Issue 212

Travelling and discovering different cultures and landscapes is one of life's greatest joys; the cliché that it is one of the most sensible investments one will make is absolutely true. Tatyana Dimitrova knows this well. About 30 years ago she was brave enough to establish a travel agency. Today, Randevu Travel is a widely recognised brand with a broad portfolio of services and covered destinations in Bulgaria and abroad, and scores of loyal, satisfied customers.

Тhe overwhelming majority of Bulgarians who will go to the polls in June to elect their next National Assembly will do so with one all-pervasive sentiment. Disgust. They are disgusted at the incompetence and hypocrisy of the former rulers, the markedly pro-Western, liberal grouping of the CC-DB, or Changes Continued-Democratic Bulgaria. They are disgusted by the Monkey-See-Monkey-Do mentality of their pious followers, who like to introduce themselves as "smart and beautiful" intellectuals.

Аt 36, Elka Vasileva, whom everyone knows as Nunio (a childhood nickname given to her by her parents that she is particularly proud of because it discerns her from her famous grandmother), is a remarkable woman. At 15 she starred as Snow White in a Christmas sketch. At 19 she graduated the Applied Arts High School in Sofia. She went on to study metal sculpting at the Arts Academy.

The Bulgarian base named St Clement of Ohrid on the Isle of Livingston in the South Shetlands has been manned by Bulgarian crews since the early 1990s. Though Bulgarians were sent to Antarctica as early as the 1960s as members of Soviet expeditions, this country's interest in scientific research in Antarctica intensified after the collapse of Communism. In the period 1993-2024 the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute organised over 30 expeditions consisting of scientists working in geology, oceanology, physics, ichthyology, zoology, palaeontology, meteorology and so on.

The advisors to Vasil Terziev, the mayor of Sofia, who are supposedly as "smart and beautiful" as the political parties that put him forward, must have swallowed that book several times over and mastered to perfection the craft of losing friends and alienating people...

"We are fascists, we burn Arabs": the youngsters start chanting as soon as they emerge from the metro station and leave the perimeter of its security cameras. Their voices grow stronger with each step in the dark streets of the relatively central Sofia neighbourhood. Then they gradually disperse, still ecstatic after a protest provoked by an alleged attack by a group of Arab migrants on Bulgarian teens on Vitosha Boulevard.

1. In Bulgaria were found the oldest...

A. Gold objects in the world

B. Chariots in the world

C. Tombs in the world

2. In 2024, how many Bulgarian beaches were Blue Flag-certified?

A. 10

B. 22

C. None

3. Via Pontica bird migratory route passes over...

A. The Black Sea

B. The Danube Plain

C. The Struma Valley

The names of foreigners, mainly Russians, are common across the map of Sofia – from Alexandr Dondukov and Count Ignatieff to Alexey Tolstoy (a Communist-era Soviet writer not to be confused with Leo Tolstoy) who has a whole housing estate named after him. An understandable situation. After Bulgaria's Liberation as a result of the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War, the new nation was eager to express its gratitude to the Russian Empire, its diplomats and administrators who had laid the foundations of the modern Bulgarian state.

I have difficulties to establish whether this is a provocation or wet dreams.

Radan Kanev, an EMP candidate for the CC-DB, on the allegation that Boyko Borisov wants to become president while Delyan Peevski is prime minister

In fact Hristo Ivanov wanted to be president, he wanted me to be prime minister, and Borisov would be a retiree.

Delyan Peevski, co-leader of the DPS, on Asen Vasilev's allegation Boyko Borisov wanted to retire as president while Peevski was prime minister

Picturesque old houses lining a narrow river and tiny shops selling hand-made sweets, knives and fabrics: The Etara open air museum recreates a charming, idealised version of mid-19th century Bulgaria.

At least a dozen man-made lakes of various sizes attract many locals who come here for the serenity, the mountain air and for the angling and photography opportunities. In actual fact being by a lake, especially in summertime, in many ways outshines going to the seaside if only because there are no crowds and it gets cooler at night. Besides, the hiking and trekking options will keep you busy for days if not weeks.

Christ was an alien. Or if He was not, then four centuries ago there were UFOs hovering over what is now southwestern Bulgaria.

If you believe the hype, evidence that aliens visited us in the past, probably inspiring Christianity, exists hidden in plain sight. In a church. In Bulgaria. A fresco in a 17th century church in the Dobarsko village is said to represent Christ in a space rocket, in the Transfiguration scene.