Others on us
Lonely Planet: Eastern Europe Travel Guide, 10th Edition, September 2009Getting Started | Internet Resources
Balkan Travellers (www.balkantravellers.com) News and musings from the Balkans. Articles feature off-the-beaten-track destinations, active adventures and cultural discoveries, plus there is a route planner to help you plan your trip.
Lonely Planet: Western Balkans Travel Guide, 2nd Edition, May 2009Getting Started
Balkan Travellers (www.balkantravellers.com) An upbeat site that’ll give you itchier feet than a bad case of tinea.
Bulgaria Air inflight magazine, August 2008 A crash course in Balkan studies | www.balkantravellers.com
Three things can make you pack up your bags and hit the road: unrequited love, daily boredom or a well-written travelogue. You will find plenty of travel stories at www.balkantravellers.com. The site is full of superbly written and trustworthy travelogues about one of the most captivating regions in Europe – the Balkan Peninsula. Why Is Serbia the most well-read nation? Where was the kyufte (meatball) invented? Was there a Revival Period in the Bulgarian village of Chiprovtsi? Long-time author and editor of the Bulgaria Air the Inflight Magazine, Albena Shkodrova, provides the answer to this – and many more – hard-to-crack questions. In addition to Balkan-related stories, the site also offers a news bulletin from the region, as well as travelogues about more distant destinations (such as Thailand or Ethiopia, for example) by professional journalists or keen travelers with a gift for writing.
Vagabond monthly English-language magazine, print and online, February 2008WWW Review | BALKANING IT | www.balkantravellers.com
FROM TIRANA and Zagreb to Athens and Istanbul – if you are a true Balkanophile, this bilingual travel guide is a must. With just one click you can discover unblazed trails in Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Albania and Romania; read about Balkan traditions; get handy insider's advice; and learn about local peculiarities. You can even impress your friends – chances are they don't know that Genghis Khan's descendents left their mark on Bulgaria's Sopot or that Croatia's Istria is a Klondike of truffles revered by the world's most notable gourmets. Already have the Balkans at your fingertips? Then head east – to Bhutan, Egypt, Ethiopia or Thailand.
Edna sedmitsa v Sofia (One Week in Sofia), weekly print Bulgarian-language guide to Sofia, 17 January 2008
Interview with Albena Shkodrova, BalkanTravellers.com editor-in-chief:
Website review:
Epicure
Balkans
Three Bizarre Watermelon Recipes
The watermelon – this bright, contrasting symbol of summer, according to many residents of the Balkans, is a kind of trademark of their peninsular heat. Full Story
Curiosity Chest
Balkans
The Red and White Strings that Welcome Spring in Bulgaria and Romania
I remember walking along Canal Street in New York’s Chinatown on March 2 a few years ago, when I saw a man sporting a small ornament made of red and white thread pinned to his coat lapel. He must be Bulgarian, I thought to myself with a sudden rush of homesickness, but now realize that he may have been Romanian as well.
Full Story
Useful Reads
Bulgaria
Street without a Name: Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria (2008) | By Kapka Kassabova
Danube blues
Text by Nicholas Lezard for The Guardian*
Full Story
Music
Bulgaria
The Choir that Turned England a Bit Bulgarian
One of the few constant sources of pride for Bulgarians is traditional folk music, and especially singing. But not the Oriental-beats-modified kind that often booms in nightclubs, giving their clientele the urge to jump atop tables and chairs and sway their hips around; rather the kind that, when heard, mesmerises you and gives you goose bumps, the kind that is haunting with its out-of-this universe quality, mostly figuratively but sometimes literally as well.
Full Story
-
Photogalleries
-
A Perfect Shot
In Homo Urbanus Europeanus, exhibited May 9-24 in front of the National Theatre in Sofia, Jean-Marc Caracci presents his photographs of people in the urban environment of European capitals.
RED&WHITE SOFIA. On the 1st of March Bulgarians say goodbye to the winter. They buy each other red&white threads to carry around until they see a stork and spring can begin. Photography by Lode Desmet
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs