Issue 236

Twenty-three years of tireless and successful practice. And 15 years as a proven and respected name and brand. This is how the professional journey of Dr Bonka Mutafchiyska and her Mutafchiyska Dent – one of the most reputable and preferred dental clinics in the city of Plovdiv – looks today.

How is patients' trust earned and maintained? What sets Mutafchiyska Dent apart? And what is the next chapter in its successful journey? We speak with Dr Bonka Mutafchiyska to find out the answers to these and other questions.

There was a time when the job of this country's "right wing" parties was easy. It was enough for their leaders to protest anti-Communism. Everything that had gone wrong in this country was due to the Communist-era State Security, the secret police that was disbanded a few months after the 1989 collapse of Communism, but that, according to the rightwing leaders, continued to pull the string of everything that made any money in the Bulgaria of the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. Whenever they had nothing else to offer to their voters, the "right wingers" claimed "lustration" was in order.

Мanufacturing building bricks and art hardly ever meet. But as you pass under the red clay arches leading to an assemblage of strange red and black creatures, deformed men and children, and labyrinths of bricks and broken moulds, you will find your disbelief suspended.

The premises are inconspicuous. You are in Cherven Bryag, a quiet industrial town of about 10,000 still reeling from the closure of its old industries, including a tank parts factory and the railway to Oryahovo on the Danube.

Picture this: barefoot men and women in traditional dress, dancing over glowing embers, their faces blank and inward-looking, while a drum and a bagpipe repeat a simple, hypnotic melody that seems to have no beginning and no end. The crowd around them is silent. The night sky above is thick with stars. The embers are very much alive.

To all the meme makers out there: I see you. I like you. I won't search for your IPs.

Georgi Kandev, Secretary General of the Interior Ministry, jokes about his online notoriety

I now drive my Skoda on my own, because I don't want an innocent man to get hurt. They deliberately turned me into a target, now people are checking my usual routes. I am telling you – if something ever happens to me, it will be politically motivated.

C is for Sofia, A stands for Burgas and EH belongs to... Pleven. Confused at this early stage already? Welcome to the bizarre workings of the minds of Bulgarian officials in general and of Bulgaria's notorious traffic cops in particular. How could this EU member state manage to end up in so many and such big messes in such a short time?

There is a particular quality to the light in the Eastern Rhodope mountains. Low and lateral in the early morning, it makes the cliff faces reveal themselves slowly. The pale rocks catch it first, then the shadows deepen, and then – if you know where to look, or sometimes even if you do not – you begin to see the niches. Small, dark, precisely cut, they gape from the rock like absences, singly or in their hundreds, as purposeful as punctuation in a language nobody can read.

Major resorts like Sunny Beach and Golden Sands are located at strips of sand and dunes, and there are numerous small fine sand beaches that more often than not you may end up being the only visitor to. But the Bulgarian Black Sea has a lot more to offer. Take in the long stretches of rocky coast. At times surreal stacks jot out from the water while nearby rocks fall vertically into sea. One particular point of interest is the rocky peninsula, pictured here, which was the site of a maritime battle and whence 40 virgins jumped off to avoid captivity.

Londoners, especially, will be bemused to discover that decades before Norman Foster designed the world famous Gherkin in the City the workers in the oil refinery of Burgas got their own avant-garde housing project that in more than one way not only predated but also outshines one of Sir Norman's major achievements.

To appreciate the social, cultural and architectural significance of the Cucumber in Burgas, which now fervently aspires to become the European Capital of Culture in 2032, one needs to consider the historical background.

In the 15th-17th century, the locals in the area of Kyustendil mainly cultivated watermelons, a little known fact as the Kyustendil cherries at the beginning of the 21st century are probably the best in the world. (Incidentally, at the opposite end of Bulgaria, in Lyubimets, where the world-famous watermelons are now produced, they once cultivated cherries. However, this historical transition from watermelon to cherry and vice versa, will be the subject of another study).

Since the Arab Spring in the early 2010s, news of people killed at Bulgaria's border with Turkey has been a regular news feature. Sometimes the victims are Bulgarian border police, shot in skirmishes or killed in traffic accidents involving cars carrying illegal migrants. At other times it is the migrants who die, often in unclear circumstances. According to the authorities, their deaths are usually accidental. However, reports by local and international human rights NGOs, such as Mission Wings and Amnesty International Bulgaria, paint a bleaker picture.

1. To make what Bulgarians call Russian salad, you need…
A. Mayonnaise
B. Olives
C. Cinnamon

2. Which car brand announced opening an official dealership in Bulgaria?
A. Tesla
B. Lamborghini
C. Rolls Royce

3. Who won the 19 April elections?
A. GERB
B. PP-DB
C. Progressive Bulgaria

А wobbly but energetic granny somewhere far, far away, cooking from scratch in her humble house dishes that you can neither taste nor smell, but somehow understand deep in your gut are utterly delicious. Roosters crow, cows moo, birds chirp and fire crackles, while the granny and her family cook, clean and enjoy their hearty meals… There is a small but very popular subgenre of YouTube videos dedicated to old folks cooking traditional food in faraway corners of the world, from mountainous Azerbaijan to rural China.