Direct flights between Budapest and Palma de Mallorca and Milan will be also added.

Wizz Air will fly to the destinations out of Budapest from June 18, said chief executive Jozsef Varadi, as cited by MTI. It will also start flying to Malpensa Airport, near Milan, instead of Bergamo.

With the addition of flights to Varna, the number of Wizz Air seashore destinations has increased to 15 in 2012. We have flights to Bulgaria, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Spain. I still think that we will carry 2.3 million passengers in our Hungarian network this year, which would mean a 70% increase of our business” – CEO of Wizz Air, József Váradi said.

“The concession of the Burgas and Varna airports is a good example of public-private partnership,” Moskovski said at the ceremony.

“We managed to attract EU financing for the railroad infrastructure, but when it comes to airports and ports concession is the best approach,” he added, as cited by Varna 24.

The Transport Minister expressed his certainty that the concessionaire’s investments will turn the Varna and Burgas airports into modern European airports and will lead to an increased number of passengers and the attraction of more airline companies.

The Varna airport resumed serving passengers and flights after it was closed in October 2011 for rehabilitation of its runway.

Since the fall of 2011, concessionaire Fraport Twin Star Airport Management has invested BGN 40 M to improve the runway. During the construction, had been used about 150 000 tons asphalt, side lanes of the track was carried out, a new drainage system was built and of the photometric system of the runway at the airport was completely replaced.

Especially for the realization of the project near the airport were built new, modern production plants for polymer modified asphalt with a capacity of 240 tons per hour.

The project was completed in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Directorate General “Civil Aviation Administration,” BULATSA, District Administration – Varna and the Directorate for national construction control.

In November 2011, Fraport Twin Star Airport Management signed the contract for the construction of the new terminals with the selected constructor, Turkish consortium TIE-ICDAS.

The construction of the two passenger terminals is estimated to cost the concessionaire a total of BGN 130 M.

As early as July 2011, the concessionaire of the Bulgarian Black Sea airports Varna and Burgas Fraport Twin Star Airport Management announced plans to invest BGN 170 M in their modernization in the next 3 years.

“Russia’s Lukoil has already invested in Bulgaria – in Lukoil Neftochim Burgas more than USD 1 billion and plans to invest around BGN 1.5 billion over the next couple of years in the construction of a basis of this plant with new high-tech sites,” the ambassador added.

Bulgaria’s Black Sea capital Varna has been ranked 5th among the cities with the most beautiful women in the world by online travel directory and magazine Travelers Digest.

The first place is held by Kiev, the Ukraine, followed by Stockholm, Sweden, New York, US, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

According to Travelers Digets, “Bulgaria isn’t the most well-known country, even Europeans sometimes have trouble finding it on a map, but what it lacks in fame it more than compensates in beautiful women and stunning landscapes. Varna is on the country’s gorgeous Black Sea coast and in the summer the city becomes jam-packed with sunbathing beauties. Similar to their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, girls here are often tall and light-eyed. An up-and-coming tourism destination, travelers from around the world are only now discovering the gem that is Bulgaria.”

As far as men, the ranking lists those in Stockholm first, saying the following:

“Swedish men have long been misunderstood. Case in point: they are often stereotyped as cold, emotionally distant loners and inexplicably mistaken for Swiss guys. On the plus side, they are also generally considered aesthetically pleasing due to their fine-boned Nordic attributes and exceptional height advantage. Although there always seems to be some truth to these types of classifications, in the case of these Scandinavian studs, the deeper reality is quite a pleasant surprise. Your average man in Stockholm is an impeccably-dressed clotheshorse that truly indulges in the enjoyment of the finer things in life: from food to fashion, culture to hearth. But what really makes them unique? Despite the fact that one must practice patience when engaging in the slightly bizarre ritual known as the Swedish courting process, once you have captured the heart and imagination of your elegant gent he will be devoted to you for life. What’s more irresistible than that?”

Following the Swedish guys in the top 5 are those from New York, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Lisbon, Portugal and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Topless bikini beauty at Varna’s beach

The sale of the Landmark business center in Varna with a guide tag of 6.7 million euro will test the attitudes of Bulgarian real estate investors toward a market which surged in volume to just less than 200 million euro in 2011 on the back of foreign money inflows.

