The Greek debt crisis has sparked fears of contagion in neighboring countries and across Europe but in the Bulgarian town of Sandanski contagion is already real, reads an article in the Wall Street Journal.

Sandanski, about an hour drive from the border with Greece, is famous for its thermal springs. The town of about 30,000 is catering to Greek visitors with most shops displaying signs in Bulgarian and Greek and restaurants and bars filled with the sound of Greek music, the author Georgi Kantchev writes.

With the crisis in Greece deepening and Greek banks closed since 29 June, “today, however, there are fewer Greek tourists, shops are no longer bustling and the main shopping street, where Greek was more often heard than Bulgarian, is often deserted,” according to the article.

“Bulgarian cities along the border have deep links with Greece, and they are now suffering along with the people on the other side,” explains a Greek citizen living in Sandanski and working as accountant there.

You can read the original article here.

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