FUN

Because he defected from Communist Bulgaria and settled first in France and then in the United States, Christo Yavacheff was not much talked about in the country while he was still alive. Born in Gabrovo on the northern slopes of the Stara Planina mountain range, in 1934, Christo fled the country in the 1950s. At that point, not unlike other East bloc intellectuals who had escaped from Communism, he ceased to exist as far as the local media were concerned. His name would resurface only after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact.

By far surpassing Christmas, which in the local tradition is mostly a family dinner feast in the middle of a cold, dark winter, Easter is in spring. It indicates both the rebirth of nature and the rejuvenated crave for life, with religious symbolism, though strictly adhered to, playing the second fiddle. The Orthodox Easter rarely coincides with the Western one, owing to a very complicated metathetical, astronomical and clerical argument that dates back to the early Middle Ages. In 2026, it comes relatively early, on the 12th of April.

Just like William Shakespeare, who is considered responsible for the coinage of over 1,700 words and phrases in the English language, including "housekeeping," "break the ice" and "the naked truth," the former Number One Communist, Todor Zhivkov, also contributed his mite to the richness of Bulgarian. This is the only similarity between Tato, or "Dad," and the Bard, researchers claim, and give the popular idiom "This is not a dairy farm" as an example of the former dictator's linguistic creativity.

Rumen Radev will reshuffle the cards of the political establishment.

Kornelia Ninova, former chair of the BSP, on the ex-president's decision to resign and enter active politics

Radev is the absolute alternative of spinelessness, machinations and corruption.

Anton Kutev, former spokesman of caretaker governments appointed by Radev

We are many, they cannot stop the wave.

Rumen Radev announces that he resigns to launch his own party

1. When is the only right day to put on your martenitsa?
A. 1 March
B. 8 March
C. 10 March

2. Who is the president of Bulgaria?
A. Rumen Radev
B. Iliyana Yotova
C. Boyko Borisov

3. There is a Sofia street named after which British author?
A. Terry Pratchet
B. Arthur Conan Doyle
C. Agatha Christie

The protests should be neither underestimated, nor overestimated.

Rumyana Bachvarova, GERB, before mass rallies toppled the GERB-led coalition government

Snap elections are the only way forward.

President Rumen Radev

Who ordered this abomination?

Asen Vasilev, Changes Continued, during rushed discussion on the scandalous state budget that provoked Bulgaria's largest mass protests since 1997

Made in 1949, it shows Moscow as the greatest and most important European city (sorry, London), omits to mention the existence of Dublin, but points out to a "world-famous" location called Magnitogorsk in what at the time was the Soviet Union. This bizarre map of Europe is positioned on a wall opposite another mosaic curiosity, a map of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (in existence in 1945-1990). Since its inauguration, the map had to be changed twice: once when Kolarovgrad reverted to its original name of Shumen, and another time when the city of Stalin became... Varna.

There are three theories about how this popular idiom entered the Bulgarian language. The first dates it back to the 7th century, the time when the Bulgarian state was being founded by the proto-Bulgarian tribes who came to the Danube and first settled in what is today Romania. Khan Asparukh's horse went to the river to drink some water but slipped and fell in. The strong current hurled it downstream and Asparukh himself jumped into the torrent to rescue it.

1. Which country does not neighbour Bulgaria?
A. Serbia
B. Romania
C. Moldova

2. For traditional architecture and a medieval fortress, you go to...
A. Tarnovo
B. Targovishte
C. Teteven

3. Where is Rayskoto Praskalo waterfall, the highest in the Balkans?
A. In Rila
B. In Pirin
C. In the Stara Planina mountain range

He would come to my house. He would enter through the garage and hide in the attic. Peevski was after him. I was saving him.

Boyko Borisov, on former banker Tsvetan Vasilev, who has been a fugitive in Serbia

Even breaking up with your girlfriend via text is bad taste.

Boris Bonev, Save Sofia, on Mayor Vasil Terziev's decision to fire the city chief architect by phone