Zapoviadete (заповядайте)

For foreigners, it can feel very rude and disdainful to hand over money or put cash down on a table without saying anything in acknowledgement. The natural way to cover this is to say ‘thank you’ as you’re doing it - blagodaria or the more easily pronounced merci. This leads to difficulties if you’re expecting to receive change, however, as saying thank you is a signal that the transaction is now finished and you’re including the additional money as a tip. Zapoviadete is a replacement courtesy word to use instead of thank you and translates as something like ‘here you go’.

Soleti

Crisps aren’t such a big part of everyday life in Bulgaria as they are in Britain. You can only get them in ‘grab-bag’ size and there isn’t anywhere near as much shelf space given over to them in newsagents or supermarkets. They’re not called crisps either. Like the Americans, Bulgarians call them chips (which has frequently resulted in somewhat disappointing experiences in restaurants). The go-to unhealthy snack of choice is instead Soleti. These are long, thin sticks of a pretzel-like substance that come in different flavours and are sold in vending-machinable bags about the size of a regular crisp packet.

Flicking the Vs

The most frustrating thing about not knowing the language is the inability to protest or argue. You may be able to pick up that you’re being insulted, but you can’t respond in kind. This is why flicking the Vs is so valuable. Bulgarians aren’t familiar with the gesture and will most likely think that you’re suggesting they do something twice. Showing the middle-finger will provoke an instant frenzy of rage, but the Vs will cause confusion while satisfying your own sense of outrage. They may be able to pick up that they’re being insulted, but they can’t respond in kind.

Kovachevitsa

8km deeper into the Rhodopes than Leshten and slightly larger with several shops, restaurants and art galleries. The buildings here are older and very picturesque but keep the traditional style of the region with their distinctive stone plated roofs. The streets are paved with rocks and weave up the hill and down the valley as tributaries from the main road which you shouldn’t drive on unless you’re a local - the side streets are way too narrow for cars anyway. Supposedly the houses were built so close together so that rebels could escape over the rooftops in case of Ottoman raids.

Leshten

Built into the hillside around the road that weaves up through the Rhodope mountains, the village faces the Pirin mountain range so there are views of dramatic peaks and valleys everywhere around it. There’s a shop, a mehana, a sweet little art gallery, two churches, several hotels, and many summer homes. While everything looks quite new, the buildings have all been renovated in the traditional Bulgarian style: the lower halves in rough stone, the upper halves in wood. The most distinctive feature of Leshten - and this region in general - are the roofs which are tiled with thick, flat, stone plates.

Slippers

Bulgarians think that British homes all have two taps - one for cold water, one for hot - that our windows always open outwards instead of inwards, and that we don’t remove our shoes when we come in from outside. All of these are considered odd, but especially the shoes. In Bulgaria you always take your shoes off when you enter someone’s home. Instead of padding around in your socks, you’ll be given slippers to wear - usually the kind you find in hotel rooms. There’ll probably be a little cupboard near the door where a supply is kept for use by guests.

Bob

Beans. More specifically, white beans which have been slowly cooked in a clay pot with vegetables and herbs. The types and quantities of vegetables and herbs will vary, everyone has their own version, but there will usually be chopped onions, peppers, carrots and tomatoes. Bob is served in the pot with spearmint on top and is eaten as a side dish, often with sausage. ‘Sausage’ in Bulgarian is nadenitsa (наденица) and ‘with’ is c, so when combined the dish is: bob c nadenitsa, pronounced ‘Bob Snadenitsa’ which sounds like a reliable yet slightly bumbling veteran policeman in a crime novel.

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.