The first idea that Bulgaria’s new Interior Minister Mihail Mikov had for improving the image of the ministry after its most recent corruption scandals was to increase police presence on the streets. This was Mikov’s way of decreasing the stress on people caused by heavy traffic. It was also supposed to improve road safety. Perhaps Mikov did not know that his predecessor Roumen Petkov had already taken measures in that direction. read more

It was not until a friend called – from Maastricht, having seen the news on BNT – that I even knew that there had been a fire. The smell of burnt plastic I had attributed to someone’s Easter candle left to burn too long in a yoghurt container, forgotten after a night that started with proceeding three times around Alexander Nevski and finished up at 5am in some night club to greet the Resurrection. read more

Many of the public transport vehicles in Sofia may look as if they date back half a century; the company that owns and operates them, Sofia Public Transport Company, abbreviated in Bulgarian as SKGT, is making small steps into this century in other areas. In early May, SKGT launched a new section of its website, where users can find out what time the next bus is expected to arrive at a specific bus stop within the SKGT network. read more