Mar 15th, 2013 at 2:00PM:
Have you ever been to a country that just seems to give tourists the cold shoulder? Now, there are some figures behind those unwelcome feelings; the World Economic Forum has put together a report that ranks countries based on how friendly they are to tourists.
The extensive analyses ranks 140 countries according to attractiveness and competitiveness in the travel and tourism industries. ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Bulgaria posts
Survey Ranks 'World's Most Unfriendliest' Countries
Mar 15th, 2013 at 2:00PM:
Have you ever been to a country that just seems to give tourists the cold shoulder? Now, there are some figures behind those unwelcome feelings; the World Economic Forum has put together a report that ranks countries based on how friendly they are to tourists.
The extensive analyses ranks 140 countries according to attractiveness and competitiveness in the travel and tourism industries. ...Tim Leffel On The World's 21 Cheapest Countries
Dec 12th, 2012 at 9:00AM: Tim Leffel's mission is to help skinflints like me find travel destinations they can afford. He traveled around the world on a shoestring with his wife three times and decided to write a book about the world's cheapest countries after realizing that there was no single resource out there for travelers looking for bargain destinations. The fourth edition of his book, "The World's Cheapest ...A Traveler In The Foreign Service: Europe's 'Most Beautiful' Women And Other Reasons To Love Bulgaria
Oct 15th, 2012 at 10:00AM: I had to go to Bulgaria just to see if Bill Bryson was full of crap. In his book, "Neither Here Nor There," published in 1991, Bryson wrote, "Sofia has, without any doubt, the most beautiful women in Europe." I was in college when I read the book, and at the tail end of the Cold War it seemed like an improbable assertion. We'd been led to believe that women behind the Iron Curtain were ugly, and, ...Archaeologists Analyze John the Baptist's Bones
Jun 18th, 2012 at 2:00PM: The Black Sea port of Sozopol has been making the news quite a bit lately. First, Bulgarian archaeologists uncovered two vampire skeletons there, and now its relics of John the Baptist have been submitted to scientific analysis.
Back in 2010, archaeologists uncovered six bone fragments from a marble sarcophagus in the ruins of a medieval church on the island of Sveti Ivan, "Saint John," near ...Vampire Skeleton On Display In Bulgaria
Jun 16th, 2012 at 10:00AM: Last week we brought you the story that archaeologists had discovered two vampire graves in Bulgaria. Now one of those skeletons, complete with an iron spike through his chest, is going on display at the National History Museum in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.
The medieval skeleton will be revealed to the public this Saturday. No word yet on how long it will be on view.
Museum head Prof. ...Vampire Graves Dug Up In Bulgaria
Jun 6th, 2012 at 2:00PM:
Bulgarian archaeologists have discovered two vampire graves in the city of Sozopol on the Black Sea. The burials, which are about 700 years old, were each held down with a massive iron stake through the chest. One vampire was buried in the apse of a church – a spot usually reserved for aristocrats – and showed evidence of multiple stab wounds.
Bozhidar Dimitrov, head of the ...Photo Of The Day: Catching Some Rays
Mar 29th, 2012 at 7:00PM:
Today's Photo of the Day was taken indoors but the bright lights and orange glow make it feel like a hot summer day, or perhaps the inside of a tanning bed. Either is likely at the Bulgarian resort town of Varna where Flickr user PMania85 captured this scene with an iPhone camera. The photo features one of the most popular summer spots on the Black Sea. Every year, thousands of Eastern ...Museum of Socialist Art to open in Bulgaria
Aug 25th, 2011 at 2:00PM: A Museum of Socialist Art is opening next month in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The museum exhibits statues of Lenin, paintings of Bulgarian Communist Party leaders, and other artwork from Soviet times.
The former Eastern Bloc country is the last such nation to open a museum to its totalitarian past. The socialist government fell in 1989 and Bulgaria had its first free elections the ...Dive Communist plane off the coast of Bulgaria
May 27th, 2011 at 11:00AM: Fish are pretty and shipwrecks are cool to explore, but how would you like to dive a
Communist airplane in the Black Sea? A 1971 Soviet-made Tupolev-154 was submerged this week off the coast of Bulgaria to create an artificial reef for SCUBA divers. Orlin Tsanev, chairman of Black Sea Dive Odesos association, told Reuters: "The submerging of the plane aims to make it an attraction and (a place) ...Five ways to get more European stamps in your passport
Mar 2nd, 2011 at 10:30AM:
Lake Ohrid, Macedonia.
