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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.

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By pjhowe
August 27th 2006

Catching up..

Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

Ok, so this hasn't been updated in a while, a long while. I'm going to try to do it one bit at a time, but give us a bit of a break because this is all from ages ago. I'm going to be slipping in and out of present and past tense, but hopefully you should get the idea. Peace. [View Full Entry]

By corbandkel
August 21st 2006

Stuck in Sofia

Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

So the train was pretty sweet, we had our own little room and everything. The border guards rudely awakened us in the night to sign out of Turkey and into Bulgaria but otherwise it was pretty mellow and we slept alright. The countryside as we drove through was prety cool - lots of wildflowers and burnt out old communist bloc style bunkers and buildings, nuts. We arrived in Sofia around 1pm and unloaded a bunch of our passengers. We were just chilling in the carriage waiting to zoom off again when our friend from the next room, Samir from Serbia, poked [View Full Entry]

By Travelling Lady
August 4th 2006

Sofia

Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

1
St. Nikolai Russian Church in Sofia. Built in 1912 by Russian workmen and paid for by Nicholas II. That is why it is named after him. Holds the body of St. Serafim. Pray to him at the church and m... [more]

Hello everyone, Bulgaria is more like the former Soviet block atmosphere that I had expected. You still see horse carts and horses instead of tractors in fields. They use shepherds instead of fencing. They are trying to get on track--hope to join the European Union in 2007. Their history during WWII is a little different. The government chose to support Germany rather than Russia, but the people wanted to support Russia--Russia had liberated them from Turkish domination back in 1878. The damage from bombing was actually done by Russia. The Soviets still liberated them and they became p [View Full Entry]

By SlavicNerd
July 30th 2006

stop it, you're monasterical!

Europe » Bulgaria » West » Rila Monastery

the day started out a bit earlier than normal since we had to be ready @ 9:30 for our excursion to Rila, a bit to the south and in a more mountainy area. we decided that we needed to pick out something "monasterical" to wear there, and so started the day's joke. there were 5 of us, but we split into 2 and 3 since we were taking taxis there, even though it was like a 2 hour ride each way. kasia and i ended up with steve, this guy from melbourne. he just finished working on a cruise ship in [View Full Entry]

By SlavicNerd
July 29th 2006

Sofia!

Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

so yea, bulgaria's still awesome. but first, i feel like i've forgotten to mention whitney houston's song 'dance with somebody', which most of you probably remember. this song is seriously everwhere, and has been the trip's theme song since way back in Krakow. we were wondering how whitney was still able to keep up her crack habit, but then we came here! anyway, arriving in sofia after around a 3 hour bus ride we had no problem getting a cab, though our driver was a big asshole and didn't even help us with our bags. hope he liked his shitty tip! [View Full Entry]

By mr wind up bird
July 7th 2006

I wish they all could be Bulgaria, (girls, girls, girls yeah I dig the) I wish they all could be Bulgaria, (girls, girls, girls yeah I dig the)

Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

Government building

Riding in from the airport past scores of decaying, grey, communist-era tower blocks wasn't the best way to lift my spirits after a sleepless overnight flight, so Sofia seemed a bit miserable at first. But then what doesn't at 6:30 in the morning. My mood wasn't helped when the hungover ticket inspector declined to show any leniancy towards my unvalidated bus ticket. I was clearly a new arrival in the country who was unaware if the idyosyncrascies of the Bulgarian bus system and I didn't speak any Bulgarian. The Inspector pocketed the fine. I got off the bus by a city [View Full Entry]

By Zoe V M
June 21st 2006

Depeche Mode concert in Sofia

Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

Wow!!! It was grand, really amazing.... the boys can sing (live), that's for sure! Cameras weren't allowed in, sadly, so no photos. (there were some who'd snuck cameras in, but generally they were the tiny ones you can hide in your crotch) For those really keen, check out these links for the pics: http://netinfo.bg/photo/depechemodeinsofia/ & http://moonchild.decart.bg/DM/ Sooooooooo.......... we had to wait for hours. We arrived at 7.00pm, I was with Emma (best friend from primary school) and a couple of her friends. We bumped into Maria (my other best friend from primary schoo [View Full Entry]

By Zjave
June 14th 2006

Grad Sofia

Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

Aleksandr Nevskii Cathedral
Bulgarians seem to be the only Eastern Europeans who don't mind the Russians, Alex Nevsky is a Russian hero.

I was a little nervous about going to Bulgaria- even the Eurotrash hostellers, some of them said they wouldn't go there. Well, its a great city- people are quiet, unlike Athens, and the numbers are almost the same as Russian so its more comprehensible. I am staying at a great hostel with free breakfast, the food is really cheap - 2 liters of fanta = 1 euro, and a yogurt drink is 25 cents instead of 80 in Greece. Its very nice, I'm going to try to hike a little tomorrow. I am going to go watch a world cup match [View Full Entry]

By Zoe V M
June 7th 2006

Back to the motherland, Bulgaria

Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

The Evening star... Zornitza
Also the Morning star...I was named after it, as I was born into this world at 11am, but those who know me well may also know that the 'evening' suits me more,... though I'm often awake till dawn too.... [more]

I spent a very lazy couple of months in Bulgaria in the company of my family and old friends, lounging about and enjoying the simple pleasures in life. It was very gratifying. I soaked up some new stories of what I've missed out on in the past 5 years. Also soaked up some old and forgotten memories, visited the attic upstairs and found some old toys of mine, looked through a collection of old records but found nothing of great value, looked at old black-and-white photographs of my grandparents and their kids: mum and aunty.... at the beach, wearing funny bathing [View Full Entry]

By Bernii
May 25th 2006

Out with the Dinar in with the Leva

Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

Quite a lot has happened since I left Belgrade. In fact, I've left Serbia all together and am now enjoying all the creature comforts a hostel in Sofia has to offer. Where to begin? Riding out of Belgrade was fairly stress free, helped by the fact that I had a 6 o'clock start and the streets were still relatively quiet. It was nice to be finally moving although and I was surprised that I actually managed to move at all seeings the bike is quite heavily laden. After about 20km I stopped to have a cuppa. It was only then that [View Full Entry]

Links: West Travel Blogs (93) | West Travel Photos | Bulgaria Travel Forum | Bulgaria Facts | Map of Bulgaria

Travel Blog » Europe » Bulgaria » West