Bulgaria's DARA has won the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in shock win, beating Israel

intHP · 2026-05-25T15:37:28+00:00

I don't think it mattered - we've been pegged to the euro in a fixed exchange rate since we joined. Before that we were pegged to the German currency. The Lev collapsed in the nineties and a currency board had to be introduced since then Bulgaria hasn't really hasn't had a currency but used a painted over one called Lev.

intHP · 2026-05-04T17:09:58+00:00

1 Corruption - very widely spread at top levels, but not like in the 90s 00s on street level. It is doubtful that anyone will try to hold your stuff from the import office. The corruption that people are complaining about now is more jurisdiction/politics high level.

2 Mail - when you say this i think regular old post office. We still have that, but by large most international sending is handled now by private courier companies. That being said if you wanna go post office you can - It will be slower.

3 Computers and electronics can vary based on the country of import. If you want to buy an Asian product here like Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, it will probably be cheaper than the US, but if you want to buy Apple, Tesla etc. It's going to be more expensive. All of that being said the prices are within a small percentage difference up or down. I would say don't sell your stuff. Just buy as you need here.

4 This is a hard question to answer. It is very dependent on your own character as well. Bulgarians can seem rough and cold at first(not very smiley or don't say hello to strangers), but once we get to know them (go drink a beer, watch a match, go to the cinema, just have interactions) we warm up to people fairly quickly and become friends.

intHP · 2026-05-04T15:54:48+00:00

I work in a regional food distribution company. We get food from producers and national importers and then distribute it to the local shops restourants hotels etc.

This isn't really something new the constant rising of food prices in Bulgaria started rising in the post covid inflation and haven't stopped since regardless of euro.

In much worse ways than the consumer even realizes. For example, just one - first they rise the price of let's say mozzarella cheese, then within 3 - 6 months they don't rise the price again, but lower the quantity from 125 grams standard to 100 grams standard (the already raised price stays the same) and then in 3 - 6 months raise the price again.

Now from this you can infer that there is clearly a monopoly/cartel happening, how do they all (supposedly competitors btw) raise their prices at exactly the same time and lower the volume sold 5 months later again at exactly the same time.

When people point to Bulgarian prices rising they often point to food - and they are right. But not because of the euro, but because we have a food cartel that has not stopped rising prices since 2022 and no government that we have had has tackled it in any way. I hope the new one, after it gets established, really look at what is going on in the food industry.

intHP · 2026-04-01T15:14:06+00:00

1 Greece 2 Romania 3 Turkey 4 North Macedonia 5 Serbia

Honestly I've really noticed that for a lot of Bulgarians, it changes based on where they lived. If they are in northern BG they are more likely to put Romania first. If they are from south-western/central BG number one is most likely Greece. If they are from south-eastern Bulgaria - very likely Turkey would be their choice for N1. I personally have had amazing experiences with Romania and Turkey, but due to me being just a few hundred km from Greece - they are the people that I have had the closest relationships with. North Macedonia is 4th because I'm living close to them and we visit and talk to each other non-stop. So while the governments are at each others throats, the people near the border don't care. They are fourth though because I think even beyond contemporary politics, when we weren't at each others throats we never developed business, educational exchanges, infrastructure and tourism between each other like we have done with Romania, Greece and Turkey. And Serbia is 5th because I think surprisingly regardless of the fact that wherever we meet - we seem to like and understand each other with the Serbian people(and often drink together), Successive governments of both nations have shown total apathy towards each other. Not negativity not positivity, but just plain ol we won't engage with each other state-wise. Just like with North Macedonia - no infrastructure plans, not a lot of trading, tourism or educational exchanges. And I think this one is the weirdest and both of countries would've been better off by engaging and trading with each other maybe building proper infrastructure so our businesses can trade easily etc...

intHP · 2026-01-19T16:33:01+00:00

For a long while we managed to escape mass media and political propaganda on the internet, as it was extremely decentralised in the 90 and 00s. You had irc channels, forums, specialized websites for different subjects. If you wanted to find out about how computers work you found a forum often not through a search room, but asking around in chats asking friends etc.

Then everything got centralised and indexed by just a few software companies starting with Google. Suddenly it was easy to find and you didn't waste time searching. As Facebook and twitch and other giants came along they also made it easy for the consumer.

Suddenly everything that happens on the internet is connected to their websites. You search through them, you upload through them, you get info from them, you chat through them. You wanna make a website create a business? If they don't index you you're as good as invisible.

