1. There are crooks everywhere... Phone fraud (people calling and telling you your loved one was in an accident, is in jail and needs to be bailed), insurance fraud (For example ARMEETS refused to pay for my broken windows on my car which had KASCO full-coverage insurance), VAT Fraud (one of my ex-best friends' brother was in jail for heading an organized ring for VAT fraud), ATM card fraud etc. etc., police racketeering, etc etc

2. There are many thieves in Bulgaria: My village house in Trankovo was broken into more than 5 times and things like my boiler, shower head and sink taps were stolen... My car was broken into twice in Bulgaria. Part of the problem is unemployment and low salaries and lack of a firm judicial/Police will to stop crime. Our baby stroller was stolen from in front of my wife's parents' apartment in Plovdiv. A neighbour said he saw a Roma lady walking away with it.

3. Bulgarians like to throw an air of superiority... I worked in a power station in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian engineers and middle management acted like they were really smart or important people... which they were not. They keep repearing to themselves what a great nation they are which they are not generally speaking... there are great Bulgarians though....

4. Bulgarians like to talk shit behind people's backs. There is a Bulgarian saying which says if two Bulgarians get together, the third one is bound to be a traitor. I was backstabbed very badly in the power station I used to work at in Bulgaria.

5. Many Bulgarians are superstitious and use the services of "mediums" for predicting the future and protection against black magic. They even have TV channels dedicated to that. On one of the talent shows in Bulgaria there was an old lady that claimed she can clear the air of nuclear pollution and predict one's blood pressure.

6. Bulgaria is plagued by corruption: there are numerous reports of appropriation of public property for cheap, traffic police can be bought for 50 leva (which can be a good think to be honest), technical car inspection stickers can be bought, even a passport or ID can be bought. My best man's wife died under anasthesia while undergoing a simple medical procedure and the responsible doctor is still practicing and the DA wants to drop all charges.

7. Bulgarians tend to be unprofessional: I bought a brand new fridge 4 years ago for my village hosue in Trankovo from Techno market, Stara Zagora. This is a large chain store for electronics and appliances. It barely worked two years and it broke down after the warranty expired. The technical support of Technomarket were very unprofessional... Not to mention the many subcontractors that I hired to fix up my village house: some were drunks, some wanted more money in the middle of the job, some just left the job site without finishing the works. About a month ago I bought some tyres on line from BGgumi.com. I couldn't get an invoice for a long time... People at work do not like to take responsability...

8. Many Bulgarians listen to Chalga, turbo folk music which talks about sex, money, love, cars, air planes...

9. Bulgarian roads are horrible (especially in early spring): in March 2012 I cracked two aluminum rims on the road from plovdiv to Stara Zagora on my beautiful S class AMG which was broken into later.

10. Bulgaria TV shows are generally sub-standard: for example the copy-cat show of Slavi Trifonov and the toilet-humor of Kumitsite. If you watch Nova news, you realize it is written by retards and watched by retards...

11. Nepotism: they say everyone in Bulgaria is someone's cousin...

12. Organized Crime

13. Bureacracy is very bad in Bulgaria. When I used to work at a Bulgarian power station, I was amazed and how much useless payperwork had to be filled out. When I had to get my BG driving license (even though I had a Lebanese, Saudi and a California DL), despite the fact that I passed a complete theoretical/practical driving class, one of the absurd document requirements was that my US MS diploma had to be notarized from the USA !!!! I pulled some connections and the requirement was waived...

Rami E. Kremesti M.Sc., CSci, CEnv, CWEM

Somewhere in Serbia on the Way to Baden, Switzerland

March 30, 2012

last updated December 18, 2022