Eastern Europe Phrasebooks in 12 languages - Which book do I need to buy and why?

When I was planning a walking tour of Bulgaria with a group of friends, I looked for a Bulgarian phrase book. I could not find one but made a happy discovery, a 12 language phrase book from Thomas Cook called Eastern European, which started with Bulgarian and ended with Ukrainian. that saved buying and carrying 3 or more books for a trip, and space on my bookshelves.

I ordered it through Ebay but suspected the book would not arrive in time for the holiday in Bulgaria. Meanwhile, my husband took a trip to Stanford's Map shop in London, England, and bought the Lonely Planet phrasebooks Eastern European. It started with Albanian and Bulgarian and ended with Slovak and Slovene. (Who knew!)

I was right. The Ebay second hand copy of  the Thomas Cook book did not arrive in time.

The Lonely Planet book was small and bulky, so most of the time I left it behind in the hotel bedroom, because my backpack was already heavy with a bottle of water and an umbrella, and food for the day.

When I arrived home in London the small thick postal package was on the mat. Was it a duplicate phrasebook. No. A different publisher, different languages, and different layout and information and size.

Now that I have both I can compare them.

LANGUAGES
Both books, from Lonely Planet and Thomas Cook, cover these languages:

Bulgarian
Croatian
Czech
Hungarian
Polish
Romanian
Russian
Slovenian

The Eastern Europe book by Lonely Planet also covers
Albanian
Macedonian
Slovak

The Thomas Cook book also covered
Estonian
Latvian
Lithuanian
Ukrainian

So, if you were doing a one country trip to Albania, the Eastern Europe book by Lonely Planet looks more helpful. Also a driving or multi-country trip around Eastern Europe.

However, if you are going to Ukraine, or north of The Netherlands around Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, countries which are close together, you might opt for the Thomas Cook guide.

Dictionary
The Lonely Planet book has a mini-dictionary for each language. In very tiny print.

Colours
The Lonely Planet book's pronunciation sections are in colours, a different colour for each language, which makes it hard to read late at night or early morning at home, though perhaps less of a problem when you are aout and about in sunlight.

Maps
The Lonely Planet book also includes a map of each country.

Readability
The Thomas Cook book is easier to read, larger print, black on white.

Solving The Weight Problem
If you are visitng only one country, such as Bulgaria, as I did, you might need only the Bulgarian section. I thought, what is more important to me, a lightweight language section to carry with me, or a pristine book which I do not use? I decided to try to cut the Bulgarian section out of the book. However, we did not have a Swiss army knife because we had travelled to Bulgarian by phane and knives are not allowed on planes for security reasons.

I thought of trying to bend and break the book. I was astonished how tough it was and how securely the pages were fixed. No luck with breaking open the book by hand.

Removing Pages
I considered trying to tear out the pages one by one, but without a knife or scissors that would be messy. You can make a neat tear in newspaper by folding paper back and forwards over the same spot
If I had tried this at home before leaving, I might have been able to cut the pages neatly, cover the front and back with protective white card to stop it getting creased in my backpack or packet or handbag out in restaruants in the evening, and stapled the pages together.

Photocopy?
The other option was to photocopy just the section I needed for that trip. Getting the book to lie flat was a challenge and creased the spine.

Now I have two books. The Thomas Cook book arrived too late for my Bulgaria trip but will be useful when I go to Ukraine to visit my ancestral city called Lvov,Lviv, Lemberg - my great grandfather on my father's side was named Lemberger.

Ukraine Trip?
The group will not plan a trip next year in 2020 because the political situation in Ukraine seems uncertain. In addition to the possible danger, some people might decline to book for fear or losing their holiday or their money and the orgnizer does not wish to waste time organizind a trip which might get cancelled.

Multi-Language Comparison
A surprise bonus was that I decided to read the brief introductions to all twelve languages in the easier to read Thomas Cook book. I found that they are so similar. First the alphabet, once you are even half way to reading Cyrillic for either Russian or Bulgarian, means you are no longer afraid of the other languages.

What also became clear is that Romanian is the easiest language, with lots of borrowed words from French and Italian or Latin. For example, in the pharmacy, from the Thomas Cook book I read that stomach is stomac, diaree in Romanian is diarrhoea.

Humour For Language Learners
I enjoyed the Thomas Cook introduction to Estonian, which sounds easy, no a or the and no use of gender for nouns, so no trouble matching adjectives to nouns either. The Thomas Cook book added:
There are only four tenses, one present and three past. Estonians do not believe in the future!

I got a lot of fun reading a selection of phrases creating an imaginary nightmare trip for the hapless traveller, growing increasingly desperate as one problem piles on another:
I am waiting for my husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend. ... What time is it? .. What is the time for my flight? How long is the delay likely to be?  Is my rail pass valid on this train/ferry/bus?

(The poor traveller is getting increasinly anxious, trying every possiblibilty. We would like to sit together. (Sorry, mate, not on Ryan Air. However, we were able to switch seats to be together in June 2019.)

Back to the things that Thomas Cook 12 language phrase book will help you to say:
Where are the lockers? I have lost my locker key.

I must direct them to my book How To Get Out Of The Mess You Are In. Have a decicated small pcoket for keys. Attach Velcro or a button and loop or ribbon so nothing falls out of jacket paockets. Check all your jackets for inside pockets and keep your valuable passport and key there.

However, for emergencies, use the 12 language book.

Losing and Finding The Essential 12-language Phrasebook
What happened to me? Of course, in an emergency in Bulgaria I could not find the Lonely Planet Eastern Europe phrasebook which was somethere in my luggage. The book was too bulky and heavy to carry and not needed in transit to the destination. Was it in the carry on bag outside pocket, the inside pocket, the corner of the suitcase. If not in the suitcase, it must be in the the outside pocket of the backpack, You need to have your phrase book in your jacket in a pocket on your right, if you are right-handed, not lost in a pile of other necessary or vital items, but in one pocket dedicated to nothing but the book.

