who here lives in Bulgaria?

[dpopiz]

my friend left and came to the US at a young age. she seems to have this idea that in Bulgaria, life is beautiful and romatic and that people value art, philosophy, and thought

these things she tells me just sound like they're out of some cheesy romance movie.


what has been your experience living there in recent years?

 

[mooojojojo]

Living in Bulgaria is okay. But the fairytale picture your friend paints is far from true.

Like everywhere else there are people who are not smart and/or friendly. Politicians are corrupt with deep links to organised crime. The majority of bulgarians are poor. Large percentage of the kids are arrogant, uneducated and morally decayed. The infrastructure sucks.

But there are also so much good things.. the climate is good, the people in general are nice, the coutry itself is beautyful, etc.

If you ask more specific questions I can give you more insight, but I'm not too good with general talk..

 

[Schadenfroh]

is it true you can buy an AK47 for like 30 bucks US over there?

 

[Ameesh]

where the fvck did your friend get that idea?

its full of dirty gypsies and unemployed people.

i guess the dirty gypsies and unemployed have plenty of time to admire art be romantic when they aren't stealing or begging.

 

[dpopiz]

Originally posted by: mooojojojo
Living in Bulgaria is okay. But the fairytale picture your friend paints is far from true.

Like everywhere else there are people who are not smart and/or friendly. Politicians are corrupt with deep links to organised crime. The majority of bulgarians are poor. Large percentage of the kids are arrogant, uneducated and morally decayed. The infrastructure sucks.

But there are also so much good things.. the climate is good, the people in general are nice, the coutry itself is beautyful, etc.

If you ask more specific questions I can give you more insight, but I'm not too good with general talk..

yeah, sorry my question was so open ended. I was hoping somebody's response could steer me closer to what my real question is...and you did.

my friend did mention the poverty and and lack of infrastructure. but she acts like it's a utopia full of super-intellectuals who are totally unconcerned with individuality.
it sounds like that's not exactly the case, correct?

 

[Turkish]

Originally posted by: dpopiz

Originally posted by: mooojojojo
Living in Bulgaria is okay. But the fairytale picture your friend paints is far from true.

Like everywhere else there are people who are not smart and/or friendly. Politicians are corrupt with deep links to organised crime. The majority of bulgarians are poor. Large percentage of the kids are arrogant, uneducated and morally decayed. The infrastructure sucks.

But there are also so much good things.. the climate is good, the people in general are nice, the coutry itself is beautyful, etc.

If you ask more specific questions I can give you more insight, but I'm not too good with general talk..

yeah, sorry my question was so open ended. I was hoping somebody's response could steer me closer to what my real question is...and you did.

my friend did mention the poverty and and lack of infrastructure. but she acts like it's a utopia full of super-intellectuals who are totally unconcerned with individuality.
it sounds like that's not exactly the case, correct?

your friend must be from a wealthy family, or at least above average.

in countries like bulgaria, there is a huge gap in society. poor is very poor, rich is very rich, and there is an area in between, far far away from the very poor and far far away from the very rich. majority of people belong to this category. if you are in that middle category, you can live off fine. you will occasionally get pissed off at politics because you will think you are worth far more than what society values you. if are a little bit intelligent, and can network with people well, you'll jump from middle category to very very rich category in one night.

i know how your friend feels. true, anywhere in europe (even eastern europe), you'll see people value art, philosophy and thought far more than America. its extremely normal considering these countries have thousands of years more of reforming history than America.

anyways, is your friend a student? or is she family-dependent financially? or was she before she got a job? i am totally serious about these questions as I know eastern european people very well.

