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.

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.

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.

The Best Bulgarian Food In Sofia?

The Best bulgarian food, I mean at an affordable price. Moma restaurant. The word Moma means maiden or unmarried girl in Bulgarian. the restaurant is decorated with wonderful exotic pictures of big eyed, big busted beautiful Bulgairan girls in traditional costumes. You can by the painintings for prices varying from about 350 to 600 lev, which is about 150 to 300 pounds. Read the description of the artist in the hallway.

The restaurant is in a building with roses growing up the walls. Roses are a feature of Bulgaria.

You enter through a gate which open into the outdoor eating area which was packed on a Thursday evening when we were in Sofia. So we had to eat indoors. But if we had not seen the gorgeous garden, we would have been delighted with the inoor restaurant, with its huge paintings og forgeous girls, its colourful hangings, cushioned wall seats proper chairs if you prefer).

The tabletops were edged inset coloured tiles in bands of bright red white and green, like the national flag, and other colours.  The centere of each table was an emoridered runner. Everything was a delight for the eyes.

The starter we chose was a mixed hors d'oevre. Dips of different colours and two types of bread, white and brown.With a mix of salt and pepper to put on top. Later I remembered we are nowadays told to cut down on salt. Never mind. Only once.

Do go upstairs to see the toilets. Small, two cubicles one for men and one for women. The shared wash basin is red.

What would I like them to add or improve? Service got off to a slow start. We did not get a garden table and were first into the the indoor downstairs room. The waiters were so busy with the full garden room they forgot us. We had to go and ask for service. We thought they might have given us a free drink or a free rose flavoured sweetie. They didn't. No fresh juices. No sweet or sparkling wines by the glass. No jug of free tap water.

Despite this I give it five. (Stars.) Five out of five. My top ranking. Best food. Best decor.

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

About The Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and blogger. Author of twenty books.

TRAVEL TO BULGARIA Summary

Bulgaria - hgighly recommended, cheap and cheerful. Sofia the capital is easy to walk around.


Useful Websites For Travel To Bulgaria
TRAVEL TO BULGARIA
Travel from Stansted to Sofia
ryanair.com

HOTELS
Budget
Central Point hotel boutique
Great location and cheap price.
Ground floor rooms, some have a walled patio. Our room 210 had a view over next door's lawned garden and the hotels's ground floor rooms' downstairs patios, our room quiet at night. Front rooms have a better view of the park and distant road but are noisy at night from revellers drinking around bars in the park.

SOFIA
WALKING TOURS / FREE TOURS
www.freesofiatour.com
www.365association.org
https://365association.org/tours/culture-tour/
ww.sofiagraffitittour.com
Free walking tour of the city in front of the Palais of Justice, but finishes outisde the Alexander Nevski Cathedral.

Churches and Cathedrals (free entry)
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

The national gallery in The Palace
Very dull. Reductions for the retired. Good shop.
ww.nationalgallery.bg

Next door is the Natural History Museum. which is excellent. Huge animals and tiny birds such as the teeny hoopoe with a needle like beak, and iridiscent stones in all colours, green, purple, blue, pink, from all over the world in amazing shapes from an almost invisable diamond to a knee high quartz - actually on a table so it was waist high when I was photographed beside it.


Wines:
Enjoywine
www.enjoywine.bg
Family owned shop specialising in Bulgarian wines offers tasting of three wines. Sells amusing birthday cards.

Synagogue
Entry 4 leva
www.sofiasynagogue.com

Shopping
Elephant Bookstore
31 Tsar Shishman Street,Sofia, Bulgaria.
Everything from Harry Potter to Alice and Wonderland, Freud and Einstein, books and mugs and cards and pictures and cards and umbrellas and masks.
wwwElephantBookstore.com

PLOVDIV
Pretty and historic, and centre of Bulgaria's top wine region.
You can visit it on a day trip from Sofia.

Plovdiv airport 'the South Gate of Bulgaria
www.

