According to PineForest Resort - Bulgaria, the prices for studio apartments for the first quarter of 2008 have increased almost everywhere in Bulgaria. There has been a significant increase in cities like Ruse, Stara Zagora, Blagoevgrad and Vidin. However, in two regions of Bulgaria - Dobrich and Veliko Tarnovo the prices for studio apartments have actually decreased. click here to read the original post. ShareThis

Actually, this is the first spring holiday. On this day the vines are being “notched” and the vine King is elected. Early in the morning the women would bake the bread and prepare the colorful bags – with a grilled chicken and a wooden wine vessel. Taking the bags, the men would then leave to the vine fields. Each will stop at his own vineyard, will say a prayer, then will cut sticks from three vines with the cutting scissors. All the cut places of the vine then should be pored with wine. Then the men would join the common table. It is believed that on this way all the illnesses would be driven away and a rich yield will come. Boiled hen Products: 1 whole hen, a bunch of roots for soup, 3-4 potatoes, 1 leek, 30 g of butter, 1 spoon full of flour, 1 egg, 1 tea glass of milk, salt. Method of cooking: Wash the hen and boil it in 3 l of cold water for about 2 hours. Take out of pot and remove the bones, and place the roots, the leek and the potatoes in the bouillon. Make a souse from the flour, the butter and the milk, and slowly add it to the soup. Add the meat and boil for another 5-6 minutes and remove from fire. Add the beaten egg, salt and lemon juice on taste. Keshkek (Boiled wheat) Necessary products: 1 kg of clean wheat, 400-450 g of sugar, 500 ml of cooking oil. Method of cooking: Clean and wash the wheat and put to boil slowly. Wait for some time, then add the oil and stir well with a wooden stick. Leave to cool and add the sugar. ShareThis

The Cyrillic Alphabet was recognized by the Pope and now is of the only three alphabets recognised by the Christian Church that the holy text can be written into (the other two being Greek and Latin). How many nations in the world have not only created their own alphabet, but still use it today? No more than a few and Bulgaria is one of them. After its creation in the mid AD IX c., the cyrillic alphabet was introduced to other nations, some of which still use it today. Today, there are more than 50 different languages that use the Bulgarian alphabet, mainly in Russia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Some of them are: Abkhaz, Avar, Azeri, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Kazak, Kyrghuz, Komi, Mongolian, Moldovian, Russian, Serbian, Tajik, Tatar, Turkmen, Ukranian, Uzbek and Yakut. As with most moments of the Bulgarian history, there is a twist with the creation of the alphabet. The original called Glagolitsa, was created by the holy brothers St. Konstantine - Cyril and St. Methodius in AD 855. The two brothers were canonized later for their exceptional evangelical work for the church. The alphabet had a short life and is now forgotten. The one that is in in use today, was created by the two brother s most remarkable student and follower - The Bulgarian Clement of Ohrid (called that because he was send by Tsar Boris I to Ohrid to lead the cultural reform there), who named his creation Kirilitsa after his mentor and teacher Cyril the Philosopher, the younger of the two brothers. ShareThis

Analysis of the property market in Bulgaria for the first quarter of 2008. For the first quarter of 2008, we have two surprises. The first one is the increased value of apartments in Stara Zagora with 13.1 %. The second one is in Varna, now a property per square meter is more than 1,000 EUR/sq.m. The most steady property market is in Sofia. For the first quarter the property price has increased from 932 EUR/sq.m. to 965 EUR/sq.m. or with 3.54%. In Plovdiv and Ruse we have 10.3% and 12.2% increased value of the properties for the first quarter of 2008. The table below visualized the property market from March 2007 to March 2008. ShareThis

