If you’re reading this post, you’re either gearing up for your first semester of medicine in Eastern Europe, or you’re exploring options to escape the challenging process of securing a place in medicine in your home country. Good for you! I commend you for expanding your horizons to pursue your dreams.

Studying medicine in Bulgaria is, for the most part, a great experience. I’m nearly at the halfway mark of becoming an MD, and I’m thoroughly enjoying the journey. However, like any other country, it comes with its own set of challenges. In this post, I’ll be sharing my experiences specifically related to Varna Medical University, as this is where I’m studying.

Currency

The first order of business today: money. As of February 2024, the Bulgarian lev is still the reigning currency, but the government hopes to transition to the euro by January 2025. The finance minister is optimistic, but Bulgaria has yet to meet all the legal requirements, potentially delaying the conversion further into the future.

Currently, the majority of businesses and services in the city operate in lev rather than euros. Many taxis and restaurants still prefer cash transactions, and some don’t even accept cards. So, be sure to have some Bulgarian lev ready in your wallet before you leave, or plan to withdraw cash from an ATM at Varna airport using your Irish bank card (just watch out for those hefty Irish bank charges for withdrawals in Bulgaria).

Language

The national language in Bulgaria is, of course, Bulgarian, serving as the primary language for around 90% of the population. Due to Bulgaria’s history as part of the Soviet Union, older generations often speak Russian as their second language, a result of the language taught in schools during that era.

Since Bulgaria’s integration into the EU in 2007 and the end of the Soviet Union in 1989, there have been gradual changes in the education system. English is now commonly taught in schools, and as a result, the younger generation is often proficient in English, making communication easy in cafes and restaurants. However, when taking taxis, it’s worth noting that drivers, typically over 40 years old, might not speak English.

Interestingly, German is also widely spoken in Bulgaria, allowing my German friends to communicate comfortably in their native language in certain parts of the city.

Arrival

After landing and smoothly passing through the airport passport control, you’ll begin to notice distinct cultural differences in the local people. In Ireland, warm smiles and friendly tones are common in service interactions, and a decade of living in Seoul, South Korea, had accustomed me to a high level of politeness.

However, in large parts of Eastern Europe, this isn’t always the norm, and it can come as a surprise to foreigners. Your first interactions in shops might seem colder than what you’re used to, which could be perceived as rudeness. However, as I settled in Varna, I came to understand that this is simply a cultural trait. In reality, the majority of people I’ve encountered in Varna are very kind and helpful.

During my initial weeks in Varna, I faced some enrollment issues due to a mistake in my document preparation. The reaction from the university staff wasn’t as friendly as I expected based on my previous experiences. However, over the years, the Student Affairs and Admissions office staff have been consistently kind and helpful whenever I’ve needed assistance. While the Western ‘service with a smile’ culture might be absent, what prevails here is ‘service with kindness,’ which I find equally important.

I’ve had discussions with Bulgarian friends who have lived abroad and many of them view the Western service culture as somewhat fake or disingenuous. After 2½ years in Eastern Europe, I’ve come to appreciate the more straightforward approach. Now, I’m more than happy to pop into the corner shop for milk and bread without engaging in a mundane conversation about the weather.

On To The City 

After collecting your baggage at the airport, you’ll see the taxi rank straight outside the exit door of arrivals. As mentioned above, you’ll need Bulgarian lev in cash to pay the taxi driver. A ride to the city centre will take around 15 minutes and will cost you approximately 15 leva (8 euros). We pick up all our IDB clients at the airport when they arrive, but if you didn’t hire an agency, it’s straightforward to communicate the address of your hotel to the taxi driver. Varna is a relatively small city, so taxi drivers are familiar with all the streets and major buildings.

House Hunt

I recommend booking a hotel in the city centre for a couple of nights before you leave Ireland. This will give you some time to hunt for an apartment that you like. Varna offers a very wide range of rental accommodation, from older buildings at an extremely low price (250 euros per month) to newer apartments on the higher end of the price scale (800 euros per month). As you can see, even the apartments in the higher price range are very affordable compared to prices back in Ireland. If you choose to work with our agency (sorry for the plug), I’ll personally take you to a real estate broker that I recommend above the others in Varna. In Bulgaria, landlords advertise their apartments through legally authorised brokers. When you first arrive at the broker’s office, they’ll ask you what kind of accommodation you’re looking for and your desired proximity to the university. I personally chose to live near the University because I wanted to be able to get to my seminars easily and have the option to go back home whenever I had large gaps in the day. Another essential part of my life here in Varna is the beach. The university is only a 10-minute walk away from the beach, so I have the best of both worlds. Some students understandably prefer to live with a buffer between their social and academic lives, so they choose accommodation outside the nearby surroundings of the university. The university is technically in the downtown area of Varna, so if you choose to live a short distance outside of the centre, then you may find cheaper accommodation.

