Hello,
I started this thread because I didn't find some else that was "suitable" for this kind of info&images.

I'm going to post some info&images from my trips around the country. I'd be glad if other forumers post theirs too.

These are from my recent weekend trip to Melnik (near Greek/Macedon border).

First: there is the route (I'm poor at graphics drawing, sorry ):

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/bulgaria-map.gif

These are some images and brief description of the road (could be useful to people from Macedonia or Greece)

Leaving Sofia, southern direction (this is from a southern Sofia's neighbourhood):
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s01.jpg

On the way to Sofia bypass:
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s02.jpg

Sofia bypass - some construction works here (is that the "extension" project?)
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s03.jpg

Again the bypass - traffic got congested here in our direction :(
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s04.jpg

Leaving Sofia's bypass in south-eastern direction. This is the district of Boyana:
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s05.jpg

Sofia-Pernik. The road is awful, sometimes 1x1, sometimes 2x2, sometimes 1x2. High traffic volume. Road is in a bad condition and urgently needs repairs :(
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s06.jpg

Pernik-Dupnica has about 20-30km almost completed highway, part of "Struma" project. Minor construction works, still not officially a highway, still the 90km/h limit, but it's already 2x3 (with emergency lanes).

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s07.jpg

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s08.jpg

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s09.jpg

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s10.jpg

Some scenery here:
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s20.jpg

Highway ends here...again 1x1...blah :(

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s11.jpg

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s12.jpg

Near Blagoevgrad....for about 10km it's 2x2:
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s13.jpg

Blagoevgrad's commie neighbourhoods:
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s14.jpg

After Blagoevgrad, we have again 1x1, but this time the road passes through a mountain:
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s15.jpg

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s16.jpg

This is near Sandanski...the landscape looks strange for Bulgaria...a bit mediterranian somehow?

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s17.jpg

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s18.jpg

This is near Melnik, almost 10-20km from the Greek border
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/s19.jpg

Now some sightseeing...

That's Melnik:
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/d01.jpg

I titled this image "controversy"...many people, especially nationalists from BG and MK get ignited by just seeing that:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/d02.jpg

The Rojen monastery:
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/d03.jpg

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/d04.jpg

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/d05.jpg

This is "Rupite" where Vanga lived (beautiful place):
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/d06.jpg

The Vanga's house:
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/d07.jpg

And some hot water spring:
http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/southeast/d08.jpg

And finally some advice: DO NOT use the Sofia's bypass. Driving through the city with all its awful traffic can be better.

And some thoughts about the people that build the "Struma" highway: they are dickheads and should all be imprisoned.

In 2-3 weeks I'll post images of a Sofia-Ruse trip. Expect them soon :)

Thank you :)

The Bypass needs enlargement badly, 3x3 lanes all the way around. after Tsarigradsko shosse it's the busiest road in the country. nice thread ;)

BGRS great job, buddy!

Nice photos :okay:


BTW what does melnik mean?

Awesome update with these pictures bgrs, thank you for sharing!

BTW what does melnik mean?
It has something to do with those sand piles around the town Realek.

:okay: awesome thread. Bulgarian roads were always missing on EE road threads, hopefully we'll see more here.

good job....nice info and photos...keep telling about Bulgaria road ..
cause every year i pa from russe to Turkish border(i think svilingrad) and the road sucks man.it really needs renovation!!
hope to make it better soon

cezarsab: Ruse-Svilengrad is among the worst routes in the country. Really. And there aren't going to be big changes, at least not in the next 1-2 years. There are projects for Ruse-Tarnovo freeway and also for Marica Highway (Orizovo-Svilengrad). The rest of it... blah

cezarsab: Ruse-Svilengrad is among the worst routes in the country. Really. And there aren't going to be big changes, at least not in the next 1-2 years. There are projects for Ruse-Tarnovo freeway and also for Marica Highway (Orizovo-Svilengrad). The rest of it... blah

"Prohoda na Rebpublicata" is closed for renovation and this is where the major bottleneck is.

"Prohoda na republikata" is not a very convinient route (compared to Shipka) but perhaps after the reconstruction it will be much better.

Long long time ago, the money intended to finance the Shipka tunnel were transferred to Sofia subway construction...at least that's what many people were discussing. It was long time ago, I don't remember much of that crap..

i see...all the best guys..Blagodarya....:cheers:

The Shipka Pass is a fun drive...unless you are in a truck. It can't hold the commercial traffic. They were renovating the road on the Shipka side and it still wasn't a smooth ride. However the Gabrovo asphalt is in top shape, same asphalt from 30 years ago.

"Prohoda na republikata" is not a very convinient route (compared to Shipka) but perhaps after the reconstruction it will be much better.

Long long time ago, the money intended to finance the Shipka tunnel were transferred to Sofia subway construction...at least that's what many people were discussing. It was long time ago, I don't remember much of that crap..


I don't think Shipka pass is more convenient compared to "Prohoda na republikata" , Shipka has a bigger elevation and 3 times more hard curves ... The south side of the "P na R" was restored 2 years ago and it is great now - few curves , at least half of the way is wide and in 3 lanes ... The same they are doing on the north side of the Mountain now - 32 km. from Predela to Kilifarevo. I am sure that when they finish it in 2 years it will take me 30-40 minutes to go from Tarnovo to Gurkovo ... while by Shipka it still requires 1.5 hours at least.

9IGeJI7OXzE

A short movie about the western entrance of Veliko Tarnovo and part of the Sofia - Varna national road :

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/5781/mapjv3.gif

The South - East Exit of Veliko Tarnovo and the crossroad of the national roads Sofia-Varna & Russe - Stara Zagora(Sorry for the bad quality of the images) :

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/630/map2ik2.gif

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6202/put2ig2.jpg

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/1182/put1mu4.jpg

Thanks Turnovec. That short video proves again how dire the road situation is Bulgarian cities. The inter-city roads are fine, but once you enter the city limits (the municipalities are in charge), they change dramatically.

Thanks Turnovec. That short video proves again how dire the road situation is Bulgarian cities. The inter-city roads are fine, but once you enter the city limits (the municipalities are in charge), they change dramatically.

You are generally right but i think Veliko tarnovo is a little exception ... That exact part of the road shown in the last part of the movie is set for renovation this year. The project is for the whole section from the West entrance to the South-East exit and includes couple of bridges and new sidewalks.

The Municipality of Tarnovo is doing a great job in the last 3-4 years too. They totally renovated the whole road and sidewalks infrastructure of 2 of the big commie block quarters of the city and now they look attractive and better then any other quarter in the big cities like Sofia or Varna. For the same renovation of the road and sidewalk infrastructure of the last 3rd new quarter of the city this year are set 3 mil. euro from the municipality budget. I think today maybe 40% of the city infrastructure consists of brand new roads and sidewalks ... lets hope that next year the percantage will be 60% ... :cheers:

This is how one of the renovated kommi block neighbourhoods looks like now :

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/3750/komizk6.jpg

Certainly glad to hear this.

I'm just back from a teambuilding in Bansko. I didn't take my camera :( so I'll just share my impressions.

First, the route is exactly the same as the previous "Sofia-Melnik" one, with the exception of the last 30-40 km, which is a mountain passage between Rila and Pirin mountains, called "Predela". It is a nasty mountain road, many curves, etc. Currently it's under reconstruction (the EU infrastructure funds) and almost 60% of it is already complete (the rest 40% are still a nightmare). They were doing heavy construction works, new asphalt, new water drainage systems, new anti-erosion systems and they were even changing the course of a river near the road.

My impressions of Bansko (off-season): perhaps 1/3 of the town is either built in the recent 2-3 years, either under construction. Lots of construction sites, the place is under an extensive development process. New hotels, gas stations, commercial complexes, etc. I was surprised to see Bansko's first large supermarket and traffic lights, lol :) The town officially has a population of 5000 people, but together with tourists (during winter) perhaps its population is more than 30-40k.

But there were only few tourists as it was offseason and the ski tracks were not operating. A few SPA hotels with hot mineral pools, sauna, etc were still attracting some tourists. Nightlife was fucked up (except the Planeta Payner Club, duh). There were very nice places for a drink and traditional dinner. The prices were OK, almost the same like these in Sofia (a bit higher though). The hotel rooms were very cheap (offseason) - a single room in a 4**** SPA hotel cost 25 euro, breakfast and swimming pool free of charge.

The "Predela" traffic was low. About 10-20 km from Bansko, there are everywhere hotel and motel construction sites along the road.

The few foreign tourists, as I could see most were either Germans, or Greeks.

In my opinion the town needs some parts renovated, especially its small industrial zone (in the eastern part), which looks abandoned (and perhaps is cause the town is relying 100% on tourism nowadays). Another strange thing is, I think a great percentage of the town is owned by "First Investment Bank"...ads everywhere, on the construction sites, on big billboards within the town, along the roads, etc.

Overall: a nice place. I should visit it during the winter (I'm afraid it would be far too expensive though).

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=13149233#post13149233

have a look

Well thanks! I just posted my opinion about the highways in BG there ;)

Пускат нови близо 17 км. от автомагистрала "Марица"

Днес от 13.30 ч. министърът на регионалното развитие и благоустройството Асен Гагаузов и министърът на транспорта Петър Мутафчиев ще открият участъка "Харманли - Любимец" от автомагистрала "Марица", съобщиха от пресцентъра на МС.

Дължината на участъка е 16,66 км., а общата стойност на строителните работи възлиза на 65 млн. лв.

Пътният участък е финансиран от държавния бюджет чрез Фонд "Републиканска пътна инфраструктура".

Изпълнители на обекта са "Пътни строежи" АД - Пловдив и "Мостстрой" АД. Строителният надзор е осъществен от софийската фирма "Пътинвестинженеринг".

^^^ what is that saying? Something new about the Marica Avtomagistrale?

sorry for not translating. It says that 17 new kilometres from the Marica Highway are going to be put into exploitation today and that it cost 65mln leva and that it was financed by The Republican Road Infrastructure Fund :)

sorry for not translating. It says that 17 new kilometres from the Marica Highway are going to be put into expolitation today and that it cost 65mln leva and that it was financed by The Republican Road Infrastructure Fund :)

The best news in a long time! :banana:

The newly opened section of Marica highway

http://images.ibox.bg/2007/04/24/magistrala/519x347.jpg

Too bad it's only 17 kilometers.

Too bad it's only 17 kilometers.

Автомагистралата „Марица" ще бъде изцяло завършена и готова до края на 2009 г.

http://money.ibox.bg/news/id_596499861

Let's hope that Marica will be finished by 2009,as the goverment promises,but who knows it's Bulgaria we are talking about afterall;)

Харманли - Любимец

Is that Harmanli - Ljubimesh? (or something like that?)

^^ Harmanli - Ljubimec (ts sound). Do you have Bulgarian genes?

Do you have Bulgarian genes?

No not at all, i'm pure Dutch. But i have some sense for languages, and i can read most of the Cyrillic (and Greek) alphabet.

I am just very interested in what happens on The Balkan and Eastern Europe, especially on infrastructure.

Tomorrow, I'm leaving Sofia. I'll spend some days in Ruse and its surroundings. I'll visit the Cherven Castle ( a majestic place, one of the biggest medieval towns in BG - http://www.bulgarian-monuments.com/view/The_Medieval_Castle_of_Cherven ), the Ivanovo rocky churches ( http://www.bulgarianmonastery.com/ivanovo_monastery.html ) , the Basarbovo rock monastery ( http://gallery.guide-bulgaria.com/NC/Rousse/Rousse/Basarbovo/Gallery.aspx?4427=Village_of_Basarbovo ), the Orlova Chuka cave ( http://www.bulgariablog.net/Ruse/751 ), if given a chance, I'll also visit the Thracian tombs of Sveshtari ( http://www.cbbbg.com/tourism/sveshtari.html ) and some of the nice little villages in the Rusenski Lom natural park ( http://www.cometobg.com/viewtext.asp?id=19 ). I'll post images of the Sofia-Ruse roads, sights and of course I'll take some shots of the gorgeous Ruse downtown (and its newest developments, hehe).

This thread will have its major update...in no more than a week :)

We can't wait!!

Make some pics of the Sofia - Ruse road too! I'm very curious about Bulgarian roads, there aren't too many pics of it :(

Chris1491 - I'll definitely do that. What I intend to photograph :) is the Hemus highway that is still under rennovation, after that the curves and poor villages between the end of the highway and Lukovit, the roads near Pleven, the dull wheat sea and straight road between Pleven and Byala, the fucked up infrastructure near Byala (where some sad accidents happened so that our idiot govt decided to completely rebuild it 2x2), the Byala-Ruse road (which has some drastic changes between completely flat landscape and hilly forests). I'll also take shots of the Sofia's exit which is quickly developing with its new warehouses, automobile sales complexes, gas stations, etc. The same goes for Ruse-Sofia exit.

The only thing that troubles me is that according to the weather forecast, tommorow is a rainy day...I mean heavy rains :(

well, we can´t wait to see the photo´s! :)

any luck with the pictures? :)

The newly opened section of Marica highway

http://images.ibox.bg/2007/04/24/magistrala/519x347.jpg

OMG, so that´s the Maritsa motorway, it´s new but it sucks allready big time, why is the asphalt on the emergency lame so white, it must be new so why is it so white I thought it would look as impressive as the Struma motorway but it looks anything like the Struma motorway, no, i do´t like the design of this motorway.

Автомагистралата „Марица" ще бъде изцяло завършена и готова до края на 2009 г.

http://money.ibox.bg/news/id_596499861

Let's hope that Marica will be finished by 2009,as the goverment promises,but who knows it's Bulgaria we are talking about afterall;)

I hope they will finish the Struma motorway by 2012, it is more important for my as i am living in Blagoevgrad but they seem to not care that much about that motorway, they just care about Trakya and Maritsa, not Struma.

"And some thoughts about the people that build the "Struma" highway: they are dickheads and should all be imprisoned."

why are they dickheads?

The Bypass needs enlargement badly, 3x3 lanes all the way around. after Tsarigradsko shosse it's the busiest road in the country. nice thread ;)

Ljulin motorway is allready under construction.

OMG, so that´s the Maritsa motorway, it´s new but it sucks allready big time, why is the asphalt on the emergency lame so white, it must be new so why is it so white I thought it would look as impressive as the Struma motorway but it looks anything like the Struma motorway, no, i do´t like the design of this motorway.

Dude, take a breather!

The emergency lane is lighter than the two regular ones because it has less tar and tar is black. Kapisch?

Dude, take a breather!

The emergency lane is lighter than the two regular ones because it has less tar and tar is black. Kapisch?

Yeah but the Struma motorway has not less tar on the emergency lines, it has the same tar and overall i has a better not as boring design as the maritsa motorway.

^^ please excuse me, I really don't want to quarrel with you but why are you nagging at everything? what's the point of doing that?

