Saturday, 31 July 2010
Not a fair cop
Recently the Bulgarian police have had a major crackdown on prostitution, the girls have been arrested on the road and several pimps arrested.However one case of mistaken identity has led to a raid from hell with one girl seriously injured when a family, including former police employees, was targetted and a girl seriously hurt amid allegations of police brutality.The police apparently tried to pay off the family to avoid what has become a major scandal.So what started out as a rational exercise to counter a very great bulgarian problem has now been messed up.
Saturday, 24 July 2010
Spirit of Burgas Festival 13-15 August
This years Spirit of Burgas Festival is nearly upon us and it's an exciting line up with the first night being headlined by the Progidy.The festival is recognised as one of the twenty best festivals of its kind and is located on the central beach.Further info can be seen at www.spiritofburgas.com.
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Kaliakra countdown
Kaliakra Rock Fest 2010 starts on July 23 and, for those who are already in north-east Bulgaria by the seaside, the festive mood must be reaching a high point in anticipation of three days of heavy rock music.
For others, who are yet to make the trip to the coast, it would be a sound idea to start thinking of accommodation and travel arrangements to Kavarna as time is running out.
The first day of the festival will feature Leave's Eyes, Epica, Doro, Tarja and Atrocity as headliners. On the following day, July 24, the line up consists of Korpiklaani, Destruction, Sodom, Kreator and Autumn Sun.
Finally, on July 25, are Voivod, Primal Fear, Annihilator and Accept.
Anyone under 18 will only be admitted on the grounds of the festival with a guardian and only after a declaration form is signed by the guardian.
Single day event tickets cost 40 leva, while a three-day package ticket is at 90 leva. Tickets are available at M-Tel, Orange Centre, Fonex, Technomarket, Multirama, Office1 Superstore and www.ticketstream.bg.
For others, who are yet to make the trip to the coast, it would be a sound idea to start thinking of accommodation and travel arrangements to Kavarna as time is running out.
The first day of the festival will feature Leave's Eyes, Epica, Doro, Tarja and Atrocity as headliners. On the following day, July 24, the line up consists of Korpiklaani, Destruction, Sodom, Kreator and Autumn Sun.
Finally, on July 25, are Voivod, Primal Fear, Annihilator and Accept.
Anyone under 18 will only be admitted on the grounds of the festival with a guardian and only after a declaration form is signed by the guardian.
Single day event tickets cost 40 leva, while a three-day package ticket is at 90 leva. Tickets are available at M-Tel, Orange Centre, Fonex, Technomarket, Multirama, Office1 Superstore and www.ticketstream.bg.
Monday, 19 July 2010
St Marina
BULGARIAN ORTHODOX HONOR ST MARINA
The Orthodox world, including the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, mark Saturday the Day of Saint Marina.
According to the Golden Legend, she was a native of Antioch, daughter of a pagan priest named Aedesius. Marina was scorned by her father for her Christian faith, and lived in the country with a foster-mother keeping sheep. Olybrius, the praeses orientis (Governor of the Roman Diocese of the East), offered her marriage at the price of her renunciation of Christianity. Upon her refusal, she was cruelly tortured, during which various miraculous incidents occurred. One of these involved being swallowed by Satan in the shape of a dragon, from which she escaped alive when the cross she carried irritated the dragon's entrails. The Golden Legend, in an atypical moment of skepticism, describes this last incident as "apocryphal and not to be taken seriously" (trans. Ryan, 1.369). Marina was sentenced to death and murdered in 304 A.D. 304.
The focal point of the celebrations in Bulgaria is the second-largest city of Plovdiv and the St. Marina church in the city where the miracle-making icon of the Virgin Marry arrived from Jerusalem Friday evening. The icon, which will remain in Plovdiv until July 21, was met by hundreds of believers and was blessed by the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew.
St. Marina is a very popular and honored Saint by Bulgarians – it is said that she is the patron of health and visits the dreams of people, who believe in her to give them predictions about their future and advice how to avoid illness and bad fortune.
St. Marina is also considered to be the patron of waters and the protector of the Southern Black Sea Coast of Bulgaria. This is why July 17th is also the Day of the southern Black Sea town of Sozopol.
In Bulgaria, July 17 is also the name day of women called Marina and Marinka, and men called Marin and Marincho.
Thursday, 15 July 2010
Surprise Surprise !
TOP BULGARIAN MODELS, SINGERS SAID TO MAKE MONEY AS PROSTITUTES
Top Bulgarian models, singers, and beauty pageant winners are also working as high-class prostitutes, a popular model has admitted.
