Location: Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Romania and Turkey


Area: 110,910 sq km


Climate: temperate; cold, damp winters; hot, dry summers
The average annual temperature is 10.5°C.
The average January temperature is around O°C.
Average summer temperatures rarely exceed 30°C.

Terrain: mostly mountains with lowlands in north and southeast

Population: 7.8 million

Major language: Bulgarian


Alphabet: Cyrillic

Official holidays

January 1 - New Year
March 3 - Bulgaria's Liberation from Ottoman rule - the National Day
Easter - one week after the Catholic Easter
May 1 - Labour Day
May 6 - Bulgarian Army Day
May 24 - Day of Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture and the Slav Script
September 6 - Bulgaria's Unification
September 22 - Independance Day
December 25-26 - Christmas

Major religion: Christianity


Monetary unit: 1 lev = 100 stotinki


Internet domain: .bg


International dialling code: +359

State government: Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic

President: Georgi Parvanov


Prime minister: Sergei Stanishev


Capital: Sofia

Big Cities: Plovdiv, Varna, Veliko Turnovo,Bourgas, Russe