Bulgaria is an amazing place, and to enoy it to the fullest, here is some information that may help you in your next (or first) visit to this interesting country.

Bulgarian Money

The Bulgarian Lev (BGN) is the currency of Bulgaria – they are part of the EU, but have not adopted the Euro.  A similar situation existed in the UK prior to Brexit, where the UK was part of the EU, but retained the British Pound as the currency.

Each lev (meaning ‘lion’) can be divided into 100 stotinki. The plural of lev is leva.

$1.00 USD is approximately $1.60 BGN.

Bulgarian Alphabet

The Bulgarian alphabet is very similar to the Russian Cyrillic alphabet.

Аа (a)	Кк (kuh)	Фф (fuh)
Бб (buh)	Лл (luh)	Хх (huh)
Вв (vuh)	Мм (muh)	Цц (tsuh)
Гг (guh)	Нн (nuh)	Чч (chuh)
Дд (duh)	Оо (o)	Шш (shuh)
Ее (e)	Пп (puh)	Щщ (shtuh)
Жж (zhuh)	Рр (ruh)	Ъъ (er-gol-yam)
Зз (zuh)	Сс (suh)	ь (er ma-luhk)
Ии (ee)	Тт (tuh)	Юю (yoo)
Йй (ee krat-ko)	Уу (oo)	Яя (ya)

Bulgarian yes = no, and no=yes!

When in Bulgaria, it is important to use the words yes and no, not rely on the movement of one’s head to indicate the answer.  Why?

In Bulgaria, shaking your head side-to-side means ‘yes’, while moving it up and down means ‘no’!!!

Encountering gypsys with guns

It’s not as challenging as it sounds…  Gypsy youths no more than fourteen years of age roam the areas armed with rifles – but I am assured that as long as one doesn’t stare them down and merely continues on confidently, as though a local, one will not be approached.  This strategy has worked well thus far…  Apparently, they mostly use them as intimidation weapons…  It makes me want to simply show them some love because obviously something beautiful is lacking in their world for them to feel the need to resort to such measures to feel important.

Useful Bulgarian phrases

Hello = Dobar den! (Добър ден!/Doh-bur dehn!)

Goodbye = Dovijdane! (Довиждане!/Doh-veezh-dah-nay!)

Excuse me = Izvinete (Извинете/Eez-vee-neh-teh)

Please/You’re Welcome = like the double usage/meaning of ‘bitte’ in German, Molya (Моля/Moh-lya)

One large red wine, please! = Edno golyamo cherveno vino, molya! (Едно голямо червено вино, моля!/Eh-dna goh-lya-ma chur-vey-no vee-no moh-lya)

…and “thank you“?  Merci!  Well, the Bulgarian word is blagodarya (благодаря), but many people simply use merci instead.

Oh, and a word one will hear a lot…  dobre (добре) – meaning “good“, but also a way of simply acknowledging something someone said.

Name Day is a Huge Deal in Bulgaria!

Today, I learned about one’s “name day” – not to be confused with one’s “birthday”.

Apparently in several countries, Bulgaria being one of them, a person’s “name day” is celebrated in a very big way – even more so than their birthday!

Name day in Bulgarian is imen den, and the person celebrating their name day is called imenik.  On their day, people will greet them by saying “Chestit imen den” (Chess-teet ee-men den).

As opposed to the tradition of friends throwing the birthday guy/girl a party, on their name day, the imenik is the one who throws the party for their friends and family.

To look up your “name day” date, I have included a link here:  http://happynameday.com/query.php