Thus, a number of the popular Bulgarian beauties make about BGN 30 000-40 000 monthly by providing escort services to wealthy men, revealed model Katrin Vacheva in the “Code: Criminal” talks show on the Pro.bg TV channel.
According to Vacheva, many top models, pop-folk singers, and even former holders of the Miss Bulgaria title, who are featured on the covers of erotic Bulgarian magazines are featured in a catalog from which wealthy men, including businessmen, bankers, Members of Parliament and other politicians, can pick them and pay them for sexual services.
“When you become Miss Bulgaria or win some other pageant, your price goes up, and you become desired by higher-class gentlemen,” said Vacheva, who was severely beaten by a player of the Bulgarian football club CSKA Sofia in March 2010.
According to the authors of the Pro.bg talk show there are wealthy men in Bulgaria who become “collectors” of top girls, i.e. they aspire to use the services of every single girl featured on the cover of an erotic magazine.
Commenting on the same topic, Evgeniya Kalkandzieva, a former Miss Bulgaria and head of the largest Bulgarian agency for fashion models, confirmed she had heard of a catalog offering sexual services of top models but said she never saw it.
“There are rumors that a number of the Bulgarian model are also dealing with prostitution but I haven’t seen anything. There are over 100 fashion agencies in Bulgaria. Apparently, there is not enough work and money for all them. This means that some of them might offer their girls as company to wealth and powerful men,” said the 1995 winner of the Miss Bulgaria title. She also pointed out that the low fees that Bulgarian models get – between BGN 50 and BGN 300 – for their appearances might have driven many of them to offer paid sexual services.
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
The good times roll...well nearly anyway
Mortgage loans for foreign nationals and Bulgarians working abroad are back on the Bulgarian banking market in response to reviving demand, banks and credit consultants said.
Tihomir Toshev, executive director of credit consultant Credit Center, said interest in this type of loans was zero at the time when the crisis was at its worst, forcing lenders to withdraw such offers.
Other consultants say that banks are imposing new requirements, such as targeting borrowers from specific nationalities and financing the purchases of a property whose construction the lender has backed.
UniCredit Bulbank said on July 13 2010 that it had launched mortgages for foreigners and Bulgarians working abroad, who could choose from among a list of 22 projects financed by the bank.
Tihomir Toshev, executive director of credit consultant Credit Center, said interest in this type of loans was zero at the time when the crisis was at its worst, forcing lenders to withdraw such offers.
Other consultants say that banks are imposing new requirements, such as targeting borrowers from specific nationalities and financing the purchases of a property whose construction the lender has backed.
UniCredit Bulbank said on July 13 2010 that it had launched mortgages for foreigners and Bulgarians working abroad, who could choose from among a list of 22 projects financed by the bank.
If you go down to the woods today you could be in for a big surprise...
A woman was attacked by a Bulgarian brown bear on the morning of July 14 2010 and was in a serious condition in hospital, Bulgarian media said.
The incident occurred at about 9am between the villages of Malka Arda and Oryahovets in south Bulgaria, in the Municipality of Banite, according to Malka Arda mayor Rossen Iliev, local news agency Focus said.
Two sisters had gone into the forest to collect mushrooms when they encountered a brown bear. One of the women managed to escape but the other one was cornered by the animal and attacked, suffering several "serious blows". The woman was taken by a paramedic unit to a hospital in Smolyan, the report said.
Police units, forest rangers and the village mayor went to the scene and were investigating.
In May 2010, a brown bear killed a man near the Smolyan village of Koutela, which prompted to the authorities to order the bear killed, Environmental Minister Nona Karadjova said. The minister said that such events are rare and that this was an "exceptional case".
Reasons for the fatal incident were cited as the "extreme proximity between the man and the bear". It is speculated that because bad weather made visibility difficult, the man ventured too close to the animal. Last year, there were three incidents between brown bears and humans, none of them were fatal.
The Bulgarian brown bear is, in effect, the (Ursus arctos arctos) a subspecies of the brown bear (Ursus arctos), and found across northern Eurasia. The brown bear is also known as the "common brown bear", and colloquially by many other names.
The animal is widespread in Bulgaria. Bears are found on Vitosha Mountain, close to Sofia as well as Rila, Pirin, the Rhodope mountains, the Lozenska Mountain and Bulgaria's spine, the massive Stara Planina range.
The Bulgarian brown bear is a protected species, and their killing is authorised only if they have been proven to attack humans.
