Та наскоро WP (washingtonpost), публикуваха 2-3 странична-статия за България и ?зточна Европа, в която авторката описва романтиката и екзотиката от това да пътува? в все още неразглезени от туризъм страни, като България, Румъниъя,… Само дето по цитираните и цени за нощувки има? чуството че е отсядала в от 4+ хотели нагоре, но пък и няма как журналист от такава медия да се прави на беден турист, спящ по хостели де 
Как да е, след всяка подобна статия, WP организират чат с авторите на статиите с читателите си за свободна дискусия на тема “Пътуване”. Ето тук може да се види транскрипт на онлайн-разговора на WP-читатели за ?зточна Европа…
някои извадки:
Taunton, Mass.: To -Cindy Loose
How would you describe your overall impressions from Bulgaria and the bulgarian people? If you have a chance would you visit Bulgaria another time again?
Is it exciting destination for tourism and ralaxation ?
Cindy Loose: I would visit Bulgaria again—in fact, I’d really like to go to the Black Sea. I suspect you can go to the Black Sea and relax. Outside of that area, my impression is that the average tourist, myself included, wouldn’t want to stay in just one place, but would want to move around to see different things. I guess that’s a way of saying that the tourist attractions are spread out and while each place is interesting, it’s not like you’d spend a week in one place. For example, the Rila Monastery is amazing, but you wouldn’t want to spend days there–you’d spend a few hours and move on. That kind of travel isn’t relaxing in my opinion–but it is interesting. Hope I’m explaining what I mean—it’s like you could easily spend a week in Paris or even two. You might have just as good a time in Sofia, but only for a couple days. People I found to be helpful in most cases, although as I mentioned, I did find some of that old Soviet attitude lingering in some cases.
Indianapolis,Ind.: Gary and Cindy,
Does Slovakia and/or Bulgaria use the cyrilic alphabet? Are many signs, menus, etc in English?
Gary Lee: Bulgaria uses a form of Cyrillic but Slovakia doesn’t. In Slovakia menus are in English in most of the more heavily touristed places; in Bulgaria far less so.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Loved your Eastern Europe countries’ stories. We’ve been talking about visiting Bulgaria and Cindy’s story sought of clinched the deal for us. Loved her descriptions of her language-barrier problems. Can you recommend a source of information about Bulgaria so we can do some pre-trip planning?
Cindy Loose: Lonely Planet is the only guidebook I found, except for one put out by a Bulgarian tour operator called Alexander Tours. I did get a lot of information from the Bulgarian embassy—since they have no tourism office in the U.S. the embassy’s trade rep sends out lots of good brochures. That’s all I did in prep, besides reading the book about saving the Jews, which also gave me some insight into other periods of Bulgarian history.
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Bethesda, Md: Cindy, what else can you tell us about Bulgaria? From my research it seems that flying there from DC requires two plane changes…is that right?
Cindy Loose: I did Bulgaria on one plane change–Dulles to London on British Air then on to Sofia.
Generally, I liked the place, and wish I’d had time to see the Black Sea area, which is the area that has captured alot of Europeans on holiday.
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Bulgaria: Dear Flight Crew, Dear Cindy Loose
I’m very much delighted to read such good words about my country in such a renowned newspaper. I only want to say, that you’ve perhaps asked middle-aged people to direct you. That’s right, most of our parents and all of our grandparents do not speak English, but almost every teenager does. Even children of the age of 8 or 10 can follow a simple conversation in English. On the other hand, our parents speak even better Russian than we do English. But this is a result of how they were educated.
I wish all your Crew a lot of success and …
keep travelling
Peter
Cindy Loose: Thanks. I am grateful for the chance to see your country, and hope I can return.
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Munich, Germany: Great article on Bulagria, but I have to ask if someone was pulling your leg about the opposites in head-nodding.
Also, what was your impression of the Black Sea resorts? I’m a bit sceptical about the Bulgarian beaches because I imagine them to be packed with European tourists, all fighting for their plastic beach chairs in the morning.
Cindy Loose: I swear, no leg pulling. For three days I stared at people trying to figure out why they were shaking their heads yes but saying no, and vice versa. Finally, back in Sofia, a local guidebook in my hotel warned travelers of the national quirk.
No question the Black SEa is popular with Europeans. What I don’t know–and wouldn’t have been able to find out by visiting in March–is whether the Europeans congregate in areas that can be avoided. It is a pretty long coast line. Sorry, I don’t know—does anyone else? And your experience must be no more than 5 years old, cause things have been changing fast..