Issue 10

For those people embarking on a change of lifestyle in Bulgaria, whether they are ditching the conventional rat race in their thirties, or planning to retire, the reality of moving abroad is selling up lock, stock and barrel and heading off into the sunset with no plans to return.

No big deal if you've done your homework you might say. True, but if Bulgaria doesn't live up to their expectations for whatever reason, expats will soon find the Balkan grass is no greener than the one they couldn't wait to leave behind.

Official statistics from KAT (the traffic police) show that 207 people died in traffic accidents in Bulgaria and 1,971 people were injured in the first quarter of 2007 alone. These statistics, in a nation of just 7.5 million people - and not that many cars - are truly shocking.

If we analyse the figures we find that 34.4 percent of the fatalities were drivers, 27.3 percent were passengers and 38.55 percent were pedestrians. More than a third of those killed were in the 18 to 24 age group.

Its well-preserved half-timbered houses evoke the mid-19th Century when its commercial significance provided the upsurge of national consciousness. It was at the centre of the 1876 April Uprising against the Ottoman Turks, a revolt that ended in failure but is considered one of the most courageous stands in modern Bulgarian history. Its importance started to fade after the liberation, and since then the town has been getting increasingly fossilised. Fewer than 3,000 people live in it today, as opposed to about 12,000 in the 19th Century, and tourism is the largest source of revenue.

Many years ago a Frenchman, dining in a restaurant in the Golden Sands resort, vociferously demanded that the waiter should take away, s'il vous plait, the cold soup that he had served for lunch - and heat it. The waiter tried to dissuade him. So did the chef. But the man insisted and finally received the soup as he wanted it - warm.