 

[mooojojojo]

to Schadenfroh - No, you can't buy an AK47 for $30. Bulgaria may be poor, but it's nothing like Afghanistan and countries like it (where I guess you can get it for $30). On second thought though, I never actually tried to buy an AK, so perhaps there are dealers who sell stolen AKs for cheap (but I doubt that they go for as low as $30). You may find it interesting that most of the serious gangster attacks (I mean where a known drug dealer or whatever is attacked) are carried out with AK47s.

to Ameesh - It's not FULL of gypsies. There are regions in the country where the large part of the population is turkish or gipsy, but you'll be surprised to find out that some of them are much nicer than some of the 'european' bulgarians. That said - there certainly are 'dirty gypsies' that you wouldn't want to run into during the night.

to Dpopiz - If this is your friend's idea for utopia, why doesn't she come back to Bulgaria and live here? Unconcerned with individuality - far from it. Many people here think they're above everyone else, that they're somehow better from the others. Actually I think this applies to pretty much everywhere, but here it's kind of ironic.. the criteria for superiority in some really retarded cases is laughable - like what car you own (I think you have those types in the US too), what cell phone you use, stuff like that. Not that I hold anything against nice cars, but to think it puts you above the person next to you, because yours in more powerful is stupid.

to Xiety - Networking with the very very rich is not that easy. And I wouldn't recommend it either - most of these filthy rich people are the dumbest, morally decayed and arrogant people here. About the family dependance financially - are you implying you were financially independant before you got a job? How does that work? What did you use to buy your food?

 

[dpopiz]

heh yeah sounds like it's not tremendously different socially from the US.
my friend says now that she's gone back several times and has penpals living there though.

perhaps it's just two peoples' very different experiences. (and one person's amazing euphoric utopian experience) :roll:

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
is it true you can buy an AK47 for like 30 bucks US over there?

yup,
it was around 100 in budapest market though, i know someone that got it to US in those huge sea containers inside a golf club bag...

 

[Steve]

I've had a roommate, and a frat brother, who were Bulgarian. I also knew a very beautiful girl from there. I knew all these people through college, still keep in touch, and they are wonderful people. My roommate friend showed me pics of a summer vacation he took there (he's originally from Varna, a resort town) and the scenery and people were just beautiful.

He also told me about places you could go where a guy would be sitting outside at a table with a bunch of burned CDs. You hand him the equivalent of $10 US, and you've got yourself a copy of Adobe Premiere/Photoshop/WinXP, etc...

 

[mooojojojo]

sm8000 - Oh, it get's much better . If you need software, MP3s or movies there are these inside-bulgarian servers, not accessible from outside the country (perhaps via proxy they are - I don't know how it works), where you can get pretty much everything you need. One of the servers for instance - arenabg.com (you can try access it, but I doubt it will work) has 8TB worth of stuff. Movies sorted by the year etc, latest software, huge collection of MP3s. Also these servers are access at a much higher speed than the outside internet - my connection for example is 8KB outside - 60KB peering (that's what it's called - don't know wheteher it's a standard term or not). The thing with burned CDs is also true - the police were making raids to stop this but it just didn't work, and I think it's less than $10 for a CD. BTW - Varna is a port city - but all around it are resorts. And about the people - while I've never been to the US - yes, I think the people here are prettier than there. I saw a survey in ID magazine that 25% of americans are obese.. that's just sad.

Halik - There are no open markets for machine guns like this...

Dpopiz - Depending on the people you hang out with and the places you go, you can avoid seeing a large portion of the negative things in Bulgaria and concentrate of the nice aspects. Especially if you go to a sea resort and avoid certain clubs I guess.

 

[Steve]

It's actually more than 25% of Americans who are obese. I think it's more like 60% or so.

 

[TommyVercetti]

Originally posted by: sm8000


He also told me about places you could go where a guy would be sitting outside at a table with a bunch of burned CDs. You hand him the equivalent of $10 US, and you've got yourself a copy of Adobe Premiere/Photoshop/WinXP, etc...

That's just about any country except US and Western Europe.

