinking is valued at least as much as the knowledge accumulated for years, and when the concept for lifelong learning is a reality for millions in the world.
In the past few years, even people sceptical about the development of modern Bulgaria started using a new word with a hint of awe: outsourcing. The concept, that is relatively recent for the country, has not only found a way in the modern vocabulary. The sector is undergoing a stable and impressive growth in this country. According to 2016 data, the average yearly increase of the IT and outsourcing industry in Bulgaria is around 2 percent. The sector makes about 3.7 percent of the GDP and according to some estimates employs 25,000 people.
The good news on the real estate market continue. The first half of 2017 was excellent for a segment that directly reflects the condition of the Bulgarian economy – office properties. The stable development of the IT and outsourcing sector in Sofia sustains an intensive demand for adequate office spaces. According to a Colliers analysis, in the first 6 months of the year the rented office properties have increased with 64 percent in comparison with the same period of 2016, with 43 percent being rented while still at construction stage.
Listen to me, boy. Sit down and listen to me carefully. I have something important to say to you. Do you remember that forest ranger everybody used to call the Indian? He was no Indian, had never even seen an Indian, but he used to say the only book he had ever read in his entire life was Winnetou, so everybody called him the Indian. Make sure you read the right books, my boy, because you never know what name people may decide to give you…