The incident occurred at about 9am between the villages of Malka Arda and Oryahovets in south Bulgaria, in the Municipality of Banite, according to Malka Arda mayor Rossen Iliev, local news agency Focus said.
Two sisters had gone into the forest to collect mushrooms when they encountered a brown bear. One of the women managed to escape but the other one was cornered by the animal and attacked, suffering several "serious blows". The woman was taken by a paramedic unit to a hospital in Smolyan, the report said.
Police units, forest rangers and the village mayor went to the scene and were investigating.
In May 2010, a brown bear killed a man near the Smolyan village of Koutela, which prompted to the authorities to order the bear killed, Environmental Minister Nona Karadjova said. The minister said that such events are rare and that this was an "exceptional case".
Reasons for the fatal incident were cited as the "extreme proximity between the man and the bear". It is speculated that because bad weather made visibility difficult, the man ventured too close to the animal. Last year, there were three incidents between brown bears and humans, none of them were fatal.
The Bulgarian brown bear is, in effect, the (Ursus arctos arctos) a subspecies of the brown bear (Ursus arctos), and found across northern Eurasia. The brown bear is also known as the "common brown bear", and colloquially by many other names.
The animal is widespread in Bulgaria. Bears are found on Vitosha Mountain, close to Sofia as well as Rila, Pirin, the Rhodope mountains, the Lozenska Mountain and Bulgaria's spine, the massive Stara Planina range.
The Bulgarian brown bear is a protected species, and their killing is authorised only if they have been proven to attack humans.
Crime Fighters !
JOINT POLICE UNITS WITH ROMANIA PATROL BULGARIAN BLACK SEA RESORTS
Joint Bulgarian-Romanian police units have started patrolling Bulgaria’s top Black Sea resorts Albena and Golden Sands.
The joint police patrols are under a project of the Interior Ministers of Bulgaria and Romania, and designed to help alleviate any issues encountered by the increasing numbers of Romanian holidaymakers along Bulgaria’s northern Black Sea coast.
Two senior officers from the Romanian police arrived in Bulgaria last night for coordination meetings with the regional Bulgarian police directorates in the northeastern districts of Dobrich and Varna.
The first four Romanian police officers have already joined their Bulgarian colleagues.
The Romanian policemen are wearing their national uniforms. They will help the Bulgarian officers when dealing with Romanian tourists; the police powers will be exercised only the Bulgarian policemen.
These principles of joint work were laid down in a document signed at the end of June by the Chief Secretary of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry Kalin Georgiev, and the General Inspector of the Romanian Police Petre Toba in Giurgiu.
The authorities of Bulgaria and Romania have come to an agreement for joint police patrols in the Bulgarian Black Sea resorts after an enormous number of Romanian tourists stormed the Bulgarian seaside in the recent years.
The Romanian holidaymakers prefer the northern Bulgarian sea resorts Albena and Golden Sands. About 1 million Romanian tourists are estimated to have visited Bulgaria in 2009. Meanwhile, in the spring of 2010, a number of Romanians have become the victims of crimes such as car theft in the Bulgarian resorts.
The agreements also provide for similar joint patrols on Romanian territory. However, those are not likely to be needed as the number of Bulgarian tourists in Romania is much more modest.
Uncles Comment: Sounds ok in principle, but basically if your car gets stolen it gets stolen.Having police of your own nationality is of limited help.More bi-lingual police would help though.
Joint Bulgarian-Romanian police units have started patrolling Bulgaria’s top Black Sea resorts Albena and Golden Sands.
The joint police patrols are under a project of the Interior Ministers of Bulgaria and Romania, and designed to help alleviate any issues encountered by the increasing numbers of Romanian holidaymakers along Bulgaria’s northern Black Sea coast.
Two senior officers from the Romanian police arrived in Bulgaria last night for coordination meetings with the regional Bulgarian police directorates in the northeastern districts of Dobrich and Varna.
The first four Romanian police officers have already joined their Bulgarian colleagues.
The Romanian policemen are wearing their national uniforms. They will help the Bulgarian officers when dealing with Romanian tourists; the police powers will be exercised only the Bulgarian policemen.
These principles of joint work were laid down in a document signed at the end of June by the Chief Secretary of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry Kalin Georgiev, and the General Inspector of the Romanian Police Petre Toba in Giurgiu.
The authorities of Bulgaria and Romania have come to an agreement for joint police patrols in the Bulgarian Black Sea resorts after an enormous number of Romanian tourists stormed the Bulgarian seaside in the recent years.
