Dear Sir/Madam,

I would like to make a contribution about my own viewpoint on Bulgaria and why I left it after living there for a few years.

Firstly about myself, I first started coming to Bulgaria in 2004 and moved there permanently in 2011 and left September of this year. My wife/child are Bulgarian. I worked as a teacher in Bulgaria. I have great Bulgarian friends. My connections are not shallow or those of a passing backpacker or based on conjecture.

My first impressions of Bulgaria were of intrigue it reminded me so much of Prague in the early 1990s. It had a great feel of being behind the Iron Curtain.

I loved coming back and forward to Bulgaria, I loved the cafe culture, the outrageously good looking females were everywhere and stunning scenery. Prices were so much cheaper than what I was used to Ireland. Based on these feelings and observations I moved to Bulgaria in 2011.

My impressions of Bulgaria began to quickly change over time.

Before I proceed any further I must assert in my opinion 70% of Bulgarian people are good honorable decent people. If a few key things were addressed in BG I believe it would change the country for the better.

Whenever I started with a new class i would always ask why they wanted to learn English and most would say "to leave Bulgaria". Through conversations with students many issues came up over and over again. The infrastructure in Bulgaria is really appalling, parts of Sofia are really falling apart and some rural villages are literally dying on their feet.

The central issue was the salaries, how can you have social mobility paying people 400 lev a month? How can a boss simply decide not to pay his workers and get away with it?

The other related issue was the level of corruption which I experienced myself. Doing anything in Bulgaria that involves going to public administration is a nightmare,nightmare,nightmare, everything is a problem. My own experience registering my car in KAT was truly horrific. A complete waste of a day with something that could be done in a few hours if it was properly organised.

A deeper more worrying problem I've experienced is being constantly as a foreigner being overcharged for goods and services. A local restaurant where we lived in Sofia often took the liberty of keeping my change or garages overcharging for changing tyres on my car. My wife always got a different price to me for the same service.

Taxi drivers trying to extort me in Sofia airport one tried to charge me 90 leva to go to the center, If the government was serious about improving the image of Bulgaria they would begin by banning those taxi firms from the airport they are often the first point of contact for visitors.

Sofia wants the Capital of Culture in 2019. A lot of foreigners can't believe the mentality that the people who extort you are often doing it for a very small amount of money and are destroying any chance of repeat business so they are doing themselves.

The worst experience had to be when my wife gave birth. It really opened my eyes to the archaic health system. The hospitals were appalling, lacking in equipment or interest in the patient.

The Black Jeep/bodyguard mentality is another real source of irritation for foreigners in Bulgaria. They cruise around with such a sense of arrogance and believe themselves above all laws. I often observed them driving down tram tracks and never being stopped by the police. Customer service in every area in Bulgaria is only very average in my opinion, my students told me it had improved a lot from the 1990s! The other examples of irritation are too numerous to list.

I often wondered how it was that the like of some the very intelligent, open minded, great students I had were not running the country?

I think if Bulgaria is to move forward they need to adopt a new political model. One based on equality, progression, modernness.

As I mentioned above Bulgaria has so much potential but needs to change for its own future and not to give up the struggle for a new beginning. Failure should not be an option.

Regards,

Paul Hayles

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