May 6th.Gergyovden is the biggest spring holiday. It is celebrated in honor of the Christian Saint George, THE SAINT HOLY MARTYR VICTORY WINNER/MESSENGER AND MIRACLE-DOER. St. George who lived during the ruling of the Roman emperor Diokletian (284-305 B.C). He was born in the family of noble parents He grew up beautiful and strong. At that time the Emperor ordered chasing of the Christians. Christian books were burned, their temples were destroyed and the Christian themselves were tortured. The brave warrior George defended the Christians before the Emperor and the governing council. He talked to them about the devout life of Christians, for Jesus Christ - the true faith and God. Saint George is believed to be the protector of the flocks and herds, so each family sacrifice to him the first male lamb to be born in the New year. When the lambs are ready and roasted, people bring them to the common village tables in the yard of the Church. The priest would then say a prayer and symbolically dedicate the meal to Saint George. On a green tree in the consecrated ground, a cradle would be made, covered with flowers picked before sunrise, and young never married girls would rock on the cradle wearing on their heads flowers wreaths, and singing the song “A cradle, a cradle rocked, you, maid”. The culmination of the holiday is the unique graceful and lively Bulgarian dance Horo, which is headed and danced only by women. Ritual table Roasted Lamb Products: 1 whole lamb, 350 g of butter, 6 bunches of fresh green onions, half a cup with rice, 400 g of mushrooms, dill, parsley, spice, red pepper, 1-2 hot peppers, salt. Method of cooking: Boil the chopped lamb edible organs in salt water. Stew the green onions in oil to soften. Add the rice, and boiled and chopped edible internal organs. Fill the already washed and salted lamb with this mixture. Sew with cotton thread to close the lamb. Oil with the rest of the butter, dust over with red pepper and put in a large baking tin. Add some water in the tin and place in the oven to roast at normal temperature until well rested. Milk with rice Products: 1 l of fresh milk, a cup full of rice, a glass full of water. Method of cooking: Put the rice and the water in the boiling milk. Boil for 30 minutes at low temperature, until rice gets soft. Add canella at will. Gergyovden (St. George s Day) ShareThis

Easter eggs and cakes Easter is the greatest Christian holiday, rich in Christian and Pre-Christian elements. Easter holidays are in three consecutive days – Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Before and after these three days, many specific habits, rites and rituals take place. The most interesting and the most popular one is the painting of the boiled Easte egg in red color - the symbol of the Jesus’ blood and his sacrifice. Usually, on the Great Thursday before Easter, all eggs collected during the St. Lazar’s Day would be painted in red. The entire family would go to the church ceremony. They will bring back home lighted candles and would salute everyone they meet by the words :”Jesus has raised from the dead!”, and answering: “Yes, He really did raise from the dead! Easter eggs take part in the “knock” ritual – who among all wil have the strongest egg. In addition, Easter cakes, different for the different regions of the country are traditional for the Bulgarian holiday table during these days. Kozunak /kolach/ (Caster cake, permanently soft) Products: 500 g wheat flour, 700 ml fresh milk, ½ glass full of yeast, 1.2 glass full of sugar, 50 g of flour, ½ glass full of melted butter, 2 kg of flour. For aroma – vanilla powder, 16 drops of rose essence or the skin of 2 oranges, or a teaspoon full of coffee, 200-400 g sugar. Method of cooking: take 3 glasses full of flour and pour them with 3 glasses full of milk. Mix well, cover the dough for 1 hour. Add 1,5 glasses with milk, 1/2 glass with yeast, add ½ glass of sugar and the vanilla or other aroma, add 200-400 g sugar, 50 g of flour and wait to well rise. Then continue with 1,5 glass of melted butter, to receive a thick dough. Form the cake, wait to relax and put in the oven. Watch Egg Fight Video   Watch How the Painted Eggs should look like:  Watch Official Video of the celebration in the church:  ShareThis

If you are asking yourself the question “Where to invest my money” you have probably heard the answer “In Bulgaria”. Knowing that Bulgaria is an ex-communist country your first reaction, would be “Are you crazy”. At the present time, Knight Frank Global House Price Index shows that Bulgaria has the strongest growth index worldwide. Please see table below: Liam Bailey, Head of Residential Research, Knight Frank says: “The Knight Frank Global House Price Index shows that while property prices in Europe and America appear to be suffering from the downturn in economic conditions; prices in Asia and elsewhere, notably Singapore and Hong Kong, are performing very well. “The most outstanding feature in this index in Europe is Bulgaria’s continued strong showing against the astonishing reversal of fortune witnessed in the three Baltic countries. Two of the three; Latvia and Estonia, suffered negative growth (-7.1% and -14.5% respectively) and the third, Lithuania managed price growth of just under 1%. A year ago each were high flyers in our index with 66.6%, 23.8% and 23% annualised growth rates respectively. Uncertain employment conditions, rising interest rates and household indebtedness are all identified as contributory factors in this turnaround. “The country by country summary that follows provides an insight to the shifts currently taking place in house prices across the world.” Featuring different landscapes (from high mountains, plain fields and long beaches) you can find that Bulgaria is an extremely attractive country to invest in. You may think “It is too good to be true”. In fact, it is true. But, property prices in Bulgarian cannot remain low for ever, so now is the time to invest. If you are looking for a rural property, keep in mind that at least 90 % of those properties will need some work doing to them. Some will just need modernization, and some will need a complete renovation. A lot of people fail to realize the construction prices in Bulgaria are cheaper than in the UK or Western Europe. If you are a so called ‘investment hunter’ and always look for properties in newly built apartment complexes – hurry. The demand is huge and the supply is small. Even with the increased number of newly built apartment complexes, Bulgaria is far from meeting the demand. In fact, by investing in such properties, you can never loose your investment, as Bulgaria Property prices go up with the increased popularity of Bulgaria. ShareThis