BOOKLIST
Thomas Cook Eastern European 12-Language Phrasebook. UK price 6.99. ISBN 1-900341-77-8
Lonely Planet phrasebooks Eastern Europe 4th edition USA $10.99 UK 5.99 ISBN 978-1-74104-056-2

Free internet courses:
Duolingo.com

Memrise.com

I also use Duolingo - although despite finishing the German course I had trouble understanding my German-speaking friends.

I said proudly to my husband, "I am a polyglot. I read books on 12 languages."

My husband retorted, "No. A polyglot is a person who writes books on 12 languages."

Look on the bright side. At least I have writte a blog post on twelve languages - and you have read a blog post on twelve languages.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages, home tutor, workshops for colleges and businesses, online teacher.

Humour at the Humour Museum in Gabrovo, Bulgaria

Don Quixote statue. Museum of Humour. Gabrovo. Bulgaria.

Humour is featured in the Museum of Humour and Satire and the whole city's culture. They were known for their business skill, bargaining ability and mean-ness, like the cities of Aberdeen in Scotland, and made a feature of jokes, such as the one about Gabrovoans cutting off the tails of their cats in order to shut the door quicker and keep in the heat. (Gabrovo is known for walking in sunny summer and skiing in winter snow.)

The cat is the symbol of the town and appears on their brochures. They have a statue of the cat without a tail.

The museum also features Charlie Chaplin.

Useful Websites
http://www.humorhouse.bg/

Useful Websites For Travellers

ryanair.com

skyscanner.com

traveloka.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_and_towns_in_Bulgaria

https://wikitravel.org/en/Gabrovo

Artists who created Giant artworks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christo_and_Jeanne-Claude#Christo

About the author, Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and humorous speaker, teacher of English and other languages.
See other posts on Bulgaria. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Museum of Humour in Gabrovo, Bulgaria - what will you see?

Don quixote statue outside the Museum of Humour, Gabrovo, Bulgaria.

Here's a funny thing. I was in a hotel in Borovets, the Rila Hotel, looking for the lift, when I came across a stand with what looked like chocolate. It turned out to be some kind of thick plum jelly.

The stand was for a place I did not know, Gabrovo. I took all the brochures and found one of my favourite long lost museums, The Museum of Humour and Satire.

In Bulgaria I learned lots of basic facts about the country. For example, on websites and elsewhere bg is short for Bulgaria.

Outside the museum, I can see from their publicity photo, they have a horseback statue of, guess who? Obviously Don Quixote, tilting at windmills, Don Quixote, hero of Spanish author Cervantes novel.

Gabrovo was also the birthplace of Christo who with his wife created giant temporary art works in cities around the world.

Getting There

Gabrovo's distance from Bulgarian airports:

• Sofia – 220 km
• Varna – 274 km
• Bourgas – 234 km
• Plovdiv – 150 km

  Both express and stopping buses connect Gabrovo with Sofia, Varna and Plovdiv.

The humour festival in in May; and June is the time for the rose harvest at the valley of the roses in this region. 

In the same region

Useful Websites
House of Humour and Satire
www.humorhouse.bg

Useful Websites For Travellers

ryanair.com

skyscanner.com

traveloka.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christo_and_Jeanne-Claude#Christo

About the author, Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and humorous speaker, teacher of English and other languages. See other posts on Bulgaria. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How to learn the German umlauts

German flag.

The signs above the letters in German are there to help you with the pronunciation. So in that respect German is easier than English, which adopts words and prinunciations from all over the world. In German what you see is what you say.

Two Germans told me:

There is only one sign above the letters in German, called the umlaut, like a small circle. There are only three letters which have the umlaut in German.
 ⟨ä⟩, ⟨ö⟩ and ⟨ü⟩,

A
The first is a small circle above the a. It turns the a as in the English word apple into an ay as in the English word maid and the German word pronounced maid-shen meaning girl.

O
The second umlaut is above the o.
Schönberg (German: beautiful hill)
Alternative spelling: Shoenberg. Pronounced like Shern-berg.

U
The third umlaut is above the u.

Useful Website for travellers:
https://www.amazon.de/German-All-One-Dummies-CD/dp/

About The Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, is a teacher of English and other languages to colleges, students and businesses.

How to learn to roll your r in Bulgaria

I have been trying to roll my r in Bulgaria for several days. Today I think I finally cracked the secret. As I walked along a mountain path, people said good morning or good day in Bulgarian. I recognized the word, although I had never used it. The third or fourth time I started saying it back. Dobre, dobray, dobray.

After I had passed the person, who said it with a rolled r, I kept repeating it. Eventually I found msyelf saying dob thre (as in three). As I panted I could not say the thr sound properly. I was pulling my tongue back quickly, hardly touching the roof of my mouth. I kept saying it, again and again. I was getting closer and closer to saying it correctly. Somethines I missed. But I just kept on trying. Until I met the next native speaker. Again I bid them good day.

Do it like a toddler. Keep repeating it. What I did was ideal. Instead of tiring one person, I tried it on several. Nobody got tired of me or impatient.
So, take a walk in a foreign country, and reapeat a phrase using the sound you cannot pronounce. By the end of several hours, you will stop worrying about it and start saying it closer to the correct version.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and speaker, teacher or English and other languages.

Be Prepared For With Boots, Hats, Sticks And More For Walking In Bulgaria and Worldwide

Be Prepared - Shopping for Sticks & Hats

In Bulgaria and the ski and walking village of Baorovets, the shops up and down the two main streets beside the hotels and behind them, you can buy the basic items you are likely to need if you don't already have everything. 

1 Choose a rucksack to carry your water bottle. If you don't have a pocket outside the rucksack, consider a wast belt or trousers with a large pocket.

2 Pick a pair of expanding walking sticks. I like the ones with a t shape top, rather than a simple circle.. A fellow walked suggested holding the stick under the t bar when strolling along. She said that was less pressure on one's wrists.

3 Look for a protective hat.

I saw an Australian wearing a whole brim hat. It also had a neck protection at the back. He bought it in Australia.

