My SO and I will be off to Bulgaria in 2 weeks time for a 7 night stay. We will be staying in a complex in the “Sunny Beach” resort. My main question is regarding currency. We are from the UK, and having looked at a few sites it seems we would do best to do the usual thing and change our money before travelling, using whoever is offering the best rate (I have found Travelex.com to be good in the past). Does anyone who has travelled to Bulgaria have any alternative suggestions, such as travelling with Sterling and changing the money locally, or even taking US dollars? Would this give a better rate? How much money will we need for a week (our accommodation (bed & breakfast), flights, and transfers are already paid for)?
Any other tips for travelling to Bulgaria would be appreciated, too - thanks!
Why don’t you just use the ATM? That’s usually the best method, I think. I always travel with some greenbacks though, in case the ATM situation is bad.
The ATM is an option, of course, but I believe my bank will charge a percentage, the local bank charges a percentage, AND you don’t know what exchange rate you’re going to get - so I don’t think that’s likely to get the most Lev for our Pound! Do correct me if I’ve missed something.
Seconding the ATM suggestion. My experience is that your bank charges a set amount, no percentage, which in the case of most East European countries I’ve been to was a little under 2 Euros. The exchange rate is decent. So find out what your bank charges, bring some pounds (I really don’t think you’d need to bring USD, if anything, bring Euros) and you’ll be fine.
Kyla’s subscription has expired, but she sent along this message.
"The Bulgarian lev is pegged to the Euro at a rate of 2:1, so currency shouldn’t be much of a problem. I would NOT recommend changing money in Sunny Beach - definitely get your money from an ATM. Not to try to ruin your vacation before it’s even happened, but Sunny Beach (aka Slunchev Bryag) is the most overtouristed place in Bulgaria. I hear the beach is nice, but the rest of it is sort of a concrete slab covered in condos filled with Scandinavians and Germans on holiday. Don’t expect to see any authentic Bulgaria there, and the prices will be much higher than is typical. No doubt any currency place would have a lousy rate. (FWIW: the most I have seen of SB is driving through on a bus. This is all going on reputation.) Unfortunately, I lived in a different part of Bulgaria from where you’re going to be and don’t know the area well. (BTW, I didn’t live in Sofia as someone else stated, but in a village in the center of the country.) I would recommend going to Nessebar, though, its Roman ruins are famous in the country as extremely beautiful. It’s quite near SB. If you want to travel a little further up the Black Sea coast, the city of Varna is a very nice town, although the beach is overdeveloped. Farther north are Balchik and Kaliakra, both of which are reputed to be very beautiful and not overdeveloped. If you like wild parties and debauchery, though, Sunny Beach is the place to be.
One positive about going to SB, though, is that people there will speak English. Bulgaria is not like, say, the Netherlands, where everyone speaks English. The farther you get out of the main touristy areas, the more Bulgarian you’ll have to muddle through. I recommend trying it - foreigners who bother to learn any Bulgarian are VERY rare and just a couple words will get you great treatment - maybe even invite you to their homes for some homemade rakia.
If you don’t have a car, there are regular busses all over the place. DEFINITELY learn to read Cyrillic before you go. It’ll take 45 minutes on the internet and it’ll make your trip SO much easier if you can read signs. I can’t believe how many travellers I’ve met in Bulgaria who couldn’t be bothered to take an hour and learn Cyrillic, probably because they think it’ll be hard (it’s not). Surprise, surprise, being illiterate sucks!
If you have any other questions, you can email me at kylawp@umich.edu."
Thanks for the great response, Kyla, and to all those who contacted her and helped relay the message. It’s going to be a very “touristy” holiday, so I hadn’t even thought of learning Cyrillic - I will definitely try to do this. I always feel guilty about going abroad and not speaking any of the local language, as well, so I will try to learn a few basic phrases (though I always worry I’ll mess up the pronunciation and not be understood).
Ignorance fought on ATM exchange rates, but it appears my debit card (and my SO’s) is one of the worst ones for charges/commission, according to jjimm’s link (which is going to be very useful, thanks). So I think we’ll go for the traditional route of getting local currency before we travel and save the cards for emergencies. This is how I have always travelled in the past.
