About Bulgaria

Location: South-Eastern Europe, Balkan Peninsula
Latitude: 43N
Longitude: 25E
Area size of Bulgaria: 110 910km²
Population of Bulgaria: 7 million
Country domain code for Bulgaria: BG
Capital city: Sofia
Religion: Orthodox Christianity

Telephone: To call Bulgaria from the UK, dial 00359 plus the local number. Omit the 0 from the area code. (For example, to call Veliko Tarnovo from the UK, you would dial 00359-62 plus the local number; to call from within Bulgaria you would dial 062 plus the number.)

Mobile phones: There are three major mobile companies in Bulgaria – Telenor, A1 and Vivacom. They offer top-up cards which can be bought from their offices. It will only cost you 5 EUR and you will receive Bulgarian number and have around twenty minutes to talk within Bulgaria. Vouchers for additional minutes are available everywhere.

Internet: WiFi is avialble in most restaurants and cafes. If you would like to get a permanent Internet connection, it is available everywhere in Bulgaria through the mobile operators A1, Telenor and Vivacom. There are also cable Internet companies in most villages.

Time Difference: Winter: GMT+2H (October - March); Summer: GMT+3H (April -September).

Electricity: 220 volts, 50 Hz

Public holidays:
January 1st - New Year 
March 3rd - National day of the Liberation from Ottoman Domination 
Easter - Two days (Sunday and Monday) according to the Orthodox calendar
May 6th - St. George's Day
May 24th - the Day of Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture and Slav Script
September 6th - National Day of Bulgaria's Reunion in the year of 1885
September 22nd - Independence Day
November 1st - Day of the Bulgarian Revival Leaders /only for students/
December 24th-26th - Christmas Eve and Christmas
December 31st - New Year's Eve

Emergency number: 112

Curious: When Bulgarians nod their heads up and down, they usually mean NO. When they shake their heads from side to side, they mean YES. However there can be exceptions to this “rule”.

Smoking: Smoking is a very common habit among Bulgarians. Smoking is forbidden in restaurants, cafes, public institutions.

Bulgarian Currency: The national currency in Bulgaria is the Bulgarian Lev (BGN), in plural - leva. One Lev consists of 100 stotinki (st). The banknotes are available in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100. The stotinki coins in use are 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50. The current exchange rate is approximately 2.3 Leva to £1.00 or 1.95 Leva (BGN) to 1.00 Euro

Exchanging money: The exchange bureaus display on large boards the daily rates of the main international currencies. Not all offices are reliable - some offer much lower rates than the official figures announced by the Bulgarian National Bank. The easiest way to exchange money is to use the first bank on the way – they all have very similar rates. Hotels and airports tend to give less favorable rates.

Travellers' cheques are more of a hassle as not every bank will accept them, but you’ll still find enough places to cash them for a commission of around 5%. If you do take travellers’ cheques with you make sure that you also have the purchase documents related to the cheques.

Credit Cards: The credit and electronic cards system is developing quickly but in some areas is still in a preliminary stage of introduction. Most shops accept only cash so make sure to use an ATM machine before going shopping or eating out. You can only withdraw up to 200 Leva (about 100 euros) at a time from an ATM, twice a day – that makes 400 leva (about 200 EUR) per day. Credit or electronic cards are accepted for payment practically only in hotels, airline agencies, car rentals, the bigger supermarkets and some restaurants. In these places you can use the commonly known: American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Eurocard, Diners Club, Carte Blanche, Balkanamericard, etc.

More information about Bulgaria you can find here: http://bulgariatravel.org/en/official_tourism_portal/