Bulgaria is part of Europe. It is situated on the Balkan Peninsula and borders on Romania (north), the Black Sea (east), Turkey, Greece (south), Macedonia, and Serbia (west).

Bulgaria's population numbers about eight million people (nearly 1 million have left this country for the last 14 years) - including Christians (over 85 per cent), Muslims and Jews. Historically, the Bulgarian people had developed as a "mixture" of Slavs, Turkic tribes and Thracians. At present, the major ethnic minorities are ethnic Turks and Gypsies /Roma/.

The climate in Bulgaria is like that prevalent in Northern Italy, Switzerland, and France, and similar to the climate in New York and Washington DC.

Bulgarians are traditionalists. Family ties are very strong and it has long been quite common for three generations (grandparents, parents and children) to share the same home, or to maintain regular, active, and close contacts. Grandmothers would look after the kids, while mothers were at work. Nowadays the family pattern is to have only one or two children. Marriages (like in may other developed countries) have become less in number. Concubines are ever more frequent among the young people - very often they choose to live together and even have children outside of wedlock. Population growth is negative. Migration to the larger centres is going on (jobs in the small towns and villages are scarce).

The Bulgarian houses are largely made of bricks or concrete and furnished in the standard European manner. Electric power supply, water supply and sewerage are common throughout the country.

The road network is as developed as everywhere in Europe and North America, although its condition, especially marking, is generally not good enough.

Until 1989 Bulgaria (The People's Republic of Bulgaria) was a member of the Soviet bloc. Now it is a parliamentary republic (The Republic of Bulgaria).

The president is the head of state elected by the people for a five-year term. The president now in office (Georgi Parvanov) is a Socialist, like Poland's former president. The national flag is of three colours - white, green and red. Bulgaria's state coat of arms includes, by an age-old tradition, representations of lions. The official logo is a stylized rose.

The political party that ruled from June 2000 till June 2005 was the party of Bulgaria's former king, Simeon II. He is a grandson of Ferdinand I and a son of Boris III. Nonetheless, Simeon has become the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria. Simeon is also a cousin of Queen Elizabeth. He (unlike the large majority of Bulgarians) has more than just one or two children – in fact, he has four sons and a daughter.

The present cabinet has been formed by a three-party coalition (Coalition for Bulgaria /BSP/, NDSV, MRF).

The food most widely used in Bulgaria includes vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, onion, potatoes, carrots, eggplants, cucumbers, leeks), beans, lentils, yoghourt, white brined cheese, yellow cheese, meat (pork, veal and chicken), as well as bread, which is essential in the Bulgarians' eating habits. Rice is also frequently used. Fish is less common food. The Bulgarian "eater" is fond of well-spiced and seasoned meals (flavoured with native Bulgarian aromatic plants – savory, parsley, dill, mint, paprika, hogweed, sweet basil, etc., as well as with imported spices  – pepper, laurel-leaves, caraway seeds, cummin, allspice, clove, etc.); men, in particular, are peppery food "addicts" (widely used are garlic and chillies). Much bread, fried food and a lot of salt have been in traditional use, but younger generations would stick to a healthier diet.

Quite many of the Bulgarians grow vegetables for household consumption in their own household gardens. Keeping livestock - hens, geese, turkeys, pigs, sheep, goats, cows is also a common practice in rural areas. Donkeys are often used as pack animals in the rural household. Horses are used as draught animals, but they are also bred for riding. However, horse races (with or without betting) are still rare. Jumping events are held ever more often, though. (There are horse-riding centers in quite many places around the country, in the capital of Sofia included.)

What Bulgarians do not have is hound racing, bullfighting, and cockfighting.

Bulgarians would come in touch with nature on lots of occasions. Quite many of them are hunters - they go hunting for wild pigs, rabbits, partridges, quails, wild ducks, foxes, wolves, jackals and a number of other birds and animals. You can hunt for deer in reserves. Hunting for bears and eagles is prohibited. Bird-watching is not popular among the local population yet, but tourists come to watch Bulgarian birds. Mountain hiking is practised by both young and old. Bulgarians are also good at fishing on rivers and dams, where they can catch trout, carp, sheatfish, dace, barbell, etc.

Some of the Bulgarians are good and enthusiastic mushroom-gatherers. Many go gathering hips, blueberries, wild raspberries and strawberries. These fruits are used both fresh and home-preserved.

A good number of the Bulgarian families living in the countryside have their own small vineyards (10-20 ares). In autumn, Bulgarians in rural areas make wine (up to 100-500 l in a single household), which they keep in casks in their cellars. It should be added here that the casks get empty before next-year's yield of grapes gets ripe. The traditional Bulgarian aperitif is rakiya (kind of brandy made of grapes or plums, but of other fruits too). Like wine, it is often home-made. (Moreover, the wine and brandy industry is well developed.) Over the past decades beer has gained ground too. Bulgarian-produced beer is superb, but – in vino veritas!).

