Bulgaria: A beautiful, photogenic maze of soul and tradition. We went in July 2016. Many birds (and a vast number of other animals) live here too. Tall mountains (bigger than the Appalachian mountain range) look over the small cities and towns on or under them. Many of these towns are centuries old, and are usually smaller than a big neighborhood. In town, back in the piedmont region, medium size cities are common. The ones we visited were Sofia, the capital, and Stara Zagora, slightly smaller.