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Friday 26 November 2010

Taxi Wars

Taxi companies waging war in the Bulgarian port city of Varna have caused a dramatic collapse of prices locally, the private television channel bTV reported on November 25 2010.

Protests have been ongoing for several weeks, and prices slashed by 50 per cent. Taxi drivers in Varna protested last week because one particular firm had reduced its prices by 20 per cent and was "stealing" their customers. So in response to this strategy, another firm has offered a 50 per cent discount.

Until recently, Varna had one of the highest tariffs in Bulgaria – at 0.89 leva day fare and 0.99 leva night fare, but prices now have been halved to 0.55 leva, the report said. But when individual firms in Varna were contacted and asked why the prices are dropping, they replied that this was in response to the "economic crisis" and had "nothing to do with the protests"

Meanwhile, the situation in Sofia appears to be quite the opposite.

As many as six out of seven taxis in Sofia cheat their customers by inflating fares, Automobile Administration deputy chief Atanas Todorov said, cited by mass circulation daily 24 Chassa on November 24 2010.

Far too many Bulgarian or foreign tourists still board a taxi at Sofia airport to a destination in Sofia city centre only to find themselves having to pay a bill approaching 100 leva.

Taxi drivers are able to get away with flagrant over-charging because of loopholes in legislation, as some companies charge seven leva/km. For the moment, however, the legislation is such that they are able to get away with it.

Whereas a typical fare from the Sofia Airport to Sofia city centre should cost about 15 leva, some tourists might be charged as much as 140 leva, depending on the company they chose.

Uncles Comment: My experience of taxi drivers along the Black Sea coast is that they are the worst in Bulgaria.Taxis around Varna are ludicrously expensive and they will cheat foreigners any which way they can.My experiences in Veliko Turnovo and Sofia have been much better, in Sofia in particular I always use OKsupertrans, they have offices at the airport and the bus station and you can even phone up and order a cab in english.However always check the tariff in the windscreen and check that the cab is really an OKsupertrans as many have the livery but are not actually so.OKsupertrans number is 02 9732121

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Good productive day

I had a really enjoyable day yesterday out visiting clients near Dobrich.We are undertaking a refurbishment of an old house for some really nice people.I was glad they were really pleased with the result we have turned their lives around as previously the only modern bit of the house was a new bathroom.Now they have plastered walls, tongue and groove ceilings a re-wire, and floor tiles all for 5200 Euro's.It's always pleasing to have a really satisfactory outcome.

Thursday 18 November 2010

19th November

Tomorrow is International Mens Day , so we can all do nothing lads !!.

Its a fair cop, cop.....!!!

Two police officers who had been bribing other officers were arrested in an overnight operation on November 17 2010, Bulgarian television station bTV said.

The operation was carried out by the Interior Ministry and the Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime (CDCOC), in co-operation with the State Agency for National Security, Internal Security Section and the Sofia City Prosecutors' Office.

The operation was carried out in the Sofia borough of Hadji Dimitar. The two arrested were described as "corrupt police officers" who bribed other police officers in order to obtain "sensitive information," the report said.

One of those taken into custody is a serving officer in the Migration Police, and previously was a CDCOC officer.

His alleged accomplice is a serving officer in Bulgaria's State Agency for National Security (SANS).

According to the report, the first officer paid $500 to a policeman in the Interior Ministry for classified information.

Allegedly, the two men would "purchase" sensitive operational data for active criminal groups dealing with counterfeit money and credit cards. During the search, the police found $4000 in cash and several memory sticks packed with "data".

The authorities were tipped off, and the two officers were placed under surveillance over the course of three months.

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Property offers on this site

As readers may by now be aware, we do sell Bulgarian property on this website to earn our living, and we also build and renovate, so here is one of my periodic plugs for my website which can be accessed by clicking on the title.

Uncle Bulgaria

Winter on this blog

Due to the weather conditions over the coming 3/4 months, I will have more time to devote to blogging.I will write some more about my own personal interests, but I also will give some hints about travelling around in Bulgaria such as public transport and places to go.
If anyone out there has any requests or ideas please let me know.

1000th reader

Many thanks to faithful readers as we pass the 1000 reader mark since the webcounter was installed, the real number is something like 2500.Correction it's 2688 readers and 127 this week alone !.

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Windy !

Bulgaria has been plagued by strong winds with damaged to rooves, as well and billboards and forest fires fanned by the flames.The weather is really strange here at the moment, it was 25c here today which is pretty damn hot.Still I just sense that we are in for a very cold winter.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Appalling Tale

A ten year old, yes a ten year old, has just given birth in the city of Jerez in Spain.The fact that a child that young has had a baby is truly shocking, but the family it appears were completely unfazed by it all.

It was at this point that I guessed the origin of the family (the story gives the game away by saying the family were originally from Romania).So basically they are gypsies, and marrying and having children very young is normal.However even if it's 'normal' it is still not right, a 10 year old is nowhere near bodily mature and it can cause physical damage.

This kind of story really beggars belief.

Monday 1 November 2010

And it's November !

Monday
Ноември 1
Mostly Sunny
15 º / 8 º
Tuesday
Ноември 2
Partly Cloudy
15 º / 8 º
Wednesday
Ноември 3
Foggy
16 º / 8 º
Thursday
Ноември 4
Foggy
18 º / 8 º
Friday
Ноември 5
Sunny
18 º / 8 º
Saturday
Ноември 6
Foggy
17 º / 7 º