In Borovets, Bulgaria, where people go skiing in winter, walking in summer, I saw hats with neck protection

4 Choose hiking boots or trainers. If you have restricted luggage size and weight, for example if travelling on a budget airline such as Ryan Air, you may wish to wear your heavy and bulky boots or trainers while travelling to your destination country. Another system, adopted by a friend of mine who is over six foot tall and has large feet, is to to back your shoes in a soft sided bag you sling over your shoulder, leaving more room for clothes in your suitcase.

Pack socks to match. Take socks of different thicknesses. 

At the end of a day's hiking I remove bits of gravel lodged in the soles and wash the trainers. Some people say that trainers can be washed in a washing machine. Check the manufacturer's instructions.

5 Convertible trousers and jackets. Some trousers (Americans say pants) zip off at the knee to make shorts. Check outdoor clothes shops, sports shops, camping shops, second hand and sales on Ebay. 

6 Keep gloves in pockets. Even if you don't need them, they might keep off the flies and mosquitoes.

7 Buy maps or photograph route maps at destination from sign boards.

8 Keep phones powered up with a spare charger and a linking lead plus plugs for the country you are visiting. We travel with an extension board so we can always have extra sockets in case we have two laptops and two phones and two toothbrushes.

9 Photograph safety instructions so you can read them at leisure later. 

When others say, 'It doesn't matter',  show the official advice or email it to convince everyone.

10 Choose jackets and trousers with large pockets for all your gear. Pockets need fastning to be sure of safety. Protect yourself from items dropping out, or pickpockets.

11 Take an umbrella. 

a) Against rain.

b) Against sun.

c) To hide when going to the toilet.

12 Sunblock.

Take it with you. I did my hands. Then I folded up my sleeves and my arms were not protected.

13 Anti insect protection. Insect bite balm or soother. Note natural remedies, such as dock leaves for stinging nettles.

14 Carry a sticking plaster in case you get a blister.

Useful Websites

ryanair.com

skyscanner.com

traveloka.com

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Take Bulgaria's Borovets Gondola up the mountain to the peak for walking and 'Forest Bathing'

Where Is Borovets in Bulgaria?

Borovets is a winter ski and summer walking centre south of Bulgaria's capital, Sophia. Borovets is Bulgarian for pine trees. 

Where Are The Gondolas?

The bright orange gondolas, each seating four people, go from the base station in the centre of tiny Borovets. The gondola base station is opposite the huge Samokova triangular hotel which backs onto the equally huge Rila hotel.

Gondola at Borovets, Bulgaria. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 

Be Prepared - Shopping for Sticks & Hats

In the shops up and down the two main streets beside the hotels and behind them, you can buy the basic items you are likely to need if you don't already have everything. Choose a rucksack to carry your water bottle, a pair of expanding walking sticks, or a hat, all at prices from about 10 leva, which is about 7 Euros - check the exchange rate. I bought a cheaper baseball hat for 6 lev in a supermarket down in Samokova, a small town a couple of miles away. But for 10 lev you can buy a hat with a neck flap which is removable.

Walking sticks, adjustable height. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Gondola Plans

The gondola costs 15 lev for the return journey. Ignore the half way point used by skiers if you are walking because walkers go to the trails at the top to the highest point, or along a lower trail which skirts the peak like the hrizontal crack you make in the top of a boiled egg.

Gondola Seats

Sit facing the mountain if you don't like heights. It is a pity the windows are so scratched which spoils your photos and videos. The journey is really long, about 30 minutes. On the way up I was nervous.  On the way back I was busy taking photos and absolutely loved it. I remembered the Japanese invention of the phrase Forest Bathing, letting the peace of the forest reduce stress.

There is a toilet at the top of the gondola exit. Maps show you the trails and give safety advice. the cafe above the gondola exit looks down over the gondolas coming up. The prices are reasonabe if you are looking for something inexpensive. Try chicken soup at 3.50.

The lower track which I took attracted a lot of young Bulgarian families with children and even toddlers. I would recommend taking sticks because a lot of the wide path is over uneven gravel and bit of rock.

The hut on the lower level is only one hour away, but that is one and a half hours at my speed. I stopped three times for water and moved my water from the rucksack to a large front pocket in my denim trousers. After an hour I could not see the end and turned back. I had referred back to the photo I had taken at the gondola exit I would have known that I was two thirds of the way towards my destination. The others intrepidly went off to the top, a six hour hike.

I saw one couple, a man carrying a rucksack, the girl with nothing to carry. I thought, I would have made faster progress like that.

Angela with a Brolly (British for Umbrella) as a Sunshade in Bulgaria. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Brolly At Borovets

I got out my umbrella to shelter behind if I saw a good spot for a toilet. I decided that keeping my umbrella open like the Singaporeans who use umbrellas as sunshades, was a good idea. I felt a lot better, shielded from the sun and without the extra weight of the umbrella in my rucksack.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. 

Best deals in Borovets? Bulgaria's Rila Hotel with dinner and breakfast

Rila hotel is in Borovets which is best known as a ski resort, but you can get a bargain summer week there. We took RyanAir to Sofia, and the bus from the South bus station to Borovets. In June at the Rila hotel we were paying all in about 80 Euros including dinner and breakfast for a double room occupied by two but that was a group of 24, negotiated by our walking group leader who had visited the area to suss it out the year before.

Looking at Tripadvisor for today, you can get other hotels in Borovets at under 100 euros for bed and breakfast but they sell out fast. Hotel Rila was full with a conference until last Saturday - according to those of our group who arrived a day early, but empty on Sunday and another four days we were there.

Rila hotel is vast and we paid extra to be upgraded to a wonderful room, 855 with a fine view of the green slope, a ski slope in winter, but we were there in summer for walking. The upgrade was 10 leva a day. (The previous room was 858, next door to the services room and beyond that an exit.)

What did I like most about the hotel? Food: The scrambled eggs on the breakfast buffet, the slices of grapefuit and orange. Cinnamon pasty at breakfast. Honey at breakfast. Hot cocoa from the serve yourself coffee machien in the dining room.

