The biggest Bulgarian towns and above all Sofia are situated on the other pole. They have no tranquility. The majority of their populations live in areas far from any aesthetic urban design. Ugly, similar and gray concrete structures, made only to depress the human mentality. In Sofia the only joy for the eyes is made by God. This is the mountain Vitosha, standing 2 km tall, looking like a volcano just 10 km from the city center. The last communist dictator believed that this mountain could hide the ugliness of the city and applied twice to host the winter Olympic games. The city didn't receive this honor and many mountain areas were saved from deforestation.

The mountains are an important part of Bulgarian legacy and national spirit. Throughout the centuries Bulgarians used these natural fortresses to hide from the persecution of foreigners. If Bulgaria didn't have mountains, maybe today there wouldn't be people calling themselves Bulgarians. Bulgarians now live in the valleys; these people enjoy looking up but prefer living in the cities. For Bulgarians a normal vacation means renting a room or booking a hotel near the seacoast, looking at the sea and walking with a girlfriend, drinking a beer and reading the sports or political section of some daily paper. This is considered as a typical way of passing 2-3 week summer vacation. Bulgarians are very conservative by nature.

Speaking about conservatism, Bulgarians fear public opinion, they also fear being isolated by society and above all they fear feeling responsible for their acts. Public opinion is very strong and you will see this in the uniform dress code depending on the generation and financial situation. Bulgarians think that westerners are dressed very unstylishly, because they can't understand that every individual has a right to wear what individually suits him or her. In fact Bulgarians want very much to hide their individuality under a certain uniform just because their society doesn't accept individuality.

The same applies to the houses in Bulgaria. Look at the high society properties, situated south of Sofia going towards Vitosha. Almost without exception tall walls surround these villas. These walls probably consume more building materials than an average house in the West. To remain out of reach to the eyes and hands of others, this is the main idea behind these walls. This thought remains constantly vivid in the mind of every Bulgarian. For the majority in Bulgaria it's an indisputable truth that if you want to hide from public interest you have to submerge yourself in the crowd or be surrounded by a tall wall.

The question whether or not people should live outside the crowd is fundamental to those who plan to settle down in Bulgaria. The Romans had a magnificent proverb: When you go to Rome, do as Romans do! A tourist usually doesn't have enough time to find out how a normal citizen lives in Bulgaria; that is why anyone who wants to settle in Bulgaria should follow some golden rules, which characterize some specific components of the Bulgarian way of life.

Rule No.1: Anytime you're asked, "How are you?" the politically correct answer in Bulgaria should be "Bad" or "So-so". Answers like "Fine, thank you" or "Very well, and you?" will suddenly make you a target for unhealthy curiosity concerning your financial situation and may even inflict unsolicited night visits inside your property by some unpleasant people.

Rule No.2:  You should always be in the company of fellow foreigners instead of Bulgarians. Just accept the fact that till the end of your days you'll remain a foreigner in the eyes of the local population, your broken Bulgarian will reveal that you're not one of them. For them you'll be a source of extra cash. Every conversation for them will represent a kind of bargain. So use your power to bargain and fine a cheap merchant with whom to spend your money with.

Rule No.3: Bulgarian society is strictly delimitated by financial criterion, i.e. every man, woman and child are worth exactly what they have in their pockets or pretend to have inside the pockets of their friends. Just accept that entering Bulgarian society you will also have to play the same game. A number of adventurous foreigners tried  abusing this system by accumulating illegal capital on the backs of local people, using financial schemes etc. They now live behind bars; this is a lesson for anyone eager to follow their steps.

The rule that anyone costs exactly the content of his pocket has one particular consequence for those who want to settle down in Bulgaria. Your income and only your incomes should determine your way of life in the years to come, so be very prudent with what you buy and at what price. I imagine that if you're interested in countries such as Bulgaria most probably you expect a monthly rent of $1,000 for a single or $2,000 for a couple + up to $100,000 for buying a house. If this is the case then you have alot of room for shopping in Bulgaria, looking for the exact region, type of property and even the criminal rate in the area. Remember, $100,000 is lot of money in Bulgaria if you're looking for a house to live in and not a palace. If you look at Bulgarian real estate sites, you'll perhaps find properties above this price level, but don't be fooled, they are not for you. As a foreigner you should know that the prices for you must be preferentially higher. In general $100,000 can buy up to 300 sq. meters (appr. 3,000 sq. ft) in a good area in Sofia or on the seacoast. Do you need so much room for a single or a couple? In the rest of the country the purchasing power of your money will double or triple. Recently my friends told me that they bought a small apartment (in Bulgaria a small apt. is 50-60 sq. meters) So if you play the game prudently you could save $50,000 to $60,000 or even $80,000 on your housing budget.

Right now the prices in Bulgaria are very low and besides some areas in Sofia and the Black Sea coast, the supply greatly surpasses the demand. Where your monthly rent is concerned, this $1,000 is also big money in Bulgaria. In general a family of 4 living in Sofia tries to live within $500-600 a month. The most expensive cities in the country are Sofia and Varna. The food there costs around $100 per person if you stay away from the restaurants. In the cheapest areas of the country the food is twice as cheap. The clothes and shoes are also not very expensive. The main problem here is that with some exceptions you can't return the goods.

If you're a foreigner wanting to settle in Bulgaria, don't expect that everything there is cheaper than in your home country in North America or Western Europe. Take for example phone calls. In the United States and Canada local calls are included in a flat monthly tax. In Bulgaria you will have to pay for any call, the local as well as long-distance. If you're accustomed to being 24 hours on the Net, then you'll have to budget several hundreds of dollars to cover your local calls to the Internet provider. Bulgaria could have some very unpleasant surprises for those who are accustomed to running water 24 hours a day. It's true that almost every town and village has their W&S systems but in some parts of the country there are so called water regimes. If you plan to settle down in some particular area, ask how many hours a day you could enjoy running water.

Also you should ask if there are power cuts during winter. In Bulgaria the winters are colder than in Western Europe or many parts of the United States, so any power cut could disturb your normal way of life. Remember that in Bulgaria heating is expensive not because the fuel is expensive but because the houses aren't well insulated. If you want to live in a house with good insulation then you'll have to be prepared to pay a higher price for it. So before paying it's better to make some simple calculations, which are cheaper - to pay more for the house and less for the heating (5-6 month per year) or vice versa. According to Bulgarian laws a foreigner can buy a house or land for residential use. So the legislation is liberal and is expected to become even more liberalized after the country enters the European Union.