I have to be very careful here as I've written some none too complimentary articles myself from time to time, but with some humour I hope, as I do hate whiners.

I've lived in Bulgaria for some time now and have found that many things can be very frustrating and unusual, but that doesn't necessarily make them unique to Bulgaria.

We all complain about the difficulties of obtaining a resident's passport, but in truth it's nearly impossible for Bulgarians to work in the EU. And hasn't it been very difficult for Bulgarians to get visas for EU countries? And isn't it still very difficult to get British visas?

Recently I was in the British Embassy waiting to speak to the clerk who deals with our own nationals. I was listening to a conversation between a visa applicant and the visa officer that for me was highly amusing. No doubt it wasn't at all amusing for the person applying and I can imagine the frustration of genuine applicants, but visa and passport officers have to do their jobs. I have seen Sofia's drivers heavily criticized in this column, including a story about a guy who got out of his car and engaged in physical exchanges with them! I can only comment that this is just the very same bad behavior. Drivers in Sofia are unruly and undisciplined, but that's how it is, and you have to `go with the crowd' if you want to survive. As long as you realize that the rules are that there are no rules you will be as safe as any where else.

Service is often criticized, but I'm not sure that it's worse than any other country, except that they can be much ruder here, as there isn't a tradition of service or good manners, but things are improving and in the better places the service is second to none.

In my experience taxi drivers are rogues throughout the world, with the ones in Sofia merely upholding the tradition. I can tell some lurid stories about British taxi drivers, never mind about those in other parts of the world! Now, after bitter experience I personally only use the bigger more reputable firms like 2121 or 1280 and haven't had any problems.

I recently read an article about a lady who had taken her guests to Maria Louisa. Would you take your guests to Sing Sing or Devil's Island? I think not. The people who work there have long years of highly advanced training in obstruction and difficulty creation techniques. They are nearly as bad as those who populate Western Embassies. But at least they don't make you stand out in the street in all kinds of weather.

What you need in Bulgaria is a little creative thinking. What's wrong with taking your guests to the nearest police station and registering them as guests of your landlord, or any other Bulgarian you happen to know? It's easy and the people in these offices are normal and quite willing to carry out this procedure without problems.

I actually find that Bulgaria is much freer and more tolerant than it appears to be on the surface. There is a big bureaucracy, but where there is bureaucracy there are usually ways of getting around it.

I find the Road Police are quite tolerant of my bad driving and various traffic errors. They will often take the time to explain what I have done wrong, and how dangerous it is to other road users. Why shouldn't I give them, or other civil servants a little tip for their good service, just as I would to a waiter who has been particularly helpful.