I would like to express my gratitude to asstr-mirror.org for their special attitude, understanding and proficiency in their support of the Bulgarian language pages on this site.
No, not Romania, or 'Hungaria' for that matter. Although it’s rather close: you’ll find (the Republic of) Bulgaria in the south-east corner of Europe, snuggling between Romania on the North, Turkey and Greece on the South, and whatever’s left of Yugoslavia on the West — and having a fine view of the Black Sea on the East, to say nothing of the gorgeous beaches! The rest is 13 centuries of history (and an ever-bright future), a rich cultural and historic heritage, and a natural environment that’s varied and beautiful as it is, in some parts at least, still virgin. The Bulgarians are predominantly Christian Orthodox but several other religions rub shoulders with Christianity without any apparent tension. Bulgaria is a small nation of some 8,000,000 people and the capital Sofia is a city of just over a million.
Modern Bulgarian is the product of more than a thousand years of evolution. It was shaped by the two major ethnic communities which formed the nation: the Bulgars (who came from the East and actually founded the state) and the Southern Slavs. Bulgarian grammar is rather unique. To clear another misconception, the Bulgarian language is not closer to Russian than is any other Slavic language. In fact, it is the only Slavic language that has no cases. What is also special about Bulgarian is of course the alphabet: the Cyrillic script was modelled on the Greek upper-case letters in the early Middle Ages and was first introduced in Bulgaria. Much later, it became the ‘Russian’ alphabet and spread to other Slavic countries... and eventually, across the World-Wide Web!
Gay/Lesbian related bulgarian links: