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Location
Bulgaria is situated in the Southeastern part of Europe and occupies the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. To the north it borders with Romania, to the west with the Republic of Macedonia and Serbia, on the eastern side is the Black Sea, to the south borders with Greece and to the southeast with Turkey's European part.
Bulgaria has a total area of 111.000 square kilometers.

Relief
Extremely varied - large plains and lowlands, low and high mountains, valleys and lovely gorges, numerous lakes and rivers.

Climate
Temperate continental climate with very distinctive four seasons.
A Mediterranean influence is felt in the country's most southern regions.
The average annual temperature is 10.5°C.
The average January temperature is around O°C.
Average summer temperatures around 30°C.

Population
7,621,337 (July 2002 est.)

Language
Bulgarian.
English, German, French and Russian is spoken in the country's resorts, hotels and restaurants.

Alphabet
Cyrillic. Signs along international motorways, in airports and resorts are also spelled in Roman letters or/and in English.

Religion
86.6% of the population is Eastern Orthodox, 13% are Muslims. The Bulgarian Church is autonomous and headed by a Patriarch.

State government
Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic.

Official holidays
January 1 - New Year
March 3 - Bulgaria's Liberation from Ottoman rule - the National Day
Easter - one week after the Catholic Easter
May 1 - Labour Day
May 6 - Bulgarian Army Day
May 24 - Day of Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture and the Slav Script
September 6 - Bulgaria's Unification
September 22 - Independence Day
December 25-26 - Christmas

Capital
Sofia (pop. ~1,400,000)

Large Cities
Plovdiv, Varna, Veliko Turnovo, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Pleven, Shumen, Dobrich.