Burgas Crowned Bulgaria's Best City to Live in

Bulgaria's Black Sea city of Burgas has earned the title "Bulgaria's Best City to Live in" for 2012 in a ranking done by local media.

On Wednesday, Burgas Mayor Dimitar Nikolov received a special award by the country's President Rosen Plevneliev.

A total of 27 Bulgarian cities (all of the country's district centers) have been included in the ranking done by the 24 Chasa (24 Hours) daily and Darik radio, with 29 different criteria being taken into consideration.

Burgas receives the title for the second time. In 2012 it was bestowed to the capital Sofia.

The Black Sea city collected the maximum points in the following criteria: foreign investments, unemployment rate, stray dogs, free of charge wireless internet in public spaces, 24-hour drug stores, beautiful central pedestrian area, store hours, and nearby resorts.

Burgas, however, received much lower grades for poor quality of the environment and auto theft rate.

Sofia was awarded for stable infrastructure development, the second largest city of Plovdiv - for being an artistic hub, Lovech – for "green city," Kocherinovo – for "green town," and Tryavna – for beautiful town.

The Danube cities of Silistra and Vidin, and the northeastern city of Targovishte received the lowest scores.

In the top 10, Sofia is second, followed by Blagoevgrad, Varna, Stara Zagora, Veliko Tarnovo, Plovdiv, Ruse, Kyustendil, and Gabrovo.

A parallel online poll conducted by dariknews.bg has also singled out Burgas as Bulgaria's best city to live in, while Stara Zagora has won in 24 Chasa's poll.