holidays in bulgaria

Bulgaria officially the Republic of Bulgaria transliterated: Republika Balgariya is a country in Southeast Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north (mostly along the Danube), Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south. Several mountainous areas define the landscape, most notably Stara Planina (the Balkan mountains) and Rhodope mountain ranges, as well as the Rila range, which includes the highest peak in the entire Balkans. In contrast, the Danubian plain in the north and the Upper Thracian Plain in the south represent Bulgaria's lowest and most fertile regions. The 378-kilometer (235 mi) Black Sea coastline covers the entire eastern bound of the country.

During their rule, the Bulgarian population suffered greatly from oppression, intolerance and misgovernment. The nobility was eliminated and the peasantry enserfed to Ottoman masters while Bulgarians lacked judicial equality with the Ottoman Muslims and had to pay much higher taxes than them. Bulgarian culture became isolated from Europe, its achievements destroyed, and the educated clergy fled to other countries.
Throughout the nearly five centuries of Ottoman rule, the Bulgarian people responded to the oppression by strengthening the haydut ("outlaw") tradition and attempted to reestablish their state by organizing several revolts, most notably the First and Second Tarnovo Uprisings (1598 / 1686) and Karposh's Rebellion (1689). The National awakening of Bulgaria became one of the key factors in the struggle for liberation, resulting in the 1876 April uprising—the largest and best-organized Bulgarian rebellion.
In July 1991, a new constitution that provided for a relatively weak elected President and for a Prime Minister accountable to the legislature, was adopted. The new system eventually failed to improve living standards or create economic growth — the average quality of life and economic performance actually remained lower than in the times of Communism well into the early 2000s.
A reform package introduced in 1997 restored positive economic growth, but led to rising social inequality. Bulgaria became a member of NATO in 2004 and of the European Union in 2007.

The mountainous southwest of the country has two alpine ranges—Rila (where mount Musala, at 2,925 meters (9,596 ft) is locatedand Pirin—and further east stand the lower but more extensive Rhodope Mountains. The Balkan mountain chain runs west-east through the middle of the country, north of the Rose Valley. Hilly countryside and plains lie to the southeast, along the Black Sea coast, and along Bulgaria's main river, the Danube, to the north.
Bulgaria has large deposits of bauxite, copper, lead, zinc, bismuth and manganese. Bulgaria was visited by a total of 8,900,000 people, with Greeks, Romanians and Germans accounting for more than 40% of all visitors. Significant numbers of British, Russian, Dutch, Serbian, Polish and Danish tourists also visit Bulgaria. In 2010, Lonely Planet ranked it among its top 10 travel destinations for 2011.
Main destinations include the capital Sofia, coastal resorts Albena, Sozopol, Nesebar, Golden Sands and Sunny Beach and winter resorts such as Pamporovo, Chepelare, Borovetz and Bansko. The rural tourist destinations of Arbanasi and Bozhentsi offer well-preserved ethnographic traditions. Other popular attractions include the 10th-century Rila Monastery and the 19th-century Euxinograd château.

The State Television Female Vocal Choir is the most famous performing folk ensemble, and received a Grammy Award in 1990. Bulgarian classical music is represented by composers Emanuil Manolov, Pancho Vladigerov, Marin Goleminov and Georgi Atanasov, opera singers Ghena Dimitrova, Boris Hristov and Raina Kabaivanska, and pianists Alexis Weissenberg and Vesselin Stanev.
Symbolist poet Peyo YavorovBulgaria has a rich religious visual arts heritage, especially in frescoes, murals and icons, many of them produced by the medieval Tarnovo Artistic School.
One of the earliest pieces of Slavic literature were created in Medieval Bulgaria, such as The Didactic Gospel by Constantine of Preslav and An Account of Letters by Chernorizets Hrabar, both written c. 893. Notable Bulgarian authors include late Romantic Ivan Vazov, Symbolists Pencho Slaveykov and Peyo Yavorov, Expressionist Geo Milev, science fiction writer Pavel Vezhinov, novelist Dimitar Dimov and postmodernist Alek Popov.

Bulgarian rock fans keep proving themselves to be some of the most dedicated and passionate. With names such as Metallica, AC/DC, Rammstein and many, many more already checked on Bulgaria's list of 'Greatest Rock Bands That Have Performed Here' , it has become a hot spot for rock music. And with Scorpions' farewell tour in full swing, they chose to return here for yet another unforgettable concert. Massive foreign investment has created a construction boom, not just around the larger beach and mountain tourist resorts, but in the cities, too. More tourists than ever are discovering this country and an ever-rising number of foreigners are investing in property here. At the same time, the Bulgarian population is declining faster than almost anywhere else in Europe, wages are amongst the lowest on the continent – prompting increasingly long and bitter strikes – and the old problems of bureaucratic incompetence and organised crime bubble away in the background. The environmental damage caused by overdevelopment has been a particular cause for public alarm over recent years, and there are several national and international organisations campaigning to bring some of these issues to wider world attention.