More later.
 Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Daily Dose of Bulgarian Words - goodbye and thank you

I am picking a word or two of Bulgarian every day. Easy peasy. I asked the guide on my free walking tour of Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, for a couple of easy to remember words which were the same in English.

Instead he gave me mersi (merci) for thank you, which is French, and also used in Romania, as we learned on our trip to Romania's capital, Bucharest.

Another easy to remember word is Ciaou, Italian for goodbye, which is used and recognized in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria.

English - Bulgarian
goodbye - ciaou
thank you - mersi

Bulgarian - English
ciaou - goodbye
mersi - thank you

Now I can say goodbye and thank you when leaving a shop or asking the way:
Mersi, ciaou!


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

Wonderful Walking Tours and Jewish Walking Tours of Sofia, capital of Bulgaria

A general walking tour, and the new Jewish walking tours, are free. Their other tours are paid for. Many people take the walking tour and go on to take another tour.

The Jewish walking tours started this year 2019. They were started by a historian and a Jewish guide and now another non-Jewish guide has joined the group of knowledgeable tour guides.

Our Jewish walking tour, in English, attracted about forty people. Another group followed a Spanish speaking guide. Our group include Jews and non Jews, Israelis - Sofia is about two and a half hours flight for them, the same as it from London. Other were speakers of German, Dutch, French and Spanish, and some well spoken English speaking Indians from the UK who had previously taken the Jewish trail around Prague in the Czech Republic and been fascinated by the Jewish history and loved the Jewish restaurants.

We stopped to buy water. The guide told us the history of the Jewish people in Bulgaria. We looked at some Jewish gravestones in a sunken garden alongside a restaurant. If we had not had the guide we would not have looked over the low hedge at the stones and noticed the Hebrew lettering.

A later stop was a momument to the Jews of WWII.

The tour did not go to the synagogue, which we went on to see afterwards. (Check my earlier post.)

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

The most Beautiful Synagogue In Europe?

I visited the synagogue in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria. The synagogue is already open, although still undergoing renovation. You can see the columns with gold decoration around the tops, the huge central chandelier, the ceilings painted blue with stars.

Al around are the numerous six point star,s called magen David, or star of David. The six point star is known to Jews as the star of David and Muslims call it the seal of Solomon. The floor also has stars with more points.

The so called museum is at the moment (June 2019) just one case of objects on the left. Join up with another visitor if you don't know what the objects in the case are, but you can read the captions and check up on Google. For instance, there is the curved ram's horn used to blow loudly with great effort during the service of New Year.

It might help you to recall that the seven branch candelabra is for the Sabbath. 

Seven branch menorah in Sofia's synagogue.In Bulgaria.

The festival of lights in the autumn is Hanukah. The eight' branch candlestick', actually a nine branch candlestick, is called a hanukiah.

There is  small entry charge. One case on the wall on the right has items for sale, such as music, and head covering for men in satin look material in bright colours, such as green (kippot in Hebrew).

Keep looking and you keep seeing more intriguing objects. On the floor on the left is a glass panel you can walk on revealing what was discovered underneath, broken pieces of stone with carvings.

I was very impressed with the synagogue. I thought it was the most beautiful I have seen, of those open to the public. Maybe I should get out more.

Sofia Jewish Tour
I took a Jewish Tour, a free walking tour of Sofia. To our surprise the tour did not stop at the synagogue. But you can visit it on your own. We found it with the aid of Google maps on our mobile phones, aided by Tripadvisor.

Synagogue Museums in Europe
Other synagogues to visit in Europe include those made into museums in Amsterdam in The Netherlands and in Prague in the Czech Republic.

About the author
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker. Author of Jewish Travel Guide.

Quiz on capitals: Bosnia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia,

Problem
I have a hard time remebering these. I bet you do too. Instead of giving you the questions first and then the answer, this time I'll give you the answers first, then test you to see if you remember them.

