Ever creating

Bacchus’ Restaurant of the Year awards prove that Bulgaria’s restaurant sector has a lot to offer – and it tastes good and looks pretty, too

Appointments

Turning a new leaf at Bacchus, Bulgaria's wine magazine

Things at Bacchus, Bulgaria's magazine for wine and gourmet culture, are changing. In mid-July, the first Bulgarian wine encyclopaedia (aka, vinopedia) was launched; this co-incided with an entire makeover of the magazine's website. In the vinopedia are more than 300 wines, all tested and rated by the staff at Bacchus; new wines are added each month, a result of the magazine's Dégustation (Дегустации) rubric. Vinopedia entries include the name, rating and price of the wine, with search options additionally available for year of harvest, grape varietal and type of wine. Access is free-of-charge.

What rocks may come

Belogradchik, in Northwestern Bulgaria, is a stone field inhabited by collective dreams.

You would not drop by Belogradchik on your way somewhere else. Beyond the town, both the road, and Bulgaria itself, come to an end. Though in the midst of the country's poorest region, in the past there was a flourishing city culture here. Now, this can only be proven by a chemical analysis of its crumbling faзades.

Strasbourg and Bulgaria's violent police

Several dozen people suffering from gas intoxication, three of them requiring medical eatment for rashes and pain in their eyes, and one for head injuries; this was the legacy of a visit by the Bulgarian police to the site of an unauthorised coal miners' strike in the south a few weeks ago. "When my officers carry out orders, I support them," Interior Minister Roumen Petkov said after the event. Petkov justified the police

Bulgarian nuclear shutdown worries balkans

Gjergj Bojaxhi, Albania's deputy energy minister, suffers from back pain that gets worse when he sits. He walks around the office, hunching and wincing, absorbing the twinges as he speaks. But one word makes him stand up straight - Kozloduy. The towering chimneys of Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant lie 300km from Albania, in northern Bulgaria. But the distance is irrelevant in a Balkan energy market that was unified by

Kosovo: Does anyone have a plan?

THIS was the question being asked by filmmaker Lode Desmet and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) at the Balkan premier of their documentary about Kosovo. Present at the screening at The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate

READING ROOM 2: Nationalism and Bulgaria's youth

The younger generation seems more susceptible to nationalism than those who grew up under Socialism, reports ALBENA SHKODROVA.

BULGARIAN youngsters are falling prey to a new kind of nationalism that is far more visceral and intolerant than anything espoused by those who grew up under communism. Influenced by the media and by school textbooks that claim to be liberal but often are not, new nationalist sentiments are gripping the nation's youth.

READING ROOM 1: Developers spoil Bulgaria's Black Sea coast

MASSIVE building in seaside resorts threatens ultimately to undermine foundations of tourism industry. For five years now, Bulgaria's Black Sea resorts have enjoyed a year-on-year boom, bringing more and more visitors, money and jobs to the local economy.

Reading Room: Healing the Bulgaria - Romania divide

Two neighbouring states - long divided by walls of prejudice and ignorance - are finally discovering they have more in common than they once thought. A report by ALBENA SHKODROVA in Sofia and MARIAN CHIRIAC in Bucharest.