In the deeper downtown area of Varna, you’ll find the Greek Quarter, the true centre of the city. It’s where history meets modernity, and culture intertwines with contemporary allure, creating a captivating fusion of past and present. Many buildings, such as the Opera House and The Cathedral of The Assumption, showcase neoclassical features like columns, decorative mouldings, and symmetrical designs painted with beautiful pastel colours. On my first day in Varna, I felt that I absolutely had to live in this area, even though it would mean a 20-minute walk to the university instead of a 1-minute walk. However, my wife convinced me that living near the University would be the better option, and I’m glad she did. You just can’t beat that 1-minute commute. I do have one classmate who lives in the Greek Quarter in a beautiful modern apartment. Once you step out onto the streets from his door, you’re quickly immersed in vibrant nightlife, boutique shops, inviting cafes, and even closer proximity to the beach. I would love to have this on my doorstep, but at the same time, it feels really good to be able to pop back home straight after a seminar when I’m feeling tired.        

Once you’ve settled on the location you’d like to live in and you know your price range, the broker will take you to a few different apartments. I would advise you to take a look at as many as possible, and if you’re not happy with any of them, you should communicate this with the broker. When we were house hunting, our broker brought us to five different apartments in the space of two hours. We were not satisfied with any of these apartments, and we were honest with the broker. Once I told him that I was looking at different options with different real estate brokers, he promptly sent me photos of a much nicer place than the apartments he had originally shown us. We went to view the apartment to meet the landlord. It was very nice and newly decorated. There were two bedrooms, two balconies, and a very large joint living room and kitchen. We were very surprised and happy to find out that the cost of the apartment was only 400 euros per month. This is approximately 800 lev in Bulgarian currency. One of the best features of the apartment is the landlord himself. He’s one of the nicest people we’ve met since coming to Bulgaria, and his English is very good. He always responds and comes to help us when there’s something wrong, such as the cooker breaking, or if we need help with documents for immigration. His daughters come to our apartment every Saturday to learn English with my wife. Even through high levels of inflation since we arrived, he hasn’t raised the rent. I chose not to recommend the broker that I’m mentioning in this story because it was clear that he was intending to try to make us sign a contract for an apartment that was not of good quality until I complained. I have since found an excellent broker that consistently finds very suitable accommodation for my clients.        

Internet and Bills

Once you’ve settled into your new pad, you’ll need an internet connection asap. Thanks to government initiatives and investment, you’ll be happy to find that Bulgaria has fast, reliable, and cheap internet connection. There are 3 major broadband and mobile network providers: A1, Vivacom, and Yettel. We have been using A1 since we arrived, and the service has been very efficient. Our home wifi costs us only 15 leva (7 euros 50 cents) per month, and our phone bills with a sim card and unlimited mobile data cost us 30 leva (15 euros) each per month. So, for home wifi, 2 phones with unlimited data, and Bulgarian sim cards cost us a total of 32 euros per month. Wild! My only issue with A1 is the workers in the store. I am grateful for how they always speak English, but you must ask for clarity in the final price for your monthly bill. We have changed our plan a couple of times over the years, and we were told what the final price would be only to find a more expensive bill in our inbox at the end of the month.

Enrolment

Here’s the day you’ve been waiting for. After all the studying, document preparation, packing, and moving, you’ll finally be able to walk around the medical university campus with the status of a medical student. Once you’ve met with the admissions office staff, and they make sure that all of your documents are in order, you may proceed to enrol in the student affairs office. They will assign you a group number. This is the number of the group that you will be taking seminars with potentially for the next six years. In your group, there are roughly 12 or 13 students. In my year, for example, there are 24 groups, and my group number is 18. I didn’t know anyone in my group before I started studying, as students are randomly assigned into groups. Luckily, I was placed into a group with nice colleagues, and we get along well together. Let’s hope that you have the same luck as I did! When you enrol, you will also be provided with a navy booklet called a ‘kanishka.’ At certain points throughout the six-year course, professors will sign this book after exams and give you a grade. You will need to present this ‘kanishka’ at the end of your six-year course in order to graduate, so please keep it very safe! After enrolling, tell the team in the student affairs office that you need an enrolment certificate to present to the immigration office. You will need this to prove that you are a student at the university when you are applying for your residency permit in the immigration office.

