Issue 133

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CHURCH OF BIRDS

A mosaic peacock, its majestic tail opened in full display, used to greet believers entering one of the most formidable buildings in the Late Antiquity Balkans: the Bishop's Basilica of Philippopolis. In 2019, the 1,500-year-old bird, restored to its former glory, will meet visitors again, after centuries of oblivion caused by earthquakes, invasions, wars, changes of population and history itself.

Tue, 10/31/2017 - 14:41
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REMEMBERING 11/11/18

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month: 99 years ago, the moment when the Great War ended was perhaps chosen to be easy to remember. Back then, both the victors and the defeated wanted to ensure that the horrors of the conflict which had brought war on an industrial scale would never be forgotten or repeated.

History has proved these hopes to be misplaced. Thirty-one years after 1918 began a war so devastating that it stripped the previous conflict of its macabre exclusivity. What had been called the Great War became just the First World War.

Tue, 10/31/2017 - 14:39
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WHERE IS YEMEN?

The old woman looks bewildered.

"Where is what?," she asks.

"Emen!" we repeat, raising our voices, as we now suspect that she is hard of hearing. "Where the waterfall is."

"A-a-ah! You mean Yemen!," the lady beams and then embarks on one of those elaborate explanations of directions that inhabitants in small-town Bulgaria are so prone to.

Tue, 10/31/2017 - 14:35
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QUOTE-UNQUOTE

This is not the Great Wall of China.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov after a sectionof the fence collapsed owing to some rain, in October

Bulgarian politics is like American wrestling. The battle between the GERB and the BSP is all fake.

Georgi Parvanov, president of Bulgaria in 2002-2012

There are corrupt activities that are not a crime.

Manuil Manev, an MP for GERB

Tue, 10/31/2017 - 14:23
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DO YOU SPEAK ESPERANTO?

Daenerys Targaryen de Ludo de Tronoj parolas la lingvon de la Dothraki, kiu estas artefarita lingvo, kiel Esperanto. Recognising the names, viewers of Game of Thrones can easily conclude that the previous sentence is in some of the languages spoken in the fictional universe of the TV series (authored in real life by language creator David J. Peterson).

Tue, 10/31/2017 - 13:54
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BYE-BYE SOFIA HORSE CARTS?

Don't think only of the slippery floor tiles being laid out in and around the NDK, or National Palace of Culture, in Central Sofia, or the bronze lion holding a map of Bulgaria that entails parts of Greece and Macedonia within the Kingdom of Bulgaria now being installed where the 1,300 Years of Bulgaria monument used to stand. The local authorities have a lot more in stock for you.

Tue, 10/31/2017 - 13:51
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MITOSIS, An excerpt from a short story

Metaphase

It was a Sunday. She rolled over. "Good morning." It was one of the things he loved about her, so perceptive. It was a good morning.

"It's a girl," she said. "I can feel it."

"Me too." Being a half-truth, he said it with frontloaded conviction. Whenever he touched her, touched them, he felt nothing. His daughter, hiding from him. Waiting to surprise him. His wife felt everything and he was left to imagine the hands stretching and feet kicking and how nothing in his life would ever be the same. "A girl for sure."

Tue, 10/31/2017 - 13:32
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BUSINESS OF THE FUTURE

The sector is among the engines of the Bulgarian economy and together with outsourcing generates about 4.5 percent of this country's GDP – compared to 3.7 percent average for Europe. The employed in this field are estimated to 40,000 people, with an average salary of almost three times higher than the country average (2,700 leva per month in the IT in comparison to 1,090 leva). In Bulgaria operate more than 12,000 IT companies, specialising in more than 20 industries and fields.

Tue, 10/31/2017 - 13:25
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SOFIA'S PLEASURES

But in the Bulgarian capital nothing can compare in diversity of the experience with the growing options for good eating. The changed habits and the increasingly high requirements of the locals, combined with the influx of foreign tourists, provide a fertile ground for the appearance of remarkable restaurants.

The food places in the capital offer never-ending renewal, traditional and new recipes, changing interiors and concepts, special menus and products, selected culinary traditions, experiments and tastings.

Tue, 10/31/2017 - 13:19
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MITOSIS, An excerpt from a short story

 

Metaphase

It was a Sunday. She rolled over. "Good morning." It was one of the things he loved about her, so perceptive. It was a good morning.

"It's a girl," she said. "I can feel it."

"Me too." Being a half-truth, he said it with frontloaded conviction. Whenever he touched her, touched them, he felt nothing. His daughter, hiding from him. Waiting to surprise him. His wife felt everything and he was left to imagine the hands stretching and feet kicking and how nothing in his life would ever be the same. "A girl for sure."

Tue, 10/31/2017 - 11:36
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QUOTE-UNQUOTE

The mouse and the rat are fighting each other, but no mouse or rat can fight tigers and lions!

Ahmed Dogan, leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, or DPS

Sofia's mayor has made 5,467 media appearances. I wonder when he works.

Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev

I'll beat them even with my worst foot forward.

Sofia Mayor Boyko Borisov

Mon, 06/01/2009 - 12:27
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