Prosecco was served by the glass in the downstairs bar, but not in the restaurant.

Bedrooms? The colourful carpet with red and orange strip patterns highlighting the grey. In the bathroom I like the extra shower attachment by the toilet.

Make sure to try the hot Jacuzzi, maybe the cool indoor swimming pool first because I tried the jacuzzi first and the pool was too cold for me, but if you are short of time, be sure to lie on one of the two heated porcelain loungers in the relaxation area. In summer the spa is open 9-8 pm. it is free to guests but if you are at another hotel you can use it for a guest fee.

If you want to opt for one of the paid extras, various massages are offered including Bulgarian rose, or chocolate - chocolate massage for children, too! The hotel also has a nail bar.

I asked the spa manager what distinguished the hotel where he worked from its neighbours. He said that Rila hotel had been recently renovated. One of the guests told me he had stayed at another local hotel and switched to the Rila because it was so clean.

Aound the corner from Rila hotel in the same huge pyramid shape is another modern hotel, the Samokova, named after the nearby town. With a pool and so on.

Other nice hotels in the area are quite different. The Festa Winter Palace, for example, is smaller and older with a small lobby and a domed ceiling in the dining room like a small chapel. The hotel has an indoor pool.

We made friends with an Israeli group who were staying at the Festa Winter Palace, eating a DIY kosher picnic with kosher wine on a hotel public table, in the lobby, undisturbed by the staff.  I asked the group, "How did you manage that?" A buxom lady grinned, "Chutzpah!" (A Yiddish word which translates as astonishing boldness or brazen cheek.) Their tour group leader was Bulgarian.

In one of the shops on the short walk down to the Gondola, I saw and bought
expanding walking sticks with rounded or t shape handles which were 10 leva, about 7 Euros (June 2019 exchange rate). Neither shop could manage a receipt.

The gondola up to the mountain top and back cost 15 leva per person.


Useful Websites For Travellers
ryanair.com
Hotel Rila
www.rilaborovets.com
Festa Winter Palace ski and spa
www.festahotels.com

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and foreign languages to businesses and colleges.

Rila Monastery Must See - top sight in Bulgaria

Rila Monastery is absolutely the top sight in Bulgaria, above the superb capital, Sophia, above a trip to picturesque Plovdiv.

Rila Monastery and tree. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.



Rila Monastery, Bulgaria. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The pictures speak for themselves. The outer walls and ceilings are decorated with religious themes and moral murals from Adam and Eve and the serpent tempting them to eat the apple, onwards.

What will it cost you in time and money? We hired a car for the day and drove there from our walking tour centre of Borovets. Other costs were the parking outside 5 Leva. No charge to go into the monastery nor to enter the main church, however extra for the museum, or a guidebook, or a human guide, or to climb the tower.

A panel in the entry arch gives you the basics. To summarise: the area was the refuge for a hermit. After several years of being alone, communing with God, the holy recluse gathered a huge crowd of disciples and ended up with this magnificent, monastery. You might like to read about the history in advance.

Make sure in the church to see the grave of the last king, who loved the monastery so much that he built a railway out towards it.

The complex has two shops selling books, cards, religious items, red rosary bead bracelets. Also an eatery at the back.

About the author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Plovdiv in Bulgaria, the Perfect side trip from Sofia, For Photos, Wine Tasting,

The pictures of Plovdiv's old town houses and museums look gorgeous. Plovdiv is a European city of culture in 2019 so lots of events are organized. Trips to Plovdiv are offered from Sofia and other cities, but cheaper if you share a trip with three or more, and start early in the morning.

We hired a car and drove from Borovets, mountainside ski and walking centre, to Plovdiv city and back in a day.

Just outside Borovets is a village with an army tank on the main square, and what looks like a small plane in a front garden.

Our first stop was a detour to a winery on the outskirts of Plovdiv. We saw the oak wood barrels and stainless steel vats and were given a free taste of three wines. If we had given them warning, they would have ordered in some snacks to go with the wine.

We then drove to the centre of Plovdiv and parked buying a three hour parking coupon from the strolling warden.

The tourist office in the centre gave us a map and suggested a restaurant.Right in the centre is an excavated Roman ruin, with a balcony restaurant facing it. Our friends sent us a picture of themselves drinking strawberry milkshakes overlooking the Roman ruin.

Beside the sunken Roman is a modern mosque. Walk on uphill on the cobbled narrow streets thought the craft quarter. The old houses are painted in bright colours and some have overhanging balconies. Many walls are painted with giant murals, or graffiti.

We had lunch. The toilets had a sign saying put your toilet paper in the bin, not down the toilet. (Same as in Greece.)

At the top is a small cathedral, free to enter, like all the Orthodox Christian buildings. No photos! Inside it was highly ornate, and dark.

We had lunch at Smokini.

Travel and tour tips:
TOURS
Free Plovdiv tour at 2 pm Oct to April and 6 pm May to September. No need to book. Just show up.
www.freeplovdivtour.com

VITISTOUR
Wine tour of Bulgaria, Plovdiv tours by car, bike or scoot; Plovdiv Communist tours.
facebook.com/vitistour

VISITS
Free visits: First Thursday of the month for students and retired people.

HOTELS
Hotel Rila, 2010 Borovets, Bulgaria, reception tel:+359 750 32441
www.rilaborovets.com

Winery estate DRAGOMIR
Moving from near Plovdiv to another nearby address between June and September.

WINE TASTING
The House of Distillation, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

www.bulgariawinetours.com
Half day and full day wine tours from European 65 per person.

Facebook: street.of.crafts.plovdiv

Welcomemaps.eu plovdiv

Walking tour of Plovdiv from !2 euros, every day at 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 hours, lasting around 3 hours, includes map and a coupon for 15% offPyldin restaurant, 3 entrance  tickets to Small Basilica, Amenian museum trakart. Starting point
1 Rayko Daskalov st (tourist info centre).