Plenty of medicinal herbs and mineral water springs are to be found in Bulgaria. Herbs grow both in the highlands and the lowlands. Most of the Bulgarian herbs are highly valued abroad and Bulgaria is one of the largest exporters of medicinal herbs. There is a Bulgarian saying: "God made every herb to heal an ailment". Bulgarians drink herbal tea quite a lot (herbal teas are sold in stores, but they are also prepared from the herbs that household members have gathered and dried). Bulgarians also drink black tea (no milk added), though less often. Drinking coffee is widespread. In the past, coffee was prepared in the "Turkish" way (this is what in Greece they call Greek coffee). Finely ground, it was boiled in water, sugar was added, and served in small cups, together with glasses of water. Nowadays most common is "espresso". On a regular basis, American coffee is served at McDonald's restaurants.

Bulgarian folk music and folk dances are really beautiful - they are among the Bulgarian things best known abroad. A record of a Bulgarian folk song (performed by Valia Balkanska) travels in space on board of the US-launched Voyager spacecraft.

"The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices" is a world renowned group of singers who perform music in the Bulgarian tradition. The national musical instruments are the pipe, the kaval (vertical, end-vibrated flute), the tambura (a kind of lute). It should be noted that, in general, Bulgarians are good singers and music performers. Orpheus, the legendary musician and spiritual leader, was born in the Rhodope Mountains. Among the famous Bulgarian-born opera singers are Hristina Morphova, Elena Nikolay, Boris Hristov, Nikolay Giaourov, Raina Kabaivanska, Gena Dimitrova, Anna Tomova-Sintova, Hristina Anghelakova, Vessela Katsarova.

The most popular sport in Bulgaria is football (soccer). Bulgaria's greatest success in this field - the fourth place - was achieved in the 1994 World Football Championship held in the US. The most popular Bulgarian football player is Hristo Stoichkov, who earned world fame during the several seasons he spent in Spanish team of Barcelona. (Until recently he has been on the US team of Chicago Fires.). He is now a coach of the Bulgarian National Team. Bulgaria has also good rhythmic gymnasts, athletes, wrestlers, weight lifters (the Bulgarian school in these disciplines is renowned), tennis players (the Maleev sisters), and rowers. Some major Bulgarian achievements in ice dancing are already fact – silver medals from the latest European Figure Skating Championships and the gold medal in the 2006 World Championship for Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviiski. Born in Bulgaria was the catch-as-catch-can wrestler Dan Koloff, famous in North America in the first half of the 20th century – in the time of silent films when catch was a show.

In general, Bulgarian people are quite tolerant. (They stopped Hitler from deporting Bulgaria's Jews to the death camps!) According to representative social science surveys, upwards of 90 per cent of them have friends confessing a different faith. Compared to the other Balkan nations, they are more tenacious, but less aggressive. They are industrious, but somewhat desultory, not sufficiently focused and purpose-seeking, although striving enough – should an ambition grab them - they would "lift a mountain". Bulgarians are friendly to strangers and helpful. Hospitality is one of their distinctive qualities. (Certainly, all these characteristics have been affected in one way or another by the process of urbanization, the development of new technologies, and globalisation). For centuries, learning has been highly valued in this country. Parents would sell their property to provide means for their children to become educated. One of the most revered festival days in Bulgaria is 24th May, the Day of the Cyrillic Alphabet (the Cyrillic script was first introduced in Bulgaria and later in Russia, the Ukraine, Serbia; today it is used even in Mongolia). This is also the day celebrating schools, students, teachers, education, science, and culture in general.

At least for the past 4-5 decades, few Bulgarian women have been housekeepers; in fact most of them have been gainfully employed. The socio-political changes that took place after 1989 have led to a high rate of unemployment (18 per cent on the average, in some places over 50 per cent), which has affected women more severely than men. Bulgaria's women are famed for their beauty and aesthetic feeling.

A trivial (but sometimes crucial) detail has been considered a distinctive Bulgarian feature – the way Bulgarians shake their heads to indicate "yes" or "no" – the reverse of what almost any person on earth would do it, but more and more people have become aware of this incongruity and begin to change this habit. 

International surveys rank Bulgarians at the leading places by intelligence; some give them the second place following Israelis. In all international competitions in mathematics, the Bulgarian representatives invariably win gold and silver medals; in the latest mathematical contest the Bulgarian team ranked fourth following the US, Russian, and Chinese teams. There are many students from Bulgaria at the US universities (the Ivy League included) who are said to perform quite well.

The inventor of the computer – John Atanasof  – is of Bulgarian origin.

There are four nation-wide TV channels (one of them owned by Rupert Murdoch) and a hundred or so cable TV stations in Bulgaria. The people here watch virtually all worldwide-broadcast TV programs like the Discovery Channels, Animal Planet, MTV, CNN, EuroNews, Hallmark, HBO, etc. Male viewers watch European football matches. Women are partial to the Latin American soap operas and The Bold and the Beautiful. Generally, TV viewers in Bulgaria have been following The Fugitive, Everybody Loves Raymond, Profiler, American Gothic, Renegade, E.R., Friends and many more TV series, along with numerous other American, European, Australian pictures. Lately, reality shows have gained an ever greater popularity. Past Bulgarian film productions are also liked (shooting new films has been reduced to one movie a year at best).

Of course, this is only a very brief summary of what might be written about Bulgarians and the Bulgarian ways of life.