Belgrade’s office of real estate advisor Jones Lang LaSalle said on February 28 it will hold the first public auction for property asset sale in the country on March 21. But the building, located in the very center of Bulgaria’s third largest city of 340 thousand, has little chances of attracting the likes of Bluehouse or Europa Capital, who were behind the bulk of deals in 2011, for reasons like Varna’s thin occupational market and general reluctance of international investors to go outside the capital city in the moment.

While the building’s rentable area, which includes some 6,300 of class A offices and ground-floor retail, yields 532 thousand euro from leases that amount for just less than half of the space, locals that could make use the vacant premises are expected to show up at the auction.

Andrew Peirson who runs the Serbian and Bulgarian operations of JLL from Belgrade said, “As it is very early days we don’t yet know how many people will turn up but interest is very high. The majority of this interest is from the domestic Bulgarian market.”

The Landmark building, opened in late 2009 in the place of the ruins of former listed hospital building, has leased to books and entertainment store Public most of the retail space but has since struggled to find office tenants in the competition of a business park on the city fringes and the Varna Towers development.

The asset, initially part of the Landmark portfolio built by former Colliers International executive Tanya Kosseva-Boshova and British real estate professional Richard MacDonald, has been acquired by the latter in early 2011 from Landmark Property Management S.A., the Luxemburg-based company established by Iceland’s billionaire at the time Thor Bjorgolfsson, private equity firm Altima Partners and UK real estate investor Henry Gwyn-Jones to cash in on Bulgaria’s real estate market prior to the European Union accession of the country of 7.5 million. The cash generating buildings of the portfolio were sold to Bulgarian Alfa Finance Holding as the real estate investment market peaked in 2008. Owners had been looked for for the remains, including the Retail Park Plovdiv, sold to London-based fund manager Europa Capital for around 20 million euro a year ago.

As of the end of 2010, prior to the Varna business center transfer, Landmark Bulgaria Park, the asset holding company, owed around 6 million euro to Greek EFG Eurobank’s local arm. “I am working in conjunction with the bank”, Richard MacDonald said on the telephone when asked to comment by Gradat.bg. “I want to sell and the bank wants to sell.”

We stayed at Saints Constantine and Helena, next to Varna, which is actually Bulgaria’s oldest resort, a collection of holiday houses, private villas and hotels scattered through a mature park of magnificent tall trees – oak, beech, fig, poplar and cypress.

When the hot summer sun beats down, the ten-minute stroll to the beach through the cool, dappled shade of these trees is a pleasure rather than a penance. Saplings, tagged with the donor’s name and planted in the odd bare patch, commemorate the park’s centenary in 2008.

Quite a stretch of the immediate shore has been cordoned off by large hotels with private beaches. Primed by old hands at our more modest hotel, we made for one of the unspoilt rocky coves further along the coast.

In we waded; it was like Cornwall but much warmer – in fact, blissfully warm.

Further along again, people swam sedately in a mineral-water pool. ‘Taking the waters’ is popular in Bulgaria, with many hotels having both mineral and swimming pools.

Later that day – showered, dressed and respectable – we made for the cool, airy bar of the large Grand Varna hotel. We were refused a drink; we had no tag, we were not residents.

Neither could we book a table for dinner. The hotel’s ‘all-inclusive’ deal which bars outsiders must also stop residents trying the small, cheerful owner-run restaurants, coffee shops and bars that, along with a colourful medley of stalls selling fruit, toys, clothes, paintings and postcards, line the glades and leafy lanes that wind through the trees to the sea.

Golden wonder: Varna’s dramatic Assumption Day Cathedral is a sign of the city’s rich past

We chickened out of the six-mile walk along the tree-backed beach to the old port of Varna. Instead, we bought a 24-hour ticket – using half one day, half the next – on the red double-decker Varna City Tour bus, a hop-on hop-off service that conveniently takes you into town from St Constantine.

Passing up the zoo, the aquarium, the dolphinarium and the Oriental market, we made for the city centre. The domes of the Orthodox cathedral gleaming in the sun, the dark red opera house and the sparkling fountain in the main square, the cafes, the book and bric-a-brac stalls under the trees – it made an exotic and appealing picture.

