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Bulgaria
General Information
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Formal
Name: REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA
Area: 110,994 sq km (42,855 sq miles).
Population:
7,845,499 (estimate in 2002).
Population Density: 70.7 per sq km (2002).
Capital
City: Sofia with Population:
1,122,302. The capital city Sofia is situated in the Western
part of the country, at the foot of the Vitosha mountain,
the plain is 550m. above sea level.
Other major towns are: Plovdiv,
Varna, Bourgas,
Rousse, Stara Zagora, Pleven.
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Facts about Bulgaria:
The oldest crafted gold in the
history of mankind.
Nine Of the 300 cultural and natural sites in the UNESCO
List of World Heritage, are in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria is the country of yoghourt – the food of the centenarians.
The world’s perfume and cosmetics industry could not do
without the Bulgarian attar of roses – the Bulgarian oleaginous
rose yields 80% of the world’s production.
Small Bulgaria is one of the world’s largest wine producers
together with France, Spain, Italy and Greece. |
Geography:
Bulgaria is situated in the Eastern Europe - the Balkan Peninsula
and bordered to the north by the River Danube and Romania, to
the east by the Black Sea, to the south by Turkey and Greece,
and to the west by Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia. The country covers an area of 110 994 sq.km.
The Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina) cross
the country, reaching the Black Sea. The land is heavily cultivated,
covered with forests and crossed by rivers. The Black Sea has
some of the largest sand areas and beaches in Europe. It offers
sunbathing from May until October. Heavy snowfalls of snow are
virtually guaranteed in the mountain ski resorts during the
winter time. This all give an excellent opportunities for
travel through the whole year.
Government: Democratic Republic since
1990.
Head of State: President - Georgi Parvanov.
Head of Government: Sergei Stanishev.
Click
here for ministries websites list.
Official holidays:
January 1st - New Years’s Holiday;
March 3d - National Holiday;
Easter, and the first Monday after Easter;
May 1st - Labour Day;
May 6th - Gergyovden, and the Bulgarian Military Army’s
Day;
May 24th - Cyril and Methodius Day;
September 6th - Unification Day;
September 22d - Independence Day;
November 1st - National Day of the Bulgarian Revival Leaders;
December 24, 25, 26 - Christmas Days;
Language:
Bulgarian is the official language and the
Cyrillic alphabet is used.
English, German, French and Russian are spoken in the tourist
areas and hotels.
Religion: The majority of the population is Christian,
the main denomination being the Bulgarian Orthodox Church with
a membership of about 80 per cent of the population. Eastern
Orthodox Chrisitianity is considered to be the traditional religion
in Bulgaria. There is also a Muslim minority (9 per cent) and
small communities of Jews and Armenians.
Time: GMT + 2
Electricity:
220 volts AC, 50Hz. Plugs are two-pin.
National currency:
Lev
(BGN) (One Lev = 100 Stotinki)
BGN = 0.51129 EUR BGN is pegged to the Euro
Bulgarian National Bank: BNB.BG
Measures and scales:
The metric system
Communications:
Telephone: Country
code: 359. Outgoing international code: 00. There are many public
telephones in the main towns. The national network of telecommunications
is operated, for the present, by Bulgarian Telecommunications
Company (BTC) (http://www.btc.bg).
Mobile
telephone: GSM 900/1800 band, with mostly good to patchy coverage
in some areas inside the country.
Network operators are MobilTEL (http://www.mtel.bg),
GloBul (http://www.globul.bg) and Vivatel (http://www.vivatel.bg),
which is the trade mark under which the mobile operator BTC
Mobile is operating on Bulgarian market. BTC Mobile was established
in June 2004 when Bugarian Telecommunications Company (BTC)
received GSM license by the Bulgarian Communications Regulation
Commission.
Fax:
Facilities are available at most city post offices.
Internet: Internet is available in
most hotels. There are Internet cafes and centers in the cities
also in some bigger villages. Having Internet at home is common
feature. The Internet is provided by local cable TV operators
or other companies.
Post: Airmail to Western Europe takes
from four to ten days. Airmail to the USA takes about two weeks.
Also available are other shipment services like DHL, UPS, etc
in many cities.
Temperatures
& Climate: Bulgaria is at the border line between
the temperate and Mediterranean climatic area. The climate is
temperate continental in its northern part, while the Mediterranean
climatic influence is strongly felt in its southern part.
The average winter temperature is about -1 , - 2 C and the average
summer temperature is about 20 - 22 C.
Click
here for current Bulgaria weather conditions.
To participate
in BulGuide.com, please feel free to contact
us.
