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Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

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Tango · In the Long Grass

do you actually like bulgaria or are you just fond of the rats referances

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

I love Bulgaria, the Rats references and the fact the country is known as BG is added bonus.

Tango · In the Long Grass

sadly france (my regular holiday destination) has no bg references what so ever.however the food is ace

Katharina · Dave

Jules wrote:

Got in at 7 am this morning, still very tired indeed. Thanks for all your messsages, birthday wishes etc. Bulgaria is a lovely place, very interesting mix of culture, lovely scenery and good beaches. Something for everyone. I'd recommend it, now while it is still cheap! It won't stay that way. Bulgaria is referred to as BG, which of course I loved. I also noticed when looking at a newspaper stall that puzzle books are called Rats something or other. Reminders everywhere...

Hey Guru, good to see you back!

Tell more if you like - what are the people like, what language did you/they use, were you the only "western" tourists, did you get to know any locals...? See, I'm curious!

Tango · In the Long Grass

or nosy

Katharina · Dave

Call it interested. Of course it's absolutely up to Jules to reply to my questions. She can also choose to pm me, if she feels this might only be of interest to me. Which may be the case, as you don't particularly like Geography

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

Bulgaria is now an up and coming destination for holiday makers and the resort we stayed at was built for such a purpose. It was in fact a little tacky! If you stay there you won't see much of the real Bulgaria, but we got a bus locally and booked some excursions to get out and about. On the coast they speak English and German, at least enough to be understood. They have their own language, using the Cyrillic alphabet. Some in restaurants needed to go and get some help if they didn't understand.

It is a very interesting country with fascinating history. I found the people incredibly friendly. Obviously they wanted business but they weren't at all pushy or aggressive. Some of the shop workers and waiting staff were genuinely interested in talking and finding out about us and our life as much as we were about theirs.

I've chosen to put this publicly in the hope that it might be of general interest.

Bulgaria want to join the EU in 2007, they were rejected in the last enlargement due to corruption and poverty within the country. After they changed over to become a democracy it was discovered that their head of state was sitting on $800m whilst many people were still living in poverty. Whilst under Russian rule and as a communist country property was nationalised and no-one owned their own houses. Gradually the government is giving people their land back, but their has been difficulties with this and still after 16 years there are disputes between people and governments. In some cases new villages had been built over their land.

We drove through some very poor villages. People grow their own vegetables in order to be able to have enough money to buy medicines, fuel, clothes etc. They exchange amongst themselves for other goods and not money.

There is money in the country too, we were around 15 minutes from the richest village in the country. And you could see it, the locals were very glamorous and wore beautiful designer clothes.

I would be very interested to explore more of the old eastern bloc. Unfortunately I didn't travel there pre-1989. A friend of mine did and I really need to talk to him in more depth.

Thanks for your interest.

Tango · In the Long Grass

Katharina wrote:

. Which may be the case, as you don't particularly like Geography

thats very true.i despise geography.in 3 years al we studied was limestone and mali.i dont think i learnt anything i didnt already know.tho she did let us watch geldof in africa once

but the wekk after she made us watch micheala strachen whining at orphaned elephants!

Katharina · Dave

Jules wrote:

...I've chosen to put this publicly in the hope that it might be of general interest. ... Thanks for your interest.

Thank you for sharing that with us, Jules! I've never met or spoken to anyone who has been to Bulgaria and I think there are many prejudices against that region, so I fiond it very interesting to hear something from someone who has really been there.

As some of you may know, one part of Germany used to be part of the "eastern bloc" until some 15 years ago. Although we still have some difficulties growing together as one, I think it's wonderful to see that so many countries have managed a peaceful change towards freedom and democracy in such a short period of time - freedom of speech or travel for example. Imagine that they couldn't travel where they wanted, just to some chosen spots their regime had allowed them!

Like you Jules, I've only travelled to the old eastern bloc countries after the change. We've been to Croatia and Slovenia (although formerly bloc-free) a few times (since the nineties, not before), to the Czech Republic and Poland very briefly. And I've been to Russia once for a week, in 1994. One of the most impressive travel experiences I've ever had!

Katharina · Dave

Tango wrote:

Katharina wrote: . Which may be the case, as you don't particularly like Geography thats very true.i despise geography.in 3 years al we studied was limestone and mali.i dont think i learnt anything i didnt already know.tho she did let us watch geldof in africa oncebut the wekk after she made us watch micheala strachen whining at orphaned elephants!

That's very sad. Looking back at school days, Geography is definitely one of the subjects I should have payed more attention to!

Although as a Geldof fan, you should have been able to win some points when you were doing Mali! I remember my friend who did Geography as her A-levels (Abitur it's called here) always did papers on Africa. She'd learned some things from "Is that it" and could take it up from there!