Maps
Large free map from
Official Tourism Portal:
visitplovdiv.com

Wine Map Bulgaria

Useful Phrases Card from
365 Culture Tour Of Sophia (Costs about 22 Leva)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plovdiv_Synagogue

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Some more odd things about Bulgaria, Budget, Bargains, Bargaining, and Sofia

First you need an international driving license to drive. A Singaporean license was not accepted by Hertz/Thrifty. However, another friend from Singapore and Indonesia said he had no trouble getting his non European non International license accepted by a different hire car company.

At the aiport you can see the OK taxis which seem to have a monopoly, and yellow cabs are lined up outside stations and main buildings.

No Tipping
Bulgaria, being a former communist country, has a no tipping culture, so what you lose on being cheated you gain on not giving a tip.

Try Bargaining
Taxis tend to ask for double the fare instead of turning on the meter. Try quering the price or asking them to set the meter. You never know.

In Borovets, south of Sofia, a ski area in winter, a walking area in summer, many of the shops and hotels were boarded up and closed in summer. I looked at a hat on a rack of summer hats outside the doorway. The assistant came to help. The hat rack was labelled 12 leva. I turned over the ticket and read aloud, Twelve leva. I stepped back.

She quickly said, "Ten leva!"

Breakfast Buns
The breakfast offerings are strange. What looks like a straightened out croissant, or a muffin, turns out to have a white cream cheese filling.



Juices
A plus is the freshly squeezed juices. My favourite was grapefruit.

In Borovets outside a restaurant I stopped to look at the pictures and translations, chicken soup, as well as omelette, and local specialities. The owner came out to chat me up.
"Where are you from? You want lunch?"
I prevaricated, "Not yet. I'm waiting for a group who went walking."
She beckoned me in, "Just look. Just look." She enthused, "For your group, I offer ten per cent reduction!"

In the capital, Sofia, I had asked if there were any budget stores. In London we have Poundland. And charity shops such as Oxfam, Barnados, St Luke's, selling mostly second hand goods donated.

In Asia in Japan and Singapore you have the Japanese Daeso, everything two dollars, as well as Value Store.

"No such things in Bulgaria," I was told.

However, Lidl offered good prices. Lidl is everywhere in Bulgaria. We saw several in Sofia and more in Plovdiv.

Another bargain shop is Mercari. We found them in Sofia and Plovdiv.

Useful Websites
www.mercari.bg


About the author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. 

Odd Things We Found In Bulgaria, and its capital, Sofia

Flag of Bulgaria

For a start, most places in Sofia, the capital, where we wanted to eat or buy goods did not take credit cards. In the UK many places won't take American Express because that company charges a higher rate. If you want to use a credit card in Sofia you are safest in a large hotel such as the Intercontinental.

Map of Bulgaria. Sofia is in the west, far from the sea.

The Intercontinental Hotel in Sofia
Incidentally, this is a modern hotel, very civilized. At first I was more interested in seeing an older hotel. We looked at the hotel famed for its pillars. Yet the service and welcome and efficiency at the Intercontinental remained a good memory, after the neglected feel of other hotels. The hallway has a huge modern chandelier. You can stand counting the lights if there's a brief shower outside. Upstairs the corridor to the dining room is all waves, wavy walls and wavy artwork. A wonderful surprise. The Intercontinental had a buffet in a room with no windows. We ordered a la carte which saved our wallets and our waistlines. The coffee, free with the buffet, was also included free with the a la carte menu, and we were offered the free coffee twice.

A modern, clean toilet, such as that in the Intercontinental, on the same floor as the dining room, leaves a good memory, of marble floors and gleaming taps which work, hand gel dispensers which are full. That means a good memory, a lot in retrospect, when you later visit an older hotel with missing tiles on the floor, paper litter, empty gel dispensers, and have to climb up or down a flight of stairs to find a toilet.

We had already passed the Sense hotel which is known for its great view. But the bouncer on the door barred our way and told us to go to reception on the ground floor and pay for a buffet breakfast. I asked the price. He told us the price and we decided to walk on. We weren't sure whether he had had a bad day with tourists trying to enter just to see the view. But later somebody said that Bulgarians who appear to be aggressive or rude are simply being direct. That is their way.

When we went for the free walking tour, we were directed to McDonalds on the corner. The toilets were upstairs. To my surprise the McDonalds upstairs had a great view over the square. A budget breakfast, with a great view.

The city was deserted, Bulgaria's capital city, Sofia. Apparently it's like Paris. The locals disappear in the heat in Paris in August for the entire month and go to the beaches. Le Touquet was a traditional British resort. In Bulgaria on a sweltering June weekend, the locals had done the usual thing, deserted the city, just for a long weekend, left the streets and hotels late Friday after work and gone to the beaches on the other side of the country, the East, or the cooler mountains. Who knew! Now I know, and you do, too.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

How Your Views Of Hotels Can Change - My Hotel Review of Rila Hotel in Borovets, Bulgaria

I am glad I did not write a review of our hotel on the first night because by day two my impressions of the hotel had completely changed.

Borovets is a ski resort south of Sofia, Bulgaria's capital. From the city you can see the mountains, the Balkans, the Rila mountains. Borovets means pine (tree forest) in Bulgarian. The hotel is the Rila hotel.

Both the Rila hotel, named after the mountain it backs onto, and its neighbour, the Samokovo hotel, named after the nearby town, were built in the same era, the 1980s, according to the friendly and helpful man, Antonio, in the Rila hotel spa.

My first impression of the hotel was not brilliant. The lifts were out of sight of the reception. At the end of the corridor.

Lifts?
To get from reception to the restaurant you climb a spiral staircase. This is a ski resport. Heaven help you if you brought granny to babysit (there is a childrens playroom so they expect kids. Or a skier could have a sports injury and want to go upstairs without hobbling back and forward from the lifts to reception and the restaurant. When we checking out, I discovered they have lifts in the hall but these were being renovated. If I had seen a sign explaining that the lifts were being refurbished, I would have understood and been understanding.

