In the summer of 1997, before our trip, I spent a hundred hours on the Internet trying to get beneath the surface of Romania and Bulgaria. Theoretically, it is now possible for one to scout a country in advance of an actual visit. Realistically, the process of winnowing useful information from the bushels of chaff generated by a general search engine is very frustrating. On the other hand, it is inspiring to find electronic correspondents who you enjoy. They are windows on other worlds. If you actually visit their country, such contacts are a source of comfort and a big help.

Early in the winnowing process I located an index of personal web pages published by individual Bulgarians studying abroad. I randomly choose a MIT graduate student, Violeta, who had included some travel information on her page. She responded quickly to my e-mail questions and even offered the assistance of her brother in Sofia - an offer we did not need to accept because we had Mike.

Soon afterwards I located a group of English speaking e-mail enthusiasts at the American University of Bulgaria. Ellie, an undergraduate woman, was particularly friendly and articulate. Is the Internet a venue for women who have a way with words? Our correspondence with Ellie was, unfortunately, cut off at the end of the academic year, a couple of months before we arrived in Bulgaria. She gave us an alternative summer e-mail address but it did not seem to work. In general, one should not expect Bulgarian and Romanian e-mail systems to be 100% reliable, as yet.

I tried very hard to find a contact in Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria, a location I knew we wanted to visit. I eventually made the acquaintance of a husband and wife, both university professors. They cooked us a delicious dinner when we arrived in Veliko Tarnovo.

I will not reveal any of the e-mail addresses for the above correspondents (unless they want me to do so).

Culture.soc.bulgaria and culture.soc.romania are newsgroups with some English language discussions (threads). I watched these groups for awhile and then timidly interjected short travel questions. The groups were polite, and I did not get flamed, not even once! As a result, I started off-group e-mail correspondences with several people. One correspondent is a Romanian electrical engineer. She and her friend met us at the train station in Bucharest and settled us into a beautiful old hotel at a very modest rate. We hadn't believed that good, inexpensive hotels existed for tourists in modern Bucharest. The next day they took us for a brief tour of the city and then up to Sinia and Sighisoara.

Another correspondent, an American woman doing business in Romania, introduced us to an informal Bed and Breakfast arrangement and driver in Brasov. Just before we departed the US, correspondent from Brasov told us about his new tour agency based upon Internet communications. A UCSF professor and his wife gave us directions to a little town, "the most beautiful setting in all Romania", where they had bought a piece of property and intended to build a second home.

The formal electronic tourist infrastructure in Bulgaria and Romania is not very well developed - except for pages by the biggest and most expensive hotels. In Romania there a lot of embryonic web pages and lists of agencies devoted to travel, but I did not find them very useful. Romania could expand its tourist industry very rapidly if it get its electronic infrastructure straightened out. Bulgaria seems to be somewhat behind even Romania in tourist infrastructure of all types - but Bulgaria may be all the more attractive because of that.

6/98 update on Romania links. I just did a quick search on Romania links and it appears that there are a lot more than there were last year. Try a few of these for starters.

Romanian tourism

Romanian internet directory

Information about Romania and Bucharest

I did not see or hear about any Internet Cafes in Bulgaria or Romania, but I expect that they will be coming along fairly soon. The use of rental terminals in a cafe may be the only way that most Bulgarians and Romanians can afford access to the Internet.

Lots of people in both countries have telephones and I didn't have too much trouble contacting them from the US. But making contact from point to point within the countries or between the countries is tricky. The hotel clerk can sometimes help. Be prepared for substantial charges. I did not try to use my AT&T credit card number to call back to the US. In some countries AT&T has a toll free number that gets you to an English speaking operator who will place your call.

We left a string of emergency telephone numbers with our family and friends in the US, but they didn't need to contact us.

We sent a simple "having a wonderful time, wish you were here" e-mail from Geogi and Margarita's personal computer in Veliko Turnovo. That was a mistake. The next morning Mary's business associate took the opportunity to drop a bomb on her, a return e-mail containing several pages of insoluble problems. She took one brief glance and filed the message away in the deepest recesses of her suitcase. This was obviously a case of new technology bringing home and travel too close together.