Changes

|hitch = from {{good}} to {{very good}}

'''Bulgaria''' is a country in [[Eastern Europe]] bordering [[Romania]], [[Serbia]], [[Macedonia]], [[Greece]] and [[Turkey]]. It's a good country for hitchhikers since this was a common way of travelling traveling in socialist times when few people had cars.

The script is Cyrillic , and it might be a good idea to be able learn to read it a little bit, for city and street signs and such.

Hitching is slightly easier in the South because the highway [[Sofia ]]- [[Plovdiv ]] is a part of the main road route from Western and Central Europe to [[Istanbul]]. There are usually many [[TIR ]] drivers regularly taking the on this road that who are often willing to have some company. Do not be get surprised if some of them – - driving long distances from Western Europe to [[Turkey for instance asks ]], and similar - ask you to put take off your shoes off when you get are in the a driver's cabin and/, or shows you a photo photos of their family, etc. Quite a few drivers who would pick up hitchhikers are those who used to hitchhike themselves back in the socialist regime days. They will often feel nostalgic about the time they spent on the road, and will be happy to share their adventure stories with you, or let you tell them about your trip(s).

The other most frequent stereotypical driver that would take a hitchhiker Hitchhiking is somebody who used to hitchhike themselves when they were young back highly popular in the socialist regime days. They will often feel nostalgic about summer and is so common along the time they spent on the road and will be happy to share their adventures seaside that you can find yourself competing with youother hitchhikers. Be aware, also, or let you tell them about your trip. However there are many other people willing hardly any roads where hitchhiking would be prohibited, and so you might try hitchhiking on Bulgarian "highways", which is most definitely the fastest way to give you a rideget around.

Hitchhiking is particularly popular in the summer, also practiced and is so common along the seaside that you can find yourself competing with other hitchhikers. This makes it easier as well - drivers expect it. It´s strongly recommended to try hitchhiking right on the highway. For people from west Europe it might feel strange but it´s most defintetly the fastest way to get a lift.  Hitchhiking is also popular activity known in the mountain Bulgarian mountainous areas, especially in around the Rhodopes Rhodope Mountains (''Rodopi'', or ''Rodopa''), where the there are very few cars are less but almost everyone of them is stoppingthe ones that drive by usually stop.

* [[Sevlievo]], * [[Sofia]]* [[Varna]], * [[Veliko Tarnovo]]

See also a [http://bgmaps.com/ Map map of Bulgaria].

As friendly as they can be, Bulgarian drivers tend not to care too much about usually don't consider small violations of existing road regulations and speed limitsin Bulgaria a big deal. Be careful and avoid standing in areas with a yellow triangle sign, with a filled black circle in the middle - these indicate places with increased concentration of road accidents and are a part of a governmental campaign of the government to improve travel driving safety.

Be wary of thieves - particularly in rural areas, there are many people who see a lone hitchhiker as an opportunity to gain by foul means.

Bulgaria is probably the most corrupted country of the EU , and you will probably most likely notice this at the border crossings. However, with an if you own the EU passport it's is quite unlikely they will bother you.

* Towards When going towards [[Turkey]], the most-used border checkpoint is [[Capitan Andrevo]]. Check the [[Edirne]] article for more information. The checkpoint near [[Malko Tarnovo]] can also be used if you're coming from [[Burgas]], but it's not that good frequented with vehiclesalthough the traffic there is significantly less. If you're It is recommended to cross the border in a truckpersonal car, try to hitch a normal car before the since trucks borderqueue is usually slow, and the Turks might not like you walking around, looking for another ride - especially if you do it [[at night]].* Towards When going towards [[Romania]], a highly frequented biggest checkpoint is at [[Ruse]]. Many trucks here, try Try to hitch get a ride with a personal car over the border by car, otherwise you might need to take a walk for around 40min over the Danube river towards the next passport checkpoint, and that ain't so cool. That sucks!

* High-way Highway - магистрала [ma-gee-stra-la]

You can use the cars' Car license plates to can help you to figure out where a the driver might be headingto.The registration code consists of two letters, followed by four digits and then two more letters. The first two letters indicate the region where the car is registered. By recent lawregulations, the letters have been limited only to those that the are found both within Cyrillic and Latin alphabet have in common, so - this should make it easier for foreigners, not who have troubles of reading and understanding Cyrillic.

* C, CA [[Sofia]] (Citycity)

* CO [[Sofia]] (Provinceprovince)

It should also be noted also that this is not a 100% reliable methodto get to know everything about the destination of the car, it's just for orientationetc. It is common , for example, that cars registered in Sofia belong to people living in Burgas for example - because they bought the car and are still paying leasing, (or because they moved to live somewhere elseelsewhere).

* [http://stopbg.com/ stopbg.comThe The site of BG hitch-hikers] – The site of BG hitch-hikers (forum , tips and , etc.)