 

[mandala]

I lived in Bulgaria (a few years ago) for about a little over a year in a couple of the largest cities (Plovdiv and Varna) and a couple small ones (Stara Zagora and Sliven). There is a great deal of national pride, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The country is beautiful, especially where it is cared for. Most people I knew were quite poor and unemployment was rampant (but it seems like the society and government are much more conducive to financial hardships than America - meaning that people usually still have a place to live, water, food, etc., even if they have no discernable income). There are still beggars - stereotypically Turkish (or Gypsy). Some make their living begging and stealing (you're an easy mark if you're a tall, fair-haired person). I never had anything stolen from me (though people tried twice). I knew several very respectable people of Gypsy ancestry, but there is a lot of discrimination against anyone that even resembles a Gypsy. You can get really cheap media (cds, movies, software, etc.) - most of it pirated. I never knew of cheap weapons. Bulgarians, in general, seemed not to be big on weapons. I thought that the youth were extremely well educated (light years ahead of American students). The pace of life was pretty calm, not hectic and rushed like American society, which I quite liked. People often sat around in cafes for hours and talked about anything and everything. Overall, I really liked living there. I really hated leaving to come back to the US and I still sometimes miss it.

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: Ameesh
where the fvck did your friend get that idea?

its full of dirty gypsies and unemployed people.

i guess the dirty gypsies and unemployed have plenty of time to admire art be romantic when they aren't stealing or begging.

Don't forget all the bootlegged pr0n that pours out of that country also

MWHAHAHAHAHAA



Sysadmin

 

[mooojojojo]

to Sysadmin - if you mean porn produced here, there's hardly any I think. If you mean pirated.. again I don't think anyone here would buy a porn DVD just to rip it and upload on a server. There is plenty on the servers though, but I don't think it's actually ripped here.

to Mandala - You lived in some of the best cities I think. Also your description is very good and quite close to reality. How did you end up in Bulgaria for a year? Vacation, work, friends? I met a guy from Austin TX who is working as a 'technical' security guard at the construction site for the new american embassy in Sofia. He also seemed to quite like staying here. Strange but his favorite pass-time seemed hanging around PC game clubs and playing CounterStrike.. Granted he's fairly young - 21, but I think he could've managed better. Price seemed to be a selling point for him - 1h in a club like this costs $0.50.

to sm8000 - Well the survey stated that 25% are obese, while %50 are overweight.. This reminds me to ask: Do americans get media coverage of the studies which state genetically modified food as the reason for the obesity of the nation? Just curious since I've never seen anything on this question on CNN, but it's fairly publicized on EuroNews and russian TV channels.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: mooojojojo
This reminds me to ask: Do americans get media coverage of the studies which state genetically modified food as the reason for the obesity of the nation? Just curious since I've never seen anything on this question on CNN, but it's fairly publicized on EuroNews and russian TV channels.

You have any links to that? I've never heard that before and you would think that people would instantly say that in GM debates. The EU is actually letting in some GM products since there was no scientific evidence against it.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: mooojojojo
to sm8000 - Well the survey stated that 25% are obese, while %50 are overweight

You're right, I should have said overweight. I don't know much about the GM food issue, though - seems like it's not as far front as other issues

 

[robphelan]

i heard gold was cheap over there.

 

[mooojojojo]

to CanOWorms - No, no links. I'm not really interested in it, just if it comes up on the TV while I'm watching. But my mother seems to want to know everything about it, and I regularily find her on my PC going through russians sites with articles on the topic. If you want to see a link or two I can ask her to bookmark a couple of english ones if she sees any. Or I can get you links to russian sites...

to Robphelan - I doubt it. Actually many things are much more expensive here than the US. Gas for example is at least twice as expensive. Certain electronics also - digital cameras, tablets, mp3 players. Digital cameras for instance can be as high as three times more expensive. One workaround is to have a friend or relative who visits the US get you the thing you want.

 

[Colt45]

I was in srbija this summer, and we figured we would go to the black sea. We made it up to Sofija and turned around. got charged 22evro for a joke of a highway... But last I heard they are rebuilding the Nis - sofia highway? joint project between serbia and bulgaria.

At the gas station they tried to charge us 20%+ exchanging evro to lev. No lines on the road.. other goofy things like that.

It was intresting experience though. the land in the region i was in seems much flatter than on my side of the border.

Ive heard there is much corruption now, as with all of the east.. but this will grow better with time (i hope at least )

oh - and customs was a rather annoying. not bad coming in, but bad leaving.

some day i plan on going srbija - bugarska - romanija - ukraina - belorusija - rossija and back. maybe check out the baltics too.. and poland.
I need time and money before i can do that though