Of its people

Like many less-traveled lands, guides to Bulgaria are sparse and/or out-of-date. In his introduction to the excellent 1998 Blue Guide, Pettifer sites as precursors only the French 1993 Guide Bleu and “Frank Fox's pioneering, Bulgaria of 1909.”

As the sole author of the Blue Guide, John Pettifer is a historically thorough, extraordinarily opinionated, and chatty guide – in person perhaps an older gentlemen whose tastes run more towards academic and late nigts at casinos than tramping about Bulgaria's countryside. Pettifer, offers the following wisdoms (so that you might know the country, its people):

On Public Toilets
"Conditions vary from the adequate to the truly Ottoman."

On Nightlife and Relationships (oddly grouped)
"In family and heterosexual relationships, Bulgarians are generally broad minded, moderately hedonistic and tolerant." (Though Pettifer offers useful hints here on where to find prostitutes, conduct homosexual relations and, a little further on, find excellent pot: “Cannabis is becoming widely smoked by young people, and is easy to buy in most towns.”)

An indicator of just how sceptically the average Bulgarian holds the Roma (gypsies), this from a recent article in the paper:
Roma accused of inserting watermelons with horse pee in order to redden flesh.
(Of all things to accuse a group of.)

C - in Koprishtitsa, who had v. red watermellon for breakfast