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Comment by larodi | Hacker News Reader

Check Bulgaria's Sofia capital - is top notch. Lots of concerts, events, bars, meetups, conferences, sports facilities. Is still growing lot in terms of IT, hundreds of job postings, major companies such as VMWare, HPs, Codix, SAP all have big offices here - check Linkedin. senior positions after taxes pay 1000-2000EU. Rents are 400-600EU for a very decent central place 80m^2 + furniture. 4 mountains around the city, 4+ winter resorts in less than 4 hours distance, 4 hours from both Black Sea and Greece's coastal line. Summer time 27-30 degrees, winter -10. Closest mountain is 30min from city center - trekking, and some ski facilities. The city is safe.

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You can find senior positions up to 5000-6000EU. That's the good part. Unfortunately, I wouldn't call it a city with a good intellectual atmosphere. I suspect it's one of the worst places if ranked by this factor - it's full with sketchy people in sketchy "businesses", corruption and low level of education.

Disclosure: I'm Bulgarian who used to live in UK and France, and now considering emigrating again due to the reasons stated above.

Hi there, Sofia is not like, say, Munich, but it’s chilled, people are friendly and there is a good IT community. It’s not that I disagree with you, but you can find your way around as a foreigner here.

Disclosure: I got almost burned out and heavily depressed after living 4 years in Munich where everything is perfect but I could not quite accept that.

Not much English speakers there, very mediocre roads in the city. However, the food is great, life is cheaper then in England, but not as cheap, as it may be at Chiangmai. Or in Scotland.

Mediocre roads indeed, but you can manage to get around the city by public transport. While public transit can be sometimes late, or some buss lines use old busses. it's A+ compared to US public transport, but not as great as the London or Paris (tho the metro is newer and cleaner than Paris). Public transport card for all lines for 1 year is 365 levs - 185 eur. Rent prices currently are on the high end and can run you between 300-500 eur. For food, i personally eat take out twice a day and over the last few months my average spend for food & drinks is ~ 300 eur. If someone has other questions about Sofia, feel free to e-mail me or comment here :)

long shot, but any chance you know a way to find short term rentals in the city center? I currently live in Lozenets and while I love it I’d prefer something more central like say Rakovski street

Speaking of Lozenets - it has one of the best wine shops in Bulgaria. And it is definitely a Big Plus. Actually, I have summer office in Sozopol and it works OK, just you will need to be prepared of VIVACOM 24-48hrs downtime once or twice per season. Otherwise OK. Business wise, Bulgaria for a foreigner is very good, banking is OK.

The only thing i can think of is AirBNB, but from what i've seen as prices there, it can be x2-3 more expensive per month, but also depends on your use case. Also try the more larger rental/property agencies like Mirela and Address, they might have few short-term apt.

You can get by with minimal Bulgarian. Roads are terrible so use the very good public transport which is super cheap.

If you step outside of the centre of Sofia then prices plummet. Near Obelya you are looking at 12Euro for dinner for 2.

Tech scene is thriving. (There are much bigger mountains and better skiing than Scotland as well!)

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