Useful information

Local time:
GMT+ 2

Climate:
Temperate continental (2, 000 to 2, 400 hours of sunshine per year). Four seasons. Dry and hot summer, mean temperature+ 23 °C (April-September). Cold winter with snowfalls, mean temperature 0 °C. Mean annual temperature 10.5 °C.

Population:
7,364,570

Language:

Bulgarian.
English, German, French and Russian is spoken in the country’s resorts, hotels and restaurants.

Alphabet:
Cyrillic. Signs along international motorways, in airports and resorts are also spelled in Roman letters.

Аа – Aa Кк – Kk Фф – Ff
Бб – Bb Лл – Ll Хх – Hh
Вв – Vv Мм – Mm Цц – Ts ts
Гг – Gg Нн – Nn Чч – Ch Ch
Дд – Dd Оо – Oo Шш – Sh sh
Ее – Ee Пп – Pp Щщ – Sht sht
Жж – Zh zh Рр – Rr Ъъ – Uu
Зз – Zz Сс – Ss Ьь – …..
Ии – Ii Тт – Tt Юю – Yu yu
Йй – Ii Уу – Ou ou Яя – Ya ya

Religion:
86.6% of the population is Eastern Orthodox, 13% are Muslims. The Bulgarian Church is autonomous and headed by a Patriarch.

State government:
Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic.

Official holidays:
January 1 – New Year
March 3 – Bulgaria’s Liberation from Ottoman rule – the National Day
Easter – one week after the Catholic Easter

May 1 – Labor Day

May 6 – Bulgarian Army Day
May 24 – Day of Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture and the Slav Script
September 6 – Bulgaria’s Unification
September 22 – Independence Day
December 25-26 – Christmas

Capital:
Sofia (pop. 1,270,284)

Large Cities:
Plovdiv, Varna, Veliko Turnovo, Sliven, Stara Zagora

National currency:
Bulgarian lev (pl. leva). Fractional coins are called ‘stotinki’ (100 stotinki = 1 lev). The exchange rate against the euro is fixed at Lv 1.95583/EUR 1.

Electricity:
mains voltage 220 V/50 Hz, round two-pin plugs.

Tipping:
Tips of 10% of the bill are appropriate for waiters and taxi drivers.

Bank Opening Hours:
Monday – Friday 09:00 – 16:30

Visas:
EU passport holders, as well as those of USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel and some other countries with reciprocal agreements, are visa-free for a stay up to 30 days in Bulgaria.
You can get a consular information at the site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria http://www.mfa.bg/en/