BTW, since this is also a tourism thread I'll ask my question here: do you guys have lake tourism in Bulgaria? I mean, not glacial lakes but more like places to go in the summer and have a nice swim ;)

BTW, since this is also a tourism thread I'll ask my question here: do you guys have lake tourism in Bulgaria? I mean, not glacial lakes but more like places to go in the summer and have a nice swim ;)

Yes, back in the time a lot of people were going to lakes in the long week-ends (you know 3-4 days around a week-end). One of my best vacations was exactly at a lake. Although, I don't know what's left as supervised places to swim. Maybe someone else can provide nice locations of dams and lakes. I also adore the rivers with small .. I don't know the word, in Bulgarian it's called "vir".

Here (http://www.ruralbulgaria.com/Bg_Village_houses_On_a_lake/dam_lake/index.html) you can find but in Bulgarian places near dams and lakes but I never used their offers.

BTW, since this is also a tourism thread I'll ask my question here: do you guys have lake tourism in Bulgaria? I mean, not glacial lakes but more like places to go in the summer and have a nice swim ;)

I strongly recomend you the Danube beaches. Even better are some of the Danube islands - wild, sandy and unspoiled by human presence.

^^ Sounds interesting. Do you have a link where I can see some pictures?

^^ Sounds interesting. Do you have a link where I can see some pictures?

http://www.segabg.com/online/article.asp?issueid=2642&sectionid=30&id=0006601
http://www.airgroup2000.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30418/P1080103.JPG

bgrs, i have a question, why do you think the Buidlers of Struma motorway are dickheads and should be inprisoned?

75,8mln leva income for the first quarter of the year from accomodation

75.8 млн. лв. приходи от нощувки отчитаме за тримесечието

Приходите от нощувки у нас за първото тримесечие на тази година възлизат на 75.82 млн. лв., сочат данните на Националния статистически институт.

Близо 61.6% от приходите или общо 46.74 млн. лв. са реализирани от чужденци, показват още данните на статистиката.

За първите три месеца на годината у нас са пренощували над 720 хил. души, които са реализирали общо над 1.672 млн. ношувки.

Най-много приходи са отчетени в столицата, където парите от нощувки възлизат на 25.4 млн. лв. Област Благоевград също отчита високи приходи от нощувки, възлизащи на над 11 млн. лв.

През следващото тримесечие и началото на активния летен сезон се очаква приходите от нощувки у нас да се засилят в областите Варна и Бургас, където се намират основните хотели и средства за подслон в страната.

radi6404, the Struma highway was a project that started AFAIK in 2000. According to the plans the Sofia-Greece route should have been a highway before the Olympics in Athens (2004). Nowadays, only about 20km of it is a highway, most of the route is 1x1 or 2x1. There are some protests, etc. I doubt that it will be finished before 2010. A lot of corruption. That's why I think they should all be imprisoned. Some people got the money and did nothing (except their villas and hotels in Bansko).

radi6404, the Struma highway was a project that started AFAIK in 2000. According to the plans the Sofia-Greece route should have been a highway before the Olympics in Athens (2004). Nowadays, only about 20km of it is a highway, most of the route is 1x1 or 2x1. There are some protests, etc. I doubt that it will be finished before 2010. A lot of corruption. That's why I think they should all be imprisoned. Some people got the money and did nothing (except their villas and hotels in Bansko).

ah ok, quite true, i thought you were talking about the quality of the new highway stretch, because the quality of this stretch is topnotch. Yes, there was a lot of corruption but now i think they will build it, you know first that there were companies who did work extremly bad but now they have companies taht work properly, like the macedonian company who created this stretch and now we have another government which looks that the construction of the motorway continue.

Btw, i don´t like the town Bansko as it has too many chavs and i don´t like the mountains there, Rila mountain is way steeper.

This thread will have its major update...in no more than a week :)

Man i can't wait! :banana: :lol:

Few pics of Trakia highway from my short trip to Plovdiv.When I have some spare time I'll upload and post more pics:)

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/2897/dsc05395ue8.jpg

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/4025/dsc05392tw2.jpg

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/3149/dsc05394wx4.jpg

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/2332/dsc05468rt7.jpg

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/6316/dsc05469fc2.jpg

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/2982/dsc05471ah9.jpg

Some crapy asphalt
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/3924/dsc05472rz3.jpg

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/6206/dsc05397tn2.jpg

Sofia in the distance
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/1453/dsc05473pl7.jpg

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/8494/dsc05474rv3.jpg

^^Thanks for those photos blue79. Maybe you should also post them in the cities section.

Great! This is in both directions? Can't wait to see the rest :cheers:

thanks blue79, this summer when i travelled to the black sea to Burgas i slept while travelling on the good motorway, i just remember it was ood except the not smooth part on the pics, but the rest was very good, i remember that there was a fence the whole motorway so that animals can´t run onto the motorway.

Few pics of Trakia highway from my short trip to Plovdiv.When I have some spare time I'll upload and post more pics:)


Some crapy asphalt
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/3924/dsc05472rz3.jpg


In fact the old asphalt provides better contact of the road surface with the tyre, although it is more abrasive. Moreover, the it is better in case of rain. Its desing provides that water stays in the lowest parts of the covering, while the higher parts, standing above the water, are in contact with the tyres.

The new asphalt is smooth and aquaplaning is more possible in case of wet road.

i remember that there was a fence the whole motorway so that animals can´t run onto the motorway.

Actually, animals can run onto the motor way. Once I had a terrible experience when a fox jumped onto the road and stared at my lights as if frozen. Fortunately, everything was ok.

Running over animals can be very dangerous. While a car drives at a slow speed, the animal is "soft" but when you run over it at a high speed the animal is as hard as a stone and the car may turn upside down.

The tunnels at Traianovi vrata pass
http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/6279/dsc05413sg9.jpg

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/2791/dsc05414st8.jpg

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/641/dsc05412tm3.jpg

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/8558/dsc05418eg2.jpg

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/241/dsc05410zn9.jpg

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/3397/dsc05411mh3.jpg

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/5820/dsc05431mj4.jpg

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7092/dsc05416ml3.jpg

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/9025/dsc05431je1.jpg

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/5987/dsc05434wr7.jpg

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/46/dsc05442kw1.jpg

Some new factories being built around Plovdiv
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/5066/dsc05445xb7.jpg

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/9446/dsc05444yn9.jpg

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7526/dsc05446nr5.jpg

Ehmm and some scenery around the highway,but who cares about that here anyway:D
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/3614/dsc05438gi9.jpg

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/8878/dsc05407ln5.jpg

the mountains are nice.

continuing discussion about Bulgarian motorways.

Bgrs, i read somewhere that this summer they will be finished with the submission and will choose company to continue to build the motorway to dupnica and start to build Kulata - Kresna. I hope this will really happen. On www.constructionbulgaria.com or so i read that they will build the new motorway, they will build it with Strabag, Mostremond ood and moststroi, i must look on other sides, let us hope that this finally will be continuing, i heard of a cousin of mine which is in sofia that they allready are doing measurements.

Strabag did the reconstruction of Sofia-Vidin road. A part of it literally collapsed just a couple of months after the reconstruction, because of the heavy rains. I wouldn't trust those guys..

than i hope they will not build the struma motorway, i hope the macedonian company willmake it, as the motorway is first class quality and the motorways in macedonia are also very good.

The highways in MK are good, but I wouldn't say they are excellent. They are just like our already built ones. There is not a big difference I think. The Croatian highways are far better than ours though. The Serbian ones on the average are also a bit better than ours..

Did you know we have "Izpalnitelna agencia patishta" or smth like that? I think that the media investigators as well as the "prokuratura" should investigate their papers and documents...I think many interesting facts would be made public, many white-collar criminals would get what they deserve...

The highways in MK are good, but I wouldn't say they are excellent. They are just like our already built ones. There is not a big difference I think. The Croatian highways are far better than ours though. The Serbian ones on the average are also a bit better than ours..

Did you know we have "Izpalnitelna agencia patishta" or smth like that? I think that the media investigators as well as the "prokuratura" should investigate their papers and documents...I think many interesting facts would be made public, many white-collar criminals would get what they deserve...

I don´t think the Serbian ones are better than ours, have you ever travelled through Serbia, they rehabilitate their motorways alo t but they are not better than our new motorways, martisa, Struma etc. I hope they will continue fast improving the roads and use good materials, the new road to bansko has awful markings, in one year you will see nothing of them because they are to thin. And i wanted tell you that back in 2002 they didn´t gave EU funts for construction of Struma motorway, so it couldn´t be constructed. you are right that the Izpalnitelna agencia patishta should make the facts public in order those imbeciles to get punished, fucking assholes.

Did you know we have "Izpalnitelna agencia patishta" or smth like that? I think that the media investigators as well as the "prokuratura" should investigate their papers and documents...I think many interesting facts would be made public, many white-collar criminals would get what they deserve...

Ohh plenty to get out from them-couple of years ago the son of the person in charge of the "firm" bought a yellow lamburgini.

The highways in MK are good, but I wouldn't say they are excellent. They are just like our already built ones. There is not a big difference I think. The Croatian highways are far better than ours though. The Serbian ones on the average are also a bit better than ours..

Did you know we have "Izpalnitelna agencia patishta" or smth like that? I think that the media investigators as well as the "prokuratura" should investigate their papers and documents...I think many interesting facts would be made public, many white-collar criminals would get what they deserve...

depends what are U looking at. From engineering aspect our companies are competative with any of the big players, they all have big portfolios in transport infrastructure. As for the actual highways, in terms of gadgets, signalization and make up the Croatian highways are far ahead no doubt. Serbian are the same as the Macedonian ones but they maintain the surface more often than us.
BTW which MK company operates in Bulgaria now is it Granit?

@dewrob , I have seen only the highway from Kumanovo to Skopje and must say it was ok with few exceptions where the middle lane had furrows dug from the heavy trucks passing in summer heat i suppose... I had to take the fast lane , cause it was real hard to pass with 130km/h in the middle lane with those furrows .

I don't pretend that i have seen much of Macedonia's highways but what i have seen is for sure not in better condition than our Maritsa & Hemus motorways. Serbian highways weren't any better than ours too. I traveled last year from the croatian border through Belgrad and Nish and at many places the highway wasn't much ok. Croatian highways kick ass though ... especially the one from Split to Zagreb. i think it was build just couple of years ago and is in real great condition.

I also have noticed some very interesting detail about the difference between bg and all of ex-yu roads. Generally the roads in Bulgaria are at least 1.5 - 2 meters wider than those in ex-yu. I am speakeng about the 1st , 2nd and 3rd class roads.

@dewrob , I have seen only the highway from Kumanovo to Skopje and must say it was ok with few exceptions where the middle lane had furrows dug from the heavy trucks passing in summer heat i suppose... I had to take the fast lane , cause it was real hard to pass with 130km/h in the middle lane with those furrows .

I don't pretend that i have seen much of Macedonia's highways but what i have seen is for sure not in better condition than our Maritsa & Hemus motorways. Serbian highways weren't any better than ours too. I traveled last year from the croatian border through Belgrad and Nish and at many places the highway wasn't much ok.

I also have noticed some very interesting detail about the difference between bg and all of ex-yu roads. Generally the roads in Bulgaria are at least 1.5 meters wider than those in ex-yu. I am speakeng about the 1st , 2nd and 3rd class roads.

Turnovec, the Kumanovo-Skopje section is the worse one in all seriosness perhaps in package with Katlanovo-Veles but that one is under reconstruction now so it might get better. And U located the problem well it's about the deformations of the asphalt especially near the refinery. The Skopje-Kumanovo is the first highway segment build in Macedonia, I'll lie about the excact date but it's from the end of the 70s beginning of the 80s, not sure excately when.

The best highways in MK currently are Skopje-Tetovo and everything south of Veles. The 2 branches connecting Skopje with the eastern bypass (one towards Kumanovo, one towards the airport), about 30km in lenght alltogether are also in good condition (I'm talking about that highway triangle on the eastern exit of the city that can be seen on maps).

I couldn't compare with the Bulgarian ones I've never driven one.

Turnovec, the Kumanovo-Skopje section is the worse one

It seems that I haven't got much luck when going to Macedonia - the worst highway section, the worst people to watch eurovisia with etc. :lol: :lol: :lol:


I couldn't compare with the Bulgarian ones I've never driven one.

You should ;) You're welcome anytime :cheers:

I don´t know which company buidl the new struma highway but i can look in the Internet, it is very good, very good designed and does look very modern and shiny, it looks the best of all motorways in Bulgaria. It has many bridges and is generally build higher than the uneven surroundings, people who drive on this highway are deeply impressed, they said, jesus it looked like in another country or even another time. In fact it looks like you are in the future when drivning on this highway, although it hasn´t digital signs but still. It is very wide, too and the design is fucking awesome. I hope the macedonina guys will build the next parts aswell, btw, the asphalt now is very good, i don´t know how ti will be after one year or more but now it is very good and you hardly notice that you are driving.

It seems that I haven't got much luck when going to Macedonia - the worst highway section, the worst people to watch eurovisia with etc. :lol: :lol: :lol:


hehe yeah I thought it might sound fishy when I was writing it, as if I'm covering up things, but it is like that really. it's quite simple mathematics really, the newer segments are in better shape than the older ones.

Bat'Sergo and Petur Mutafchiev opened a new 39 km. section of the Struma Highway Daskalovo-Dupnica.

The sеction is 39km. long , 29m. wide , with 2x2 -3.75м. and 2x1 - 3.5м.it costed about 54 mil. euro.

Сергей Станишев и Петър Мутафчиев откриха участък от магистрала "Струма"

54 евро е струвало строителството на отсечката

Премиерът Сергей Станишев и министърът на транспорта Петър Мутафчиев откриха днес участъка Даскалово-Дупница от магистрала "Струма". Отсечката е част от пътя Е-79, LOT 1, с обща дължина 39 км, широчина 29 м, с 2 платна по 11.5 м, с 2 активни ленти от по 3.75 м и една аварийна лента от 3.5 м. В строителството са вложени около 54 милиона евро. Изпълнител на проекта е фирмата "Булстрой инженеринг".

Завършването на пътя значително ще облекчи пътуването към гръцката граница. По трасето дневно минават над 20 000 леки и тежкотоварни автомобили. Преди да пререже лентата, премиерът каза, че правителството ще направи всичко, което е по силите му, автомагистрала "Струма", която е част от транспортен коридор номер 4, да се изгради ускорено и да облекчи пътуването в Югозападна България.

hehe yeah I thought it might sound fishy when I was writing it, as if I'm covering up things, but it is like that really. it's quite simple mathematics really, the newer segments are in better shape than the older ones.

