My father lived there for several years in the 90s while teaching at the new American University. The city is pronounced "Blah-go-ehv-grad". He loved the people. He asked that we put on his headstone, "He spoke a little Bulgarian". He doesn't have a headstone, but the quote made it into his obituary. Hope that sufficed.
When we were there in the mid-nineties, Bulgaria was painfully struggling from the boot of communism. When we went to a restaurant, they would hand us a menu, but the answer to our orders everywhere we went was "Nyama" - there isn't any. Tripe soup was always available then though.
Pronunciation noted. We are always saying "малко български(Little Bulgarian)" when we are in Bulgaria lol The selection in the restaurants has improved a lot in the years since the 90's.
Once we took the time to discover the place we really loved it! Very nice in the center and the people were very friendly. Our first time seeing it was from the highway on our way to Sandanski over a year ago and we only noticed the industrial areas and closed down factories.
We also spent 2 nights there on our way to Rila monastery. Being a University town and lots of young people I think made it so friendly. And also cats are everywhere and they don't understand English 😂
The city is not ugly at all there is very classy american univercity with very beautiful student town and campus ,bulgaria elite study there ,and about the comunist blocks,it is not our fault that the red army 6 million ( bigger than the population of bulgaria at that time)people occupied us killed our king and forcefully install their puppet government, this is slavery it was no consencual,while before 1944 our countrry was piece of art build from scratch after we got liberated from turkish occupation in 1878 and we demolished all of the old buildings,for example in sofia only one mosque remain from this period,also our jewel capital sofia was almost totally destroyed by british american bombings without bulgaria fire a shot against them or the russians,even up to the end of the war we kept our diplomatic relations with thr ussr...now we struggle to pick ul the pieces and it is hard cause foreign power interfere in our internal affairs and put people who are obidient to them ,so for restoration of a beautiful house it is not needed very big ammount of money but they just dont do it ,partially to left the buildings to be conquered by nature and to take the land cause most of the old beautiful architecture is downtown and the sqare meter there is 5000-6000 euros,so they build hotels and houses and make a loooooot of cash,but god sees it all
When we first drove by the city over a year ago, all we could see from the highway was the industrial area and closed down factories. Once we got into the center of the city it was much more alive.
it is indeed ugly lol but what's the point of going across the ocean to call a city "ugly"? if i ever visit detroit i won't say it's "america's ugliest city" but rather "the city of eminem" lol or something positive...
![БОЛГАРИЯ 2019, БЛАГОЕВГРАД Влог, Обед за 1600р На 4х, Обмен Прав [ВУ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/lv7MfTsqFYw/mqdefault.jpg)
My father lived there for several years in the 90s while teaching at the new American University. The city is pronounced "Blah-go-ehv-grad". He loved the people. He asked that we put on his headstone, "He spoke a little Bulgarian". He doesn't have a headstone, but the quote made it into his obituary. Hope that sufficed.
When we were there in the mid-nineties, Bulgaria was painfully struggling from the boot of communism. When we went to a restaurant, they would hand us a menu, but the answer to our orders everywhere we went was "Nyama" - there isn't any. Tripe soup was always available then though.
Pronunciation noted. We are always saying "малко български(Little Bulgarian)" when we are in Bulgaria lol
The selection in the restaurants has improved a lot in the years since the 90's.
Blagoevgrad is actually everything but ugly. I love cities with a huge mass of concrete at the feet of massive mountains. :)
Well said. It has its charm especially in summer. It is one of the hottest places in Bulgaria especially nearby Sandanski with stunning mountains
Once we took the time to discover the place we really loved it! Very nice in the center and the people were very friendly. Our first time seeing it was from the highway on our way to Sandanski over a year ago and we only noticed the industrial areas and closed down factories.
We also spent 2 nights there on our way to Rila monastery. Being a University town and lots of young people I think made it so friendly.
And also cats are everywhere and they don't understand English 😂
Yes, such a friendly town. They definitely don't get a lot of english speaking tourists there.
@@slowtravelblog yes very underated town.
Great food options as well.
The city is not ugly at all there is very classy american univercity with very beautiful student town and campus ,bulgaria elite study there ,and about the comunist blocks,it is not our fault that the red army 6 million ( bigger than the population of bulgaria at that time)people occupied us killed our king and forcefully install their puppet government, this is slavery it was no consencual,while before 1944 our countrry was piece of art build from scratch after we got liberated from turkish occupation in 1878 and we demolished all of the old buildings,for example in sofia only one mosque remain from this period,also our jewel capital sofia was almost totally destroyed by british american bombings without bulgaria fire a shot against them or the russians,even up to the end of the war we kept our diplomatic relations with thr ussr...now we struggle to pick ul the pieces and it is hard cause foreign power interfere in our internal affairs and put people who are obidient to them ,so for restoration of a beautiful house it is not needed very big ammount of money but they just dont do it ,partially to left the buildings to be conquered by nature and to take the land cause most of the old beautiful architecture is downtown and the sqare meter there is 5000-6000 euros,so they build hotels and houses and make a loooooot of cash,but god sees it all
Visit Milano ( Italy )-currently it looks like Afghanistan or maybe Marroco:))))
Berlin and Paris looks similar ha ha..
When we first drove by the city over a year ago, all we could see from the highway was the industrial area and closed down factories. Once we got into the center of the city it was much more alive.
it is indeed ugly lol but what's the point of going across the ocean to call a city "ugly"? if i ever visit detroit i won't say it's "america's ugliest city" but rather "the city of eminem" lol or something positive...
In the city nothing people, like a dead city.
More people in the city than we thought looking from the highway. Reminds me of some cities in our home country.