Views?
 I did not like the room beside the noisy service room nor the small bacony and view over the car park, so I popped across to the room opposite and phoned down to ask reception if I could switch rooms. They said the charged another 10 leva (Bulgarian coins) a day for the better view.

We gladly paid to switch to the better view. The big balcony had two chairs - one of which we used so that both of us could sit at the desk typing on the internet.

After switching rooms, we were a lot happier. The room was too hot, and unaccountably the air con did not work because we were told the whole hotel oeprates the air con which is turned off if they deem fit. However, the balcony room door when opened cooled down the room.

Once settled in to a better room with a good view, I was in a better mood to appreciate the colourful red carpet and the knee high shower attachment beside the toilet which turns the toilet into a bidet, the same style as in Singapore and Malaysia.

Downstairs, we met up with our group. Another member of the group had also changed rooms to get away from a room next to the noisy service room.

No - Not Nuggets!
Supper the first evening was a buffet which included only rice, no potatoes, except dried up fries. The meat was dried up beef and dry chicken nuggets.

However, on night two the buffet included super saute potatoes and moist chicken in gravy.

Airline and Holiday Horror Stories Told Over Supper: Lost Luggage & cameras and keys, buying property and a dead body a dead body

"Don't get me started!"
Around the table at supper we all told our stories:

Airline Horror Stories
Everyone has a favourite airline and a favourite airline horror story. Walter prefers Easyjet to Ryanair.  However, he complained, 'Luggage allowances are getting smaller and smaller. I was asked to pay for luggage. I had bought a cheap ticket with NO luggage allowance!' When dealing with an unknown airline, the moral is, check the luggage allowance.

I asked, 'What of the early days of plane travel? Was it always so much better?'
Walter said: 'Years ago we got on the plane and a family who had never travelled before got on with us. First they changed from their clothes into their night clothes. Then they unwrapped their cooker and prepared to light it to cook supper!
'I called an air hostess who came running to stop them.'

Nicky, a hotel owner warned us about the hazards of buying property abroad in Asia.

Warnings About Buying Property
Nicky said: 'I went to buy a property and I could see from the plan that it wasn't the area they claimed. When I asked the girl, she replied: "The common area outside the lifts is divided between the six flats on that level so that counts as part of your floor area."

'I then asked about the swimming pool. She said, "The residents can use it free for five years. After that you have to join the club owned by the management to use it." '

I asked Nicky, 'Have you heard the story about the hotel guest who mistook the bedroom door for the bathroom door and locked himself out - in the nude - in the hotel corridor! Do you think it's a true story?'

Nicky said, 'Of course it is. Lots of hotels have self-locking doors. If you have a hotel with fifty or a hundred rooms, somebody locks themselves out every day. Once a week somebody is in their underwear or semi-dressed. And every month or year somebody will be completely nude. This happens all over the world. What is surprising is that once somebody thought it wasn't a true story. You don't believe anybody was that naive, do you?'

Hotel Horrors
The Dead Body
The story goes that a man checked into a hotel, collected his key, and found a dead body in the bed. When the living guest returned to reception, the receptionist didn't seem the least bit bothered. He simply handed over another key and said, 'Try this room.'

I am told that deaths in hotels, as well as on planes and coaches, are something staff have to prepare for. You can cover a body with a blanket and pretend the dead person is sleeping or resting. Or move them behind a curtain, in first class. Or down into the crew sleeping area.

Hotels wheel out dead bodies, covered with cloths, like dinners, on the large dinner trollies for room service, or wheeled tabled used for conference catering.
When a relative of mine was in an old people's home we were asked to stay in the room with her for ten minutes. Later, I asked the supervisor why. She explained that they were wheeling out a dead body, not unusual in a home for the elderly, and wanted all the living in their bedrooms so as not to see and get upset.

Hospitals, in the UK, move bodies on covered trolleys in separate lifts to the basement.

The Wrong Key
In a New Orleans hotel I could not get the door to open. The bell-hop arrived with the luggage. He tried the key and the door opened, a man in a bath towel frowning.

I gasped, 'What are you doing? This is my room.'
He retorted, 'No it isn't. It's my room!'
The porter shrugged, resigned, 'Oh, no. They can't get the keys right. They do this to me all the time.'

Let me move on to lighter subjects.

Video Lost
A honeymoom couple returned and showed their video to the whole family, including me. The husband turned on the video and proudly announced, 'This is our honeymoon video.' The opening shots were blank. He wound on. Still blank. He wound on further. Still blank. He would to the end. Still blank.

It could have been a tragedy. Luckily one of the audience had a sense of humour. She said, 'It's all censored. You just have to imagine it!' She burst out laughing and soon the whole room was in hysterics.

Camera Catastrophes
Finally, a mixed blessing story. Tom dropped his camera on a stroll up a mountain near a friend's house in New Zealand. The pair retraced their steps several times but could not find it. A year later the New Zealand friend reported, 'I found your camera. It was broken and unusable but I have retrieved the memory card with all your holiday photos!'

As Shakespeare said, Alls's well that ends well.

About the Author Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts. What are your favourite memories?

Can you Find Bulgaria? How to Recognize Bulgaria on a Map

Bulgaria?
Where is it?
What does it look like?
Bulgarians are very pleased to tell you.

The Bulgarian flag is easy to recognise and remember. White for purity, green for the countryside, red for the history of blood shed to win independence.

On the map, our Free tours of Sofia told us that Bulgaria is supposed to look like a lion.

Map of Europe showing Bulgaria in dark green, looking like a lion with its nose sniffing the black sea, and its tail in the air.

 So we can now recognize Bulgaria easily on a map of Europe. That is a magic map. Identify the lion of Bulgaria, and you can spot Romania to the north. Greece is South West. Turkey is South East.

You can also understand why there are many Israelis visiting Bulgaria. Israel is surrounded by countries which Israelis cannot visit. In Europe, their nearest neighbour is Turkey, but beyond that the next is Bulgaria. A couple of letters in the Cyrillic alphabet are easy for them, too, as well as for speakers of Greek and Russian.