The preparation of this dish requires a lot of time and patience. Usually it is cooked for Christmas Eve. Ingredients: 1 kg minced pork; 300 g pork ribs; 1 hen; 2 small pickled cabbages; 300 g karvavitsa (home made sausage); 300 g rice; 3-4 onions; 250 g bacon; 10 g black pepper; 15-20 black pepper grains; salt to taste. The minced meat is mixed with the minced onion, the rice, the red pepper and the salt to taste. Part of the mixture is used to stuff the hen while the rest of the mixture is used to stuff cabbage leaves in the form of sarmi. On the bottom of a big pot the sliced bacon is put, the pork ribs and the cut cabbage cores. The hen is placed on top of these and around the hen the sarmi are arranged. The karvavitsa is put on the top. The dish is powdered with the black pepper, cabbage leaves are used to cover the dish 1 ½ glass of warm water is poured. The lid of the pot is slurred over with dough. After the dish starts to boil it is put in the moderately hot oven and baked for 3 hours. It is served in a large baking dish - the hen and the karvavitsa are in the middle and the sarmi around them.   ShareThis

Ivanovden is to be celebrated on January 7th, in memory of The Prophet, The Prosecutor and St. John the Baptist. St. John the Baptist preached the penance. He is also called the Prosecutor, because he walked in front of Jesus, just like the express messenger walked before the noble man to announce his arrival. So John the Prosecutor announce the arrival of the Son of God. John the Baptist baptized with penanc all who came to listen to his preaches, and the Savior accepted his penance baptizing like everyone else. Taking a bath in this day is an obligatory ritual. Just married, all who have the name day and guest should have a bath. Music, dances and rich food on the table are obligatory for the holiday. The menu on this holiday includes: Wheat, beans, dried fruits, pastry with cheese and butter, dry salami, roasted pork meat, pork ribs with cabbage. Roasted pork meat Products: 1 kg of pork meat, 15 g salt, 100 fat, 1 spoon full of red peppe Method of cooking: Washed meat should be salted and dusted with red pepper. Oil with fat and put in a large baking tin, or pottery. During roasting, pour with the fat dropping from the meat. When ready from one side, turn over the meat to roast the other. Consume while warm. Pork ribs with cabbage Products: 0,5 kg of pork ribs, 2 big sour cabbages, 250 g fat, 200 sour cabbage brine, 2 spoons full of red pepper. Method of cooking: Meat should be salted and dusted with red pepper. Cut the cabbage to small pieces, press to remove the juice and arrange in a pot as follows: a layer of cabbage, a layer of meat, etc. Dust with red pepper on top. Pour the pot with the melted fat, the brine and some warm water. Cover tightly and boil at high temperature. ShareThis

Celebrated on January 6th by all wearing the name of Yordan (Jordan). According to the orthodox faith, John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the water of the Jordan River. It is also known as Epiphany, because during the baptizing of Jesus, the sky opened and God appeared. There is a belief, that all who see the opening of the sky may make a wish, and the wish will come true. On the very day of the holiday, the water should be sanctified. After the ceremonial service in the church, the priest throws the cross in the river waters. All single men jump in the river, and the one who finds it and take it out of the water, has the honor to walk with the cross through the village, and everyone would make gifts to him. The menu of this holiday consists of: Wheat, fresh round loaf, kolacheta (small wheat cakes), cabbage leaves stuffed with rice or broken wheat Namely the previous day is the Third Smoked Evening. The ritual bread is made of mixed flour – wheat and maze or wheat and millet. Smashed beans, stuffed cabbage leaves or boiled cabbage, walnuts and wine must be present on the table. All dishes are meatless. ShareThis