Yesterday, I wrote about the fact that European passport stamps have become harder and harder to get. The expansion of the Schengen zone has reduced the number of times tourists are compelled to show their passports to immigration officials. For most Americans on multi-country European itineraries, a passport will be stamped just twice: upon arrival and upon departure. ...Schengen and the disappearance of European passport stamps
Mar 1st, 2011 at 10:00AM:
Creative new use for border crossing posts at German/Austrian border.
In the late 1980s, an American spending a summer traveling across Europe with a Eurailpass would see his or her passport stamped possibly dozens of times. With a few exceptions, every time a border was crossed, an immigration agent would pop his or her head into a train compartment, look at everyone's passports, in most ...Photo of the day (12.17.10)
Dec 17th, 2010 at 5:30PM:
Today's whimsical Photo of the Day was snapped in Sofia, Bulgaria, by Flickr user BaboMike. I'm not sure what's most appealing here--is it the meticulous representation of the policeman's reflective jacket? His strange, tiny eyes? His diminutive traffic sign? Could it be the nicely rendered trash can the policeman is floating over? Or is it the juxtaposition of these with the blue tag and the ...Weekending: Varna, Bulgaria
Dec 8th, 2010 at 11:30AM:
Back in September, the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan offered locals and expats like me an excuse to go on holiday while our American friends were celebrating the end of summer and Labor Day. With more time to explore than a typical Weekending trip, I checked out Turkey's most western neighbor, Bulgaria, and fell in love with modern and medieval captials Sofia and Veliko Tarnovo.
The ...Gadling's favorite destinations for 2011
Dec 7th, 2010 at 10:00AM:
We travel a lot, to destinations both well-known and unfamiliar. In our defense, it is our job to travel like mad, to explore the world and then write about our discoveries.
Though most travel writers find something or other of interest in most places we visit, there are always those personal favorites that rise above the rest. This year, we decided to scribble our favorites down for you. ...Ten budget-friendly destinations in Europe
Nov 23rd, 2010 at 10:00AM:
For Americans, Europe can be very expensive. Let's take a moment to acknowledge this fact. Tourist costs are high, and currently the euro is doing well against the dollar, even if the pound is down somewhat from its stratospheric performance a few years ago. So yes, Europe is expensive. But its high costs are merely a marker, not a prisonhouse. There are always ways to cut costs and forge an ...Weekending: Veliko Tarnovo
Oct 21st, 2010 at 2:30PM:
The best part of expat life for me are the travel opportunities, especially when living in Turkey, conveniently located where Europe meets Asia. Expat travel takes on a new twist as you seek out the new and unfamiliar as in any new destination, the newly familiar of your adopted home city, and the old and familiar of your original home city. You luxuriate in the things your expat home lacks, ...Weekending: Sofia
Oct 5th, 2010 at 2:30PM:
Since moving to Istanbul, I've gotten the chance to travel to a lot of interesting destinations, from Beirut to Bosnia, that are much easier and cheaper to access from Turkey than America. For my first long (more than a weekend) trip, I went to Bulgaria for a week over US Labor Day and Turkish bayram (end of Ramadan holidays). Over the week, I traveled from the capital city Sofia to medieval ...Flying Wizz Air, European low-cost airline
Sep 13th, 2010 at 10:00AM:
I just flew with Wizz Air, a major budget airline in Europe whose name and stunts I had previously only snickered over. It turns out in addition to offering low fares across Europe, they are also the largest carrier in Hungary (at least according to Wizz, Malev Hungarian would beg to differ) and a major player in Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. Last week I traveled to Bulgaria (look for some ...Man caught with dog inside his luggage
Oct 27th, 2009 at 2:30PM: I've traveled with my cats a few times while making some cross country moves. I hated cramming them into squat cages to fit them under my airplane seat and I really hated having to pay a few hundred dollars for their own "tickets" plus the vet checks and paperwork that certified them as healthy enough to fly. But never would I have considered trying to smuggle them on a flight inside my luggage. ...Which European Country Works the Hardest?
Sep 5th, 2008 at 11:00AM: I have always been under the impression that Europeans worked fewer hours than Americans. However, a new survey shows that more than one country's population averages over 40 hours per week on the job. Romania and Bulgaria are home to the hardest workers on the continent. According to research conducted by The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), ...