Useful websites for travellers
Flights
Cheap Flights to Bularia and around Europe and the UK
ryanair.com
Flight Comparisons
skyscanner.com

Maps
sofia.inyourpocket.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Metro
https://freesofiatour.com/blog/guide-to-the-sofia-metro/

About the Author, Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Travelling Tips For Bulgaria - Magic Maps, Sofia's Metro, Taxis and Buses Out Of Sofia to Borovets, For Walking and Skiing

The Bulgarian flag is easy to recognise and remember. White for purity, green for the countryside, red for the history of blood shed to win independence.

Within Bulgaria, Sofia is in the west, the mountainous west, far from the beaches on the Black Sea, regarded by some Bulgarians as their Blackpool, downmarket beaches for the masses, Vana, Burgas and Sunny Beach. A place to be, if you like beaches, but not a place to see.

Sofia was more of a map-reading challenge, but we walked along the main road and kept asking.

Bulgaria's capital Sofia is relaxing. In the hot summer at weekends the locals leave for a long weekend at the seaside the sea breezes or the cooler mountains. Trams and trolley buses zoom quietly along what look like speacious uncrowded pedestrian streets. Watch out for the trolley buses which sneak up on you silently and keep looking both ways.

On our Free Tour of Sofia, a walking tour, we took the underpass via the entrance to one of the major central stations and saw the Roman remains below the city.

I had yearned to see the Metro, and achieved my aim unexpectedly.

Returning to the Sofia airport we wanted to hire a car but they did not recognize a Singapore driving license. We had to meet our walking tour group. So we took a local bus to the walking area of Borovets mountain - Borovets means pines, not from the central bus station but the station in the south.

Confession time. We asked the car hire company where to get the bus to Borovets. They said the central bus station. That sounded logical. We should have checked to be sure. But we didn't.

So we took the metro from the airport to the central bus station. The signs are in Bulgarian.


Airport is the end of the line and easy.



However the train has announcements in English. Sofia has only two train lines in 2019 (a third planned), so you can't go far wrong.

However, we went far wrong. When we reached the central bus station, we learned that the bus to Borovets goes from the South Bus station!

So we got a taxi back towards the airport we had left and onwards to the south bus station. That spent time and money.

The South bus station is tiny. A building with a bus stop in front.

Sofia's Metro
However, I had wanted to see the Metro which I had heard was brand new.




Sophia's Metro, Bulgaria.

 How did it compare with the metro in Singapore? Singapore also has at least one brand new line.

Singapore Flag

Singapore's Holland Village
Singapore's Holland Village MRT shows a  windmill.

Holland Village station plastform with picture of Dutch windmill. Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The Sofia metro has very pleasant pink marble slabs everywhere, underfoot, up the walls, across the ceiling. Soothing curved ceilings. But no excitement, no history, no pictures to help you to identify your destination station.

UK flag

No features such as giant murals distinguished one Sofia station from another, unlike London underground which is gradually being redecorated and rebuilt.

The London underground now has pictures of Sherlock Holmes on the Baker Street station platforms. Also historic pictures of famous figures from history and a map adorn the Charing Cross station platforms.

Charing Cross Station. Photograph by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.


You don't need to see the Sofia Metro. The walking tour of Sofia is just fine, all the fun you need. But you can take the metro from the airport to the walking tour starting point.

Useful websites for travellers
Flights
Cheap Flights to Bularia and around Europe and the UK
ryanair.com
Flight Comparisons
skyscanner.com

Maps
sofia.inyourpocket.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Metro
https://freesofiatour.com/blog/guide-to-the-sofia-metro/

About the Author, Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Bulgaria for Bargains, such as Central Point Boutique hotel in Sophia, the capital, tours, shops and languages

Central Point Boutique Hotel is in the centre, like several other larger hotels. But it has no breakfast room. Never mind. The room has a fridge, empty, great for any medicines, and leftover food from restaurants, or bought in Lidl supermarket,  The fridge is not filled with overpriced drinks. By the front door is a vending machine with coffee. You soon manage to translate the Bulgarian for coffee and chocolate. The free boiled sweets in the hallway bowl are coffee flavoured with a soft centre. Try one.

What of the rooms? Our room was upstairs, no lift. The hotel is on two floors, ground floor and upstairs. Our room, number 201 was at the back. The view was over a neighbouring garden with lawn, and the patios of the ground fllowoor back rooms below. I was temporarily disappointed. But a back room proved to be quieter, because the park opposite has bars where people talk and laugh until way beyond midnight. Plus point for a back room. We asked for a second stool so that both of us could sit at the desk.

No hairdryer. But lovely fluffy towels and bathrobes. Shower gel and shampoo supplied.

Free Water
You can fill up your water bottle in the spa below which has a large spa bath and sauna. Or the prolific fountains in parks.

Our bedroom's shower room has lights changing from blue to purples and back. At first it is amusing, then irritating, then I stopped noticing it.

The ground floor and upper corridor and bedrooms are delightfully decorated with huge pictures of the old city or old Bulgaria. You feel you are in Bulagaria alghough the hotel is modern.

Our room was a dull dark brown and gold. Other rooms seemed to be in brighter colours. Mostly smaller. According to the pictures on Tripadvisor and the couple of rooms I was able to see by asking other hotel guests.

You can buy water cheaply in supermarkets and the convenience stores dotted about. We were able to walk to the walking tour starting point and nearby restaurants and the nearby natural Hsitory museum (about which I wrote earlier).

Anybody in a wheelchair would need the ground floor room; there is also a flight of about three steps to the front door.

I liked the patio rooms because you could sit out and eat in summer. Others might prefer not to look out at a white wall but to have an upstairs room such as ours with a view over the lawn next door, or over the park at the front despite it being noisy at night - save ear plugs from an airline if you are bothered.

(Why no photos? I am having trouble loading up.)

The parks are full of statues.