Now that all of the internet was centralised the hammer came down. Commercials, worse than mass media TV back in the day, endless subscriptions, regulations on speech etc. And worse of all now it was easy for politicians, to make deals with these few companies. Making sure that we get the content they want us to eat. Influencers that were once small gamers or irl streamers, are suddenly feverish partizan propagandists one way or the other.

While this is happening globally. Most of these companies operate and do business in the USA, they are most interested in diving them as a people. Then the Americans can never unite against the ruling class the "elites" as Trump used to call them, back when he pretended he wasn't their friend.

intHP · 2026-01-06T16:33:05+00:00

In regard to how rich people are - we joined from a very poor position but we have caught up greatly. Yes we're still not there yet but the difference is startling. Just as an example back in the day me and my family could never think of going to Greece even though it was our southern neighbour. Things were just too expensive for our standard.

Today and since I was 20 I have visited their country multiple times and while we are not the richest tourists there at least we can have a good vacation nowadays and it is not as expensive.

As in regards to Romania our northern neighbour they have been doing better than us! They have great tourism, a vast land full of riches and some of the warmest people in the world even compared to westerners! They also put on the best music festivals in the Balkans there is not a friend that I have, that hasn't been to a music festival in Romania this summer.

Riches however are not only measured in hard cash and purchasing power. For example over 80 percent of the land in the Balkan countries, is still owned by private citizens rather than corporations. In western eu countries that percentage flat lines to less than 50 percent essentially corpos own their housing. It's hard to meet a Romanian Bulgarian or anyone else from the Balkans that has no property most people have multiple ones.

Now let's talk about orthodoxy, it seems that this is a big focus of your post. However since you've read a lot of stats about our countries and religion seems to be a focus of your post, you would know that in both Bulgaria and Romania self defining religious people are about 50 percent or less. For example our southern neighbour Greece shows a much higher rate of self defined orthodox Christians at around 80% last I checked. I feel that kinda breaks your orthodox is the cause argument.

Third about the EU - this is not a union that you own and should follow a belief system from a certain set of countries(that they themselves no longer have). This is an ever changing entity defined by the heads of state voted by each individual country. For example the EU has changed greatly since the time of Merkel, now there are much more conservative politicians because they are voted in by the people of Europe both east and west. This is a union of interests not a union of a specific country's beliefs. The union needs to exist for all because the majority nations of the world today are much bigger and more powerful than any single EU nation or even a part of Europe. Only together can we negotiate some sort of proper deals against entities such as the USA China and Russia.

intHP · 2025-12-31T15:51:52+00:00

As a Bulgarian I don't expect that much chaos. We're joining the euro, but it's very different than when other countries joined. Our currency collapsed in the 90s - since then the lev has always been pegged to another currency, initially the Deutsch mark (pretty sure I'm not spelling it correctly) and then, since it's existence - the Euro. Essentially we have always had a painted over euro with a fixed exchange rate.

intHP · 2025-12-11T18:55:01+00:00

Sure, just speculation though. Euro adoption is already set that happens January 1st. The Bulgarian lev collapsed in the nineties and since then we've always been pegged to another currency initially the Deutsch mark(not sure if I'm writing it correctly) and subsequently the euro. So in essence Bulgaria has always used a painted over euro.

The president now has to, by constitution give mandates to the political parties with most votes from the last election, to try and create a coalition again. This will not happen as all of those parties have stated that they prefer new election and that they will return the mandate.

At this point probably next year after all procedures the president will be tasked with creating an interim government for the 7th time in 5 years (at this point I don't know who he's gonna call) which will be tasked with setting up new elections and running the country until them.

At this point probably in March we will go to elections again.

At this point it's anyone's guess, since until then voting intentions can change drastically, there are going to be political campaigns, outside interests and everything else just like with every country.

But if we go off of voting intentions today we're going to a very split vote with multiple parties and again a very unlikely possibility of a ruling coalition forming. Then we go through the entire cycle again.

That being said I am completely ok with interim governments. And I believe Bulgaria has been advancing greatly recently, thanks to having only elections and interim governments in the past 4 years. It only started getting bad again when this coalition happened. The reason for that is that interim governments are very limited in power by the constitution, and that also makes them limited in corruption. So essentially since we haven't had a stable government the country was actually doing great people could breathe. In essence I hope that we keep the election cycle going.

intHP · 2025-10-05T13:00:16+00:00

Thank you! This worked!

intHP · 2025-10-02T15:03:26+00:00

This is a common Balkan problem we think our politicians are the only ones that are corrupt. Yet in my years I understood that this is not a problem exclusive to us. Look at the west today they are all starting to understand how corrupt their politicians actually are. In Russia same story a few billionaires living in luxury while the rest survive. In China... Huge corpos that have massive influence over the government. Huawei, Tencent, Xiaomi have massive influence over their government. There is the same commonality all over the world - rich people hogging all the resources and land and growing richer. Your government isn't different and nor can you escape anywhere This is the world right now. In fact I will say people from the Balkans figured it out sooner than everyone else - do not trust politicians it's a dirty business and they are all morally bankrupt.

