Before he arrived in Sofia last September, Danish Ambassador Søren Jacobsen had taken diplomatic positions in Turkey and China. Jacobsen has been here for less than a year but has already done something many would consider telltale Bulgarian: he planted tomatoes and herbs in the yard of his residence. Gardening, however, has been a passion that predates Søren Jacobsen's Bulgarian posting.
In many ways Bulgarians don't care about words. Fed up with partial truths, half-lies and plain nonsense for 45 years of Communism they have come to realise that words don't really mean what they are supposed to. There are many and varied examples from all areas of life to illustrate this. Often Bulgarians would see a sign announcing a shop is "open" whereas the shop is actually very closed.
The BTA, or Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, puts out a dispatch: "We have been authorised to announce, with deep sorrow, that the leader of the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, or GERB, and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, following a lengthy period of sickness and without regaining consciousness… did manage to resume the fulfilment of his duties and showed up for Question Time in Parliament."
With the exception of some pockets of overdevelopment, the northern Bulgarian Black Sea coast remains a place of relatively unspoiled nature, picturesque beaches and cliffs, historical sites and landscapes to remember. It is the home of rare ecosystems, like the easternmost edges of the great Eurasian steppes. Its location on the Via Pontica migratory route is why in spring and autumn its skies are full with birds, many of them endangered species.
1. Which church in Sofia has a crypt with a major icons exhibition?
A. St Aleksandr Nevskiy
B. St Sofia
C. St George
2. Who was Petar Danov?
A. The governor of the Bulgarian National Bank
B. Bulgaria's first chemistry professor
C. A mystic from the first half of the 20th century
We cannot turn our seaside resorts into silence.
GERB's Tsvetan Tsvetanov on the campaign of Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov against noise pollution at the Black Sea coast
Bulgaria's black market for weapons dwarfs its sausage market.
Anton Kutev, an MP for the BSP
Bulgaria has a number of forts, both genuine ones as in Cherven and recently constructed "restorations" as in Veliko Tarnovo. The country, however, has several examples of a curious type of fortification: the standalone tower.
As you hold this book in your hands, a Bulgarian song travels in outer space. The song in question is "Izlel e Delyu Haidutin," a traditional Rhodope tune sung by Valya Balkanska. It was put on the Golden Record of Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts by Carl Sagan, in 1977, in his attempt to acquaint extraterrestrial civilisations with the Earth's culture. Bulgaria's folk music is incredibly varied and, with its compound metres and irregular times, may sound unusual to Western ears. Some of it, like Valya Balkanska's master opus, is slow and heavy.
A Guide to Elizabeth Kostova's Bulgaria and Eastern Europe is the first Bulgarian book promoting literary travel through this country and the region. It was inspired by the real-life and the imaginary places in Bulgaria and the Balkans described in Kostova's bestselling novels The Historian (2005) and The Shadow Land (2017). The book takes the reader to places such as crumbling central Sofia, the subterranean world of Istanbul and the locations connected to Wallachian Prince Vlad III, aka Dracula.
Having been on display in Prague last January, it opened in London, at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in South Kensington, on 20 June.
The exhibition focuses on the material heritage of at least 18 centuries of Jewish presence in the Bulgarian lands. It takes the viewers on a journey through both time and space: images of abandoned cemeteries and synagogues alternate with pictures of everyday life of this country's tiny Jewish community. It is both a poignant reminder of a culture that no longer exists and an optimistic pointer to the future.
Bulgaria claims the highest waterfall in the Balkans, the 124.5-metre Rayskoto Praskalo, or Heavens' Sprinkler, in the Stara Planina mountains. In addition to it, this country has some famous waterfalls: in Boyana, just south of Sofia, the Borov Kamak near Vratsa and the Rilska Skakavitsa in the Rila, to name but a few. However, there are plenty of other less-known waterfalls waiting to be discovered. Finding them is a delight in the heat of summer, and you do not need to hike for hours to reach them.
Kapinovski
According to local lore, it was founded in the late Middle Ages by some citizens of Tarnovo, the then capital, who were fleeing the Ottomans or a plague epidemic, or both.
They erected huge houses and connected them with underground corridors, a marvel of engineering for the place and the time.
The village still exists, is not harshly touristified and is a favourite shooting location for film-makers.
Where in Bulgaria are you?
While you speed westwards on the Egnatia Odos highway in Greece towards the port of Igoumenitsa with its ferries, you are passing by places that deserve more than just reading their names on the roadsigns and then forgetting them.
North of the highway you will find several towns deserving of a detour because of their situation and interesting history.
I remember kindergarten as a gloomy and depressing place – now that I think about it, as the place where the groundwork was laid for out future participation in society.
We realise what a worth movement is only when something happens that seriously restricts our usual routine. Stiffening, traumas, diseases: there is hardly a person who hasn't faced or who won't face in the future some of these problems. In some cases the solution can be only surgical.
The very idea of a pet is something that makes us, humans, different from other animal species. We are capable of giving our heart, spending our money and devoting our attention to an animal that at a first glance doesn't give us anything in return. Indeed, we do no longer need cats to keep the mice population at home under control, and most of the shepherd dogs live a quiet urban life instead of running after flocks on meadows.
Where do you prefer to live? In an apartment in the centre of the city? In some of the capital's dynamically developing neighbourhoods? In a family home far from the crowds and the urban noise?
Speaking foreign languages has long become a necessity in the modern world. It is one thing, however, to be able to direct a foreign tourist in the street or to order a lunch while abroad. It is a completely different matter when moving to another country for work or study, expanding your business and establishing contacts with business partners beyond the borders of your own country, or organising an event with international participation.
In these and many other cases, professional translators are irreplaceable.