Capitals are not always the largest cities

Country - capital

QUESTION AND ANSWER
EUROPE
Travelling to Europe?
Belarus - Minsk (Remember the s ends Belarus and appears in the capital MinSk.)
Bosnia & Herzogovina - Sarajevo (disputed). (You could remember SARA went to SARAjevo.)
Bulgaria - Sophia (You could remember that SophIA went to SophIA in BulgarIA.)
Croatia - Zagreb
Germany - Berlin (no, it's not Bonn)
Ireland - Dublin, Eire (Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland which is part of the UK)
Macedonia - Skopje (The c in Macedonia sounds like S which starts the name of the capital)
Poland - Warsaw (I saw the big capital, Warsaw. Years ago it was cute little Cracow or Krakov.)
Republic of Macedonia -
Romania - Bucharest (Rest in Romania; book a rest, Bucharest)
Serbia - Belgrade (Letter B in the country and the capital)
Slovenia - Ljubljana (Slovenia has one l in the country and two in the capital)
Turkey - Ankara (But most tourists charge like bulls to Istanbul: K in the country and the Capital)

Travelling to America?
AMERICA
Canada - Ottawa (No, it's not Toronto, nor Montreal. The letter a appears twice in Canada and its capital Ottawa.)
Mexico - Mexico City
USA - Washington DC (No, it's not New York. Both New York in the North; and The South wanted the capital in their part of the country. As a compromise, a new city was built at the border.)

Travelling to Asia?

ASIA

China - Beijing (The letters IN are in both country and capital. ChINa and BeijINg.)

QUESTION - What's the capital"

EUROPE
Travelling to Europe?
Belarus -
Bosnia & Herzogovina -
Bulgaria -
Croatia -
Germany
Ireland / EIRE
Macedonia - area of Northern Greece as well as a separate new country to the north of Greece so the new coutnry is provisionally, in 2018, renamed Republic of Macedonia - which see below.)
Northern Ireland, UK
Poland -
Republic of Macedonia -
Romania -
Serbia -
Slovenia -
Turkey -

AMERICA
Canada -
Mexico
USA -

ASIA
China -

USEFUL WEBSITES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_national_capital,_largest_and_second-largest_cities
https://www.infoplease.com/world/countries-world/world-capitals

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Humroous after dinner speaker. I am still talking at breakfast - you can't stop me.

Hiking, Staying and Eating In Bulgaria, Enjoying beaches, Romans and Romantic Churches

Bulgaria (/bʌlˈɡɛəriə, bʊl-/ ( listen); Bulgarian: България, tr. Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria(Bulgarian: Република България, tr. Republika Bǎlgariya, IPA: [rɛˈpublikɐ bɐɫˈɡarijɐ]), is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. 
The capital and largest city is Sofia; other major cities are Plovdiv in the middle of the south, and Varna and Burgas on the Black Sea coast in the east.

I SOFIA, capital, in the west.
See the eagle and lion bridges.

73 Miles south is Rila monastery, a UNESCO protected site in the Rila national park, one of Bulgaria's most visited buildings.

Rila monastery

Rock-hewn churches near Rousse.

BLACK SEA COAST:
2  SUNNY BEACH, 3 BOURGAS, 4 VARNA

Sunny Beach, as you see on the map, around the bay, the next headland south is Nessebar. 
Sunny beach, as you might imagine, is a family resort and if you look at hotels on the web they are flashing deals for children.
Attractions in Sunny Beach include a camel park.

Sunny Beach has a church in a cliff.

Go to Pomorie Lake and see the salt museum, then take a free to dip in black mud, supposed to cure ailments (arthritis?). To wash off, you need to take your own bucket and sponge.

3 Bourgas

4 Varna

HOTELS
Magic Castle Hotel
Tripadvisor's number 1 hotel, gives you a 15-minute magic show on arrival.

Cost £62 a night in July 2018. 3 star. Only 17 rooms, so fine for a couple, such as when you are flying out to join a group and wanting an extra day in the capital, Sofia, before or after being with the others, but not for me when helping to research and organize a hotel for my hiking group of 30 people, mostly couples, needing about 15 rooms.

