Potatoes

I saw somebody - British or Irish, I think - who was complaining online about restaurants in Sofia. He said that whenever he ordered a meal, the server said: ‘You know that this doesn’t come with potatoes, don’t you?’ This probably happened around Vitoshka as the restaurants there are most used to managing the expectations of tourists who might expect the inclusion of potato to be so obvious that it doesn’t warrant mentioning on the menu. The potato is more of a main event here and not eaten very frequently. The staple accompaniment to a meal is generally some kind of salad.

Stray Dogs

They used to be a big problem due to various financial crashes where people couldn’t afford to feed their pets so set them loose instead. To deal with packs of dogs prowling around deserted streets and attacking vulnerable people at night, there’s now a catch, sterilise, and release programme - you can tell which ones have been processed as they have tags on their ears. The current strays are generally quite benign but still territorial. You usually see them loping around in pairs and there’s often a makeshift kennel nearby that someone has built for them on a scrap of land.

Tarikat (тарикат)

The literal translation is ‘swindler’, but it’s a bit more than that. The nearest English equivalent might be ‘player’ or ‘geezer’. A tarikat is someone who will use shortcuts, loopholes, lies, tricks or cons to get what they want - usually money. It’s often used as a term of address between teenage boys as they’re the ones most likely to want the cash but not the work it would take to earn it. The paradox is that those who aspire to be a tarikat are the ones who are least likely to have the quick-thinking or intelligence to actually achieve it.