Bulgaria landscape – from beaches to mountains to ski resorts to forests…

Bulgaria has it all!

~~~

There is so much more to tell, but I recommend you visit for yourself.  It truly is a fascinating country…

~ Bella

…continued…

…and a gelato – just what was needed!

A snail house?

 

 

This was once the Communist leader’s beach retreat area…

…and this is Sophia, the rose bush I bought.  She now lives on my balcony, we chat each morning when I give her a drink…

…and back to the hotel for some additional photos…  Do you see the two dark dots in the water?

This is them!

…and in response to a couple of people who asked what the dark mass was in the cliff face…

Sunrise the following morning…

…and what looks like the same family back for more fun and games…

I have another trip planned for next Friday…  We shall see what that brings…

~ Bella

…continued…

This is a traditional Bulgaria house – and was built in the 1800s!

As we began down this road, I was ever so pleased my driver had second thoughts and turned around……

It is interesting that in this whole part of the world, older people sit outside their fence and watch the world go by…  occasionally talking to passers-by they know…  In this case, the man looks like he was a worker from somewhere, but still, he just sat…

Even in the remotest village, we saw coffee vending machines everywhere!

This was where it became a little scarier…  This group of gypsy youth – the ones toward the end of the street – were brandishing rifles…  They would have been no more than 14 years of age.

…and here began the off-roading portion of our journey!

…continued in the next post…

On Friday I hired a driver to take me around the local area for a couple of hours, as well as to run some errands, buy a local SIM card, get some groceries etc.

First, though, here are some photos from earlier in the week…

…and now to my day trip…  By the way, to give you an idea, this is the road from the hotel – not exactly a major city!

…it is not visible from here, but to the right of the van heading away from us is a sheer drop!

Hmmmm…  Interesting place to park a boat trailer…  There are small trees growing through it!

This little boy was soooo cute – he was playing peek-a-boo with me…

…and while on first glance, that might look like a peddle car… NO!  When his mother came out, he put it in reverse, backed up, straightened up, put it in forward gear, and took off!!!  Sooooooooo cool!

It’s funny, it was about here I thought…  Here I am by myself with a Bulgarian driver I don’t know, in a forest in Bulgaria, with no other traffic, and with no cell coverage…  LOL!  …but I am glad I trusted my instincts that all was well, and we had a delightful journey.

…continued in the next post…

It took over an hour to be admitted into the EU (Bulgaria) from North Macedonia (non-EU) – cars were searched…

 

…but eventually we were on our way again… and driving past a giant’s dining table?

Stopped at the proverbial fork in the road…

No, this isn’t a pole with a furry hat…

It’s a stork’s nest!  The very first time I have seen a stork!

Welcome to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria…

We passed a massive traffic jam on the highway… caused by not only a house that, for whatever reason, was not moving… (of course, houses are not supposed to move, normally…)

…and a film crew filming!

…and stopped at the proverbial fork in the road (me thinks there is a pattern here…)

Masses of fields of sunflowers!!!

I wasn’t fast enough to capture on my camera – we passed a field of sunflowers, all looking the same direction, as sunflowers do – but there was just one sunflower who was pointed in exactly the opposite direction!  A rebel…  🙂

Hmmmmmm, well………… moving right along…

Welcome to Burgas…

This below is actually a theme park…

According to the map, this was the road to the hotel… we weren’t so sure……..

…but the map was correct…

…however there was no one at home!  But they did leave my key for me…

View from my room at sunset…

…and I woke up around sunrise, so thought I may as well capture that on my camera as well…

Time for some more sleep – and then when I awoke…

Although not being used at the moment, this is a SCUBA diving pool with observation window…

Care to join me for breakfast?

…and a little later, some vino…  It’s lovely – they are teaching me some Bulgarian, I am teaching them some English – “Thanks” in Bulgarian?  Merci!  (go figure)  “Wine” in Bulgarian?  Vino!  Excellent!

Interesting menu choices…

Tanya, my lovely young waitress (her father owns the restaurant) made me a special non-alcoholic fruit cocktail with fresh fruit… YUM!

There are worse places to sit with one’s laptop…

…and Tanya lead me astray…  She insisted that I must taste her favourite thing on the menu – Viennese Waffle!  Ah-may-zing!

It turns out that the air conditioner in my room was having challenges, so this morning they moved me to a different room – and I love it!  Here is the view from my new room… directly north-facing, toward the Black Sea…

…and will end this post with a view of the sunset……..

~ Bella

The day was cloudy, foggy, damp, and quite dreich (Scottish word) when with my driver Elisei, I set out in search of Bulgaria – as one does!

Bucharest itself – particularly the Old Town – is quite lovely, but on our way our of town, Elisei advised that we were going through a part of town that was very rough, he told me to promise not to go there myself – and apparently at night even the police are reluctant to venture…

…and with minimal English he simply described this place as “wrong”.  Oh dear…

Along the way there were lots of abandoned gas stations…

…and in case you are wondering, this IS the major road!

…arriving at the border crossing between Romania and Bulgaria, just before we cross the River Danube from one to the other…

…and what looks like a strange glow at the end of the bridge is simply the fog… it looked amazing!

Yes, again, this is the major road!!!

…still the main road……..

Not exactly an encouraging sign… but interesting it is in English!

…and like magic as we approached our first destination, the fog totally vanished!

We were going to visit the rock-hewn church, however upon seeing how many stairs there were… and no, this isn’t all of them…

Look up – that will give you an idea of how many there are… we decided to give this one a miss and head to our next destination – another rock hewn monastery…

…and just as strangely as the fog disappeared, it reappeared…

…and – hey presto – just as we approach our next destination, the fog vanishes!

What I found extra-fascinating is that this is still an active monastery!  We encountered a monk – a man in his forties with a long dark brown beard – and he and Elisei chatted, but out of respect, I did not photograph him.

Elisei took my camera and climbed the stairs to the chapels to take some photos for me while I remained below…

…and while I waited, a kitten came over, purred, jumped up on the seat, stepped into my bag, and promptly made himself comfortable!!!  He was sooooo cute!!!

After asking him several times to relocate, and giving him gentle nudges, Elisei decided it was time for more deliberate action…

…however kitten had decided he was going with us!

…and he was not impressed when we wouldn’t take him………  🙁

…and just as we are preparing to leave, the fog rolls back in……………..  Twilight Zone!!!

Oooooooooooodles of Romania houses have seats in front of their fence – to sit and chat with the neighbours – seriously!

…and back to the hotel – and this reminds me – this cab driver has a sign on his door displaying the tariff of 3.50…  Here in Romania, be wary of taxi drivers!  The tariff they are supposed to charge is 1.99 – and not only will you have to pay the inflated amount if you get into this taxi or others like it (that have all types of amounts advertised) – but the drivers will quickly turn off the meter when you arrive, and if you haven’t paid attention to the total, you will often end up paying an exorbitant amount!  No, I didn’t learn this from experience, a friend here educated me…

…and now safe and sound back in my lovely hotel… and just in time to get to work…

~ Bella