How many people does it take to post a letter? It's not a trick question. In the UK, the answer would be two: yourself and the clerk behind the post office counter who sorts out the stamps and takes your money. Of course, you could always buy your stamps from a machine, reducing the answer to one.
Seven years ago, my mother suggested we go on a “girlie jaunt” for the summer holidays. Excited by thoughts of sunbathing and balmy nights in the Algarve or Majorca, I quickly agreed. But when she held up two tickets to the Bulgarian resort of Golden Sands I was perplexed. “Isn't that somewhere in the desert?” I protested, still geographically naive at 15.
Most Bulgarians encounter problems dealing with their insurance companies. They may have miserable experiences with the state health and pension systems. But, usually, in spite of these and other complaints, it's the Roma or Turkish minorities who become the scapegoats for their woes. Several factors influence discriminatory attitudes in Bulgaria. One of the most insidious is the stirring up of intolerance by populist politicians and opinion makers, who exploit traditional prejudices.
What is the similarity between baklava, Volen Siderov and the mosque in the centre of Sofia? If it wasn't for the Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria at the end of the 14th Century, none of the three would exist today.
In fact, it says on the contract, that they won't cover these risks in Serbia, Montenegro, and “outside Europe”, including I suppose Turkey, the largest part of which is in Asia.
I was quite surprised, to say the least, because I have already travelled extensively both in eastern Turkey and throughout the Balkans and I find driving conditions there a lot better than in Bulgaria. I did so in a German-registered car and on German insurance.
Nadya Radulova is a writer who refuses to indulge in the normal complaints of Bulgarian artists. She even inverts traditional grievances, claiming that hardship and a peripheral existence lead to better work.