Britons living in Bulgaria. Guide to Bulgaria, Sofia and Varna: 20080901

9/1/08

Sunday Mirror - Exclusive: British Woman's Incredible Escape From Doomed Madrid Plane

Exclusive: British woman's incredible escape from doomed Madrid plane - Sunday Mirror

Exclusive: British woman's incredible escape from doomed Madrid plane
Sunday Mirror, UK - Aug 24, 2008
It had been thought there were no Britons on the plane but Kim has both British and Spanish nationality. Her father Harry Tate met and married mum Luisa ...

Exclusive: British woman's incredible escape from doomed Madrid plane - Sunday Mirror

So They Can Speak To ... - Daily Mail - Thousands Of Love-Struck Brits Learn Polish

Thousands of love-struck Brits learn Polish - so they can speak to ... - Daily Mail

Daily Mail

Thousands of love-struck Brits learn Polish - so they can speak to ...
Daily Mail, UK - Aug 29, 2008
Scores of lovestruck Britons are now learning the language in a bid to understand their new partners - sparking a rise in the number of evening classes ...

Thousands of love-struck Brits learn Polish - so they can speak to ... - Daily Mail Language lesson: The number of Brits learning Polish has increased dramaticallyHelga Eckart, co-ordinating lecturer for languages, said: 'The course lecturer told me that a lot of them had Polish girlfriends. An estimated one million Polish citizens have arrived in the UK since 2004 in the largest single wave of immigration in British history. Emma Raczka, whose Polish grandfather settled in Wales during World War II, was among those who signed up to the Cardiff course last year. She said although she was there because of her background, about half her fellow students wanted to learn their partners' native language. But there were about 18 people at the start of the Polish classes. There were lots and lots of men with Polish girlfriends. But there was a growing proportion learning the language to understand their new partners - triggering a rise in the number of evening classes being laid on. With immigration continuing to rise Britain is on track to become Europe's most highly populated nation within two generations. Forecasts published by the European Commission suggest that we will overtake Germany within 50 years as the population rises from 60.9million today to 77million. At the same time the populations of 14 of the EU's 27 members are expected to be smaller. The most significant changes will be in countries that have joined the EU only recently. The population of Bulgaria is forecast to fall by 28 per cent, Latvia by 26 per cent, Lithuania 24 per cent, Romania 21 per cent and Poland 18 per cent. A spokesman for the centre, Catherine Mansfield, said: 'Anecdotal evidence suggests that more people in the UK are beginning to learn basic Polish, particularly in cases where they are likely to be working with Polish nationals. Why not add your thoughts below?Polish is incredibly hard to learn. There are many words with cz(ch) and sz(sh) and a strange L which sounds like owl. Some e's sound like en and some a's sound like an. The numbering is quite easy but short words can become really long in the plural. They have genderised nouns and names so it's Mr Watki but Mrs Watka. Most w's are pronounced as V's and they put W's on the front of obscure words to make the pronuciation very hard for Brits. But they can't pronounce th's like thin, thick, Thursday.

- Return Of The Great British Holiday Puts Spain And Greece In The Shade

Return of the great British holiday puts Spain and Greece in the shade - guardian.co.uk

Telegraph.co.uk

Return of the great British holiday puts Spain and Greece in the shade
guardian.co.uk, UK - Aug 15, 2008
The number of Britons visiting Turkey this year has jumped by a fifth to 1.7 million, according to the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA). ...
Gill Charlton: On the case Telegraph.co.uk
all 2 news articles