Free Walking Tours
The free walking tour is nominally free, although most people are so delighted they gladly give a tip and come back for more walking tours.

Free Cathedrals And Churches
Entry to the cathedral and churches is free. See:
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. (Ladies are asked to remove their hats.
The Russian Church. (Tiny inside.)

Free Language Help
On the Culture tour which cost about 22 leva, you are given a card the size of a business card with the Cyrillic alphabet on it.
Sofia free monthly guide (I had the May 2019 issue) had a section at the back on language.

Useful Websites
HOTEL
email: centralpointboutique@abv.bg
booking.com
We got a discount from being regular users of booking.com

The Metro
A trip on the metro train from the airport to the city centre is about 1.70, in UK terms in June 2019, which was about 70p, under one pound sterling, per person, one way.

WALKING TOURS
FREE
www.freesofiatour.com
sofiagreentour.com

SHOPS
Lidl supermarkets are everywhere for food.
Mercari bargain shop for clothes, shoes, socks, etc. (Next to cafe Ma Baker and opposite Lidl.)
www.mercari.bg

Discounts
If you take the Free Sofia Tour they give you a booklet called Free Sofia Tour recommends which has offers such as ten per cent off selected restaurants.

Skiing
Start researching now for a holiday skiing in Borovets, south of Sofia.

Cheap flights
https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/
www.skyscanner.com

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.  

Cultural Tour Of Sofia, Bulgaria's Capital, Recommended

We went for the 'free' walking tour of Sofia. But because the Jewish tour was only on certain days we opted for that first and went back for the free tour later. We were so pleased with the tour that we then invested in the paid for Cultural Tour which is about 24 lev reduced to 22 if you hae already taken the free tour. The price included a pastry and local drink at a bread shop, a strong spirit shot and a cheese salad at a second stop, and rose tea at the last stop.

It was a hot day in June and I was not sure I wanted to do the dancing and hesitated to do that tour. However, in the event the guide decided not to do the dancing because the weather was too hot. I was disappointed because I wanted to see a demo of the dancing called Hora to see if it was like the Israeli Hora. When I asked to see the dancing at the end of the tour, instead she demonstrated the one person dance, which involves hands on hips and four steps.

So I posed with hands on hips for our final group photo in order to remember it, and as I would have looked daft being the only person in the group standing hands on hips I asked her to mirror image me.
If we had stayed longer we might have taken more of their tours.

On the so called free tours you are supposed to give a tip if you enjoyed the tour. We certainly did. The guides spoke excellent English and were clear and loud. I made a point of choosing the guide with the loudest voice.

Useful Websites
https://365association.org/tours/culture-tour/
https://www.facebook.com/365-Culture-Communist-tours-373912509481928/
sofiagreentour.com
https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/
skyscanner.com

About the Author - Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Best Food In Bulgaria's Capital - Bread Bowl at Moma Restaurant with tomato sauce

We returned to the marvellous Moma restaurant in Bulgaria's capital, Sofia. The resaurant building is covered with roses, the symbol of Bulgaria, which provides the majority of the world's roses and rose perfumed soaps and cosmetics. You will find it marked on free maps of Sofia which you can pick up at the tourist office in one of the main modern underground train stations.
 If you want to eat in the garden outside at the entrance you need to book. We ate once at the ground floor restaurant, colourful red decor, the second time upstairs in the more restful orange room. On the staircase you see stunning paintings of a bride and other girls in traditional costume by a local artists. The paintings are for sale at prices from 300 to 600 levs, local currency, about 150-300 Euros at the exchange rate when we were there in June 2019.
The best main course was the one I had on my first visit, a casserole containing potatoes. How I miss potatoes living much of the year in Asia, specifically Singapore, where the national dish is chicken
rice.

Brown bread bowl, main course at Moma restaurant, in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

However, on my second visit to Moma I had to have the bread bowl casserole. I had tried this previously in Prague. The bread bowl here in Moma was served on a plate with a decorative base of red tomato sauce.

Tasty tomatoes are another famous feature of Bulgaria. The tomatoes appear in the red, white and green salad, which copies the colour of the national flag. (Like Italy's trilcolor salad copies their national flag.)

I found the advantage of serving the bread bowl on tomato sauce is that the base of the rigid, hard bread bowl softens so that you can scrape it out at the end of the meal.
To go with our meal we were advised by the sommelier to try the local Traminer grape wine.

Useful websites
https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/

About the Author, Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages.

Three Blind Mice and other Amazing Animals in the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria

The flag of Bulgaria superimposed on a map of the country. The capital is Sofia, where I stayed. 

The National Museum of Natural History. Photo from Wikipedia.

On the ground floor is the gallery with the minerals which I was not expecting to enjoy but I loved it. The colours were wonderful, green, purple, blue, pink. The shapes were astonishing. Little table tennis balls showed the DNA patterns. At the entrance was a giant stone, only knee high, but, on a table, it was waist high.

You have four floors to see. We started at the top.

The brown bear was alarming large. A horrid hippo, too, like a tank, was not something you would want to meet at night.

I admired the beautiful blue butterfly.

I photographed the starfish for my motivational talk about throwing back the starfish - 'made a difference to that one'.

Finally, the blindmouse. As a child I had heard the nursery rhyme about the three blind mice. I never realised there was such a creature as a blind mouse, with the official name of Blindmouse.
Photos will be added later.

Next door is the Russian Church with a wonderful gold roof. Free to enter. Tiny inside. Kiosk sells silver neck chains.

Useful Websites
http://www.nmnhs.com/

https://whichmuseum.com/place/sofia-2505/best-museums
http://www.sofia-guide.com/museums-in-sofia/

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g294452-Activities-c49-Sofia_Sofia_Region.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Changi airport, Singapore, seasonal displays and space

Changi Airport, Singapore. Seasonal Displays. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Changi Airport, Singapore, always has seasonal displays. Every time I go through it, I see something different. I had thought of cropping this picture to show the display larger. But this view shows you how spacious the airport is.

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Teacher of English and other languages.