Bulgarians have terms for every relative imaginable. Get to know your svekarva, tashta, lelya, svako, chicho, strinka, vuyna, vuycho, baldaza, dever, badzhanatsi, etarvi and zalvi. Don’t forget your shurey.

Let’s shortly summarize  – what is Bulgaria known for worldwide:
- With its history and cultural monuments – Plovdiv is the oldest existing city today in Europe, the oldest processed gold in the world was discovered near Varna (5000 BC), and only Italy and Greece have more antiques in their museums;

- With heavenly natural beauty – in an area of approximately 110,000 square kilometers (way smaller than the state of Illinois) are situated some of the highest peaks in Europe, the beautiful Black Sea, fertile fields and gardens, where everything …

Forget Valentine. If you’re in Bulgaria on both 1 and 14 February, you’d better join in the wine-soaked holiday of St Trifon Zarezan, the Bulgarian patron saint of vineyards
by Minka Vazkresenska
No matter where you are – Los Angeles, London, Paris, Moscow, Bangkok or Tokyo – 14 February is celebrated in the same way. Crossing cultural and religious boundaries, Valentine’s Day everywhere includes red hearts, chocolate, champagne and Mariah Carey singing „Without You.“
The same holds true for Bulgaria. After the fall of Communism the previously unknown St Valentine gradually claimed his …

Let’s shortly summarize  – what is Bulgaria known for worldwide:
- With its history and cultural monuments – Plovdiv is the oldest existing city today in Europe, the oldest processed gold in the world was discovered near Varna (5000 BC), and only Italy and Greece have more antiques in their museums;
- With heavenly natural beauty – in an area of approximately 110,000 square kilometers (way smaller than the state of Illinois) are situated some of the highest peaks in Europe, the beautiful Black Sea, fertile fields and gardens, where everything …

Interview with Alice Panikian – Miss Universe Canada 2006 and 6th place finisher in Miss Universe 2006

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences wants to close the Institute for Thracian Studies.
Please do not permit this criminal act to happen.
The Institute for Thracian Studies is a multi-disciplinary scientific think-tank, with research and publication across several countries and is supported by the scientific community worldwide. Its research encompasses all the aspects of ancient Thracian history, cultural anthropology and linguistics, spreading on 5 millennia of European history.
Background
1. In a closed doors meeting in the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) some of the BAS managers proposed to demolish the institute for Thracian …

You can take the Bulgarian out of his pop folk environment, but you can’t take the pop folk out of the Bulgarian
by Dimana Trankova

The elderly woman smiles at the blonde girl standing in the small park with her grandmother. „What’s your name?“ she asks. „Ivana,“ the child answers. „Oh, like the singer?“ the old woman asks without a trace of irony in her voice. „Yes! I want to be like her when I grow up,“ the girl replies as proudly as any Italian teenager named Luciano would, when talking about …

By Joe Parkinson
Hit harder in GDP terms by the financial crisis than any region on earth, citizens from across Central and Eastern Europe can, and often do, regale you with tales of economic woe.
But a new index published Wednesday says financial misery will be spread as unevenly across the ex-communist states this year as it was in 2009 — while optimism will be found in some surprising places.
According to Moody’ s ‘Misery Index,’ which adds projections of fiscal deficits to unemployment numbers as a measure of economic gloom, the least …

Tsarevets Castle in Veliko Turnovo retains magnetic pull

by Rene Beekman
Turkish TV series like Silver (Gümüş, though for Bulgarian television this is translated as Perl), 1001 Nights (Binbir Gece), The Foreign Groom (Yabancı Damat), The Fall of Leaves (Yaprak Dökümü) and My Mother (Annem) have become hugely popular on Bulgarian television in recent years.
Compared to Latin-American series, which Bulgarian television channels screened in the past, Turkish drama series attract 50 per cent higher ratings, according to bTV programme co-ordinator Ventsislava Konova.
Bulgarian journalist Kristina Vladimirova has now made a 15-minute documentary to find out why these series are …