Return of the great British holiday puts Spain and Greece in the shade - guardian.co.uk Photograph: Cate Gillon/Getty ImagesThe British seaside is proving a popular holiday destination this year, with a weak pound and stretched finances forcing more people to stay in Britain. But many people are still escaping the wet and windy British summer to sunnier climes - outside the increasingly expensive eurozone.The strength of the euro is putting many holidaymakers off traditional European destinations such as Spain and Greece. The pound is now worth €1.27, 20% less than a year ago. Turkey and Egypt have become the new hot spots, seeing the biggest rises in bookings this year. Croatia, Bulgaria and Tunisia are also popular. Outside the eurozone, Bulgaria has emerged as the cheapest European destination.For late summer bookings, Turkey - in particular the Dalaman area which offers sea and mountains - has come out top, according to new figures compiled by Co-operative Travel for The Guardian. The Co-op's Trevor Davis described this as "a seismic shift in holiday bookings, as Spain has been the UK's number one choice since the package holiday began". The number of Britons visiting Turkey this year has jumped by a fifth to 1.7 million, according to the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA). Egypt has seen an even bigger increase of 28%, attracting 600,000 holidaymakers. By contrast, Spain and Greece are showing flat growth - though Spain remains by far the biggest destination, with 14 million Britons going there every year. Greece attracts 2.5 million holidaymakers from Britain.Thomas Cook has seen its summer bookings to Turkey and Egypt increase by 15% from last year. A family of four will pay £1,516 for a week in a self catering apartment in Dalaman with Thomson (owned by TUI) - or £2,141 for the same deal at Alykanas village apartments in Zante, Greece. The British seaside is seeing record numbers of bookings: Brighton is up 70%, Bournemouth 20% and Eastbourne 66%."The Brits are taking another look at holidaying at home because of the economic climate," said Sian Brenchley at Visit Britain. Customers are booking more add-ons with their hotels - theme parks, theatre and music tickets. The trend has continued despite the rather poor summer we've had this year."Asda reported this week that its stores in seaside towns, were trading "phenomenally well".More people are cutting the length of their summer holidays abroad to enjoy several breaks at home. Since the mergers of travel groups TUI and First Choice and Thomas Cook and MyTravel, last year, they have cut the number of low-cost late deals to western Mediterranean resorts such as mainland Spain and the Balearics. The surge to the turquoise coast may continue. Searches on Teletext Holidays between June and August for holidays to Turkey soared by 72% compared with last year. Ash Makkar, marketing director, said: "The credit crunch has affected our customers' priorities in terms of booking a summer break, as they now demand greater value than ever before. It was last updated at 01:45 on August 16 2008. Printable versionSend to a friendShare ClipContact us larger| smaller Share Close Digg reddit Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Share Close Digg reddit Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Travel insuranceMulti-trip annual holiday insurance from £38 and single trip travel insurance from £6. Share travel tips about your favourite places on Been there, our interactive travel guide to the world.

Sofia Echo - Bulgaria: The Age Of $15 Flights

Bulgaria: The age of $15 flights - Sofia Echo

Bulgaria: The age of $15 flights
Sofia Echo, Bulgaria - Aug 22, 2008
... the UK since their country joined the European Union in January 2007 as well as Bulgaria’s appeal as a holiday and investment destination for Britons. ...

Bulgaria: The age of $15 flights - Sofia Echo While the other two main Black Sea airports, in Bourgas and Varna, reported less stellar performances, demand is strong enough for budget carriers to plan and open new routes and increase the frequency of existing ones. The airport announced on August 8 that about 1.54 million passengers passed through Sofia Airport in the first half of this year, an increase of 19 per cent on the same period in 2007. Meanwhile, aircraft movements increased by 3000 to 23 370 and cargo volumes grew by two per cent to 9077 tons. The figure has been considerably boosted by UK-based budget carrier easyJet, which launched flights from Sofia to London’s Gatwick Airport in November, carrying 59 000 passengers on the route by the end of June. This reflected passenger volume growth of 41 per cent and 17 per cent respectively. Vienna is the hub for Austrian Airlines, which is aiming to position itself as the leading airline in Eastern Europe by offering a wider range of destinations than any of its competitors or partners. According to the airline, this represents a 30 per cent growth on 2007.Bulgaria Air has been experiencing particularly strong demand on its flights to the coastal cities of Varna (the de facto second city in economic terms) and Bourgas (the fourth city). Both municipalities include major ports, and lie at the centre of a collection of coastal resorts. This represented significantly lower passenger growth rates than that of Sofia. Bourgas’ figure was up only 0.6 per cent on the year, and Varna’s 2.7 per cent. This is particularly welcome because for several years they mostly avoided Bulgaria, preferring to wait for its accession to the EU. In July, easyJet announced that it will be starting flights between Sofia and Madrid in November and between the Bulgarian capital and Manchester, in the north of England, in December. Both routes will run three times a week.Perhaps more significantly, on July 25, Budapest-based low cost airline Wizz Air, which already serves eight European cities from Sofia, commenced the first internal budget flight in Bulgaria’s history, between Sofia and Varna. With tickets starting at 19.99 leva ($15.10) one way, all charges included (cheaper than most bus tickets), Wizz will be offering sharp competition on the increasingly popular route. While it is too early to tell what the effects on the market will be, and whether other low-cost carriers will follow suit, an intriguing precedent has been set. Flights are regularly sold out or selling for as much as it will cost to fly to the USA! There seems to be some sort of price fixing between Bulgaria Air and British Airways. Any unauthorised reproduction or use of it is strictly forbidden. Reproduction of this website's content is permitted only with prior written permission from the Editor-in-Chief, should be propertly acredited and provide an active link back to our site.

