Issue 4

Bulgaria is a relatively unknown part of Europe even for me who comes from Austria. For decades it was cut off by the Iron Curtain and not a destination for visiting. If you are a historian you may think of the Thracian tomb there, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979.

If you are interested in arms and weapons the name Arsenal may tell you something - a factory located there, which built a lot of small arms, among it the famous AK 47, the Kalashnikov.

Alek Popov is a leading figure on Bulgaria's contemporary literature scene. Having written numerous award-winning short stories and scripts, which have been translated into over a dozen languages, Mission London is his first novel. In a style "something like Pulp Fiction," it tackles the behaviour of Bulgaria's new elite on the eve of accession.

"Nobody comes for a shave these days!" Boris says sadly, emphasising "these days". Boris is the barber in the only barbershop in Vurshets, which we came across a few months ago, just opposite the bus station.

If Bulgarian melancholy could choose the site of its museum, it would be right here.

Vurshets is a small town with mineral springs in the northwest of the country. I have known it for a long time but, for some strange reason, I find it is the first place I have ever felt excited about. So I decide to go back and find out why.

Everything you wanted to know about the big boys in Bulgaria. In a special two-part series, VAGABOND spoke to leaders in the fields of banking, communications, technology, agriculture, education, development, real estate, travel and beverages. Find out what the EU means for them, how the people at the top got to be there, and what they really think about living and doing business in Bulgaria.

Read Part 2 here.

After the suicidal amounts of food and rakiya devoured in Bulgaria from 5 December until 5 January, the indulgence of the festive season will have taken their toll. In order to clear your head for the first working week of the new year, you decide to take a stroll by the water (a river, lake, sea or swimming pool), wishing secretly to dive into it and stay there at least until springtime. While contemplating this, you notice you are not the only one to be thinking this way.

Sport stages some standout fixtures. In football, for example, there's Brazil versus Argentina and Celtic against Rangers. In tennis there's Roger Federer versus Rafael Nadal, or, in ice hockey, the USA against Russia. And, of course, England playing Australia in any sport would be a needle fixture.

One contest that probably hasn't featured on most sporting radars is Lebanon versus Ireland in the Rugby League World Cup. It certainly hadn't on mine until I saw it listed recently.

With the collapse of the Soviet regime and the subsequent opening of borders, the Russian diaspora in Western Europe and the US has lost part of its charm. The romantic image established over the years by Tsarist emigres and dissidents has been shattered by the invasion of the crassly-mannered nouveau riche into tourist hot spots and the immigration of hundreds of thousands of people ready to do anything to survive.

For once The Sun seemed lost for words. On the day Michael Shields returned to Britain, the nation's most widely-read daily newspaper, and one-time champion of his cause, consigned his repatriation to the inner pages.