The Romanian holidaymakers prefer the northern Bulgarian sea resorts Albena and Golden Sands. About 1 million Romanian tourists are estimated to have visited Bulgaria in 2009. Meanwhile, in the spring of 2010, a number of Romanians have become the victims of crimes such as car theft in the Bulgarian resorts.
The agreements also provide for similar joint patrols on Romanian territory. However, those are not likely to be needed as the number of Bulgarian tourists in Romania is much more modest.
Uncles Comment: Sounds ok in principle, but basically if your car gets stolen it gets stolen.Having police of your own nationality is of limited help.More bi-lingual police would help though.
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Website is back
After a few days of website problems, I am relieved to announce that my property and building website is now back in the land of the living.Please have a look for the latest offers and bargains.I needed these problems like a hole in the head as we approach peak season !.Click on the title to access.
Friday, 9 July 2010
Placido Domingo in Balchik
The Bulgarian town of Balchik negotiates a concert of one of the most popular tenors in the world, Placido Domingo, the town mayor announced Thursday.
Domingo has agreed to visit Bulgaria for 3 days and entertain the Bulgarian audience on September 4. However, the organizers have not confirmed the exact date yet.
A stage and 3 000 seats are the only requirements of the singer's team. The choice for the stage fell on Balchik's historical palace, which serves as a stage for many other concerts and festivals.
Details for the program of Domingo's concert and his stay in Bulgaria will be known in 10 days.
In the meantime, Balchik will enjoy other opera stars who will participate in the city's first Summer Music Festival “Balchik Classic Days”. The forum will be held August 5-15 and will emphasize on the Mediterranean music.
Saturday, 3 July 2010
Flood Warning
The situation with the level of the river Danube in the Bulgarian stretch is still critical, even though in most sections it subsided overnight by six cm.
Levels of the Danube river are threatening north-western Bulgarian town of Lom with flooding. The river at Lom reached as high as 870 cm on Friday morning, which has obstructed activities in the town's port.
Homes in some neighborhoods are starting to get flooded by underground waters. There is danger that drinking water in Lom can be contaminated by flood waters.
Constant monitoring of the level of Danube is under way in Russe, Bulgaria's largest town on the Danube river, Vidin and Silistra.
The level of the river has been steadily rising for the last few weeks and the weather forecasts are troubling, with more rain coming this week. Local authorities are also keeping an eye on nearby tributaries flowing into the Danube.
Lom and other Bulgarian towns on the Danube suffered considerable damage from floods in 2005.
Uncle's Comment : The situation is dire in Romania where several people have died and the government and the Met Office are at daggers drawn.
Levels of the Danube river are threatening north-western Bulgarian town of Lom with flooding. The river at Lom reached as high as 870 cm on Friday morning, which has obstructed activities in the town's port.
Homes in some neighborhoods are starting to get flooded by underground waters. There is danger that drinking water in Lom can be contaminated by flood waters.
Constant monitoring of the level of Danube is under way in Russe, Bulgaria's largest town on the Danube river, Vidin and Silistra.
The level of the river has been steadily rising for the last few weeks and the weather forecasts are troubling, with more rain coming this week. Local authorities are also keeping an eye on nearby tributaries flowing into the Danube.
Lom and other Bulgarian towns on the Danube suffered considerable damage from floods in 2005.
Uncle's Comment : The situation is dire in Romania where several people have died and the government and the Met Office are at daggers drawn.
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Sale of the century !
Stressed-out city executives looking to get away from it all have the chance to buy their own rural village in New Zealand, complete with a pub and population of 40. Skip related content
Otira, a hamlet on the rainy west coast of New Zealand's South Island, is on the market for $NZ1 million (475,645 pounds).
Current owners Bill and Christine Hennah bought the rundown village in 1998 after passing through and "feeling sorry for it," Christchurch-based newspaper The Press reported on Friday.They paid $NZ80,000 (37,253 pounds) for the hotel or pub, school, railway station, town hall and 18 houses making up the village near the Arthur's Pass National Park that dates back to 1923.
The village developed when the Otira railway tunnel was opened, and during its heyday was home to about 600 workers and their families.
But the couple, now aged in their 60s, say they no longer have the energy to run the hotel. They are asking $NZ350,000 for the hotel or $NZ1 million for the whole lot.
"We need someone to build it up again. There is a lot of potential and opportunity," Christine Hennah told The Press.
Uncle's Note: Sounds like a bargain !.
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