Cyrillic is the alphabet, not the language. If you learn what sounds the letters represent, you’ll be able to read the signs. There are several words that are pronounced more or less the same in Bulgarian and English, but you wouldn’t necessarily recognize them.
ресторант = restaurant
for example.
Whenever I’m going somewhere they talk all furrin, I try to know how to say the following phrases. I will help you out by supplying the Bulgarian versions. There is a formal/informal mode in Bulgarian but you’re fine if you just ignore that. My experience is that if you know a few phrases nobody cares that you’re talking to them in the informal mode. Or like a three year old, for that matter. This is especially true with Bulgarians, who always seem amazed that anyone should know even a word of the language.
I – az = Oz
You – ti = tea
Hello – Zdrasti
Good bye – chow (just like Italian)
Please – izvinite = eez vuh NEE tsuh (the tsuh is like tsetse fly but with an ‘uh’)
Thank you. – merci (just like French)
Excuse me. – izvinite
I don’t understand. – ne razbiram = nay raz BEE ram
I don’t speak Bulgarian. – az ne govarya bulgarski = oz ni go VAR ya BULL gar ski
Do you speak English? – govarash li angliski? = go VAR ash lee ang lee ski
The word dobre = dough bray (the stuff you make bread out of + the noise an animal makes, run all together) means, essentially, OK. Bulgarians sprinkle it around like punctuation, though. If you listen to them talk you’ll hear it all through conversations.
If you’re trying to basically agree with someone, you can just say “aida dobre” = “aye duh dobre”. They’ll think you’ve gone native. Also, “aida ciao caio” for goodbye is very common.
Don’t worry about pronunciation too much. They’ll understand you much better than you understand them.
While Bulgarians use “merci” for a common form of thank you, (and it is perfectly correct) if you use the actual Bulgarian word for it they will be MIGHTILY impressed. (blagoDARiya).
This is true. I debated putting that in, actually. All the Bulgarian I know I learned from my ex-girlfriend and her friends/family. They always just said merci.
Another one that’s semi-useful is “How are you?” (kak si = cock see) You probably can’t use it very often, but I’ve had lots of conversations that run like this:
– Hello. How are you?
– Fine, you?
– I’m good.
– <something unintelligible>
– I’m sorry, I don’t speak your language. Do you speak English?
– <switches to English> Amazing! You have no accent! Please let me help you to solve your problems!
–
Another thing that’s good to know is “bless you” - na zdrave = na zdra vay.
This is also used for toasts and things. Make sure you look your fellow drinker in the eye and say na zdrave. If you’ve been drinking rakia, you will probably be experiencing some double/blurred vision, so just pick one and stick with it.
Kyla, znam bulgarski za6toto moia godenitza duk bulgarka. Ne govaram bulgarski na tri godina i misleh 4e zabravam. Ot kude si?
In re please/excuse me: Oops. I knew that. Editing error. :smack: I decided that maybe please was more important than sorry and rearranged poorly.
If you do end up getting a phrase book, I would suggest going through and picking out the useful phrases and writing them down separately. Then practice them for a few weeks before you go. The Lonely Planet guides always strike me as somewhat impractical and wildly optimistic at the same time. I mean, if you get to the point where you need to say “Would you like to come back to my hotel?” you’re probably doing fine without the phrasebook. Another phrase that I would definitely know is “I want”. It’s very two-year-old to wander around saying “I want I want I want” but it gets the point across. I usually go with something along the lines of “molya iskam tyk mnogu merci.” (pleaseIwantthisthankyouverymuch )
So anyway: “iskam <whatever>” = EES kam <whatever>
I want this - iskam tyk = ees kam took (as in, “fool of a --”)
It may not be the most polite way to order food, pointing at random things on the menu and saying “I want this” but it always works out for me.
And regarding the head nod/shake thing: they do do it backwards there. (Nod = no, shake = yes) I forgot about that. What I found cool was that all the Bulgarians I knew would switch body language with verbal language without missing any beats at all.
Bosda, I think you’d better ask Kyla about that one. I’d probably say something stupid in such a situation like “iskam da pishkam” and then pass out.
There is a formal/informal mode in Bulgarian but you’re fine if you just ignore that. My experience is that if you know a few phrases nobody cares that you’re talking to them in the informal mode. Or like a three year old, for that matter. This is especially true with Bulgarians, who always seem amazed that anyone should know even a word of the language.
