Issue 97

Eating fish in Bulgaria can be a complicated business. Along the Black Sea, the smell of deep fried sprats is everywhere, and the menus of seaside restaurants offer mussels and jack mackerel, bluefish and turbot. All over the country, expensive establishments attempt to lure you in with frozen salmon and bass, octopus, shrimps and squid – all imported from somewhere, mainly Greece. Sushi is trendy, and most Bulgarians eat carp for St Nikola's feast on 6 December.

Japanese tourists just love the Founders of Bulgaria monument in Shumen, the woman in the ticket office says. The Japanese, the lady continues, are smitten. They stare and stare, and only when they get over their initial shock, do they take out their cameras. The lady at the city council-run ticket office was equally bewildered by the reaction of the Japanese until one day a guide explained.

To understand why Bulgaria is faced with further political instability and possibly yet another general election one needs to look at the larger picture of life in this country that has struggled with democracy for exactly quarter of a century now.

1. How many parties entered the Bulgarian parliament after the 5 October snap elections?
A. Eight
B. Six
C. Twelve

2. How many of the people living in Sofia are foreigners, according to Eurostat?
A. 1 percent
B. 10 percent
C. 15 percent

The 6th of December, in Orthodox hagiography the feast day of St Nicholas – revered also as the protector of seamen, is celebrated here with particular enthusiasm as the majority of those locals not involved with summertime tourism are actually fishermen and live on the sea.

The celebrations involve a huge party at the harbour, with free fish soup and plenty of drinks, some blessing of ships by the local priest, and in good weather a free cruise around the islands in the bay.

Where in Bulgaria are you?

My phone is ringing the whole day, everyone is greeting me - Erdogan, the president of Portugal... No other party has beaten the Communists two times in a row!

Boyko Borisov

All parties are lined up as the women at the windows of a certain Amsterdam district, and offer themselves.

Volen Siderov, Ataka leader

Boyko Borisov is as rightwing as the English traffic.

Writer Ivaylo "Noisy" Tsvetkov

Boyko was not in the TV studio when Barekov called him stupid and did not watch the broadcast as he was on an airplane. Witnesses claim that he got angry later when he was told he had been called stupid. To express that, he took off his jacket and tossed it. Borisov's close aides claim that whenever he takes off his jacket and tosses it, he is usually quite angry.