Yordanka Fandakova elected mayor of Sofia

The results of the mayor elections for Sofia hardly surprised anybody, regardless of the low voting activity in the region (approximately 15%) and the fact that Fandakova became the first female mayor Sofia (all sixty other mayors before her were men).

We remain optimistic that Fandakova would work actively towards solving most of Sofia's problems and that results of her efforts would be visible near the end of her mandate. Her predecessor and current prime-minister of Bulgaria - Boyko Borisov, already did a great job organizing and managing to keep the streets of Sofia frequently and adequately cleaned. The difference is worth mentioning - some of our American visitors from last year, upon coming for a short visit to Sofia this year, noted how much cleaner Sofia seemed to them these days, in comparison to last year.

Kotooshu received the "Stara Planina" order

The staff of SEMA Express Ltd. would like to extend our congratulations to Kaloyan Mahlyanov - Kotooshu, for officially receiving the "Stara Planina" order last week!

Congratulations also go to his beautiful fiancee, Asako Ando, for capturing the heart of such a big bulgarian!

Kotooshu poses for a picture with his proud family, fiancee and the chairman of the Sumo Federation in Bulgaria (Lilyana Kaneva, far left).

Bulgaria - Macedonia tour

From 20th to 24th July, we had the most wonderful tour, although short, around some of Bulgaria and Macedonia.

We had a short stop in a village along the way to Rila Monastery, to take pictures of several stork (Konotori) nests in its center:


After visiting Rila Monastery,

we headed over to Melnik:

We could not miss visiting Rozhen Monastery as well, which is just next to Melnik:

Our next notable stop was Ohrid and a tour around the old town.

Coming back to Bulgaria afterwards, we had a stop in a 5-star spa hotel in Kystendil.

The tour finished with a scenic walk around Cherni vrah, Vitosha mountain’s peak.

It was our great pleasure to show our good Japanese friends a bit of Macedonia and Bulgaria, and we hope to visit even more exciting and beautiful places in Bulgaria, or anywhere on the Balkan peninsula next time!

We will be uploading more pictures from the tour, on our website soon!

Festival of the Rose in Bulgaria

The annual Festival of the Rose in Bulgaria, is one of Bulgaria’s most emblematic events. The festival will be held from May 29th till May 31st this year and while we will be sure to take a lot of photos, so that we publish them here for your viewing pleasure, you could also start planning your visit to the Festival of the Rose and see it with your own eyese!

We are capable of providing you with hotel reservations, transport, airplane tickets and guides for very good prices, as well as the warm-hearted service of our staff!

SEMA Express also has the pleasure to introduce you a new, attractive way to explore city sightseeings in Arbanassi, the old capital Veliko Tarnovo and the region – with a double-decker bus!

St. Atanasius' Day

Some days ago, we were pleasantly surprised by the blooms of one of the first January flowers, the snowdrop:

This flower is related to St. Athanasius’ Day (18th January), a Bulgarian holiday. A Thracian legend tells that on this day, St. Tanas puts on a silk shirt, climbs to a high place and yells, "Go away, Winter, so that Summer may come!". Part of the tradition is also to pick up blooming hellebore and snowdrops in the morning, as well as meet the sunrise, as it is believed that upon seeing the people, the sun would grant them health and long life.

Saint Tanas is a patron of blacksmiths. In pagan mythology, he is the heavenly blacksmith, who reaches into his furnace to bring out the blazing sun every morning. The name Atanas comes from Old Greek "Athanasios", which means "eternal life".

We are currently preparing a text about the Bulgarian rose and the Rose festival in Bulgaria, expect to see it soon!

Kotooshu, fishing

We learned a couple days ago from Kotooshu's blog about Kotooshu's success at catching Tai fish.

In connection to that, we prepared a little video about Kotooshu's birthplace, Djulyunitsa, and the river where he used to go fishing as a kid!

Sofia - Rila Monastery - Boyana Church - Sofia tour

Sofia - Rila Monastery - Boyana Church - Sofia tour

On October 11th, which turned out to be a very beautiful and warm day, we took a small group of Japanese tourists over to two landmarks of Bulgaria's culture and Christian faith: Rila Monastery and Boyana Church, who also appear on UNESCO’s world heritage list.

[Rila Monastery entrance]

[Rila Monastery yard]

The Rila Monastery has a very rich history (you should check out their webpage), but it should be remembered most for the fact that it played a huge role in preserving Christianity in Bulgaria during the 5 century period of Turkish domination, also in serving as a hub of knowledge and education in the beginning of the Bulgarian renaissance.

After a delicious lunch (beans soup and fried fish meals, prepared in the typical for the region way), we headed back to Sofia to visit Boyana church.

[Boyana church]

[Boyana church yard]

What Boyana church is remarkable for are the 3 layers of its building – each layer of which was built at a different period – and 2 layers of frescoes. We were not allowed to take pictures of the church’s interior, but it was amazing to see Bulgaria’s cultural and spiritual development in the medieval period, just from the noticeable differences in the two fresco layers.