Try group booking hotels. Larger hotels.

WALKING
5 RILA and 
6 PIRIN  mountain ranges.
7 STRANDJA

8 PLOVDIV , the south
You could fly into Plovdiv.





















Old Plovdiv
Pedestrianised old Plovdiv has lots of Roman remains. 
You can visit the Roman theatre and four other attractions with a shuttle ticket.

......................

In Ploviv, a bright orange museum, the phrase 'you can't miss it' comes to mind, you see the history museum.



Plovdiv's Roman amphitheatre.

Plovdiv's regional Natural History museum contains an aquarium.

Familiar Foods
Moussaka.
Baklava.

Novelty Foods To Try

A walnut cake with chocolate icing called Garash. Makes me want to gnash my teeth. I'll have two, and a fork, please.


Getting There
You can fly to the capital, Sofia, to the west, or Burgas on the black sea coast. Looking at the little plane symbols, you could also fly Ryanair from Stansted to Plovdiv in the middle of the south.
Other options are combining your Bulgaria trip with a day in the capital of Macedonia.

To Sofia with Tui from Gatwick.
To Burgas Airport BOJ
Balkan Holidays flights to Burgas airport from Gatwick; Wizzair to Burgas airport from Luton.
Bulgaria Air from Sofia to Burgas
Varna airport has a free shuttle bus from Varna airport to Varna city centre and Burgas airport.

Useful Websites
BULGARIA
See Wikipedia, Wikitravel, Wikivoyage, plus your government's up-to-date advice on safety (from the UK, USA and Canada). 
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Bulgaria

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/bulgaria

SOFIA
https://www.visitsofia.bg/en/cityinfrastructure/what-to-see/monasteries/menuid486

PLOVDIV
www.archaeologicalmuseumplovdiv.org, archmusplovdiv@abv.bg
www.ethnograph.info,
www.historymuseumplovdiv.org , hm_plovdiv@mail.bg
http://www.plovdiv.bg/en/туристи-2/планирай-своето-пътуване/карти-и-брошури/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rila_Monastery

ORGANIZED TOURS

Balkan Holidays say they organise speciality holidays for groups including walking.

Purple Travel also organize group bookings. Tel:0203 728 0078.

https://www.andantetravels.co.uk/tour/583/Bulgaria/Bulgaria--Thracians--Churches.html
(Fab tour if you've got £2.595 to spare and can afford to pay a single supplement of £250. If you can't afford it, read all about it, recommend it to your boss, rich family and friends - and buy a lottery ticket!)

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

Free Walking Tours in Russia's Moscow and Bulgaria's Sofia

Problem
If you are not confident in negotiating buses and taxis, how about a walking tour? But I'm scared even to step outside the hotel! Where do I start?

Answer
Easy peasy.
BULGARIA - SOFIA - FREE WALKING TOUR! THREE TIMES A DAY!

When else to go?
Bulgaria - first week in June is the Festival of the Roses. For a description see Rachel's travel blog.

Easy Language
Thank you is the French word merci (In Bulgaria and Romania).
Goodbye is ciao, the Italian word, (in Bulgaria and Romania).

Quick and Easy Travel Between Bulgaria, Bucharest and Moscow
The capital of Romania, Bucharest, is only an hour away by public transport.

The cross country train from Bulgaria's capital, Sofia to the beaches on the East is cheap.

You can catch a train from Sofia and Varna to Moscow and vice versa (and Kiev in Ukraine).

This is just a summary of what I found most useful. See Wikitravel for great details on all forms of transport.

Travel Tip - Bulgaria - Sofia
http://www.freesofiatour.com Free walking tour, three times a day. The map on their website shows the guides and places on the route (which you could walk on your own) including a synagogue and a mosque so a wide variety of both popular and minority interests are well covered.

