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Everyone here drives on their Ego. The worst driving I have ever seen. Nothing to be proud of, drivers in the Balkans are BAD drivers.
Eloise Chan, Berlin
It's true the roads are so bad and it requires so much more attention to drive. But one thing I learned is not to get upset by it.
And the drivers can be sometimes very aggressive. Sometimes they drive so close behind you, that you get scared - what if i need to suddenly slow down. What you can do, is switch on your emergency lights - locals usually get the message.
Barnie C., Ohio
Do avoid the ring roads of the big Balkan towns. It is usually better to cross the city, than drive around it. The traffic will be the same, but the stretch - shorter. Also, it is usually not difficult to find your way out, even if the signposting is not great.
Cynthia Jasson, Montreal
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
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Photogalleries
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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