31–40 of 42 posts
1. It's NOT the world's fastest shrinking country 2. Filming a god-forgotten village located in the poorest region of certain country does not depict anything. It's like saying that the ghetto part of Detroit depicts America.
It's interesting, but I found myself wondering if you could find similar places in the USA these days, also ...
I was reading on the history of Bulgaria from wikipedia, and came across this curious snippet: > Facing declining birth rates among the ethnic Bulgarian majority , in 1984 Zhivkov's government forced the minority ethnic Turks to adopt Slavic names in an attempt to erase their identity and assimilate them So the population decline is not just some recent post-communist depression, but something more deeply ingrained i…
It's really not especially weird. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ageing_of_Europe Bulgaria and Romania experienced extreme level of emigration but almost every country in Europe is dying out. The countryside in these countries is depopulated and dead, in a country like the UK or France it is merely grim and miserable.
We need county-based voting, not population based voting in order to turn this around.
Joining EU had this effect on my country as well (Romania). There are entire villages (I lived in one of them for 6 years and I can make a difference) where just old people can be found. The young left for other countries (mostly UK and Italy) and to the bigger cities but the latter did so because, for some reason, they couldn't find anything abroad. What you're left with is nothing but old people who are easily mani…
A few years ago I traveled solo through Bulgaria for a few days from Serbia to Greece on a 50cc Yamaha DT50R, avoiding major roads (due to small engine and it's just fun - spent a month going from Marseille to Istanbul - loved all the ex-yugoslav countries). Never noticed anything dangerous while traveling in Bulgaria, although Sofia has that normal big city be-careful feel to it. No bribes required either. Obviously…
I also think people in general tend to disproportionately exaggerate risks relative to the actual probabilities. Something exceptionally brazen and bad happens a few times making it into the news and now it's certain to happen to you should you go there.
Regardless though, if an alternative exists with 100% fewer reports of such problems, it's probably a safer choice relatively speaking.
But in my limited experience I have never found a "dangerous" place to be anywhere near as dangerous as its reputation described.
It's interesting, but I found myself wondering if you could find similar places in the USA these days, also ...
I grew up in Bulgaria in the 90's and these villages were quite derelict back then as well. During summer break, a lot of parents used to send their kids to their grandparents for weeks/months. I wasn't one of them and I remember being very bored as all my friends would go to "selo" (village) Now, as a parent living in the US, I can't imagine ever sending my kids to places like these but I wonder what they'd be missi…
1. It's NOT the world's fastest shrinking country 2. Filming a god-forgotten village located in the poorest region of certain country does not depict anything. It's like saying that the ghetto part of Detroit depicts America.
It actually is the world's fastest shrinking country due to facts that it is.
See Denmark for comparasion: https://www.populationpyramid.net/denmark/2029/
I grew up in Bulgaria in the 90's and these villages were quite derelict back then as well. During summer break, a lot of parents used to send their kids to their grandparents for weeks/months. I wasn't one of them and I remember being very bored as all my friends would go to "selo" (village) Now, as a parent living in the US, I can't imagine ever sending my kids to places like these but I wonder what they'd be missi…
I go back to Bulgaria every summer exactly because I want my kids to spend time in places like Altimir, not rot in toxic urban environments in the US. In fact, my kids spend their time in a much smaller village. They are around farm animals, they roam free all day long unsupervised and only come back when they are hungry, i.e. twice a day. My only worry is the ticks, but so far, we've been lucky, plus, I have Tetracy…
Bits of woodland near cities and also with wild animals are where you should be most worried.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same happened to Croatia. From 2013. when we joined EU, Croatia lost at least 140000 people, which is about 3,3% of population, but unlike Bulgaria, I can say that Croatia is a really safe country.
Croatia is really a sight. Very nice place. On the expensive side though.