I believe you write the truth, don't worry :) Just making some jokes :cheers:

I don´t know which company buidl the new struma highway but i can look in the Internet, it is very good, very good designed and does look very modern and shiny, it looks the best of all motorways in Bulgaria. It has many bridges and is generally build higher than the uneven surroundings, people who drive on this highway are deeply impressed, they said, jesus it looked like in another country or even another time. In fact it looks like you are in the future when drivning on this highway, although it hasn´t digital signs but still. It is very wide, too and the design is fucking awesome. I hope the macedonina guys will build the next parts aswell, btw, the asphalt now is very good, i don´t know how ti will be after one year or more but now it is very good and you hardly notice that you are driving.

man I think the digital signs and all that cosmetic shit is a preference by the Bulgarian state and not something that the contracting company decides. It's also linked to the budgeting of the project and the existing standards in a country. We don't use any digital signs as well in Macedonia. I'd love to see tham but they are not the essence of the highway altough I gotta admit they do boost the impression while driving. I'm talking more about the enginnering side and the quality of the project. That means are the curvatures good, is the drainage good, how's the surface etc. These are the most important aspects of a highway however one looks at and I was speaking from that viewpoint that the Macedonian companies are top noch and that U guys shouldn't be worried at all, your highways are in good hands :).

btw the macedonian company that was buidling some sections of the Struma highway is called "Mavrovo". dewrob , mavrovo is the name of a mountain there right ? I also remember this name from a song that we used to sing while being in the army :lol: :

....
При Маврово, заровен в сняг,
С ръце премръзнали се би,
В Ботум отвори път за Дрин,
Прокуди врага до един!
...

So generally the name of the company most probably sounds trustable for any bulgarian :lol:

btw the macedonian company that was buidling some sections of the Struma highway is called "Mavrovo". dewrob , mavrovo is the name of a mountain there right ?


Mavrovo is a region and national park.. yeah it's mountanous but there is no single mountain called Mavrovo.

The company is good, bud hardly hit by the transition and not yet fully recovered altough they have some good contracts lately like the new sports arena in Skopje and the Johnson Controls factory also in Skopje.

I first drove on that new motorway on winter, i was returning to bulgaria for holiday is i am still living in germany but will return in a few months to bulgaria again. We drove with friends to Bulgaria and they told me the new motorway is allready opened, i thought ok let´s see how it is. When we left sofia we came closer to the new motorway, than we left the road to pernik and went under the bridge, i thought, oh here it is done ntohing, there were big holes etc, we continue, i saw the way getting wider, i was strained to see how it is. There were big holes as the first 50 m are not fixed but than the motorway begann with the shiny crashbarriers which i noticed at night,, too, with the many bridges there and with the junctions which look exactly like German junctions and even way better, i thought, were am i now? I noticed that the whole motorway is build very high and so is a very good panoramic way, at the beginning in daskalovo you see how the houses and suroundings are just way under the motorway, at the other and after dykania i saw how hills are to the right and how very deep percipises where on the right side of the motorway. I was very very impressed. It is the BEST motorway i travelled on there and i travelled Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia but noone could reach the quality of that thing, i hope in some years it willbe as good as it is now and not get old fast. So i come to conclusion that these 30 km are not only the best motorway in Bulgaria but are also one is also one of the best motorway in europe, at least in the countries i have seen, i am not talking about electronical sings or number of lines but i am taling about teh quality work, the crashbarriers have apsolutely no bends AT ALL, it is really impressiv,e the junctions are awesome and the bridgesn, wowwww.

I am crazy

Every time when I need to reach Vidin I start cursing the Strabag bastards.

From what I know Granit from Skopje are a very good company, I watched them building parts of the motorway Odessa - Kiev in Ukraine. They have long years of experience in Bulgaria also.

About the motorways in MK compared to ours the only really disturbing difference is that in MK you have to stop every 10 minutes or so to pay fees, which sometimes irritates a bit. But what makes our motorways so expensive is the big nimber of tunnels and bridges. And other special engineeering stuff. That's why some 30 km motorway here costs twice the price of 100 km in Skopje -Tetovo - Gostivar(for example).

what have the austrian bastarts done? I thought they were good comapny, they build long train tunnel in swizz alps and make bad work here in bulgaria, they should be imprisoned. I will ask in the austrian forum what are they doing, let´s see how the patriots will react.

About the motorways in MK compared to ours the only really disturbing difference is that in MK you have to stop every 10 minutes or so to pay fees, which sometimes irritates a bit. But what makes our motorways so expensive is the big nimber of tunnels and bridges. And other special engineeering stuff. That's why some 30 km motorway here costs twice the price of 100 km in Skopje -Tetovo - Gostivar(for example).

it's not irritating a bit, but a lot. A loan from the World Bank was approved yesterday though which among other things will be used for modernizing the whole paytoll system which should bring much more automatization and much less human factor involved.

Bulgaria Starts to Expand Killer Bridge near Byala

31 May 2007, Thursday

Click to enlarge the photo
Eighteen people were killed on December 7 when a city bus collided with a truck and plunged into a river near the town of Byala. File photo by bulphoto
The expansion of the bridge near the town of Byala, which claimed the lives of eighteen people at the end of last year, will be ready by November 30.

Varna-based Traffic consult company was awarded the project, which will turn the risky crossing before the bridge into a two-tier juncture. The bridge itself will be expanded with another two lanes.

The project is worth EUR 1.26 M.

The killer bridge gained the reputation of "a triangle of death" after claiming the lives of dozens of people over the last few years.

Eighteen people were killed and another eleven were heavily injured on December 7 when a city bus collided with a truck and plunged into a river near the town of Byala.

Twelve years ago a heavy bus crash there took the lives of twenty-nine Romanians. Later on many more found their death in a series of road accidents.

The deadly section of the road, although of good quality, is too narrow and has been blamed for the numerous accidents.

^^ Good quality, crap. I'll show you the same bridge soon, which I shot on my way to Ruse. The road there sucks. The bridge sucks too. And traffic sucks badly..

Here it is - the delayed update I promised!!!

I'll post small resized versions of the images, because I'm going to post many of them and I don't want to saturate your bandwidth upon reading the thread...

First: the roads on the Sofia-Ruse route.

Leaving Sofia:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0003.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0004.JPG

The Hemus highway (some reconstruction near the tunnels):

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http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0007.JPG

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http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0012.JPG

The highway abruptly ends here...about 80km away from Sofia:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0013.JPG

Some reconstruction underway 1-2km away from the end of the highway :(

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0014.JPG

We stopped here to buy some mineral water:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0016.JPG

The town of Lukovit:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0017.JPG

Near Pleven:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0018.JPG

Exploiting the little oil deposits our country has (haha):

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0019.JPG

Pleven-Byala road (and some scenery):

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0021.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0022.JPG

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Byala: road 2x2 for about 5-10km, very bad condition:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0025.JPG

The notorious bridge they are going to expand:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0026.JPG

The road Byala-Ruse...it's much better than Byala's, some scenery:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0027.JPG

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Near Ruse....some new surprise, now people here are going to buy more new Opels and Chryslers I believe..

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0035.JPG

Entering Ruse's bypass...under reconstruction too, condition poor but at the end of the year it should be perfect :)

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0036.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0037.JPG

We're leaving the bypass here, going home:

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Some commie neighbourhood here:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0102.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0101.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0099.JPG

I'm home :)

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0098.JPG


Now some walk around the downtown :)

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0085.JPG

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Some nice places near my home city :)

Basarbovo: rock monastery, 9 km away. One of the saints that protect Bucharest (st. Dimiter) lived there:

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http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0045.JPG

The rock curches and caves of Ivanovo, 20km away:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0052.JPG

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The ruins of the medieval town and castle of Cherven:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0055.JPG

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A view from the town:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0061.JPG

Remains of an ancient church:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0063.JPG

Remains of the town castle wall:

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Old houses were here:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0069.JPG

The castle tower: Balduin's tower in Tarnovo used that one as a model :)

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0070.JPG

Around the medieval town:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0071.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0072.JPG

Views of the neighbouring village from the old town:

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The small river of Cherni Lom:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0081.JPG

A view from the rocks where the entrance of "Orlova Chuka" cave is (the second largest electrified cave in Bulgaria):

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0084.JPG

Going to the "Rusenski Lom" natural park.

The Ruse-Varna road, under heavy construction (we were the idiots who didn't read the sign that we should use the reserve route :( )

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0107.JPG

The road to the Ruse's airport of Shtraklevo here:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0108.JPG

The village of Nisovo, located right in the natural park. Here is their new winery which still have some of the premises U/C:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0111.JPG

The nature, the village and..the rocks:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0114.JPG

Niiiice :)

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0117.JPG

A walk in the territory of the park:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/may2007/normal_IMG_0118.JPG



OK, I think that's enough. Enjoy :)

Great pics, bgrs. Too bad they are so small. I would have waited hours to load up if I had to just see them bigger.

great effort bgrs, interesting read and pics... :okay:

Bgrs, you could at least have posted 640 X 480 pcs man, they are WAY too small to recongise anything real. Please upload bigger ones, anyway, great pics.

Thanks, sorry for the small size of the images, but I'm too lazy to upload the full-sized ones on imageshack or smth like that. I uploaded them to a hmmm...let's say a server with very good BG and mediocre international connectivity. Sorry, but posting the full-sized versions was not an acceptable option for me :)

so you won´t upload the fullsize pics or at least pics with higher resolution now? :( and OMG, the Hemus motorway is ridiculous and a shit compared to STRUMA, if i hadn´t seen the struma motorway which is extremly shiny i had never had so much emotions for Bulgaria and would have never thought "NOW it really gets better fast", the Hemus looks typical bulgarian and comunistic, the Struma looks similar like the doom 3 monorail railway, such modern it is.

edit.... :P

:okay: awesome trip!
bgrs, you can always change their sizes on imageshack as you upload them.
In any case, they're great, and I'm sure this would look great if you started your own thread in the Fototeka section in Euroscrapers :okay:

edit.... :P

Oh really?

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/funtrip/

:p

Don't make me angry :P

:lol:

Thanks for the pictures btw. Waiting your next trip ;) Next time edit faster :cheers:

Don't make me angry :P

why did you do that, as if you have some naked girl or so, there´s nothing to hide man.

why did you do that, as if you have some naked girl or so, there´s nothing to hide man.

Of course he has, ima goli.... macki ;)

Maybe he has some naked pics of himself? :naughty:

Oh OK, you are such a curious guy :)

I admit I have hidden naked pix there, but I'm just too sexy for SSC hehe :)

You can use google Picasa with a gmail account. Works very easy, just upload all your pics at once in an online web album. You have 1 GB space. I use it now too.

Some roads looks more like gravel than asphalt. Hope Bulgaria's road network will improve fast. There is still a long way to go, if i see these pics.

^^

First off, I prefer scp to clicking like some old Bible's martyr on some browser :)

BG roads are a real disaster, especially in North Bulgaria. Fortunately, there are a lot of projects, reconstruction, etc. E.g. in 2-3 years, the Byala-Ruse would be a freeway and the Sofia-Varna's Hemus extension construction should be started. My hometown's bypass would be finished, but there are already projects for a new bypass. Since about 1 year, north BG is experiencing a much faster development pace than the southern part that already benefitted from some big infrastructure projects. The thing that should be done and is very underestimated, is a highway that crosses the Stara Planina (Balkan) mountain, north-southern direction. Traffic in that direction went up trice since jan. 2007. I believe our stupid government will take that into consideration.

Anyway, we are a typical southern-european country. We develop our tourism, towns, commercial areas, etc much faster than our infrastructure and we already have problems with that. We already suffer from overconstruction and overheating of our economy. If we miss our opportunities, things would go wrong horribly...I hope we can avoid that :)

you´re right, it´s really a far way altough the streets in southwe3stern part of bulgaria are fine and tehy are fixing there many roads, they are even fixing roads to very small mountain villages

^^

First off, I prefer scp to clicking like some old Bible's martyr on some browser :)

BG roads are a real disaster, especially in North Bulgaria. Fortunately, there are a lot of projects, reconstruction, etc. E.g. in 2-3 years, the Byala-Ruse would be a freeway and the Sofia-Varna's Hemus extension construction should be started. My hometown's bypass would be finished, but there are already projects for a new bypass. Since about 1 year, north BG is experiencing a much faster development pace than the southern part that already benefitted from some big infrastructure projects. The thing that should be done and is very underestimated, is a highway that crosses the Stara Planina (Balkan) mountain, north-southern direction. Traffic in that direction went up trice since jan. 2007. I believe our stupid government will take that into consideration.

Anyway, we are a typical southern-european country. We develop our tourism, towns, commercial areas, etc much faster than our infrastructure and we already have problems with that. We already suffer from overconstruction and overheating of our economy. If we miss our opportunities, things would go wrong horribly...I hope we can avoid that :)

I am wondering if the idiots of our government are corrputed, and does anyone look a them that they don´t take the money? Why does the EU not control the works of the motorways, if they would do the Struma motorway would have been at least to Dupnica already. The bigger problem are the rialways, they still have very old trains and no one single highspeed train, i am wodering how long will it take til bulgaria will have the first trains which travel 200+ km.

I think that's the problem of rails themselves. Desiro trains are nice though, perhaps many things will change after the privatization of BDZ...

I think that's the problem of rails themselves. Desiro trains are nice though, perhaps many things will change after the privatization of BDZ...

I hope they wil buy some old Intercity or so or maybe some old ICE and use them for Express Sofia Varna, Sofia Burgas as there is a expresstrain planned Sofia Thessaloniki already and allready under construction in greece, i don´t know if it is under construction in Bulgaria though.

the desiros are short haul commuters. when they first got them they used for crosscountry links and they failed (blown engines, worn wheels, you name it, it happened!). now they've pulled them back to normal routes and they are doing good.

<-- rail fan :)

I read they will buy some electric Desiro, these engines won´t blow.

The thing that should be done and is very underestimated, is a highway that crosses the Stara Planina (Balkan) mountain, north-southern direction. You mean a Ruse - Chirpan Avtomagistrale? Looks like a good idea to me. I think traffic between Romania and Turkey will grow, and you have to cross some mountain passes, looking at the map, so an Avtomagistrale would be welcome.

However, for western Europe, and connection fully motorway from the Serbian border near Sofia to Turkey would be the first priority. A lot of Turkish people who live in Germany, Netherlands, Austria etc, takes this route to Edirne, in fact, at the Dutch forum, there is a guy who drives all the 2000+km from Utrecht to Edirne in 22 hours. He says Bulgaria is the worst country to drive to considering road conditions. However, things are improving, which is a good thing.

You mean a Ruse - Chirpan Avtomagistrale? Looks like a good idea to me. I think traffic between Romania and Turkey will grow, and you have to cross some mountain passes, looking at the map, so an Avtomagistrale would be welcome.

However, for western Europe, and connection fully motorway from the Serbian border near Sofia to Turkey would be the first priority. A lot of Turkish people who live in Germany, Netherlands, Austria etc, takes this route to Edirne, in fact, at the Dutch forum, there is a guy who drives all the 2000+km from Utrecht to Edirne in 22 hours. He says Bulgaria is the worst country to drive to considering road conditions. However, things are improving, which is a good thing.

