Background: The Bulgars, a Central Asian Turkic tribe, merged with the local Slavic inhabitants in the late 7th century to form the first Bulgarian state. In succeeding centuries, Bulgaria struggled with the Byzantine Empire to assert its place in the Balkans, but by the end of the 14th century the country was overrun by the Ottoman Turks. Northern Bulgaria attained autonomy in 1878 and all of Bulgaria became independent in 1908. Having fought on the losing side in both World Wars, Bulgaria fell within the Soviet sphere of influence and became a People's Republic in 1946. Communist domination ended in 1990, when Bulgaria held its first multiparty election since World War II and began the contentious process of moving toward political democracy and a market economy while combating inflation, unemployment, corruption, and crime. Today, reforms and democratization keep Bulgaria on a path toward eventual integration into the EU. The country joined NATO in 2004.
July 6th 2008Europe » Bulgaria » North » Veliko Tarnovo I kind of hopped in and out of Bulgaria on my way to and from Romania. I spent 3 days in Sophia just playing tourist then I headed up to Romania for a week. On my way to Istanbul I made a stop in Vi ... 11 photos[full story]
May 1st 2008Europe » Bulgaria » North » Veliko Tarnovo Well, this was an interesting few days...
We left Plovdiv intending to head to Macedonia, via Sofia as there is no direct bus. Which meant getting up at 4.30 to get to the bus station to make the ... 9 photos[full story]
May 19th 2008Europe » Bulgaria » North » Veliko Tarnovo Veliko Turnovo is an beautiful little slice of central Bulgaria. It's a town of about 80,000, and relatively touristy, but it really doesn't feel that way. It's actually also the original capital of ... 7 photos[full story]
Map of Bulgaria
Bulgaria's Flag
