Area: 110 993, 6 sq.m. 

Population: 7 973 673 people 

Capital: Sofia

Official language: Bulgarian 

Alphabet: Cyrillic

Religion: The religions in the country are free. The traditional religion is orthodoxe Christianity. 

Administrative districts: 28 districts, called by the names of their regional centers. 

State organization: Republic of a Parliament with one chamber Parliament (national aseembly) consisting of 240 deputies, elected for a period of 4 years. The President is in charge of the whole State, elected for a period of 5 years. The central autority is the Ministry Council.

International vehicle identification: BG

Time zone: GMT (London) + 2 Hours, East European time zone (Germany) + 1 hour. 

Electricity: 220 V, 50 Hz 

Customs details and restrictions: 

When crossing the borders of Bulgaria, the passengers has the right to import and export objects without a tax whose type, quantities or cost are not used for trade, but for personal use. At the customs every passenger has to fill in a declaration related with the restrictions about export and import of currency, food or alcohol. There are special conditions for ancient objects, histrical and cultural treasures, medical or drug substances, weapons and munitions.

Currency exchange: The Bulgarian lev has the following currency rate: 1 EUR = 1.955 BGN.

You can exchange currency in any bank or change. Some of the change offices are open 7 days a week. Euro cheques can be exchanged in a bank. 

Approximate currency rates for 1 lev: 

1 US 1.42 LEVA

1 GBP 2.24 LEVA

100RUB 4.87708 LEVA

Credit cards: most hotels and shops accept VISA, Master Card or American Express.

Transport: Roads - 37.3 thousand km. Railway - 6.5 thousand of km.(65 % of them are electric)Sea ports, Varna and Bourgas. River ports on the river Danube, Russe, Lom, Silistra, Vidin, etc. 4 international airports, Sofia, Plovdiv, Bourgas and Varna. 

Taxis: In the towns and cities, there are specific places for taxis. You can order a taxi on the phone and stop a taxi when you are on the street. 

City transport: Buses and minibuses. In Sofia, there are tramways and underground stations. You should usually buy a ticket before you get on the vehicle, but you can also buy a tocket from the driver. 

Rent a car: You can rent a car from one of the numerous international companies like: Hertz, Budget, Eurocar, etc. But this is also a service offered by many of the hotels, with the assistance of some Bulgarian licd companies.

Post offices and telecommunications:  The working time of the post offices is from 8 am to 6 pm. You can buy post cards from the post offices or from the newsstands. There are many internet cafes where the phone conversations are much cheaper and you can send an e-mail (most of them are open 24 hours).

You can make a local or an international phone call with a card or in the automatic phones on the streets which operate with cards and coins. The coins you can use for local internal calls are 0,20 stotinki, and cards for the local or international calls. Cards can be bought from a post office or a newstand. 

Important phone numbers:

International phone code of Bulgaria: +359 

Fire-station 160

Emergency 150

Police 166

Traffic assitance on the road 146

Information 11800

Traffic police: +359 2/ 982 72 823, 866 50 60

Landscape: various. The average latitude is 470 km. 31,5 % of the country is covered with low lands, 41 %  planes or hills and 27,5 % mountains. 

Climate: Moderate continental, in the south parts of the country, transcontinental. The average temperature in January is from 2 to 2 degrees.  

Waters: rivers (main rivers are Danube, Maritsa, Mesta, Struma, Iskar, Yantra) warm or cold mineral sources (over 600); lakes mainly near the coast (some of them offer some healing mud) and ice lakes (in the mountains of Rila and Pirin).

Flora and Fauna: extremely various. To preseve the flora and the fauna of Bulgaria, there is a law for the preserved territories which defines some categories like national park, national reserve, natural site, preserved region.