Can´t understand this, when he travels to the turkish border he travel on the trakya and on sections of the maritca moorway, the road to sofia is awful though.

I read in a bulgarian magazine that they finally will continue building the struma motorway this month, they will start on the parts, Kulata - Sandanski and Dolna Dykania - Dupnica. I also heard that they are not sure which route they should build through blagoevgrad, there were many expensive Italian routes but they probably will choose a cheap one. They said that there won´t be a junction to a village near Ljulin motorway i donb´t know name of. They said the ljulin motorway has 4 junctions and they should use Daskalovo junction, the connection of the Ljulin to the Struma motorway. I hope these news are ture and they will start work :)

Bgrs, this is way more important than your Prohoda na Republicata and other ones, this is the main route to greece, this is surely one of the most improtant motorways in whole bulgaria as it leads to border and many will use it when it´s build and good. I don´t think there will be a motorways thourgh the Balkans because i never read even of thinking of the project.

I have a general idea about which name corresponds with which Bulgarian freeway, but it would be good if somebody posted a list of the precise routes of all the existing and planned freeways in Bulgaria.

I have a general idea about which name corresponds with which Bulgarian freeway, but it would be good if somebody posted a list of the precise routes of all the existing and planned freeways in Bulgaria.

http://www.mtc.government.bg/upload/docs/NI_13_Road_new.jpg

In yellow the names of the freeways. (in Bulgarian)

^^
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/737/magistralakp6.gif

And some links with detailed info :

Trakia motorway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trakiya_motorway)

Liulin motorway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyulin_motorway)

Hemus motorway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemus_motorway)

Maritza motorway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritsa_motorway)

Struma motorway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struma_motorway)

Cherno More motorway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherno_More_motorway)

Thank you very much dia, I was looking for this kind of map for a long time :hug:


But it raises a lot of questions about the pan-Europen corridors:

-There is absolutely no freeway planned on corridor IX

-There is no freeway planned on corridor IV north of Sofia.

-There is no freeway planned on corridor VIII west of Sofia, towards Macedonia. As a Macedonian I'm mostly interested about this one. There is a low-level debate in Macedonia about a freeway from Kumanovo towards BG. At this stage it is mostly populistic and I dont think we should except something soon unless there is interest in concession (which I doubt). But it is definitely planned in the future transport infrastructure of Macedonia. There is even detailed design for it.

So I guess my question is why isn't Bulgaria planning freeways along some of the pan-European corridors? Or is the base map outdated?

Additional question: how is the Sofia-Serbian border branch called?

^^ It is not correct (but not outdated). Trakia (after the Portuguese deal) is going to reach Kalotina, at the Serb border. Sofia-Vidin and Tarnovo-Ruse are going to be freeways (2x2, no emergency lanes) - but they are not going to be funded by the ministry of transportation - they are more like "regional" projects funded by PHARE and JASPERS.

As for the MK connection, I've heard nothing about that :(

Thank you very much dia, I was looking for this kind of map for a long time :hug:


But it raises a lot of questions about the pan-Europen corridors:

-There is absolutely no freeway planned on corridor IX

-There is no freeway planned on corridor IV north of Sofia.

-There is no freeway planned on corridor VIII west of Sofia, towards Macedonia. As a Macedonian I'm mostly interested about this one. There is a low-level debate in Macedonia about a freeway from Kumanovo towards BG. At this stage it is mostly populistic and I dont think we should except something soon unless there is interest in concession (which I doubt). But it is definitely planned in the future transport infrastructure of Macedonia. There is even detailed design for it.

So I guess my question is why isn't Bulgaria planning freeways along some of the pan-European corridors? Or is the base map outdated?

I took this map from the Ministry. If you are interested about the projects, I saw PDFs on the site.

You should find some info here (http://www.mtc.government.bg/page.php?category=93&id=2022&seek=%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%B3%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8).

As for coridor IV ... I've recently passed the road from Mezdra to Vratsa and they are making general reconstruction there too. It will be highway after finished - 2x2 ... but the rest till Vidin was recently reconstructed by Strabag i think , and don't know if any further works are planned.

for coridor IX they closed for reconstruction the road from Veliko Tarnovo to the place where 2 years ago reconstruction from the south side of the mountain was completed. Have recently read that everything goes on schedule , and next year probably the road will be finished and a lot better , not motorway but with few curves and at many places with 1x1+1x2 ... and as bgrs said the section form Russe to Tarnovo will be also made as motorway - 2x2 in the next 3-4 years.

thnx bgrs! :)


And yet another question from me: what is the current status of Sofia's ring road? I presume it is planned to be a complete freeway. But what is the completed part to date and is there any construction atm. Also do you guys have a fancy name for it also :D

Someone has pictures of the Sofia-Vidin road? I passed on it some 11 years ago and remember it was in excellent condition.

@Turnovec - Mezdra-Vratza is 2x2 since communist times :)

@ Realek: Sofia's ringroad is a looong looong story. There were some posts about it today, it's currently under reconstruction and the idea is that it should become a freeway (parts of it are already so). And since we had some very uncontrolled early capitalism, now we have problems. The reconstruction will cost much more than planned just because it's even cheaper than buying back the land needed (so there will be some tunnels...bridges, etc).

I think they are finally gonna make it...in 4-5 years. At least they are doing something in particular parts of the ringroad.

you know what, the pictures and almost the whole text of the wikipedia article of struma mtoorway is written by me.

http://www.mtc.government.bg/upload/docs/NI_13_Road_new.jpg

In yellow the names of the freeways. (in Bulgarian)

My Cyrillic understanding is not so well, but i can see from this map;

Reconstruction and rehabilitating

Yellow: Period 2005 - 2009
White: Period 2009 - 2015
red: 1st class road
bold black: 2nd class road
narrow black: 3 class road

yellow: Avtomagistrale - Motorway
dashed yellow: Avtomagistrale ???
dashed orange; Avtomagistrale under construction?

Well, good to see which road will be reconstructed, and some plans along the Sofia Ringroad.
What about a Avtomagistrale to Macedonia? (via Kjustendil).

It´s nto Avtomagistrale but Avtomagistrala, i don´t think there will be a Aftomagistrala for Macedonia, they won´t build Avtomagistrala for 50 km, people will use Ljulin, than wil use Avtomagistrala Ljulin to Daskalovo, go to Pernik and from there to Bohovdol - Kiustendil, or will use the Struma motorway and will go from Dupnica to Kiustendil. I could imagine some good 2X2 motorway to Macendonian border as near Kiustendil there allready is 2X2.

http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/9752/kiustendilvs9.jpg

This is it.

^^

they will build a highway to MK, it's part of a pan European corridor. How up in the priority list is it is another question though

but why should the ydo it when there is little traffix there? There´s no reason. they can´t build motorway everywhere, we have macedonian border 50 km to the left of this map also, should there also be motorway? It would be funny to see motorway with no traffix but that is at night on sofia greece struma motorway, so why should there by a motorway there? I would like one but i doubt it will be build.

but why should the ydo it when there is little traffix there? There´s no reason. they can´t build motorway everywhere, we have macedonian border 50 km to the left of this map also, should there also be motorway? It would be funny to see motorway with no traffix but that is at night on sofia greece struma motorway, so why should there by a motorway there? I would like one but i doubt it will be build.

that's why I said it's a question of when but not a question of if. There is a reason why that route was established as a pan European coridor. If it doesn't have traffic today it doesn't mean that it won't have traffic tomorow. First it's going to connect 2 capitals and two of the bigger cities of the region. Furthermore the same coridor continues to Tirana which is also an emerging regional metropolis as well as the adriatic coast and the port of Durres and than to Italy by sea. We are not talking just about a highway here but pan european corridors usually means highway, railway, pipelines, telecomunication backbones etc. So actually it's a much bigger picture. Back to the highways, the Pernik-Kjustendil route is the only direction towards Macedonia where U need a highway the other enterances like the one by Blagoevgrad for example make no sense.

As I said for now it's absolutely no priority for Bulgaria nor for Macedonia, even the current infrastructure is too much for the traffic volumes. But that will surely change in the future.

Liuilin motorway is in fact part of that pan european corridor. When Liulin is finished the Vladaya gorge road will be no more part of the corridor i think. Also there is 2x2 from the Liulin motorway end , around Pernik to Radomir which is in very bad condition right now , and hopefully if they plan to invest some money and refurbish it , we'll have motor way till Radomir. The part from several km. before Kiustendil and the border is good too , so we'll need just to think how to deal with the mountain pass between Radomir and Kiustendil to have a good connection with Macedonia. The Dupnica-Kiustendil connection will be a good variant too ...

I am wodering, will you enter the center of Sofia faster with the Ljulin motorway? Will that be the main road for people entering and leaving Sofia?

I doubt many people will use the Lyulin Motorway to go from Pernik to downtown Sofia. The reason for my belief is that the connection from the Bankya Junction on the Sofia Ring Road (where the Lyulin Motorway is supposed to end) to the city centre is very inconvenient and the route is longer than going through Vladaya. Even if the motorway becomes a fast connection to the outskirts of the city, it can be only used as a transit connection from Southwestern Bulgaria to other parts of the country through Sofia, or to the northwestern Suburbs of Sofia (Lyulin, Obelya). The thing is that I heard of a project of a boulevard connecting the Bankya Junction with Sofia downtown. That boulevard has to go through Sofia's West Park, or through a gypsy ghetto, so I don't see it completed soon.

30 Billboards in Moscow Boost Bulgarian Tourism

http://images.ibox.bg/2007/06/08/bildboard/519x402.jpg

Bulgaria's State Agency of Tourism (SAT) placed 30 billboards in the center of Moscow with commercials about Bulgaria.

This is the second part of the SAT's campaign for external advertisement in Russia for this year.

The billboards with ads for Bulgaria as a tourist destination are situated in key places in the center of the Russian capital from May 28 till June 10.

In the frames of the complete commercial campaign on the Russian market are foreseen informational trips to Bulgaria, organized by SAT. Two groups with Russian journalists from mote than 20 prestige dailies and month editions will visit the Bulgarian country.

Go BG, goooooooooooooooo! ;)

^^ Nu pajalusta , Bratushki ! Come and spend your money over here :lol:

^^ yep, but they should change the logo. but the moto's nice

^^ yep, but they should change the logo. but the moto's nice

I am not big on that "stylized" roze too.

I am not big on that "stylized" roze too.

Well that is Bulgaria's logo (http://www.bulgariatravel.org/eng/index.php) if you did't know already :lol: :lol: :lol:
Design.bg did it several years ago ;)

^^ well it looks to my like the designer remembered he had to do this logo the last day before giving the finished product and just took a paintbrush, did a circle and then scanned it- and voila! the new logo that is to represent our country in front of the world

It seems to me that while listening to the song " Vzemi vuv tozi hubav den , edna bulgarska roza ot men ..." he grabbed a brush and made up the logo with one single move of his hand :lol: :lol: :lol:

btw. have you seen the new commercial video clip of Bulgaria that runs on CNN and euronews ? "Open doors to open hearts" is its slogan. I think they made a good job , comparing to what we had in teh last years. Check it out here (http://www.bulgariatravel.org/eng/index.php) ... in the left bottom part of the page.

or here i found it in yuotube :

hUDNsqqT_0c

someone already posted it somewhere here, but it's nice to see it again. It's almost as nice as Greece's one (they always have great one's- Live your Myth in Greece, Explore your senses....)

^^Hey billyandmandy i just noticed, your post count is 1234 haha....
Btw where did you get your skype user name from?

I like this Bulgarian clip. The Greek one rocks too, the music is especially nice (the "Explore your senses" one)

As we talked about our rose looking logo ... let me greet all the members of the forum and esepcialy the bulgarian ones living abroad with one performance of the recent winner of the first Bulgarian Music Idol - Nevena Tsoneva :)

EJCFw444Zr8

she is really good ^^ best of luck to her career

Can we again talk about roads?

These pics are from today.:)

The city of Burgas.

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/1679/img1382ik2.jpg
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/cf0584a608.jpg
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/810861ac15.jpg
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/8d12355c93.jpg
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/8c8eb12682.jpg
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/5cd0a52fdf.jpg
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/b93e598f0d.jpg
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/9490c8fccc.jpg
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/c318eef01c.jpg
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/708923d7cf.jpg
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/8e95ff692f.jpg
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/fd8784b2f4.jpg
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/efee176ed3.jpg

^^ looks great! very very nice. Burgas is a wonderful city :cheers:

I zamirisva na more!

Околовръстното тръгва бавно

Поредното препятствие дойде от труднодостъпни терени на кръстовището с бул. "Черни връх"

Започналият след дълго отлагане през октомври ремонт на южната дъга на Околовръстното шосе е на път да се забави отново поради препроектиране на едно от съоръженията при Драгалевци.

Според фирмата изпълнител "Главболгарстрой" обаче чакането ще си струва, тъй като новият проект ще предложи много по-рационално решение за организация на движението в тази част на изграждащата се отсечка.

Новият проект за пътна детелина при Драгалев*ци бе представен на среща на общинския експертен съвет по устройство на територията през седмицата.

"Първоначалната идея беше бул. "Черни връх" да е естакада - около 750 м, но това запушва парцелите по булеварда. Именно за да осигурим по-добър достъп до тях, решихме да променим съоръжението и "Черни връх" да минава на ниво терен", обяснява главният архитект на София Петър Диков. Според инж. Асен Аризамов от "Главболгарстрой", който е ръководител на

обекта "Южна дъга"', новият проект е по-естетичен и по-рационален от предишния. "Идеята е основното трасе на Околовръстното да се вкопае на около 7 метра под терена, което ще позволи разполагането на инженерната инфраструктура - кабели за телефони, електричество, осветление - нещо, за което в предишния вариант нямаше достатъчно място." Що се отнася до икономическата ефективност на съоръжението, Аризамов поясни, че в момента не може да се прецени доколко то ще излезе по-скъпо или по-евтино от първоначалните разчети, тъй като все още не е направено препроектиране. "Процесът на препроектиране ще забави строителните работи с не повече от месец и половина", категоричен е инж. Аризамов. Според него обаче това едва ли ще се отрази на сроковете за цялостното завършване на южната дъга. "Хубаво е, че се даде зелена светлина на този проект, така едновременно с извършването на строителните работи може да тече и препроектирането и така да спестим ценни месеци", казва инженерът.

В момента в частта на околовръстното, предвидена за реконструкция, се работи върху отсечките между Симеоново и разклона за Драгалевци, където се изграждат канали и колектори. Изкопните работи в участъка между Драгалевци и Бояна също вече започват, макар и с известно забавяне поради проблеми с отчуждаването на земите в района (виж карето). От "Главболгарстрой" заявиха, че до края на 2007 г. се предвижда да е готово южното платно на ремонтираната отсечка, както и части от съоръженията при Драгалевци и Симеоново. Изпълнителният директор на дирекция "Републиканска пътна инфраструктура" Веселин Георгиев също е оптимист: "Надяваме се до края на годината южното платно на тези 4.7 км, които се строят, без пътните възли на Симеоново и Драгалев*ци, да бъдат въведени в експлоатация."

