Student living expenses

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Student living Costs or living expenses

Student living Costs or living expenses in Bulgaria are among the lowest not only in Europe but probably all over the world. Accommodation, public transportation services, food and sport and leisure services are very affordable.

Food
Food in Bulgaria are very cheap. Most universities have student restaurant at university and in student campus with superb meal at a surprisingly reasonable price: diner or lunch cos approx.1 to 2€.
Beside student restaurants, you find in every corner of the cities very good restaurants with cheap various foods. Vegetarians, Muslims or those on diet for medical, religious or other personal reasons fill at home with around 5€.
Local and international fast-food like McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King and Subway, Fornetti, Bella Bulgaria Hranko Chicho, etc. are present everywhere in Bulgarian cities.
Students who prefer to cook their food have a lot of choice. Local and international supermarkets like Carrefour, Billa, Fantastico, Kaufland, Lidl, METRO, METRO, ProMarket, T-Market, Triumf, etc. offer various foods, from all over the world, at very competitive prices.

Sport and leisure
In Bulgaria students have a lot of entertainment options to spend their spare time, including opera and classical music concerts, rock music venues, nightclubs and discos, pubs, bars, cinemas and theathes, museums and many historical buildings and monuments of interest.
Note that Bulgaria is a popular skiing Climbing, hiking, mountain-biking and caving destination. Water-sports off the Black Sea coast are very popular with visitors and Bulgarians alike. Those enjoying Football, athletics, tennis, wrestling and boxing fill home in Bulgaria.
Students enjoy a very rich cultural heritage and many annual festivals with traditional music, folk dancing and costumes and often live performances of folk music and dancing in restaurants and other venues.
Compared to other European countries, expenses for Sport and leisure in Bulgaria are very reasonable in such way that most parents of students in Bulgaria prefer to come to spent their holiday on Bulgaria.

Urban Transport in Bulgaria
All Bulgarian cities have some form of urban transport (buses, trolleybuses, trams, subway, taxi Most cities have some form of urban transport, and mini-buses) and taxi. subway and Trams exist only in Sofia while buses, mini-buses (so called “marshrutka”), trolleybuses and taxi exist in all cities. Subway is very clean, fast and keeps strict schedule, unfortunately does not yet cover all the important Sofia routes.
The cost of urban transport varies between cities and is usually around 0.5€ for a single ticket. In some cities like Sofia you must have a ticket before getting on the vehicle and you have to perforate it yourself when you get in while in other cities they are sold inside the bus. The best option is to bay 1 month pass unlimited journeys on a single route or on all routes depending on your personal need.
Taxis are reasonable option for urban transport too and the price per km is around 0.80 BGN (0.40€)/km. It is always advised to be careful and check the price before jumping in in order to avoid hassles with taxi drivers especially around rail stations, bus stations and airports.

Approximate minimum living cost per month

The monthly expenses in the table above are given as example. The really amount depends on the live style of each person and slightly within different cities, the larger cities will being more expensive than small cities to live in. The student choosing to stay in shared flat with flatmates or in student hostel, who prefer to eat in student restaurant than in private restaurant or even better, who prefer to prepare his food home, will make economy.
Affordable living costs together with very reasonable university tuition fees (000 to 8000€/year for medical studies, 3000 t0 3500 €/year for non medical studies.), high quality of education and qualifications valid and or recognized all over the world, and safe, relaxed and slower pace of life environment, make Bulgarian universities one of the best destinations in the world for international students from all over the word and especially from UK, Ireland, France, Germany, USA, Nigeria, India, South Africa and Middle East.