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Crime rate and Criminality | Setting up your own business | Visas and formalities | Getting around to other countries | Food and Wine | Politics | Transport Education and Courses | Things to do | Receiving your pension in Bulgaria| Language | Customs | Regions and communities Crime rate and Criminality | Setting up your own business | Visas and formalities | Getting around to other countries | Food and Wine | Politics | Transport Education and Courses | Things to do | Receiving your pension in Bulgaria| Language | Customs | Regions and communities IntroductionThis is a country which is not easy to imagine as a destination to move to, primarily because it is undervisited. For many years, just a trickle of people came independently; the rest flew in to stay at the beaches and skiing resorts and were stopped from uncovering typical lifestyles. Bulgaria's RuritaniaTo be a Bulgarian is no longer as much about being a peasant as it was in the first 50 years of the 20th century. Still,the Bulgarian rural communities are as picturesque, sheltered and quiet as you may wish. For the most part, the locals who live there are less mobile than Western European rustics: they rarely commute and physically, their world is small. Not so, with amenities. Places are connected by a dense national road network, and they have invariably access to telephones, water and electricity and sometimes cable. The people are often the elderly who have chosen to stay behind when their children moved to the city, but increasingly they are middle-aged or middle-class nostalgiacs who hanker after the pleasures of the countryside.Chief among these is the closeness to the great natural beauty and variety of the landscape. Then, there is the food - villagers and the inhabitants of small towns grow delectable patches of fruits and vegetables which never make their way to the bigger markets but are sold locally and are full of flavour and care. The Thriving SocietyThe feel of Bulgarian communities oscillates between the dated politeness of Central Europe, and much of the warmth of the South and the vibrancy of the countries going through a transition after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Perhaps the central European influences are crucial: the Oriental hospitality and charm are there, but they are not as imposing as in Turkey or the Middle East; manners are direct, but not as direct as in Scandinavia or Russia. Above all, there is a permanent enthusiasm and an openness and pluralism for ideas as fits a transitional society, but also one that underwent the social mixing of Communism. As the market economy has spread widely recently, so have enterprising ideas, and they are as yet less regulated than in the West. This is good - shops and bars stay open for much longer and there are more 24 hour pharmacies than you have seen in your entire life. Top Food
Bulgarian food is an interesting mixture, if not strictly fusion,
between Central European, Slavic, Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean traditions in cooking.
The best introduction on the subject is offline and is Maria Kaneva-Johnson's
The Melting Pot : Balkan Food and Cookery (Buy from
Amazon (USA)).
CustomsWith Russians, the Bulgarians share the prejudice against shaking hands across a threshold and with Italians, that a birthday should never be celebrated before the day. Notoriously, Bulgarians shake their heads to say "yes" and nod to imply "no". Visitors are well advised to bring to their hosts a bottle of drink or a bunch of flowers (men are increasingly accepting of flowers, too). Socially or in business, alcohol is consumed just as much as it is in Britain, but usually there is no time constraint and Bulgarians may therefore take forever with their beer. Like the Spaniards, the Bulgarians take it very slowly whenever they are sat at a table, and once again like the Russians, they eat and feed their guests more than amply. Unlike the Greeks, Bulgarians don't take a long lunchtime break and do not work in the early night (unless they are in the service sector). Like the Greeks, Bulgarians celebrate Easter vigorously and have a tradition of dying eggs and fighting contests over the strength of their egg's shell. TopEducation and culture:Adult education and schools: short courses, summer schools, university education, expatriate schools. Culture in Bulgaria: current and forthcoming events, art, music, literature. Essential Reading on Bulgaria PoliticsBulgaria is a well-established democracy. For the short term political risk it presents it is rated at level 2 (out of 7)(according to the Eurasia Group assessment) (reported here). Freedom House rates it 'free' in its latest survey (for 2000) with top rating for political rights, and third-rate civil liberties ( Click here for information on the survey).
History:National Museum of History and the links listed therein.LanguageLearning Bulgarian may seem like an insurmountable task, but the language is actually closer to English than its sister tongues - Polish, Czech and Russian, except for the issue of script. As with Russian, the alphabet is Cyrillic, and so similar to the Greek script. (It is quite easy to learn to read alone: there are 29 letters, 13 of which are identical to Latin). In the large cities, there are language courses in Bulgarian specifically designed for foreign learners. Several are attached to the Universities of Sofia, Plovdiv, Veliko Tarnovo and Stara Zagora. See also our recommended reading section for self-study materials.Top
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Living there?
