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Bulgaria Travel Blogs

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. To be updated

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By YZ
July 1st 2009

The Beginning Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

View from the road

The beginning of work on our property.... The pictures and captions tell most of the story. Thus far we have mostly been cleaning up the land a bit and demolishing the main old house. Our friendly neighbour, Gregor, agreed to help us in return for the old wood from the house which we didn't need anyway. He put 5 days of hard labour in for us and in return got a huge stack of wood for his stove at home. With his help, we were able to clear most of the old house and now have a clearer idea of our [View Full Entry]

By carterface
June 25th 2009

Sofia Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

DSCN3330

I arrived in Sofia and was about to try couchsurfing again. I originally had a host from Australia—him and his family—but they decided to take off for the weekend, so I almost was without a place, but luckily I posted an emergency couch request to the Sofia network and was able to find a host. Her name was Radina and she was a 19 yr. old Bulgarian girl, who’d only just began to live in Bulgaria. She was born and raised in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, but her family was from Bulgaria and her grandparents still lived in Sofia. From what [View Full Entry]

By Fanburg
June 24th 2009

Blind in Bulgaria Europe » Bulgaria » South » Plovdiv

Train Compartment

6/20/09 For those of you who were guessing where Cyrillic lettering originated, the answer is Bulgaria, and that is where we are. One responder correctly pointed out that the lettering was actually invented by two Greeks; however, our sources say that it was done so in Bulgaria and adopted into the Bulgarian language. ---- Jon and Stephanie (we took over the blogging this time) We didn't orginally plan to stop here, yet the train to Montenagro was 36 hours and the train to Bulgaria was a more tolerable 12hrs. This train was different from previous train experiences. A pre-communist er [View Full Entry]

By tanglefish
June 24th 2009

Plovdiv Europe » Bulgaria » South » Plovdiv

Roman Ruins with Mosque in background

Plovdiv and Overnight train day 18-19 (June 24 -25) We took a bus trip to Plovdiv through some amazing mountain ranges. We stayed in a hostel in the heart of the old town area of Plovdiv and a short walk down to the main street. Plovdiv has many Roman ruins including an amphitheatre that is being excavated right under the main streets. The Romans were here but also the Thracians (who I don’t know much about). A short walk up the hill from our accommodation and you find yourself suddenly on the top of the hill with a great outlook. The [View Full Entry]

By Fanburg
June 23rd 2009

Beautiful Bulgaria Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

Hiking in Rodopi Mountains

6/23/09 Lily: Over the last four days, we have been in Pamporovoro and Sofia, Bulgaria. Pamporovoro is up in the mountains. We stayed at two different apartments. We did lots of hiking in the mountains. The views are small until you get up high, but when you are high up, the views are great. --- Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria. There is lots of architecture in Sofia is European. I enjoyed the fancy shapes in the architecture a lot. --- We have repeatedly tried to find book stores, yet we have failed to find book stores for English speaking kids. [View Full Entry]

By tanglefish
June 21st 2009

Sofia and Bansko Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

Rila Monastery

Sofia and Bansko day 15 -17 (June 21 - 23) The truck was still wedged in our street the next morning, so we headed up the stairs with our luggage to walk the long way around to the Bus station. The trip was on a fairly comfortable bus. We sat near a young girl who was a local Bulgarian singer who gave us some tips on Sofia and some insight into Bulgaria. When we got to Sofia our rooms were in a fairly central area but in a hotel that was fairly tired. I ended up having a day in as [View Full Entry]

Rila Monastery with mountains in background

By Paul Casey
June 20th 2009

Onward to Eastern Europe - Sofia, Bulgaria Europe » Bulgaria » West » Sofia

Irelands call

After Boarding the Train for Sofia we were in for another surprise; the cabin (which we wondered the last time how it ever fitted two people) ended up being for 6 people this time around... a real space saver! Thankfully we had to share the cabin with only two others. Lizzy and Cos from the UK who had just finished University and were Inter-railing Europe for a few weeks as a treat. We also met Max who was travelling up from Syria after spending 5 months there learning Arabic. He was heading to Italy to meet his parents who have a [View Full Entry]

By tanglefish
June 19th 2009

Veliko Tarnovo Europe » Bulgaria » North » Veliko Tarnovo

View from our balcony

Veliko Tarnovo day 13-14 (June 19-20) A fairly long and hot train ride to our next destination. The border crossing again was fairly painless, just a bit time consuming and always hotter when the train is not moving. I was glad when our leader sourced some cold water for us at a rather long train stop. I had a brief conversation with an older man who got into the cabin I was stretched out in. He asked where I was from. I asked if he was from here. He indicated that this was a big crossroads, and that the announcements that [View Full Entry]

By Hakz
June 3rd 2009

A sunny day on sunny beach Europe » Bulgaria » East

Sofia Bus station

In order to save a few bob, a friend and I decided to fly via to Sofia on the East coast of Bulgaria and then take a 7.5 hour coach journey across Bulgaria to Sunny Beach (A.K.A Slanchev Bryag). This proved a huge success and meant that we got to see Sofia the capital city. Little time was spent here as our final destination was awaiting our arrival where we would line the fridge with beers for the arrival of the rest of our group of friends. Now when you hear the name sunny beach, you get what you pay for [View Full Entry]

A strangely designed table covered with bulgarian papers

By Turkishdelight
June 3rd 2009

Everywhere you go you always take the weather with you! Europe » Bulgaria » South » Plovdiv

The World is our Oyster

Austria- Hungary- Serbia- Bulgaria Days 5, 6- Vienna, Austria As our journey through Europe continued so did the rain showers. Our next stop was Austria’s capital Vienna where we had a 2night stopover allowing us to make most of the sights to see. We got there late afternoon, giving us enough time to food shop before the shops shut and cook ourselves a big group meal. We then attempted to go out in the evening for drinks but the rain was ridiculous and we were imitations of drowned rats so ironically our moods was dampened.. With a glorious start to the [View Full Entry]

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