Value Holidays - - Britons Look Beyond Eurozone For Better

Britons look beyond Eurozone for better-value holidays - Telegraph.co.uk

Telegraph.co.uk

Britons look beyond Eurozone for better-value holidays
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - Aug 20, 2008
... while sales of Malaysian ringgit, Slovakian koruna and Bulgarian lev have also risen sharply. The figures provide further evidence that though Britons ...

Britons look beyond Eurozone for better-value holidays - Telegraph.co.uk Holidaymakers are being forced to spend more sterling to get the same amount of euro, which explains this increase in sales. Post Office fastest growing currencies (June/July 2008)1. The Call of AntarcticaWhat’s it like to get close to penguins, sea lions and all Antarctic wildlife in its natural habitat?Summer sportIt's time to sit back and enjoy the best of summer sports. But men should remember to protect their skin too. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertiser Links YOUR MONEYProtect yourself from fraudTop tips on the best ways to avoid becoming a victim of ID fraud. TRAVELCarbon-free cruiseMax Davidson embarks on an eco-friendly barge holiday in south France.

Overseas Property And Investment News - More Britons Purchasing Bulgarian Currency

More Britons purchasing Bulgarian currency - Overseas Property and Investment News

Overseas Property and Investment News

More Britons purchasing Bulgarian currency
Overseas Property and Investment News, UK - Aug 22, 2008
Investors in the Bulgarian market can be in line to benefit from growth in the country's tourism sector. According to the Post Office, ...

More Britons purchasing Bulgarian currency - Overseas Property and Investment News Low money down, 70% mortgages & high rental potential.

Daily Mail - Fallout From Credit Crunch And Rising Fuel Prices Can Make ...

Fallout from credit crunch and rising fuel prices can make ... - Daily Mail

Daily Mail

Fallout from credit crunch and rising fuel prices can make ...
Daily Mail, UK - 19 hours ago
But now aviation bosses are warning that thousands of Britons who have bought a second home in the sun or a winter hideaway near destinations served by ...

Fallout from credit crunch and rising fuel prices can make ... - Daily Mail

living in bulgaria,Spanish holiday villa

It will break our hearts to part with this place now.' 'Worries' Ryanair's Michael O'LearyIndependent aviation expert Alan Bowen also painted a miserable future for budget airlines during tonight's edition of ITV1's Tonight programme. We have never had a situation where costs have been rising and demand is falling and that is the situation which we face this autumn and winter. Customers are obviously worried about their own income, the credit crunch is clearly there. I expect there will be fewer people looking to buy flights in the next six months.' Monarch Airlines boss, Tim Jeans, told the programme that customers can expect more flights to be grounded in the coming months. The company have already axed the route to Granada in Spain. Print this article Read later Email to a friendShare this article: Digg it|Del.icio.us|Reddit|Newsvine|Nowpublic|Facebook|MySpace|FarkDM.has("readerComments");DM.has("debate");Add your commentsView allComments (46)Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below?why is everyone so surprised at what Alistair Darling said about the economy? Who ever thought Ryanair and service should be used in the same sentence?2.

