FUN

Take in the elaborate wooden ceilings of some of the house museums open to the public and you will know why. What is unavoidable, however, is the old clock tower right in the town's square. Years ago the local clock-man had devised a mini Foucault's pendulum inside which you could see just for the asking. Next to it is one of the first modern schools in Bulgaria and further down the road the old bath house is now an art gallery featuring artefacts from the Americas, Asia and Africa.

1. Which city is known as Bulgaria's maritime capital?
A. Varna 
B. Sozopol
C. Nesebar

2. How long is the Bulgarian Black Sea coast? 
A. 502 km 
B. 208 km
C. 378 km

3. Mesembria is the ancient name of which Bulgarian coastal city? 
A. Kaliakra 
B. Burgas 
C. Nesebar

Strictly speaking, this is not an idiom, but specific usage of the phrasal verb "let out", one that has become obsolete. Under Communism, the Bulgarians had to survive chronic shortages of anything from tomatoes to toilet paper. To create some feel-good factor amongst the populace, the Communist Party periodically "let out" various "luxury" goods in the retail market. Ordinary citizens were only allowed to eat oranges and bananas for New Year. The situation was the same for a series of other articles, for instance suitcases.

The people now need bread and circuses. There is no bread in the budget, but the people will be given circuses.

Diana Damyanova, PR expert

We cannot possibly govern for 100 years, but in 100 years, we are going to be in the textbooks.

Milen Trifonov, MP for Progressive Bulgaria

Progressive Bulgaria continues to act like a presidency. It only criticises and makes excuses.

Boyko Borisov, GERB

In times of political, economic and technological disturbances deemed historical even by contemporaries, luck becomes a key concept. It is the defining feature between success and failure. Every culture, religion and social and political system has given its own answer for what defines "good" from "bad luck": grit, hard work, virtues, agency, bravery, inventiveness.

If your perhaps negative opinion of Christopher Nolan's latest oeuvre is based solely on the diversity of the cast, think again. For in The Odyssey we have a film where casting decisions feel poetically rather than politically correct. Yes, even the fact that Lupita Nyong'o plays Helen of Troy.

Here is why.

1. Which Bulgarian river flows southwards?
A. The Struma
B. The Iskar
C. The Kamchiya

2. Which wild animal is making a dangerous comeback in Bulgarian mountains?
A. Red fox
B. Brown bear
C. Wild boar

3. If you are driving a car on a Bulgarian motorway, you are allowed to speed up to…
A. 200 km/h
B. 120 km/h
C. 140 km/h

Replete with remnants of residential buildings, a royal palace, a necropolis and some fortification walls the remains of this ancient city pose more questions than give out answers. Archaeologists suggest the Oracle of Dionysus, the notorious seer who advised Alexander of Macedon among others, had a temple here. Their claim is amplified by the overall aura of sanctity that even the most skeptical of tourists feel as soon as they have negotiated the upward path leading to the hill. Ancient accounts, however, remain at best ambiguous, enhancing the sense of millennia-old mysteries.

Shapeshifting children, amorous dragons, dangerous nymphs who ride deer and wear rainbows for belts, doomed heroes who can overcome any obstacle but their own death: Bulgarian folktales weave into a rich and mesmerising universe. On the surface they are moving and strange, a combination of hair-raising adventure and sorrow for the lost lives of fair maidens and young men turned into stags.

Not all pensioners will starve to death because they receive 2 euros less a month.

Konstantin Prodanov, MP for Progressive Bulgaria

Progressive Bulgaria will fight the oligarchy by stealing from pensioners?

Asen Vasilev, Changes Continued

Progressive Bulgaria does not mean a progressive tax system.

Aleksandar Pulev, Economy Minister, on calls for abandoning flat tax rates in Bulgaria