turnkeusa

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I own an apt in a Bulgarian ski resort and found Bulgaria to be more cosmopolitan, open and globalized than the American south or provincial northern Italy, where I used to live. Bulgaria has many problems, but xenophobia is not one of them.
I have owned real estate in Latvia since 1998 and find your idea that the Baltic states are "fairly uncorrupt" absolutely laughable, except for Estonia, which is less corrupt than Italy, where I lived for 15 years. Even former president Freiberga used govt funds to redecorate her personal library; and that's the least of the corruption. Go and see the illegal construction along the beach in Jurmala, which resembles the degree of illegally built real estate in Sicily or Calabria, but never bulldozed by the authorities, as in Italy. The lack of accountability and the impunity of the powerful in Latvia is what led to the recent riots in Riga on January 13, appropriately the anniversary of the 1905 revolution in Tsarist Russia.
Before you generalize about countries in eastern Europe, buy a couple of plane tickets and come visit this summer and swim in the Baltic under the near midnight sun.