Litters - Times Online - A New Chapter For Flit

A new chapter for flit-litters - Times Online

Times Online

A new chapter for flit-litters
Times Online, UK - Aug 30, 2008
... in Bulgaria or Downhill in Dubai: Skiing in the Desert. Also, the literary output from North America, the third most popular destination for Britons, ...

A new chapter for flit-litters - Times Online And now, somewhat to our surprise, we had done it . We hadbought a house, taken French lessons, said our goodbyes, shipped over ourdogs and become foreigners.”It all happened because of a property. Mayle, a professional adman, and hiswife, Jennie, “saw it one afternoon and had mentally moved in by dinner”. Itdidn’t just mark the beginning of their new life in the Provençal hills – italso kick-started the British invasion of France and a whole new literarygenre: flit lit. IsabellaDusi went off to Montalcino, a medieval hilltop village in Tuscany, for hertwo-book deal, as did the American author Frances Mayes, whose Under theTuscan Sun was taken up by Hollywood and made into a film in 2003. ChrisStewart decamped to Andalusia, Anna Nicholas went from Mayfair to Mallorca(A Lizard in My Luggage) and Alex Browning went Shooting Caterpillars inSpain. Such escapism was perfect poolside reading and sucked in commuterswho fantasised about leaving behind the daily grind.A Year in Provence became an international sensation after serialisation inThe Sunday Times. It was translated into 17 languages and went on to sellmore than 1.5m copies – not bad considering it had an initial print run of3,000.So, what will it cost to follow in Mayle’s footsteps now? Head down to thesun-baked terraces and lavender fields of Provence and you’ll be lucky topick up a ruined farmhouse with some land. But almost everything has beenrenovated. Today, you have to pick something that was renovated, say, 20 or30 years ago, and redo it.”Prices for a 300-square-metre property, says Janssens, range from £1.2m up to£2.5m. He is selling a renovated 18th-century mas near Goult with a view ofthe Vaucluse mountains. The fourbed house with pool, staff flat and largegardens is for sale for £2m (020 8576 5582, www.winkworth.co.uk). Janssens picks the Drôme Provençal, known for its olive trees, where valuesare 30% less than southern Provence, as the next destination on the Mayletrail. A milder climate may costyou 20% more, but then you can grow lemons, avocados and olives.”Finding wrecks to do up in central Italy is altogether more difficult. After10 years in Italy, she went to Morocco and Algeria, where she ended up on adate farm in an oasis, and the resulting book, A Handful of Honey, has justbeen published.The shelves may be groaning with flit lit, but there are a few gaps. There’syet to be A Year in Bulgaria or Downhill in Dubai: Skiing in the Desert.Also, the literary output from North America, the third most populardestination for Britons, has yet to take off. Perhaps the commonlanguage doesn’t allow for comic misunderstanding; then there’s the lack ofold stone houses to do up. Or perhaps, dare I say it, Florida doesn’t appealto the budding man of letters.Rural France, it seems, still exerts the greatest pull. Among the latesttitles is The Field by the River by Ken Burnett, which combines an interestin natural history with the “let’s move to France” genre, recording thewildlife in the field adjoining his 350-year-old house in Brit-tany. Andthis week sees the publication of Chateau Monty: A Corking Wine Adventure byMonty Waldin, the enfant terrible of the organic wine world. Needless tosay, at the start of his new career abroad, he is hurtling towards 40. He now lives in a 1930s semi in Tuscany with an allotmentand a garage-cum-office built of straw bales. I’m sureMayle will raise a glass of vino.Flit lit: the rules1. Buy a property – it can be a maison-de-maître, chateau, cortijoor finca, whatever you like or the locals call it, but it must be awreck2. Choose a location or business proposal that hasn’t yet been written about:a brothel in Bulgaria? Make one stunningly rude and hilarious faux pas4. A team of workers must down tools in a Mediterranean-style huff, leavingyou stranded. You will then be saved by a local hero with a ruddy face androbust language who will initiate you into the secrets of village life5. Take up a hobby: boules, cooking, flamenco or truffle-hunting. Never suggest it is lonely or that you miss anything more than marmaladeand baked beans. The holiday spirit must reign supreme, but be rude aboutEnglish tourists who dream of moving abroad7. Take a hard look at the market with our indispensable guideThe ten most common pitfalls when buying abroad... Globrix Property Search - find property for sale and rent in the UK.Visit our classified services and find jobs, used cars, property or holidays. Use our dating service, read our births, marriages and deaths announcements, or place your advertisement.Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard Terms and Conditions. Please read our Privacy Policy.To inquire about a licence to reproduce material from Times Online, The Times or The Sunday Times, click here.This website is published by a member of the News International Group. News International Limited, 1 Virginia St, London E98 1XY, is the holding company for the News International group and is registered in England No 81701.

