Five years ago Elina Tsankova and Ivan Mihalev launched the Internet blog Otbivki.com, where they share their short escapes from the everyday life. However, they did not expect that the huge interest in their discoveries would make them write two whole books about their journeys. The book named 101 Stop Overs (101 Otbivki) and the recently published sequel 101 New Stop Overs (Novi 101 Otbivki), summarize their trips across Bulgaria and contain information about little known places in this country. The books have always been among the best sellers of a popular Bulgarian bookstore.

Readers can find in those books clear instructions about how to get to some very interesting places. The books also contain curious facts about those sites gathered by the authors in the course of many years. Besides, the books advise tourists to visit other sites situated within a radius of 50 kilometers from the place described in the books, so their journey can become more interesting and complete. However, the beautiful photos are the real fortune of those books, According to authors Ivan Mihalev and Elina Tsankova, the photos make the difference between their books and other alternative guides. All photos placed in the two books were taken personally by Ivan and Elina. It took them a lot of efforts to take those photos. Their next challenge is to publish the guide in English and currently they are working under that project.

In Ivan Mihalev's view, the internal energy is what turns a certain place into a landmark and a precious memory: 

“The area near Pchelina dam-lake situated 50 kilometers away from Bulgaria's capital Sofia is one of the sites, where tourists feel the specific energy and are in harmony with the place. It was described in our first book 101 Stop Overs. There is an old and very well-preserved chapel in that place. Moreover, this landmark offers an exceptionally beautiful view. It is interesting to note that the chapel was built centuries before the artificial lake appeared in that area. The chapel and the lake are very beautiful and in harmony with each other. There are many places like that one in Bulgaria. The energy they emit makes us return there again and again.”

During his multiple trips across Bulgaria Ivan Mihalev got acquainted with the beauty of his home country and with the problems of local tourism as well:

“Recently Bulgaria held a tourist campaign entitled The Fifty Less-Known Tourist Sites which cost nearly EUR 1 million and most of those sites were not interesting at all. In my view, Bulgaria should not spend so much money on the promotion of tourist sites. It should rather use most of this money to make such little known places more civilized. For instance, there isn't a single restroom in a radius of at least 1 kilometer from the Devetashka Cave, which already became a film-set of some Hollywood Movies. Why that country has not built the necessary adjacent infrastructure yet? I can name dozens of places without any tourist signs, pathways, railings, or even toilets and fountains. I believe that the number of tourists visiting such sites would be higher, if the authorities build the necessary infrastructure and provide good conditions for tourism. After all, we live in the 21st century and social media contribute a lot to the development of local tourism and people can find detailed information about given tourist sites on the Internet. The main problem regards the maintenance of the tourist sites. I would advise the Bulgarian authorities to focus their energy on the improvement of the tourist conditions and the preservation of the tourist sites.”

English version: Kostadin Atanasov