The Immigration Office

As Irish citizens, we are lucky to have a smart government that stayed in the EU, making it very easy for us to apply for residency in any EU country, including Bulgaria. Unfortunately, for our old friends across the water, this is not the case. The rules are relaxed for us, and there are just a few documents that you need to prepare for the immigration office. But visiting this building is not without its perils.

In every country I’ve visited, where I’ve been to an immigration office, including South Korea (a country very far from any place where English is the native language), workers in immigration offices always speak English. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Varna. Since I’ve been studying Bulgarian for the past three years, I like to accompany my clients when they visit the immigration office so I can help them communicate. One common point in all immigration offices I have been to around the world is that the workers are rude (except for one great guy that I once dealt with in Korea). It’s just a sure thing no matter where you go. I’m guessing it just comes with the territory. Maybe they have to be intimidating to weed out people who are breaking the rules or applying for a visa under a fake name. Or maybe it’s just a really annoying job that they hate, and they take out their frustration on young medical students who don’t speak their language. Either way, be perfectly prepared before you go, and the ride will be a little less rough.

The immigration office in Varna is about the size of a post office in a really tiny country town. Once you get to the top of the queue, you’ll most likely be greeted by a woman in her 50’s with a very evil scowl. If you don’t have all of the correct documents prepared, she might do as she did to me by literally tossing the documents right at you over the counter. I remember being in total shock when that happened. After more research, I figured out what I needed and came back to her fully prepared a few days later with more documents and some sentences in Bulgarian that I rehearsed over and over again. This time I was successful. But the big challenge was just around the corner.

After receiving my residency ID card, I had to apply for an EU spousal visa for my Korean wife. I managed to anger the ladies behind the counter even more, as this one was much more complicated. I still haven’t forgotten the look on the lady’s face when I told them that I (an Irish citizen) wanted to apply for a spousal visa for my wife (a Korean citizen) in this city on the Black Sea in Bulgaria. She looked back at me as if her head had been spun around 50 times. It took around 7 painful visits to the immigration office before they would grant my wife her visa. Each time I had to come back with something new that they asked for. I believe that in the end, they just got sick of seeing me so often that they just granted my wife a visa. I was absolutely over the moon, as I could provide this to my wife so soon after arriving in Bulgaria (2 months) because, in Ireland and some other EU countries, the process can take as long as 9 months. So overall, the moral of the story is very similar to what I mentioned near the beginning of this blog post about those that work in the service industry. You will be taken very good care of in this country by many people with warm hearts, but just don’t expect a smile to always go with it.

Bank Account

Once you have your Bulgarian ID, you can open a Bulgarian bank account. I would recommend this as the charges on Bulgarian bank accounts are very low compared to back home. I have an account with DSK bank, and their service has never caused me any problems. I definitely can’t say the same thing about any of the Irish banks. DSK set me up with a student bank account and an ISIC (International Student Identity Card). With this card, you are eligible for discounts.

Study Time!

During your enrolment in the Student Office, you will receive your student number and login details for Blackboard. This is the online platform that you will be using at MUV for the next 6 years. You will find separate pages for all of your subjects. On these pages, you can find the subject syllabus, study materials that you’ll need for the semester, recommendations for what books to read, and information about upcoming tests. Sometimes you will have online seminars through this portal too. Your seminar and lecture timetable can be found on the other platform that the university uses, which is called Webstudent. Your username and password will be the same for both of these accounts.

With your new 1st-year timetable, you’ll be all set to attend your first seminar with your group! 1st year is, of course, more relaxed than some other years, but I definitely wouldn’t call it easy. I was surprised at the level of difficulty in the first semester, but I ended up finishing 1st year comfortably with good grades. The faster you get settled with the tasks listed above, the easier it will be to acclimatise to the academic side of things quickly. I will write a separate blog post to go into more detail about my experiences in the first year.