Travel Tip - Russia - Moscow
Take a walking tour of statues and check out the captions and life stories on Wikipedia. See my blog post on Moscow statues and Kalashnikov.

Free Walking Tours - Are They Really Free?
Yes and no. Sometimes they seem completely free. Maybe they are sponsored by the government.  Or students want to practise English. Other times they drop you off at a restaurant. Other times they end up asking for an entirely voluntary tip.

Sometimes they hope you will take a second trip with the same guide. Or the website which advertises the free trip - and the guide actually pays the website to advertise his free trip! Sometimes they hope the good days will subsidies the low tip days.

Sometimes they hope to get a job as a paid guide later. Sometimes they hope everybody will give a small tip and the big tippers will make up for the mean tippers. Sometimes they hope just one tip from a rich elderly American will make up for all the poor students who leave a pittance or nothing. If you want to know, ask the guide, or ask on TripAdvisor.

Useful Websites for Language Learning and Travel:
http://www.freesofiatour.com
http://thetravelbug.org/books-articles/articles-on-bulgaria/festival-of-the-roses/
http://www.bulgariantouristboard.com
https://wikitravel.org/en/Bulgarian_phrasebook
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/russian-alphabet-made-easy-b-v-go.html
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/learn-bulgarian-in-three-minutes.html

http://visitrussia.org.uk

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. See my previous post on Bulgarian. Please bookmark and share your favourite posts.

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

How To Start Bulgarian For A Trip To Bulgaria

Problems
1 Bulgarian is not on the Duolingo free online language service. But Russian is - almost the same alphabet.
2 It's the Cyrillic alphabet!
3 I'd rather spend my time on Spanish or even Portuguese which use the alphabet I know. What's the point - I'll never use Bulgarian anywhere else, will I?

Answers
1 Fear not. Several sites teach Bulgarian so you can hear it, including You Tube videos.
2  The Cyrillic alphabet is on Wikipedia and several other places so you can recognize words.
3 You will be able to use it in other countries or reading websites from other countries.
The same alphabet is used in Russian. Bulgarian has 90% of the same vocabulary.

Maps from  Wikipedia and Wikitravel.

As you can see on this handy map from Wikitravel, the capital, Sofia, is on the North West, near Serbia. The Bulgarian beaches are the other side on the East, on the Black Sea Coast, on the Black Sea, north of Turkey. Mountainous Romania is to the North, more arid Greece to the sunny South. Macedonia on the Southwest.

Distressingly, when you use Google Translate, the translation comes up in the Cyrillic alphabet! Never mind. This can be useful. For example, what is the first word you might want to recognize and find easy to learn is the city where you fly in or stay or fly. Let's assume it is the capital Sofia. Up comes the word you will see on noticeboards in the airport and on street signs when on a bus, in a taxi or coach, or driving.

София

The C is an S sound, like the C in police and palace. The f looks like a face, a circle on a neck. Once you have spotted the SOF you can guess the word and place name is Sofia.

The fourth letter is not an N (remember a backwards  N is NOT an N! It is a stretched out I.

The r is more like ya, or the sound of R in ear. Sofia.

The first word to learn, which you need to recognize on arrival at the airport, or hotel, or restaurant, when you are travelling might be toilet.

тоалетна

How do you recognize or remember the word?  The first two letters are the same. So are the et. TO..ET.  The middle letter L looks like a Gothic backwards letter L, or the lower case l with a joined up writing curve in front. The ha on the end - think of just spitting the letter t.

Now you can recognize and practise these half a dozen letters, you can face looking at and learning the rest of the alphabet and some more words.

Google Translate
If you want to copy the word from Google translate, the symbol for copying is the middle of the three symbols under the word. Just click on that symbol, then past elsewhere. You can quickly create a page of translations of words you will need the most often.

The easy to recognize and remember words are

Police -
Taxi -
Telephone -

The other easy to remember similar words are the names of the 12 months of the year.

