In Sofia the famous "Женски пазар"
(literally "Women's Market") is open every day. Growers sell fresh vegetables, fruit, cheese, honey and herbs by the kilo: "Колко струва килото?"
, "Половин кило домати, моля"
. In summer, look for "розови домати"
— pink tomatoes, a Bulgarian favourite. The verb for doing your shopping is "пазарувам"
.
Explore Bulgaria
Market day
Every town has its "пазар"
(market), and many places have a weekly market day, often at the weekend.
Bin im Garten · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
History of Bulgaria
An illustrated history of Bulgaria
Explore Bulgaria
VasilPetrov92 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source
Horo — the chain dance
At weddings, fairs and holidays Bulgarians dance the "хоро"
— a chain of people holding hands or belts.
Bulgarian names
Bulgarians usually have three names: a first name, a middle name formed from the father's first name, and a surname — e.g. "Иван Георгиев Петров"
.
Slavic cousins
Bulgarian is a South Slavic language, closest to Macedonian and related to Serbian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and Czech.