Бавно напредват и другите проекти по крайградския път. "Съвместно с главния архитект на София подготвяме техническите задания на останалите участъци от южната дъга на Околовръстното шосе - от автомагистрала "Тракия" до "Ломско шосе". С изграждането на автомагистрала "Люлин" проблемът с около 1.2 км от южната дъга ще бъде решен, защото строителството на възела е включено в проекта на автомагистралата", допълни Веселин Георгиев.

Плановете на главния архитект на София Петър Диков са още по-оптимистични. "Очаквам южната дъга да е напълно изградена до 2-3 години. Друго трасе, което смятам, че трябва да е приоритетно, е това на северната скоростна тангента, която започва от включването на магистрала "Хемус" при "Враждебна" и достига до "Илиянци", каза Диков. Според него основните предимства на това трасе са, че е с около 5 км по-късо от северната дъга на околовръстния път и е по-близо до центъра. "Вече се изготвя комуникационен проект за тази отсечка, така че строителството й би могло да започне още през 2008 г.", прогнозира главният архитект.

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/9605/remontlt2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/4859/remont1mb6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/8986/remont2tf2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

^^ 7metres below the curret level at Dragalevtsi...huh? I can only imagine what would happen when it rains like the past three weeks or month or so........ flood and a half :D

До 31 юли проектантите трябва да завършат работата си
Каквато и да е истината, проектирането вече върви. Предадени са геодезическите проучвания на лота от Долна Диканя до Дупница от км 305+200 до км 322. Те са подготвени от трите фирми „Илия Бурда“, „Виаплан“ и „Ню ИТ и инженеринг“.
И в двата лота няма големи трудности за преодоляване при проектирането. Особеността на лота от км 423+500 до км 438+500 Сандански - Кулата е в това, че за едното платно на магистралата се ползва съществуващият път. При Марикостиново се прави отклонение. За път, свързващ инфраструктурата, се ползват други трасета, които ще бъдат рехабилитирани.
Другото платно е по девствен терен. Старият път няма елементи, които да отговарят на елементите на магистрала в ситуация, затова там се минава по напълно нов терен.
Утвърдено от изпълнителния директор на фонд „Републиканска пътна инфраструктура“ техническо задание за обект автомагистрала „Струма“, лот 4, участък Сандански - Кулата от км 423+500 до км 438+500 показва, че началото на обекта е приблизително при км 323+500 и е по т.нар. кафяв вариант на приети предпроектни проучвания. Краят на обекта е приблизително при км 438+500 също по „кафявия вариант“ на приетите предпроектни проучвания. Необходимо е да се изработят и проекти на етапни връзки между началото и края на участъка и съществуващото трасе на път I-1 (Е-79). За етапните връзки ще трябва да се изготви отделна количествена сметка.
Проектната скорост за трасето от км 400+000 до км 441+567 според приетите предпроектни проучвания е 100 км в час, габаритът за същия участък е 29 м, а категорията на движението, меродавна за оразмеряването на настилката, е „много тежко“. Трасето от км 427+000 до км 441+000 е по т.нар. зелен вариант. В този участък се предвиждат пътен възел при Петрич, км 427+000 - полудетелина.
Вторият обект от магистрала „Струма“ е за лот 1 от км 305+200 до км 322. Техническият проект с тръжна документация на български и английски език ще се подготвя въз основа на утвърдено от изпълнителния директор на фонд „Републиканска пътна инфраструктура“ техническо задание за обект лот 1, участък Долна Диканя - Дупница от км 305+220,53 до км 322+000. Началото на обекта е пътен възел „Даскалово“ при село Долна Диканя на км 305+220,53, край новоизградения участък на магистрала „Струма“. Краят на обекта е при км 322+000 на участък М2, „кафяв вариант“ на приети (както стана ясно те не са приети, а само оценени) предпроектни проучвания (Протокол № НЕС-02-22 от 08.08.2002 г. на НЕСУТРП). Необходимо е да се изработи и проект на етапна връзка между края на участъка - км 322+000, и съществуващото трасе на път I-1 (Е-79). За етапната връзка ще се изготви отделна количествена сметка.
Според ЗОП органът, до който се изпращат жалбите, е Комисията за защита на конкуренцията

I hope this is true, i hope they will aktually start work this year, i don´t expect it but i hope really

http://www.stroitelstvo.info/show.php?storyid=337783

whole link

niakoi moje li da mi obiasni dali shte im doide v glavata bvl 4erni vrah da go rashiriat da ima po 2 platna v 2te posoki kakto e ot hladilnika kam ndk smisal kakto go pokazvat na rendera--spored men tova e zadaljitelno - vse pak prez nego se cliza v sofia a i se otiva kam dragalevtsi..

That's a short movie I shot today while driving in the southern districts - South park, Lozenetz, Iztok.

Enjoy :)

J7zuqPJDYsQ

^^ nice lots of new buildings and construction. the subway tunnel is loong.

Thanks BGRS.

Very nice thread, photos are amazing! :) You could hardly find anything on the net, but now we can finally see some more of Bulgarian highways. :cheers:

Very nice thread, photos are amazing! :) You could hardly find anything on the net, but now we can finally see some more of Bulgarian highways. :cheers:

but don´t forget, most pics were of the standart bulgarian motorways, not very many of the new ones, Struma and marica, they look way modern to these old motorways. I also find that the struma motorway does not look like a bulgarian motorway but more taht it has typical Blagoevgrad region design, everything on the direction Sofia greece does look way different and not typical Bulgarian, i like this Blageovgrad region design more.

^^you are absolutely obsessed with this motorway IMO and the region around Blagoevgrad... that's not such a bad thing but don't twist everything as if it's the best region that has the best of everything... cause it's not. All of BG is in the same "dereje" (condition).

^^you are absolutely obsessed with this motorway IMO and the region around Blagoevgrad... that's not such a bad thing but don't twist everything as if it's the best region that has the best of everything... cause it's not. All of BG is in the same "dereje" (condition).

Well i am coming from there, i am born in Blagoevgrad, and no, i think in the region arround Blagoevgrad everything is different and looks different, the landscape Kulata - Blageovgrad -Dupnica - Sofia is way different than in anywhere else in bulgaria, there are the only high mountains in bulgaria and the landscape is way different. The cindition might be the same but i am thinking that the roads including the new mtoroway represent very well the typical fresh Blageovgrad style and look, the region arround Blagoevgrad has it´s own charm and look which is not too Bulgarian but apsolutely unquie.

Man, when the Struma motorway will be finished in a few years, Blagoevgrad will have central heating and fast trains will travel Sofia - Blagoevgrad - Saloniki and everything will have the typical Blagoevgrad design it will be really great to live there, i hope it will happen soon.

how can a road, i repeat, a road- something that cannot look different from its fellow counterparts ( the road itself i mean. not the landscape- that is naturally different)? a highway cannot express the local style- the local economy maybe. but style? is it painted in colours typical of the area? don't think so.

i really don't want to argue because it's pointless- you think the way you do and that's it. ...... just ignore this reply

how can a road, i repeat, a road- something that cannot look different from its fellow counterparts ( the road itself i mean. not the landscape- that is naturally different)? a highway cannot express the local style- the local economy maybe. but style? is it painted in colours typical of the area? don't think so.

i really don't want to argue because it's pointless- you think the way you do and that's it. ...... just ignore this reply

I don´t ignore it, i do think it looks like that because the designers of the motorway wanted not only to design it to be cheap to build but to fit wel in the landscape and region. you are very funny man, every country has a bit different looking roads, the signs, the crashbarriers, the asphalt. I find these extremly fulgent crashbarriers of the motorway do represent Blagoevgrad region, in other parts of bulgaria they use crashbarriers with other shape. In Blagoevgrad region they use the crashbarriers used in the motorway also on other new raodstretches. The new simitli bansko road looks typical bulgarian though, i have seen a road with this design innother region of Bulgaria. but for example in the town where i ahve reatives and friends in Simitli they make a new road and the sidewalks have exactly the same tiles than on the national road passing through Dolna Dykania. You see? I also find a motorway with lots of concrete wouldn´t fit in Blagoevgrad region, the metall barriers motorway fits very well.

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/5987/dsc05434wr7.jpg

This is the Plovdiv runway when i airplane has trouble and can´t reach the airport or when military planes have to land in case of a war, isnt it?

^^ yes, an emergency landing strip

Hello, I'm just back from a weekend holiday in Devin. It's located in the Rhodopi mountains, southern Bulgaria, near the Greek border. To my opinion it's a small town, quickly developing as a SPA tourism centre (it has many minaral water springs)...but unfortunately it's still not well known. The infrastructure sucks, but they are improving it...just look at my photos and description :)

First of all...we are leaving Sofia, these are the south-eastern outskirts of our nice dirty capital :)

Near Mladost 4, these are some hypermarkets and Vitosha moutnain in the back:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0005.JPG

The road was congested on the Sofia exit

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0007.JPG

This is Trakia highway, some photos:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0008.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0010.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0011.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0012.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0013.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0014.JPG

Some scenery:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0015.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0009.JPG

This is the Pazarjik exit:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0016.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0017.JPG

Pazarjik is a middle-sized town, about 70-80k inhabitants. Lots of commieblocks when entering the town from the highway:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0019.JPG

Some fountains in the town:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0020.JPG

Then we decided to use some "strange" route through a 3rd class inter-village road :) We passed right through that limestone mine (sooo much dirt!):

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0021.JPG

That's Thrace...wines and vegetables around the road:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0022.JPG

Climbing the Rhodopi mountain (road: AWFUL!):

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0024.JPG

Hm...this part of the road is actually located on a dam wall:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0026.JPG

Here is what you see from the right and the left side:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0027.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0028.JPG

Here is some hydro power plant:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0029.JPG

The road was getting worse and worse. Corrupted asphalt, many curves. And then I read the signs indicating that a new road is under construction. Very very bad - this means that our road will be most certainly even worse than that!

Here - the construction works - these guys work even in the dark:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0031.JPG

More about the same road and the construction works - soon :)

Now some photos of the small SPA town of Devin:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0033.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0035.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0040.JPG

Hmm...that's our hotel :)

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0043.JPG

And the view from our room:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0044.JPG

The next day we decided to visit the surroundings. He went to Trigrad. The road was very dangerous - not at all wide and it had many curves...but CHRIST IT WAS SPECTACULAR! It passed right thru the Trigrad gorge!

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0045.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0046.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0047.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0050.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0052.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0056.JPG

These are from the cave..the "Devil's throat". The cave actually has a large hall where the nearby river falls from 60m height into a rock reservoir, than continues underground. Many people that tried to research the underground water tunnels died :(

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0053.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0054.JPG

Well...this has to be the devil's mouth :)

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0061.JPG

The village of Trigrad, only 4-5km from the border. As you can see, christians and muslims coexist peacefully here (since centuries) - there are a mosque and a church just 50-60 meters from each other :)

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0065.JPG

Beyond that peak is Greece...

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0066.JPG

The tiny village of Trigrad:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0067.JPG



On our way back to Sofia...the same fucked up Devin road. Some construction works on the new road:

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0069.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0072.JPG

The "old" disgusting road blah :(

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0070.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0073.JPG


The "Vucha" Dam...wonderful place!

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0074.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0075.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0077.JPG



I hope you enjoyed it. Sorry for the "slow"-loading images :)

^^ cool. Trigrad gorge is really breathtaking! and you can get the creeps when inside the Devil's throat. It's a spectacular region... Yagodina cave is also near, you should go there too. :) thx for pix

Cool pics, thanks for posting them BGRS. :)

Ohh, this was some ass-kicking nature, thanks, bgrs! :happy:

FUCKING AWESOME MOUNTAINS!!! Must go there when i have time, they are steep, have pine trees and rocks and a beautiful shape, must definetly go there. But Bgrs, why didn´t you go to devin through the Struma (tm) motorway and than via Bansko, it is way closer IMO as trakya motorway and Pazardjik. And how do you expect the roads there to be, Bulgaria should first look to imrpove the major roads and build the motorways fast, not fix every road, my cousin told me that they are asphalting roads in some very small villages, they can´t do everything at the same time, do we have so much money?

Radi, actually we chose the worst way because we had to go thru Pazardjik. There is a better road from Plovdiv-Asenovgrad-Smolyan.

If we were to choose the road Struma-Goce Delchev-Devin, we would have passed thru some already familiar places...and the road Goce Delchev-Devin AFAIK is just like the fucked up Krichim-Devin one. But there are hell lot of construction works there, the infrastructure in the region in 3-4 years will be something completely different than nowadays :)

Radi, actually we chose the worst way because we had to go thru Pazardjik. There is a better road from Plovdiv-Asenovgrad-Smolyan.

If we were to choose the road Struma-Goce Delchev-Devin, we would have passed thru some already familiar places...and the road Goce Delchev-Devin AFAIK is just like the fucked up Krichim-Devin one. But there are hell lot of construction works there, the infrastructure in the region in 3-4 years will be something completely different than nowadays :)

Nice to hear Infrastructure there is improving, they surely will build some great roads with many bridges etc. I would like if they would make the roads highway standart, like the E79 (not Struma motorway). The raod to bansko for example isn´t highway standart, the markings ar bad and go away fast, they don´t reflect light either.

Well actually those guys do not live in a rich region, but they are very active in preparing projects for UNDP/EU funding :)

That's a typical example, a public toilet construction financed by the UNDP in Devin :) :) :)

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0042.JPG

And infrastructure is their top priority from what I've seen..

Cool. Thanks, BGRS. You need to buy a SUV though. :)

great pics and hope u enjoyed the trip as much as we do

Dam Vucha is great ! Thanks for the pics bgrs :cheers:

Cool. Thanks, BGRS. You need to buy a SUV though. :)

Hmm, I see US's obsession with big vehicles has infected you man. Yeah, it certainly looks nice but wait 'til gas price hits $6/gallon in a few years.

^^ Hehe that's actually what many bulgarian males are obsessed with too :)

I'm telling you, open a photo-thread in the travel and other phototeka sections!
People are really interested in seeing this, I loved it, and many people who have no idea what Bulgaria looks like would be even more interested in seeing the real Bulgaria, down and dirty, the roads, the little towns, the people, etc. Some pricks will complain about this and that, but most have genuine interest

I'm telling you, open a photo-thread in the travel and other phototeka sections!
People are really interested in seeing this, I loved it, and many people who have no idea what Bulgaria looks like would be even more interested in seeing the real Bulgaria, down and dirty, the roads, the little towns, the people, etc. Some pricks will complain about this and that, but most have genuine interest

I did exactly that, i posted pics of the steepest most extreme pics of all bulgarian mountains which are 2700 - 2800 and have big big rockwalls but i hardly got any responts on them. They were ofcourse of the rila mountain, the only mountain with alpine characteristics in bulgaria, bgrs, you should visit kirilova polqna, the rila monastery, the Suhoto ezero (dry lake) and you should climb up one of the coloirs, the Zlia Uley, the Dqvolskia Uley or the Sinia Ulei.

