Sofia's Foreigners

Mere coincidence (or was it Fate?) acquainted Frenchwoman Marie Vrinat-Nikolov with Bulgaria, and she fell in love with it at the age of 13. The love affair has been going on since then in spite of a number of personal and "ideological" challenges. French by birth, she also has Bulgarian citizenship which she acquired on her own volition and not without a fair amount of trouble. Marie Vrinat-Nikolov now lives between France and Bulgaria, between French and Bulgarian, but in the world of Bulgarian literature.

Born in Ireland, Diana Rowan has lived, performed and studied on the US East Coast, in Europe and the Middle East before choosing Berkeley, California, where she received her Master of Music degree. Each country left a strong impression on Diana's music, which interweaves Celtic, Eastern European, Near Eastern and classical arts with mythology.

Catherine Barber is deputy head of the British Embassy in Sofia. An economist by training, she has taught at Oxford and Harvard Universities, and as a researcher for Oxfam, the UK’s largest international development charity. As a civil servant she has worked for the Department of Business and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, where she focused on the economic issues of globalisation, trade and climate change.

How long have you lived in Sofia? Why did you come here in the first place?

Martina Vrdoljak was born in 1982 in Zagreb. She graduated the Law Faculty at the University of Zagreb. Her first appointment as a junior diplomat was in Sofia, where she has lived since 2007. Martina likes painting and reading, and is currently on a PhD course in foreign policy and political science.

Your favourite cultural venues in Sofia – and why are they favourites?

Kapka Kassabova was raised in Sofia, and after the fall of the Berlin Wall her family emigrated to New Zealand where she spent her late teens and 20s, graduated in French literature and Creative Writing, and started publishing poetry, travel writing and fiction. She is the author of a memoir about Bulgaria, Street Without a Name (2008, also published in Bulgarian and Swedish) and the novel Villa Pacifica (2011, also available in Spanish).

When in the UK, Elizabeth Allen works as a senior policy adviser to the British Government. She's worked on immigration, counterterrorism and integration policy in the Interior Ministry and led the Turkey section in the Foreign Office. She was also a professional career coach in her spare time. In Sofia she has been working with NGOs, the Office of the President, ministries and local government in support of “deinstitutionalisation” – closing down children’s home and developing local family support services.