And Bulgaria can be exotic. In spite of the reminders of the crushing Soviet rule seen in the few abandoned, brutal buildings interspersed between Varna’s beautiful, often crumbling 19th Century houses, there is the occasional whisper of the unknown East.

You catch it too, in spite of the crowds, in the faded frescoes of the old Byzantine churches in Nesebar, a Unesco World Heritage Site close to Sunny Beach, the biggest resort on the coast.

For centuries conquerors and migrants – Greeks, Persians, Romans and Slavs – swept across Bulgaria, leaving behind churches, monasteries, mosques and well-preserved old villages.

Timeless sparkle: Dymphna found a pair of gold Nike earrings in the Varna Archaeological Museum

Yet this country, rich in history and natural beauty and bordered by Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey, is now best known for its sixth border – the Black Sea – a 235-mile stretch of sandy, safe beaches, coves, cliffs, a dozen or so resorts and Varna, queen of the Black Sea coast.

Although Varna is a thriving commercial and maritime centre, the beach is only a ten-minute walk from the traffic-free and attractive main square, alive with cafes and restaurants, walkers and talkers.

Simply take the wide, pedestrianised Boulevard Knjaz Boris I, past modern shops and tall old houses. Cross Primorski Park where old women, crocheting under shady trees, smile at but do not bother passers-by, and voila! There, stretching to St Constantine, lies the calm blue sea and the golden sand.

We had lunch at a seafacing beach restaurant – a classic Bulgarian salad of locally grown peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and grated cheese with garlic bread and a glass of wine, all for about £6. You’ll struggle to beat the price or the atmosphere in the Med.

One of Bulgaria’s greatest treasures, a superb collection of gold jewellery, much of it over 6,000 years old and discovered in 1972, is in Varna’s Archaeological Museum, an austere 19th Century building that used to be a girls’ school. Don’t miss it.

All the train cars (seven in total) will be converted into art and music studios, and the last car will be equipped with a powerful modern light and music system. Art train will make stops at every station along the route and everyone can get acquainted with new works of art, some of which would be created during the voyage. In the evening will be organized concerts and musical and light shows. The project organizers believe this action will give Bulgarian cities an advantage over others when the European Council will elected the new European cultural capital.

The concept of “European cultural capital” was introduced on the initiative of the European Union in 1985. This honorary title is annually given to a city, which for a year becomes a center of cultural life of the continent. At the same time, allocated subsidies allow the city to restore many historic monuments, add new elements to the city image and attract tourists to its cultural heritage.

One of recent traditions is to give the title of cultural capital to two cities from different countries. It should highlight richness and diversity of European cultures, as well as promote mutual understanding and good neighborly relations between the citizens of Europe. In 2019 the European Commission proposed to choose new capital cities from Bulgaria and Italy. These cities will not compete with each other, but rather supplement as many large-scale cultural events will be held simultaneously in two countries.

Ilya Kozlovskiy

The information was announced by the Director of the Port of Bulgaria’s Black Sea capital, Captain Daniel Papazov, quoted by Radio Varna Wednesday.

Expectations for 2012 are that the processed cargo passed at the port will be at least 8 million tons. The port has already sealed 73 permanent contracts for 2011.

The investment program provides for the purchase of two mobile cranes, as well as equipment for loading grain at the Varna – West port.

Bulgarian triple-play provider Vivacom has been authorised by the Communications Regulatory Commission (CRC) to trial 4G technology in the capital. Vivacom plans to deploy a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in Sofia over the next three months. The company expects to use the platform to provide mobile broadband offerings with speeds of up to 100Mbps downlink.

Vivacom  has also announced the commercial launch of its fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) network in Varna, offering speeds of up to 100Mbps and prices from BGN5 (USD3.24) per month. Varna is the second city to be upgraded with a FTTB network, following a rollout in Sofia, where the infrastructure passes some 100,000 households.

All packages offer unlimited bandwidth, Nod 32 antivirus, the opportunity to request a static IP address and an e-mailbox of 500 MB, technical support and installation, all at no extra cost. Business subscribers may request web hosting space of 5 GB. Vivacom’s FiberNet, which was launched in the summer of 2011, already covers over 100,000 households in the capital Sofia.