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General Information Area: 110,994 sq km (42,855 sq miles). Population: 8,190,876 (1999). Population Density: 73.8 per sq km. Capital: Sofia. Population: 1,190,547 (1997). GEOGRAPHY: Bulgaria is situated in Eastern Europe and bounded to the north by the River Danube and Romania, to the east by the Black Sea, to the south by Turkey and Greece and to the west by Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The Balkan Mountains cross the country reaching to the edge of the Black Sea and its golden beaches. The land is heavily cultivated, covered with forests and crossed by rivers. Although Bulgaria lies in the very southeast corner of Europe the climate is never extreme in summer, even on the red-earthed plains of Southern Thrace. The Black Sea resorts have some of the largest beaches in Europe and offer sunbathing from May until October, while in winter heavy falls of snow are virtually guaranteed in the mountain skiing resorts. Government: Democratic Republic since 1990. Head of State: President Georgi Sedefchov Parvanov since 2002. Head of Government: Prime Minister Simeon Borisov Sakskoburggotski since 2001. Language: Bulgarian is the official language and the Cyrillic alphabet is used. English, German, French and Russian are spoken in major tourist resorts and hotels. Religion: The majority of the population are Christian, the main denomination being Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Eastern Orthodox Chrisitianity is considered to be the traditional religion in Bulgaria. There is also a significant Muslim minority (nine per cent) and small Roman Catholic and Jewish communities. Time: GMT + 2 (GMT + 3 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October). Electricity: 220 volts AC, 50Hz. Plugs are two-pin. Communications:   Telephone IDD is available to main cities. Country code: 359. Outgoing international code: 00. Calls from some parts of the country must be placed through the international operator. There are many public telephones in the main towns. The national network of telecommunications is operated, for the present, by Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) (website: www.btc.bg). Mobile telephone GSM 900, with good to patchy coverage in most urban centres. Network operators include MobilTel (website: www.mobiltel.bg) and GloBul (website: www.globul.bg). Fax Facilities are available at BTA (Bulgarina Telegraph Agency) offices and most post offices. Internet The main ISPs are GeoEnterprise (website: www.geobiz.com) and BOL.BG (website: www.bol.bg). There are Internet cafes and centres in Sofia and Plovdiv. Telegram International services are available. Post Airmail to Western Europe takes from four days to two weeks. The General Post Office in Sofia, at Four Gurko Street, is open 24 hours. Post office opening hours are usually Mon-Fri 0830-1730. Press The weekly newspaper, Sofia News, is available in English, as are two business publications Pari (money) and Capital. Both of these are published weekly and are available in print or Internet versions. The most popular dailies include Demokratsiya, Duma, Trud and 24 Chasa (24 Hours). BBC World Service and Voice of America frequencies: From time to time these change. BBC (website: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice): MHz 17.64 12.10 9.410 6.195 Voice of America (website: www.voa.gov): MHz 15.21 11.82 9.760 1.197 From www.columbusguides.com, Copyright © 2004 Highbury Columbus Travel Publishing Terms and Conditions apply.