Yesterday evening I took part in a guided tour through the city center which is run by an NGO here in Sofia. Luckily I did that because it gave me a totally different insight into the life and politics of this place. The tour guides are offering the tour for free and are very committed and knowledgeable. Check them out at http://www.freesofiatour.com/

Sofia is older than 3000 years – can you believe that? And some of the traces one can see you during that guided tour. Also interesting to hear stories from people what is currently going on here, because on a daily basis there demonstrations in the city against the government. In May there were elections and the socialists went into a coalition with the right-wing group and put a 32 year old media-mogul in the position of security minister.
On top of that they called in July a man to be governor of the Sofia region, who supposedly had close ties to a notorious mafia group in the nineties.
Young people-primarily well educated youth who want to build up the country-are demonstrating against it and try to bring their country on course to a modern, western democracy.

Tough challenges for democratic Bulgaria struggling with a lot of economic issues, a youth unemployment rate of 27% and a serious level of brain drain to Germany, the UK, USA and other countries.