The Managing Director of ManpowerGroup Bulgaria on the smart ways to make the best of the current labour market

Hypocrisy tarnishes Bulgarian freedom-of-speech debates

"Domestic violence is the result of neoliberal ideas and 'genderism.' We need to introduce religious instruction at school, to teach children real values." Pavel Shopov, an MP for the United Patriots, during parliamentary debates on the law against domestic violence

Not all ruins are created equal. Regarded as pinnacles of human imagination and dexterity, ancient sites such as the Parthenon, the Great Wall and Stonehenge get scores of tourists and are a source of pride for their home countries. Abandoned modern housing projects, hospitals and factories, however, are perceived as eyesores and as signs of bad planning, bad economic or political luck, a tragedy even. They are not the things a tourist authority includes in its promotional materials.

The ongoing "patriotic" craze that has gripped Bulgaria since Boyko Borisov's GERB allied itself with the extreme nationalists of the National Salvation Front, the VMRO and Ataka, all of them currently in government, sometimes assumes odd, even surreal proportions. Forget the run-of-the-mill calls for Bulgaria to expand towards three seas (namely, the Aegean and the Adriatic, in addition to the Black), the protests against the Treaty of Neuilly, which ended the First World War for Bulgaria, and the incessant ramblings about the "Turkish Yoke." Bulgaria's new "patriotism" finds increasingly ingenuous ways to stir up fatherland-loving sentiments with social media. Facebook, which in Bulgaria is by far the most popular, leads the way.

The heritage of the ancient Thracians, a people that inhabited what is now Bulgaria between the 2nd millennium BC and the 7th century AD, includes lavishly decorated tombs, gold treasures, and mysterious rock shrines.

Arguably Bulgaria's most beautiful bridge, this 16th century construction spans the River Arda in the midst of a pristine section of the Rhodope, in southern Bulgaria.

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From early humans to Romans and natural wonders Serbia holds many unknown marvels

Briton Christopher Buxton interprets, publishes 20th century poets