FUN

A successful negotiation of the cobbled streets, which can become treacherously slippery in wet weather, will open up a new world for you, both out- and indoors. Many of the splendid mansion-type houses can be visited, and you can sample the atmosphere of the local well-to-do folk who studied in Western Europe, whence they imported both goods and customs, and did successful business all over the world – all that at a time some Bulgarians still refer as the Turkish Yoke. Some of Bulgaria's best painters lived here: do not miss the art galleries and the antique shops.

Men and women in bathing suits partake, come rain or shine, of some hot mineral springs that flow freely through the yellowish mud. A very un-orthodox church with bold, non-Christian-like murals stands nearby. So does a small one-storey village house, a cabin really. The place is well known to thousands of Bulgarians who used to frequent that house to converse with Vanga, this country's only officially-recognised and government-endorsed clairvoyant; a mystic, who died in 1996, but who continues to star in various tabloids internationally.

Driving Bulgaria into the eurozone is a crime.

Kostadin Kostadinov, leader of Vazrazhdane, or Revival, party

I was in my office in the Finance Ministry and, just like the rest of the Bulgarian people, we celebrated. If I remember correctly, there were fireworks in Sofia and across the country.

Asen Vasilev, Changes Continued, on the day Boyko Borisov was arrested, in 2022

1. The sweet-sour beverage Bulgarians sometimes have at corner sweetshops is called...

A. Boza

B. Ayryan

C. Limoncello

2. Which UNESCO site is located on the Danube?

A. Pirin National Park

B. Kazanlak Tomb

C. Srebarna Lake

Boyko Borisov's GERB, the largest party in the National Assembly, put forward a candidate; so did Kostadin Kostadinov's Revival; Slavi Trifonov's There Is Such a People; the BSP, or Bulgarian Socialist Party; and the PP-DB, or Changes Continued-Democratic Bulgaria.

1. What is the Bulgarian for Christmas?

A. Koleda

B. Velikden

C. Dimitrovden

2. To reach the Borovets winter resort, you pass through...

A. Sliven

B. Samokov

C. Strazhitsa

3. Which royal dynasty restored Bulgaria after two centuries of Byzantine domination?

A. The Coburg-Gothas

B. The Shishmans

C. The Asenevtsi

Their demand: to disrupt the scheduled opening night of a play by the Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), directed by US actor John Malkovich. Neither Shaw, nor Malkovich need any introduction to theatre-goers worldwide, but that was not enough for the angry Bulgarians in central Sofia.

Come Yuletide, and the streets swarm with adult men dressed in what appears to be a combination between early 20th century gendarme uniforms and traditionally embroidered white shirts. They march to rhythmic tunes in what looks like a symbiosis of tap dancing and the Bulgarian horo. They enter bars and restaurants, whose patrons are only too happy to disperse tips. Each part of the city has its own band. At the end of the day they all converge in the town's centre and prizes are given out to the best participants.

The state has been seized by Delyan Peevski's mafia clan. His appetite for devouring political parties is stronger than ever.

Asen Vasilev, Changes Continued

We should not think naively that this audacity on steroids in politics will disappear on its own. We are responsible for Bulgaria's development as a democratic country.

President Rumen Radev

"A success by all means," an advisor to the interior minister proclaimed, adding as many as 98 percent of smartphone owners in Bulgaria got a test message from the system. Trouble is, very few of them realised they did, owing to, according to Interior Ministry sources, most smartphones' settings switching off test alerts by default.