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0045.JPG

http://gat3way.fcdunav.com/pix/gallery/albums/devin/normal_IMG_0047.JPG


the tunnel looks nice and european, exactly this could also be in Austria or Swizz. The road on the second pic has nice shiny crashbarriers. The scenerie is fucking awesome.

Hmm, I see US's obsession with big vehicles has infected you man. Yeah, it certainly looks nice but wait 'til gas price hits $6/gallon in a few years.

I said it mostly because I felt sorry for his car and a SUV would have coped much better with those roads/terrain. I am not such a big fan of SUVs.

Well, this car is actually a corporate one and is to be replaced in the next 1-2 months, so don't worry about it :)

It coped well :) The problem was not the poor quality of the asphalt, the problem was that the road was very narrow with many curves and that made the driving horrible. Average speed was between 30 and 60 km/h in the Krichim-Devin-Trigrad roads. There were often 20km/h limits where the construction of the new road was..

Even though there are numerous problems with the reconstruction of the Okolovrasnoto, the procedures of enlargement of the road should be finished on time. Two news statues will be erected in downtown Sofia. Throughout Sofia and Bankya there are many renovations of the roads.

Бойко Борисов: Бензинджии ни рекетират

850 евро на кв. м искат собственици за имотите си
Разширението на Околовръстното няма да се забави

Собственици на бензиностанция се опитват да рекетират държавата, като искат над 1 млн. лева, за да може разширението на Околовръстното да мине оттам. Това заяви вчера столичният кмет Бойко Борисов, след съвещанието на институциите, отговарящи за дострояването на Околовръстното.
Върху 560 кв.м. частната фирма "Рафа" ООД е построила 3 газови колонки, административна сграда и търговски обект, които сега трябва да бъдат сринати, за да може да бъде направено разширението. Държавата е предложила 156 хил. лв. обезщетение, но през декември ВАС е присъдил на собствениците исканите от тях над 1 млн.
Това обаче няма да попречи на работата на работниците и ремонтът ще върви по предвидените срокове, обясни зам.-кмета по транспорта Велизар Стоилов пред "Монитор" вчера. Той допълни, че при отчуждителните процедури винаги се стига до "рекет" от страна на собствениците, тъй като обектите са с национално значение.
Околовръстният път на София е част от републиканската пътна мрежа и едно време някои хора са купували терени именно заради това - за да правят спекула, допълни Стоилов. Той обясни, че в момента собствениците на имоти, които се налага да бъдат отчуждени, искат по 850 евро на квадрат, при положение, че са закупили замята за по 10 евро на кв. м.
Друг е въпросът, че някой е допуснал земята да бъде продадена на безценица, коментира още зам.-кметът по транспорта.
Отчуждаването на имоти не е единственият проблем, който стои пред Общината при разширяването на околовръстния път около София. Кметът Борисов алармира и за изградените вече незаконни канализационни шахти, които също затрудняват работата.
Ще сезирам дирекция "Национален строителен контрол" и Софийска градска прокуратура за тези нарушения, тъй като все някой трябва да си понесе отговорността, добави Борисов и уточни, че трябва да бъдат изградени колектори и канализации, каквито там все още няма.
Собственици на търговски обекти край Околовръстното са готови да помогнат при финансирането на новата канализация.

Строят два нови паметника в София

План за строежа на паметници по случай 130 годишнината от Освобождението на София и провъзгласяването й за столица, представи вчера Столична община. Един от монументите ще изобразява български опълченци и ще се намира в центъра на София.
Подробностите още не са уточнени, обясни зам.-кмета Йорданка Фандъкова пред "Монитор" и допълни, че по предварителни изчисления за паметника ще отидат между 250-300 хил. лева. Организаторите на честванията в София предложиха да бъде направен и паметник на ген. Гурко, както и да бъде открита сметка, чрез която дарители да помогнат на СО за проектите.
От комитета алармираха и за лошото състояние на вече съществуващите паметници в София.
Разработени са проекти за реставрация на паметника на цар Освободител, както и на останалите монументи в столицата, обясни Фандъкова и допълни, че до края на месеца всички предложения трябва да са вече в Общината и да започне работата по осъществяването им.

Кърпят дупките по улиците в София

Тръгнаха летните ремонти на улиците в София. Цяло лято задръствания и майстори ще тормозят столичани. Първият ремонт започна в района на Медицинска академия. Улица "Живко Николов" вече е затворена, като там се полага изцяло нова настилка.
"След около 10 дни улицата трябва да е готова. Следващите, по които ще се работи, ще са ул. "Здраве" и "Никола Славков", съобщи пред "Монитор" зам.-кметът по транспорта Велизар Стоилов. Там ще бъде променена и организацията на движението. Ул. "Никола Славков" ще бъде отворена към бул."Пенчо Славейков", за да се улесни движението в района. "Здраве" пък ще стане еднопосочна. В средата на юли ще започне и кърпенето на бул. "Цар Борис III". По същото време ще се запълват дупки и на ул. "Първа българска армия". Утре пък ще бъде пуснат трамвай 20 по "Шипченски проход", тъй като ремонтът там приключи.
В момента работа кипи и по улиците в Банкя. Дупки се запълват по ул. "Родина".
"Кърпим само повредената настилка. По-добре е да я асфалтираме наново, защото след дъждовете пак ще зейнат дупки, но от нас искат само частично да кърпим", обясняват мургавите работници от шарения квартал "Христо Ботев". До дни се очакват да започнат ремонти на още две кръстовища в Банкя.

Does anyone know what´s going on on the motorway Sofia - Kalotina, it will be a very great motorway as it will pass through mountain valleys with rocks etc, in Sofia i think they started in Spring but how fast do they work?

Do you know that, Ljulin motorway will be opened in sections, the first section will be opened next year, i recently read it in a newspaper.

Sofia-Kalotina will be part of Trakia highway. It's going to be finished in a couple of years, though I don't actually believe these optimistic claims..

Sofia-Kalotina will be part of Trakia highway. It's going to be finished in a couple of years, though I don't actually believe these optimistic claims..

Which optimistic claims, the companies already signed for construction of the two sections of the Struma motorway Dolna Dykania Dupnica - Sandanski Kulata, so they surely will build them, for the Ljulin, i read it is under construction man.

^^ Lyulin has nothing to do with Sofia-Kalotina BTW..

^^ Lyulin has nothing to do with Sofia-Kalotina BTW..

I know, i didn´t know you are refering to the Sofia Kalotina, but when i was travelling to the border i saw people work there, did they just repair the current road or did they start building the motorway on the current road?

Hm, perhaps that's some road rehab projects. The entrance of Sofia from Kalotina is still awful though :(

I don't know when are they gonna start Sofia-Kalotina, perhaps they'll finish Stara Zagora-Karnobat first, dunno..

Hm, perhaps that's some road rehab projects. The entrance of Sofia from Kalotina is still awful though :(

I don't know when are they gonna start Sofia-Kalotina, perhaps they'll finish Stara Zagora-Karnobat first, dunno..

And do you know the route of that motorway? Will it be opened in sections, would be great, maybe in two years we will be able to travel oon some sections of the new motorway.

I hope they will work paralell, but it doesnt´matter for me anymore, iit wouldn´t matter if they would stop work on all motorways except Struma since that´s the main route i will use, i don´t like the sea so i won´t travel often on the other motorways :P

Btw, can someone say what the ydid the last month on the Struma motorway, i heard in the radio they are working there but i don´t know, did they add the missing markings or what?

Here is my short trip to Velingrad,

just of the Trakia highway at Kostenec
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/301/img1866ol4.th.jpg (http://img257.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1866ol4.jpg)

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/6043/img1867ys2.th.jpg (http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1867ys2.jpg)

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/4989/img1870zj6.th.jpg (http://img521.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1870zj6.jpg)

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/9682/img1873ij9.th.jpg (http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1873ij9.jpg)

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/9239/img1874on9.th.jpg (http://img504.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1874on9.jpg)

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/3585/img1876eg0.th.jpg (http://img530.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1876eg0.jpg)

the road was really dangerous and terrible just before Velingrad

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/5428/img1889fi7.th.jpg (http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1889fi7.jpg)

Do you guys have any online road map of Bulgaria???? I am planing a trip to Turkey via Bulgaria this summer and wanted to check a detailed map.

thanks in advance, rgds

I have one,but you won't understand it,because it's in Bulgarian.Try using google.If I find something I'll post it here.

I have one,but you won't understand it,because it's in Bulgarian.Try using google.If I find something I'll post it here.

I can read your alphabet but wouldn't understand a word :) thanks for quick reply.

Rgds

Here's map of Bulgarian highways:http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/9232/800pxbulgarianroadnetwogp2.jpgOther than that use ViaMichelin.

@ Verso - thanks man :)
another question - Is section Plovdiv - Turkish border already under construction or yet to begin??? If it is, how far along they are????

JuMPer, why d'you leave the highway so soon? You could've taken the Велинград - Церово (Velingrad - Tserovo) exit - it's much quicker that way. Anyway, the town's real pretty. The relatives on my father's side live there.

igorlan, here you are:

http://www.bgmaps.com/home.asp?sid=f2eda68bdd248f16b20b2d3b69aec0e9&lang=en

Enjoy! :)

@ Verso - thanks man :)
another question - Is section Plovdiv - Turkish border already under construction or yet to begin??? If it is, how far along they are????

soem parts are under construction, some are finished, a section was opened last month with 17 km. There´s a lto fo motorway, enjoy your right and the landscape.

igorlan, here you are:

http://www.bgmaps.com/home.asp?sid=f2eda68bdd248f16b20b2d3b69aec0e9&lang=en

Enjoy! :)

Bless you good man :cheers:

soem parts are under construction, some are finished, a section was opened last month with 17 km. There´s a lto fo motorway, enjoy your right and the landscape.


Thanks a lot, so it looks like there is a gap in between the existing sections??? According to the map there is a small section which reaches Bulgarian/Turkish border, correct me if I am wrong, but it looks exactly like i'm saying.

Thanks a lot, so it looks like there is a gap in between the existing sections??? According to the map there is a small section which reaches Bulgarian/Turkish border, correct me if I am wrong, but it looks exactly like i'm saying.

The maps there are old, new motorways aren´t even shown there.

Yeah, unfortunately radi6404 is right, the newest highways aren't shown on the map at http://www.bgmaps.com...and they are: a small sretch of the Trakia highway that goes all the way to Chirpan (not Plodovitovo as it's shown on the map), a stretch of the same highway from Karnobat to Burgas, the new stretch of the Maritsa highway (16,5 km if I am not mistaken) from Harmanli to Lyubimets and radi6404's favorite, I believe - the section of the Struma highway from Pernik to Dolna Dikanya.
There's no newer map than this one, or there isn't one that I know of... That's why I posted it. Take care!

Yeah, unfortunately radi6404 is right, the newest highways aren't shown on the map at http://www.bgmaps.com...and they are: a small sretch of the Trakia highway that goes all the way to Chirpan (not Plodovitovo as it's shown on the map), a stretch of the same highway from Karnobat to Burgas, the new stretch of the Maritsa highway (16,5 km if I am not mistaken) from Harmanli to Lyubimets and radi6404's favorite, I believe - the section of the Struma highway from Pernik to Dolna Dikanya.
There's no newer map than this one, or there isn't one that I know of... That's why I posted it. Take care!

:lovethem: :lovethem: :lovethem:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MWE5DZMP
This megaupload :bash:
I suppose that's the right link :ohno:

Nice map, but a bit outdated.

and a bit large :lol: 6000x4000 pix, that's quite some monitor you'll need.

I didn't find better one :(

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MWE5DZMP
This megaupload :bash:
I suppose that's the right link :ohno:

Could you please not use Megaupload? Thank you.

Could you please not use Megaupload? Thank you.
So,please,tell something better.10x.

Could you please not use Megaupload? Thank you.

I don´t like it either, but why not use, yousendit is the best or should i say, the one with less adds and spam.

World Bank Approves Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project in Bulgaria

The Board of the executive directors of the World Bank has approved Road Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project in Bulgaria worth 90 M euro, informs the website of the financial institution.

The project aims to assist the country reduce road transport costs by improving the condition and quality of its roads network during the first years of EU accession. Bulgaria’s road network is of critical importance for trade with the European Union as well as for the integration of the country’s remote regions in the European market.

Limited funds for road rehabilitation and maintenance have led in the past to a deterioration of a large percentage of roads, which may be depriving from an important source of economic growth.

According to the project the government will rehabilitate chosen roads of I, II and III grade with overall length 450km.

Assistance will be received also in the promotion of the technical and management capacity of “National Road Infrastructure” fund through investment of equipment, technologies and procedures allowing for more effective use of resources for the road sector, including EU funds.

The World bank points out that the road rehabilitation project will also help for coping with the increasing problem Bulgaria faces with road accidents. The banks states that the traffic fatality rate in Bulgaria is twice as high as the European Union’s average.

Very good news, but 90 M € aren´t that much.

A new terminal for departures has been opened at Burgas Airport. With it the capacity of the airport for departuring flights rises up with 40%

Нов терминал на бургаското летище

Министър Мутафчиев посети бургаското летище за откриването на нов терминал за заминаващи пътници.
Придобивката е в изпълнение на инвестиционната програма на концесионера "Фрапорт Туин Стар Еърпорт Мениджмънт" АД, предаде БТА. Терминалът разполага с всички необходими съоръжения и борудване, в това число и удобства за хора с двигателни увреждания. Новото съоръжение е свързано със съществуващия терминал за заминаващи пътници на летището и разполага с 9 нови гишета за регистрация на пътници и багаж, 2 гишета за гранична проверка, 3 рентгенови апарати за проверка за сигурност и багажна система, която може да обслужва големи типове самолети с над 250 пътници. Капацитетът на багажната система позволява да се обработват едновременно три полета, което са 600 човека на час. Организацията и техниката в терминала осигуряват бързо обслужване на пътниците и техния багаж. С влизането на новия терминал в експлоатация капацитетът на летище Бургас за заминаващи пътници се увеличава с 40 процента. Средствата, инвестирани за увеличаването на капацитета на летището за обслужване на пристигащи и заминаващи пътници са около 7 милиона лева. Инвестирани са средства в нова самолетообслужваща техника - автобуси, лоудери, агрегати за запуск и др. Днешното откриване на терминала в Бургас съвпада с деня на честването на 60-годишнината на българската гражданска авиация. По информация на летището тази година тук се очаква да бъдат обслужени над 2 000 000 пътника, което е с 10 % повече от миналата година.

Great news, i am interested where the new motorway Burgas - Karnobat starts directly from the Bypass or if there is a two lamed connection between them.