Months[edit]

January 

янyapи (yah-noo-AH-ree)

February 

фeвpyapи (feh-vroo-AH-ree)

March 

мapт (mahrt)

April 

aпpил (ah-PREEL)

May 

мaй (mai)

June 

юни (YOO-nee)

July 

юли (YOO-lee)

August 

aвгycт (AHV-goost)

September 

ceптeмвpи (sehp-TEHM-vree)

October 

oктoмвpи (ohk-TOHM-vree)

November 

нoeмвpи (noh-EHM-vree)

December 

дeкeмвpи (deh-KEHM-vree)

I'll say goodbye.
The word for a casual goodbye is easy, the same in Bulgaria as in Romania and Italy. It is Ciaou!

Useful Websites:
http://www.bulgariantouristboard.com
https://wikitravel.org/en/Bulgarian_phrasebook
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/russian-alphabet-made-easy-b-v-go.html
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/learn-bulgarian-in-three-minutes.html
https://www.skyscanner.net/flights-to/bg/airlines-that-fly-to-bulgaria.html

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I have many more posts on learning languages and destinations around the world. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

Where To See Statues, Monuments and Churches of Cyril Who Created Cyrillic Writing

Problem
I know about St Cyril who is credited with devising the alphabet (see previous post), but I can't get to Bulgaria on May 24th to see the celebration of St Cyril. Where else can I go and what will I see?

Places to go this year or next on May 24th (and any time soon)
1 Sofia, Bulgaria
Sofia, the capital, on May 24th, see the ceremony and procession leading to the decorated statues of the two saints outside the National Library. Flower displays are attached to supports like wreaths and placed at the base of the statues. VIPs of the church and the government are prominent in the proceedings. May 24th is a National holiday with more ceremonies and celebrations of Bulgarian culture are held in other cities and towns.

Icons of the two saints are in every church so you can see them everywhere all year.

2 Rome, Italy
St Cyril is buried in Rome at the Basilica of San Clemente.

3 Thessaloniki, Greece
Birthplace of Saint Cyril and his older brother Methodius.
See the church dedicated to them.
See the monument donated by Bulgaria.

What if you are not in Bulgaria or Russia or Italy on the day of the celebration? Still see the statues. more statues worldwide and churches and religious buildings in the USA and elsewhere.

4 Prague, Czech Republic

Statue of the brothers on the Charles Bridge. Everybody goes there. The busy pedestrian bridge has dozens of statues, plus musicians, cartoonists, food and drink stalls and sellers of souvenirs and jewellery and si overlooking the road leading to the Kafka Museum. The statues of the brothers are on the north side of the bridge. (See link to wiki below.)

I am sure I took a photo of their statue. However, I can't find it quickly so I shall instead use a picture form Wikipedia.

 Statue of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius on the Charles Bridge in Prague, from Wikipedia.

5 Kiev, capital of Ukraine
Statue of the brothers.

Statue of the brothers Saint Cyril and Saint Methods in Kiev, capital of Ukraine. Photo from Wikipedia, author of photo by Yuriy Kolodin.

6 St Cyril Church, Prague
Where you learn about the last stand of those involved in the 1942 WWII assassinating Nazi Reinhard Heydrich, called The Butcher of Prague. Seven men took refuge and when they realised they could not escape, took their own lives.
See the You tube video with pictures of the place, music and texts. See the church.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_BqCBzHHDI
See a short harrowing documentary about actions and fate of the assassins and families who helped them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmfVUmGENAw

7 St Cyril Church, Kiev
Distinctive green roof. Listed as one of the places to see before you die.

Tips
More information from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statues_of_Saints_Cyril_and_Methodius,_Charles_Bridge

Flights to Europe

http://www.aeroflot.com/ru-en (Russian)
www.bulgaria-air.co.uk/
https://www.cheapflights.co.uk/find-flights/to-Ukraine
www.lastminute.com
www. ryanair.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on Cyril and Cyrillic writing, Italy, Prague and Czech Republic, Kafka Museum and more. Please share links to your favourite posts.