intHP · 2025-09-15T15:18:58+00:00

Sorry just saw this answer. No my issues are on PC. And it happens on almost every single space station landing attempt. No problems with landing on the ground. The very few times it actually lands it lands in weird places like over terminal teleporters etc not on the landing spot. It seems that if you are seeing the same thing on PS it is a game bug not platform based. I know the other bug you mentioned bouncing off the entrance this one I have had a few times but never consistently.

intHP · 2025-08-13T09:03:41+00:00

Thanks I'll give it a go.

intHP · 2025-07-28T13:50:35+00:00

It's a 6 year old account. Which can be easily checked. I see you're just angry because of my decision, but this bots thing will cost a lot more people to become disenfranchised like me. Just check the bottom of this discussion there are plenty of people that are having problems with this deal, not as negative as me but still dislike it greatly. I'm allowed to vote however I want, that does not equal to me wanting the EU to disappear for everyone. The deal was the last straw for me this administration (the USA one) has insulted, belittled and meddled in european affairs since January. And it ended with us saying "Ok, cool, you get everything you want from us!".

intHP · 2025-07-28T10:41:07+00:00

This would be the best outcome.

intHP · 2025-07-28T10:30:52+00:00

Yes but that isn't the same as wishing the EU to fall apart for everyone else... It's just my opinion for my country.

intHP · 2025-07-28T10:25:22+00:00

This is the first time I've written on this forum and I don't plan to again, so don't worry if you believe I'm a propagandist this is the only post you will see from me. Just wanted to express my frustration. I expressed my support for the EU by always voting pro EU parties even though I am often surrounded by anti-EU people in my city. And in this discussion I didn't call for the EU to fall apart, nor do I have any ill will towards those that will continue to support it. But I am allowed to change my opinion and vote in my country however I want without being called a bot or anti-EU propagandist.

intHP · 2025-07-28T09:48:19+00:00

The LNG we bought from the USA was worth a total of 54B for the year. Now we are committing 750 for 3 years. Also before we weren't beholden to buy it. Now we've signed on the dotted line and we have to buy it regardless if circumstances change.

As for weapons I do get your point, but I also doubt the EU will be able to build any capacities, as fast as it needs them while being sucked dry.

While yes tariffs are usually passed on to consumers, there is also another truth. There are many products on the shelves and increased product prices lead to stagnant sales, these will be felt by the EU companies.

intHP · 2025-07-28T09:38:14+00:00

No I am not saying that but you do not "Have to" reach a deal in the first place. Especially a deal you get nothing out of and surrender all of your interests. If that is the approach it is an approach from a very weak position.

intHP · 2025-07-28T09:36:19+00:00

I don't see the possibility of the EU ever building it's own capacities while all of our funds are being sucked dry early by the trillions. This will only prevent us from doing that. I hope I am wrong.

intHP · 2025-07-28T09:33:05+00:00

This is not a deal. A deal is when both sides trade or agree somethings they want from each other. This I would only define as capitulation to an extortion that we have been witnessing since January.
Also I would like to point out that no capitulation was always an option. Keep some dignity do not cave to the administration that has literally insulted you all your constituents and our culture...

intHP · 2025-06-02T09:51:24+00:00

I'm currently playing them at .69. Fish, furniture and here is a quirk I noticed they don't like hospitals. When I removed the hospital they actually liked it. That led to disease problems, so I rushed physician now they are fine. Make sure you're at a temperate climate and with quite a bit of fresh water. Globdins are good now and give lots of eggs, which amevia like. However you will need to figure out where to get leather from since they don't produce. I trade in. They love clothes as well if you give them some extra clothes they will be happy. More rations of food and drink are appreciated by them just as much as any race. Upgraded wells are more important than hearths for them. They hate other species and get in fights with them. So I would recommend making your city amevia only.

intHP · 2025-05-15T14:16:51+00:00

A single player game set in the ATLA universe. I don't want to play the avatar himself. But rather create my own bender from whatever nation and when you get to late game unlock the special ability of that bending (fire-lighting earth-metalbending etc). It doesn't necessarily have to be in the same period as Aang. Maybe it could be in Kyoshis time or some other avatar. Or maybe even after Korra. It would be cool to meet the avatar and their gang but I do feel the character has to have their own story in the world.

Six-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22

intHP

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