We arrived in Sofia via Munich and Lufthansa on Sat. 10/25/08. Bulgaria is about the same size as Virginia in both geography (63,000 square miles) and population (7-1/2 million). While there, we traveled from Sofia south to the Rila Monastery; also east to the Black Sea, bypassing Plovdiv (the #2 city) and Burgas (#3) to Nesebar, then returning west to Sofia thru towns like Sliven in the Balkan Mountains. We first noticed that most public signs were in both Bulgarian and English, now their second language. How convenient!
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Many Bulgarians understood English, even if they were shy to speak it. Their Slavonic or "Cyrillic" alphabet was developed by two Greek monks about 850 AD (Cyril & Methodius, brothers), to help unite and Christianize the people. It was closer to the sound of their language than Greek -- and is used today in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Macedonia and Mongolia. (One unique visual language feature was nodding the head up and down to mean "no," and shaking it from side to side meant "yes.") Bulgarians were friendly and helpful, often going out of their way to assist these wandering Americans.
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