^^
directly

the main idea of this article is that a lot of roads are being built :) there is work on 4 motorways ( Lyulin, Trakia, Maritza, Hemus) and a lot of other not so significant roads :cheers:

И магистрала "Люлин" вече се изгражда

Автор: Милена ИВАНОВА

Строи се и по четирите магистрали, съобщиха от фонд "Републиканска пътна инфраструктура". Изгражда се лот 1 от магистрала "Тракия", който е на територията на област Стара Загора. Той е с дължина 38.740 км от Оризово (км 171+360) до Стара Загора (км 210+100). Строителството на лот 1 се извършва на два етапа:
I подучастък от км 171+360 до км 186+650 и етапна връзка със съществуващата републиканска пътна мрежа (път II-66), въведени в експлоатация от 1 юли 2006 г.;
II подучастък от км 186+60 до км 210+100, който след първото удължаване на срока трябваше да бъде въведен в експлоатация през юли 2007 г., но на практика откриването на трасето ще стане към края на годината. Проектът се финансира със заем от Европейската инвестиционна банка.
След като получи на 15 май протокол за строителна линия и ниво, турската фирма изпълнител вече започна работата по магистрала "Люлин". Обектът има разрешение за строеж от Министерството на регионалното развитие и благоустройството от 27 февруари, то влезе в сила на 12 април.
Строителството на магистрала "Люлин" от Софийския околовръстен път до пътен възел "Даскалово" е предвидено да завърши през 2009 г. Трасето е с дължина около 19 км, договорът за строителство е подписан на 8 август 2006 г. Срокът за изпълнение е 36 месеца, гаранционният период е 12 месеца.
Девет обекта се обновяват с бюджетни средства
по програмата на фонд "Републиканска пътна инфраструктура" за капитално строителство.
Изгражда се магистрала "Хемус" при пътен възел Шумен.
Изпълняват се две отсечки от магистрала "Марица" - от Харманли до Любимец (км 72+940 - км 89+600) и Свиленград - Капитан Андреево от км 89+260 до км 112+000
Това лято ще се строи по път I-9, вариант "Алепу", обхода на Чепеларе от път II-86 (км 0+000 - км 3+996)
Изгражда се път I-4 Омуртаг - Търговище, III лента, от км 205+680 до км 213+345, път I-1, пътен възел "Байкал", Дупница.
Със закъснение се строи път II-18, Софийски околовръстен път от км 44+720 до км 49+291. Извършва се реконструкция в регулацията на град Монтана от км 109 до км 110 и прилежащи пътни съоръжения от път I-1.
Най-активно е строителството по проект

"Транзитни пътища 4" , което трябва да завърши през 2008 г.
В програмата са включени пътни участъци с дължина 354 км, обособени в десет групи пътни обекти (лотове) с местоположение по общоевропейските транспортни коридори и главните пътища на България. Те се характеризират с висока интензивност на движението и доказани икономически параметри за определяне възвращаемостта на инвестициите. В строителство са 9 групи пътни обекти (лотове), чието завършване се очаква до края на 2008 г.
Лот 2 - път II-55 Велико Търново - Гурково - участъци от км 11+170 до км 31+561 и от км 31+561 до км 33+954, т.е. 22.784 км. Изпълнител е консорциум от "Биндер" - Сливен, и "Пътни строежи" - Велико Търново.
Лот 3 - път I-8 Калотина - Сливница, участък: от км 1+000 до 25+600; път I-8 Сливница - София, участък от км 25+600 до км 48+323.29, общо 47.323 км. Изпълнител е "Алпине Майредер", Австрия.
Лот 4 - път I-9 Каварна - Балчик, участък от км 46+801 до км 64+884; път I-9 Оброчище - Варна (преминаване през село Кранево), участък от км 80+692 до 83+110, общо 20.501 км. Изпълнител е "Пътно строителство" АД - Добрич.
Лот 5 - път I-3 Луковит - Коритна, участък от км 151+716 до км 156+985; път I*-3 Коритна - Ябланица, участък от км 161+220 до км 164+279; път I-4 Коритна - Севлиево, участък от км 0+400 до км 25+024; път I-4 Коритна - Велико Търново участък от км 69+833 до км 101+565; път I-5 Дебелец - Дряново - Габрово, участъци от км 126+400 до км 145+000, от км 149+950 до км 155+368; път I-5 Дебелец - Габрово, участък от км 107+300 до км 111+00, общо 92.362 км. Изпълнител е сдружение "Пътища" с водеща фирма холдинг "Пътища" и партньор "Пътстрой" - Габрово.
Лот 6 Път I-9 Варна - Бяла, участък от км 142+205 до км 165+069, общо 22.864 км.
Изпълнител е дружеството "Автомагистрали Черно море" АД.
Лот 7, път I-2 Русе - Варна, участъци от км 94+532 до км 100+085, от км 105+781 до км 123+453, от км 131+835 до км 133+794, общо 25.184 км
Изпълнител е "Автомагистрали Черно море" АД.
Лот 8 - път I-2 Русе - Разград, участъци от км 1+057 до км 15+612 - дясно; от км 1+620 до км 12+410 - ляво; от км 24+790 до км 30+266; от км 61+053 до км 63+420; път I-2 Разград - Шумен - участък от км 77+740 до км 82+520; път I-5 Русе - Бяла, участъци от км 0+000 до км 3+872 - дясно; от км 52+182 до км 58+789; от км 59+325 до км 65+180, общо 56.574 км. Изпълнител е сдружение "Пътища" с водеща фирма партньор холдинг "Пътища" и партньор "Пътстрой" - Габрово.
Лот 9 - път I-6 Кюстендил - Перник, участъци от км 25+860 до км 30+434 и от км 34+385 до км 44+303; път I-6 Радомир - Перник - участък от км 68+065 до км 77+672 - ляво и дясно; път I-6 Перник - София, участъци от км 78+615 до км 87+613 и от км 92+175 до км 95+675 - ляво и дясно, обшо 39.597 км. Изпълнител е "Булстройинженеринг".
Лот 10 - път I-6 Пирдоп - Карлово - участъци от км 189+600 до км 209+308, от км 219+600 до км 221+800; път II-17 Ботевград - АМ "Хемус" - участък от км 0+000 до км 6+750; път I-1 Скравена - Ботевград, участък от км 188+897 до км 191+381, общо 31,142 км. Изпълнител е "Лена инженеринг" - Португалия.

that are nto all the motorways you fool, you forgot the most important motorway of all, but it´s no problem since they wil start it in August.

that are nto all the motorways you fool, you forgot the most important motorway of all, but it´s no problem since they wil start it in August.

" you fool " huh? >( you could have just said, no insulting necessary ......

no comment

" you fool " huh? >( you could have just said, no insulting necessary ......

no comment

I got angry because you didn´t mention that motorway.

happy now? plus, I didn't write the article, so don't blame me for someone not mentioning your precious.

Capacity of Sofia Airport's new terminal soon exceeded

Six months after the launch of the new passenger terminal of Sofia Airport, the facility reached its maximum capacity.

Air carriers are planning to increase the number of their flights to Sofia by the end of 2007, Dnevnik daily reported.

Preliminary plans envisioned that the terminal has to handle 2.6 million passengers per year. Sofia Aairport had passenger traffic of 2.2 million people in 2006.

Passenger traffic increased by 21 per cent for May 2007 compared to the same period of 2006.

Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev said that the terminal needed extension.

The airport’s managing director Plamen Stanchev opposed his suggestion saying that the airport is not going to reach its full capacity so quickly.

Recently he said that he expected that the number of passengers serviced by the airport will reach 2.6 million only by the end of 2007.

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which funded the airport’s extension expects that this capacity will be reached by 2011

EUROSTAT: Bulgaria with the highest number of nights spent in Bulgarian hotels of all new EU members. The number for the second half of 2006 reached 11.59 million and is ahead of the Czech Republic with 10.79 million. We are the leaders, but hopefully, it's not be so much about quantity but quality.

№1 сме по туристи сред новите в ЕС

България е най-популярната туристическа дестинация сред новоприетите страни членки на ЕС, сочи изследване на Евростат, цитирано от Profit bg.
За периода юни-септември миналата година общият брой на нощувки от местни и чуждестранни туристи в хотелите са възлезли на 11.59 млн., което е повишение от 3.1%, в сравнение с броя им от 11.24 млн. година по-рано, се казва още в изследването.

Значителен е бил и броят на нощувките на чуждестранни граждани, който е възлизал на 9.54 млн., или 82% от общия брой. Най-голям е бил процентът на нощувките на чужденци в Малта, възлизащ на 97%, Люксембург * 95% и Кипър * 91%. За сравнение, в Румъния процентът е възлязъл едва на 17%.

Сред новите страни членки на ЕС непосредствено след страната ни по този показател се нарежда Чехия, където броят на нощувките в хотели са възлезли на 10.79 млн.

Сред страните от ЕС общият брой на нощувките в хотели през изминалия летен сезон е възлязъл на 710 млн., което е повишение от 2.3% на годишна база, сочат статистическите данни.

Повишението им се е предопределило почти изцяло от ръста на нощувките при чуждестранните туристи, повишили се за 27-те страни членки на ЕС с 4.7%, до 340 млн.

well it isn't really hard, it's not like people are in a rush to ski in the hills of the Baltic states, or sunbath in the Carpaths, and we're bigger than tiny Slovenia.
Of all 12 states, we've got the best (over?)developed beaches, and a pretty good mountain industry. the Czechs obviously have all the cultural tourism, but that isn't hard to develop as well
Croatia might be a problem if we want to keep up in the rankings whenever they join

The metro administrative body provided some calculations in advance to demonstrate the huge impact of a metro system. According to their stats, a completed metro system would reduce 65k hours worth of sitting in traffic, lower road incidents by 5%, and decrease 3500 tons of gas emissions. The problem is this wouldn't realize until 2020.

65 хил. часа по-малко висим в задръствания

Метрото ще спести на софиянци 65 хил. часа висене на ден в задръстванията, каза шефът на "Метрополитен" Стоян Братоев. След приключване на строителството на метрото в София около 450 хил. пътници ще пътуват под земята. Така метрото ще обхване 38% от пътуващите. Това е много добро покритие на мрежата в сравнение с други столици - Прага 44%, Виена 48%, каза Братоев. Капацитетът на метрото е 50 хил. души на час, което е 10 пъти над възможностите на градските автобуси - 5-6 хил. Влакчетата ще се движат средно с 41 км в час, което е 4-5 пъти повече от средната скорост на рейсовете - 7-10 км. Така дори от крайните квартали на София ще се стига до центъра само за 10-12 минути вместо за 40-50. От "Метрополитен" са изчислили, че метрото ще облекчи транспорта в столицата с 12%, което ще доведе до 5% спад на катастрофите. С развитието на подземните линии ще отпаднат около 130 автобуса по 8-10 линии. От друга страна, ще намалеят и задръстванията, от което ще спестим 3500 тона вредни емисии. Така метрото ще доведе до 16 млн. лв. пряк икономически ефект и 17 млн. непреки ползи годишно.

Some rticle from the Miami Herald :

Bulgaria Мixes Оld World and New, and Оffers Great Bargains

Author: Miami Herald

The Tsarevets fortress looms over the tidy medieval city of Veliko Turnovo like an image from a fairy tale. Its crenellated stone walls and turrets, ideal for damsels in distress, crown a steep hill.

But instead of heading up toward that restored beauty, the city's largest tourist attraction, my Bulgarian friends drove down toward the river at its feet. They were intent on a different destination.

I looked longingly at the fortress as we parked in a dirt lot. We walked under an archway into an unimpressive scene. Piles of rubble lay on the ground. A stone church was attractive in the October sunshine with its series of arches and a red-tiled roof, but I had seen others far grander in Bulgaria.

My friends, though, were eager to take a look. I wondered why, until Raissa Yordanova explained that this was the Forty Martyrs church and monastery, a linchpin of Bulgarian identity and history. The complex was built in 1280 and destroyed during centuries of Turkish Ottoman rule. A prophecy proclaimed that Bulgaria would return to prosperity only after the church was restored.

Those piles, I realized, weren't random, but delineated the outlines of the monastery as it once was, with tiny monks' cells and larger worship spaces. It was reopened to the public last summer.

Inside the church, some of the murals of bearded saints glow brightly, while others, unrepaired, are chipped and barely visible. The restoration of the monastery and church is hauntingly beautiful, but unfinished -- much like the former Soviet-bloc country itself.

Last fall was my second visit to Bulgaria and to Veliko Turnovo, a charming old city that was once the capital of Bulgaria and is now one of the country's more popular tourist magnets. One guidebook calls the well-preserved town ''the next Prague,'' which got a laugh from the Bulgarians I was traveling with when I read it aloud.

I understand the skepticism. The year before, when a friend invited me to join her for a media conference, I admit that I had to look up Bulgaria on a map. Last year, my return felt like a chance to spend time with old friends.

We began with a few days in Sofia, the capital, moved on to Rousse in the north, swung back in a loop through the tourist town of Turnovo, as the locals refer to it, and returned to Sofia. Even though just a year had passed, these towns, like the whole country, are in an energizing state of flux.

Bulgaria joined the European Union in January, becoming a more modern nation amid a wealth of history.

The Archeological Museum in Sofia houses hundreds of pre-Christian artifacts from the Thracians and the Greeks. Forts, statues and other remains of the Roman Empire are being dug up and restored -- or plowed under for new development. Ottoman Turks overran the country at the end of the 14th century and held on until the early 1900s. Then came the world wars and Soviet oversight, which ended in 1989.

Despite earlier domination by Turkey and the Soviet Union, the only heated talk I heard about either country concerned the best places to vacation in Turkey. I found it odd that a Balkan country with such a history holds so few grudges. As we drove around the countryside, I asked a Bulgarian friend about it. He shrugged.

''That's past,'' he said. ``We are thinking about the future.''

Rousse sits along the Danube River on Bulgaria's border with Romania. The city was once a Roman fortress and later considered the cultural center of the region, partly because of its close ties to Vienna. The Austrian Hapsburg Empire influence is obvious in the architecture, with baroque curlicues and curious stone faces.

Change is obvious, too.

The year before, an ornate building across the street from my hotel had been crumbling and shrouded in scaffolding. This year, it was brilliantly restored, with pink and blue lights showing off the gleaming white facade every evening.

In Sofia, when a Bulgarian journalist gave me a tour, he was dismissive of the massive marble and granite Soviet architecture, some of which struck me as quite impressive.

As we wove our way around cars parked on cobbled sidewalks, he showed me where the entrance to the presidency had been moved away from the central avenue, a symbol of Communist power. He told me how the country had rid itself of such symbols, replacing a Lenin statue with one of Saint Sofia, blowing up the mausoleum of a Communist leader.

In spite of the effort to shed the recent past, Bulgarians do embrace their ancient past.

My modern hotel in Sofia was built around a circular 4th-century church. Just outside the front entrance sits a weighty, domed 19th-century Bulgarian Orthodox church, and tucked inside the nearest subway underpass is a small 14th-century church, all well -- and fairly newly -- preserved.