Daily Mail - Patients With High Risk Of Stroke And Heart Attack 'Ignoring ...

Patients with high risk of stroke and heart attack 'ignoring ... - Daily Mail

Daily Mail

Patients with high risk of stroke and heart attack 'ignoring ...
Daily Mail, UK - 13 hours ago
By Jenny Hope Britons at high risk of heart attack and stroke are ignoring doctors' advice to change their lifestyle, says a new survey. ...

Patients with high risk of stroke and heart attack 'ignoring ... - Daily Mail

More than three-quarters are obese or overweight, with dangerously big stomachs, and most smokers have refused to give up. More than half have out-of-control blood pressure and 40 per cent have high cholesterol levels. Two out of three refuse to accept they are more at risk than other people their age - despite being given warnings and prescription drugs by their GP. The findings from a major European survey were released today at the European Society for Cardiology congress in Munich. Around one in three middle-aged Britons is at high risk of heart disease because of factors such as obesity, diabetes, family history, high cholesterol and blood pressure levels. This means they have a one in five chance of suffering a fatal heart attack unless they change their lifestyle. The new survey of 12 countries looked in detail at 381 patients in the UK, who had been diagnosed as 'high risk' at least six months earlier by their GPs. In many cases they were taking medication as a result. Almost 80 per cent of those who were smokers at the time had not given up despite smoking being a major cause of heart disease. Altogether 82 per cent of high risk patients were overweight or obese - half of whom were so fat it threatens their health. Four out of five had a dangerously large waist circumference, indicating deposits of abdominal fat that raise the chances of diabetes and heart problems. The EUROASPIRE survey showed about two out of five patients said they did not take regular exercise and had no plans to do so. Around half had diabetes, including seven per cent whose condition was detected when they were taking part in the survey and having various tests. In total, 57 per cent of patients had raised blood pressure despite three-quarters of them being on antihypertensive drugs. At least 40 per cent of patients had high blood cholesterol, even though the UK uses more statin drugs – which reduce cholesterol - than any other European country except Italy. Three out of four of those agreed, when they were asked whether everyone should know of their heart disease risk, compared with just 21 per cent in Bulgaria. But there was an alarming level of ignorance among British patients about their state of health. Altogether two-thirds said they did not think their risk of heart disease was higher than a person in the general population of the same age and sex, including 16 per cent who thought it was lower. Just 33 per cent believed it was higher - as their doctors had told them. Professor David Wood, an expert in cardiovascular medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, said the survey raised concerns that many Britons were in denial about their heart health. He said 'These figures are quite shocking. They should be managed much more rigorously and their lifestyle should be changing. He said European research showed that nurse-led programmes in GP surgeries were the best way to help high-risk heart patients change their lifestyle - and that of their partners. Four out of five families ate more fruit and vegetables when nurses got involved, and the number doing physical activity doubled, he said. The survey used trained technicians to question 381 patients who had been told they were at high risk of heart disease before developing any symptoms. They were prescribed drugs or being treated with dietary advice. The fact that so few smokers had quit goes against the national trend, with more people giving up since the ban on smoking in public. However, many of these patients in their 40s, 50s and 60s will have been smokers for decades. Print this article Read later Email to a friendShare this article: Digg it|Del.icio.us|Reddit|Newsvine|Nowpublic|Facebook|MySpace|FarkDM.has("readerComments");DM.has("debate");Add your commentsView allComments (0)No comments have so far been submitted.