This week's country for Country In the Spotlight is Bulgaria! Look at a map of Europe. Bulgaria is in Southeast Europe. Bulgaria is really well-known for its exports of tobacco. Bulgaria is located on the Black Sea, in between Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Rumania.

Picture this: You are standing by a river, looking up. The river is coming from somewhere up on a huge mountain. This is what it looks like in Bulgaria. It is a beautiful place.

Anyway, maybe you are wondering why I chose this country. Last week many Whyvillians were suggesting that I choose a country to write about that is less well-known, so that they could learn more. I definitely learned a lot doing the research on Bulgaria.

The capital of Bulgaria is Sofia. You might be thinking that this must be a pretty little country, since not too many people have heard of it. Although Bulgaria is 43,000 square miles, it is really a small country compared to many others. It is even smaller than most U.S. states and Canadian provinces. How many people live in Bulgaria? More than eight million people! That is a big population for a small country.

Know anyone who lives in Bulgaria? To live in Bulgaria, you must like mountains, because it is a very mountainous country. In Bulgaria there are mountains as high as 10,000 feet high! The Balkan Mountains cross Bulgaria from East to West. Like I mentioned earlier, there are many rivers flowing down from it.

Visiting Bulgaria would definitely give you a sense of what it's like to live out with wildlife, especially if you are accustomed to the city. Because a lot of Bulgaria is mountains, there are many bears, wolves, foxes, elk, wildcats, and squirrels.

Have you ever lived on a farm? Many citizens of Bulgaria have! The western valleys are dotted with farming communities. Bulgaria has been an area of landowning peasants for a long time. Most agriculture now is carried on by government-owned collective farms.

So who lives in Bulgaria? Ninety percent of the citizens in Bulgaria are Bulgars. Who are the Bulgars, you might ask: A Turkish group of invaders that invaded the area in the 7th century and intermingled with the Slavic inhabitants. The other ten percent is made up of Turks and gypsies.

You might be interested in learning a little more about the history of Bulgaria. If so, read on. Bulgaria rose to power in the ninth century. It then controlled all of the Balkans except Greece.

Finally the Byzantine Empire, also known as Constantinople, succeeded in crushing Bulgaria with the help of the Russians. Bulgaria remained in the power of the Byzantine Empire after that. In the fourteenth century Bulgaria was invaded by Turkey. It was then a province of the Turkish Ottoman Empire until 1878. Then, finally, Bulgaria became an independent kingdom! Bulgaria fought on the side of Germany in both World Wars. After World War II, Bulgaria became a Communist government.

Extra stuff about Bulgaria: The national flag has three horizontal stripes of white, green, and red, and a coat of arms in the upper left corner. In the United States, we pay in dollars, but in Bulgaria, their currency is called Lev. Naturally, most Bulgarians speak Bulgarian. Some citizens also speak Turkish. Yes, Bulgaria has a national anthem as well. It is called Bulgaria meela, zemya na geroi. Are you baffled? Translated into English, this means Dear Bulgaria, Land of Heroes.

I hope you enjoyed learning about Bulgaria, and I would encourage you to find accurate sources on Bulgaria, whether they be an Internet search or a trip to your local library. I would definitely recommend trying to find out more. You can always learn something new no matter how much you know already.

This has been Ardua, Whyville times writer and citizen.