As we headed underground at the subway, we passed the saved remains of a Roman building. Often, street musicians were perched on one of its walls. This year, we saw Japanese tourists posing for pictures with a little girl playing the violin.

Another sign of growth: a developing wine industry. I toured a winery in Rousse housed in an old Turkish armory. The vineyards now are marketing wines beyond their border. A month ago, I spotted a Bulgarian wine in a liquor store near my home.

And still another sign: Ugly Soviet-style apartment blocks go on for miles, but many Bulgarians now own their flats and have the means to spruce them up. Both translators at the conference ducked out to meet with workers who were remodeling their apartments.

One impact of Soviet rule lingers. A poster on the wall of a hip bar in Rousse made clear, in succinct English, what you could do with yourself if you supported the smoking ban the government had imposed. It was confirmation of an observation I'd slowly made: Bulgarians don't much care for rules.

''Rules are more like guidelines,'' English teacher and translator Angela Spassova told me. During Socialist times, so many bad rules were imposed that people started deciding for themselves whether to follow them.

Oddly enough, what came to define Bulgaria's transition for me was not an ancient monument, or a barroom poster, but the restrooms -- WCs, or water closets, as they call them there.

At a tiny roadside cafe, I went to the back, pushed open the door and looked down. It wasn't a welcome sight: a squat toilet -- a dirty concrete hole in the ground.

On another day, at a wood-paneled restaurant in Rousse that served a platter of meat called ''wolf's hunger,'' I went to the restroom. It was recently remodeled, immaculate, and had a new, porcelain squat toilet. Somehow, I found it charming.

Bulgaria -- still one of the poorest countries in the European Union, only ahead of its northern neighbor, Romania -- is not for the visitor who likes easy travel. The unfamiliar Cyrillic alphabet makes getting around a challenge. Tobacco smoke is omnipresent, air pollution common. Drivers disobey traffic laws. Most people, including many cabdrivers, don't speak English, making even simple journeys an adventure.

On the other hand, the rewards of visiting can be terrific.

The EU and UNESCO are pouring money into renovating historic sites that are crumbling under years of neglect.

One of them is the fresco-lined Ivanovo rock monastery perched high above flooded plains.

On our way from Rousse to Veliko Turnovo on a rainy October day, we made a detour to the caves, cut into sheer stone cliffs.

We were the only visitors. The view of the autumn leaves from the monastery was stunning as we peered down from the aeries where monks lived their isolated lives of prayer.

The renovation at that point largely consisted of covering the cave openings with wood to prevent more damage. Small openings let in enough light to illuminate the labor of monks from centuries ago. Every rock face of the cave was covered with a biblical story or a patron saint.

The artwork was stunning, and I took lots of pictures. As we climbed out via a wooden stairway, I noticed a paper sign that had a camera in a red circle with a slash through it.

I stopped and then moved on, sure that in Bulgaria, I wasn't the first person to break that rule.

IF YOU GO:

Bulgaria is a bargain for the traveler. We had appetizers of white and yellow Bulgarian cheese with three kinds of thinly sliced sausages, tomato and cucumber salads, and then a steaming pot of beef, cheese and egg for about $15 -- including wine. A dry paprika spice mix is served with crusty bread for dipping. The fare reminded me of Greek food with plenty of German sausages thrown in.

Portions tend to be large, and restaurants are required by law to list the weight of each course on the menu. Rakia, a traditional brandy, is often drunk with salad. Good espresso is available everywhere. Even the machines in the subway dispense a decent cup for about a quarter.

TRY TO TALK THE TALK: The Cyrillic alphabet can be the biggest challenge to getting around in Bulgaria. On the larger highways, you'll see signs that use Roman letters under the Cyrillic, but city street signs in Sofia and around the country are in Cyrillic only.

Learning at least a little of the alphabet can help a lot, even if it's just to pick out words like restaurant (pectopaht).

Many people in the larger cities speak at least some English, enough to help us find our way. One afternoon in Sofia, I went to the market by myself and easily managed to buy a hair dryer, sujuk (a flat, tasty sausage) and English map of Bulgaria.

No one expects you to know Bulgarian, and if you learn a few words, it is fun to watch how surprised and pleased people are. Da (yes), ne (no), molya (please), and dobre (good, OK, sure) go a long way. Many Bulgarians also use merci for thank you and ciao for goodbye.

I spent three days trying to learn to say blogodarya (thank you). Angela Spassova, one of the translators, tried to make me feel better about my struggles: ``It's the most difficult word in Bulgarian. Children here can't say it correctly until they're 3 or 4 years old.''

USE CASH: Between our visit last year and the year before, there was one small but important change for tourism: More stores and restaurants accept credit cards. The State Department and guide books on the country warn of widespread corruption. That corruption, influenced by organized crime, has made local shopkeepers hesitant to use credit. Still, judicial reforms seem to be slowly having an impact. Plan to use cash at most places, though.

GETTING AROUND: Private bus lines run to most tourist areas of the country (busbulgaria.com), and they are probably the most comfortable way to get around and usually are reasonably priced. The state railway system is extensive, but not necessarily fast or clean. I'm told you want to avoid the toilets onboard at all costs. The website is www.bdz.bg. Click on EN for an English version.

LODGING: When looking for places to stay, keep in mind that there may be a two-tier pricing system: one for locals, the other for tourists. While technically illegal, several places where we stayed still used it. There is no centralized bed-and-breakfast or hostel bureau. Searching the Web for hotels, resorts or rooms for rent in the individual towns may be your best bet.
SOURCES: One of the best travel resources is The Insider's Guide to Sofia and Beyond ... published by two women who run the Sofia Echo, an English-language newspaper. You'll have to look for it once you get there. We picked up a copy at the hotel gift shop. They publish a limited version on their website, www.sofiaecho.com. Look for ''Sofia Guide'' at the bottom of the screen.

Pretty interesting article. You can't stop laughing at some at point.

^^ yeah , pretty interesting indeed :) i had a good laugh at some parts too ...

especially this one :

Last fall was my second visit to Bulgaria and to Veliko Turnovo, a charming old city that was once the capital of Bulgaria and is now one of the country's more popular tourist magnets. One guidebook calls the well-preserved town ''the next Prague,'' which got a laugh from the Bulgarians I was traveling with when I read it aloud.

and this one :

I spent three days trying to learn to say blogodarya (thank you). Angela Spassova, one of the translators, tried to make me feel better about my struggles: ``It's the most difficult word in Bulgarian. Children here can't say it correctly until they're 3 or 4 years old.''

:cheers:

SAVE STRANDJA (http://savestrandja.hit.bg/index.html)

How hard can Blogodarya be to say? I saw some Polish, man that's a difficult languague.

How hard can Blogodarya be to say? I saw some Polish, man that's a difficult languague.

you pronounse it like that: "buogudaria" the most words with L in bulgarian which don´t start with L but have an L in the word are pronounced with the L similar to an U.

^^ Are you from Pernik ? :)

you pronounse it like that: "buogudaria" the most words with L in bulgarian which don´t start with L but have an L in the word are pronounced with the L similar to an U.

I definitely do not agree. Where did that come from? :dunno:

I definitely do not agree. Where did that come from? :dunno:

^^ This is the trend of Pernik and Graovo :nuts: ... They say skakauets instead of skakalets etc... or order in teh reastaurants "piue sas zeue" :lol: :lol: :lol:

:D ^^ Are you from Pernik ? :)

:rofl: :lol: :laugh: Good one! My favorite's: "uebuebiya" :D

lol, well in his defense, you don't pronounce it like with a french L

Well check it here :D

fIsmjZCcfck

you pronounse it like that: "buogudaria" the most words with L in bulgarian which don´t start with L but have an L in the word are pronounced with the L similar to an U.

He is right, unfortunately. Something like 70% of Bulgarians suffer from the 'lazy L' syndrom. This has nothing to do with Pernik's peculiar 'ua' for all Ls but it's a rather common mistake that these days has become the norm in spoken Bulgarian and most ppl don't know they have it. The 'lazy L' appears only where it's part of an unstressed syllable, it's not the first sound of the word or it's not 'sthrenghtened' by certain vowels surrounding the L. Just listen to how Serbians or Macednians prononce the L and you will see the difference. The way they use it is what used to be the case with Bulgarian several decade ago but not anymore for most ppl.

e.g most Bulgarians will say sLUadoled and not sLAdoled. Basically, instead of a 'L' many pp use a 'W'.

He is right, unfortunately. Something like 70% of Bulgarians suffer from the 'lazy L' syndrom. This has nothing to do with Pernik's peculiar 'ua' for all Ls but it's a rather common mistake that these days has become the norm in spoken Bulgarian and most ppl don't know they have it. The 'lazy L' appears only where it's part of an unstressed syllable, it's not the first sound of the word or it's not 'sthrenghtened' by certain vowels surrounding the L. Just listen to how Serbians or Macednians prononce the L and you will see the difference. The way they use it is what used to be the case with Bulgarian several decade ago but not anymore for most ppl.

e.g most Bulgarians will say sLUadoled and not sLAdoled. Basically, instead of a 'L' many pp use a 'W'.

I am from BLAGOEVGRAD, not from Pernik, i am from where the highest mountains in bulgaria are and the best motorway will pass, but great info New Bulgaria, i didn´t know that it became like that nowadays, i thought Bulgarians always said it like that. They even spot people like germans who don´t say it like that. In Bulgaria all people say Coua instead of Cola. Also vocalletters aren´t very stressed in Bulgaria, we say o instead of OO in Germany and we almost don´t say a but some Bulgarian sound instead of A.

^^ This is the trend of Pernik and Graovo :nuts: ... They say skakauets instead of skakalets etc... or order in teh reastaurants "piue sas zeue" :lol: :lol: :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Hmmm :)

BTW, I can't wait! On the 5th of June I'm flying to Rome :)

I'm getting a bit tired of tourism in Bulgaria :)

Yeah, the 'lazy L' is not considered a mistake anymore since it is soooooo common and if you try to speak properly ppl will be like, WTF mate? :) I am from Burgas I should know.;)
P.S. The 'lazy L' is a modern phenomenon and 70-80 years ago this was not the case.

Yeah, the 'lazy L' is not considered a mistake anymore since it is soooooo common and if you try to speak properly ppl will be like, WTF mate? :) I am from Burgas I should know.;)
P.S. The 'lazy L' is a modern phenomenon and 70-80 years ago this was not the case.

To be serious, i never heard anyone speaking the normal L at all.

I've never noticed "lazy L"-maybe because there is not such a thing in Vidin?Or I'm wrong?:nuts:

I don't think it's that widespread, it seems to be divisive onto what words it hits
I don't say suadoued but suadoled, so I don't know if there's some study behind which Ls became lazy or not
And who honestly says Piue for chicken? I don't

^^ I don't agree too ... Maybe it is trend to say "zeue" or "piue" or "wiwiput" in Pernik or In Blagoevgrad , but in Tarnovo we pronounce it clearly as "pile", "zele" and "LiLiput"

Mamma mia that's gonna become a flame war! :)

Anyway, the real true Bulgarian language is the dialect that was and is spoken in the region of Veliko Tarnovo, that is the eastern dialect that I like so much being born in Ruse :)

The commie partisans from Pravec and Botevgrad that overtook the country and ruled it for more than 50 years made the western dialects fashionable...but now it's about the time we should correct that mistake :)

I like the real "L", and I like the eastern dialects, as they are the right ones, LOL :)

Anyone from Varna, Burgas, Stara Zagora or Tarnovo can prove it, hehe :)

Mamma mia that's gonna become a flame war! :)

Anyway, the real true Bulgarian language is the dialect that was and is spoken in the region of Veliko Tarnovo, that is the eastern dialect that I like so much being born in Ruse :)

The commie partisans from Pravec and Botevgrad that overtook the country and ruled it for more than 50 years made the western dialects fashionable...but now it's about the time we should correct that mistake :)

I like the real "L", and I like the eastern dialects, as they are the right ones, LOL :)

Anyone from Varna, Burgas, Stara Zagora or Tarnovo can prove it, hehe :)
So wrong,man!The east dialects are not wright,because they "miekat"-you know.And also we,which speak west dialects have much more old words,which were used by Karavelov for example.The Bulgarian language must be hard and sharp-I really think that's some kind of mith that in tyrnovo they spoke the wright Bulgarian-it's just a brutal "miekane" :ohno:
Maybe I'm a little bit harder,coz I just don't like this "miekane".
BTW-как може да не знаете кво е пустиняк?Или дживгар,гугущук,брабиняк и т.н.Винаги ми е било интересно,когато използвам тия думи в СТЗ например.:nuts:

well don't go to much to the east, otherwise it gets too mellow, probably russian tourist influence lol
I have an aunt that's hilarious to hear
I do agree that central Bulgaria speaks Bulgarian correctly
none of that shopski nonsense! :D

Yes, that "miekane" was the kind of language our founding fathers of the new Bulgaria after the liberation from the Ottoman rule used...till 1945 :)

I've always wondered why it seems so strange to the westerners...they somehow treat it like a provincial dialect, though in my opinion (and not only mine) the western dialects are much more provincial, anyway, I'm not a fanatic on this topic cause I can equally well speak western and eastern accents, depends on who am I speaking with :) My girlfriend for example is from Pazarjik and she speaks in that funny dialect in some occasions...but since most of her friends are from Sliven and Stara Zagora she got very used to the eastern dialects...anyway, sometimes I laugh at her when she tries to speak like us...and sometimes she laughs at me when I try to speak like a typical westerner :)

Anyway, dunno about Varna, Burgas or else, but in my hometown people usually treat people speaking western dialects as "shopski selianduri"...that seemed to me soooo natural until I moved to Blagoevgrad then Sofia :)

I don't think it's that widespread, it seems to be divisive onto what words it hits
I don't say suadoued but suadoled, so I don't know if there's some study behind which Ls became lazy or not
And who honestly says Piue for chicken? I don't

I don´t mean that, i ofcourse also say sualolet and Pile and Zele, but i say Koua and i am sure everyone else in Bulgarian says it, damn, didn´t you get me, as if in blagoevgrad the people are so stupid and speak like in Pernik or in Bansko and Razlog, because there they also speak hard L. But do you say BuLgaria or do you say Byugaria? I hope that´s easy enough for you to get.

So wrong,man!The east dialects are not right,because they "miekat"-you know.
BTW-как може да не знаете кво е пустиняк?Или дживгар,гугущук,брабиняк и т.н.Винаги ми е било интересно,когато използвам тия думи в СТЗ например.

:rofl:
I "miekam" big time. Somehow 'ne' comes out 'nieee'. haha, I can't help it. But looking at the words you use....no comment. :lol:
Honestly the best dialect out there is Vratza. I can listen to them blabber all day.
Radi, come down man, from the east to the west B-town is the best! Respect. :nocrook: