After the capital, what is the next most developed city in your country? And which one comes after that?

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RuloBG@reddit

Funny thing in my country, Spain, the most developed city is not the capital. But the second city, Barcelona.

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canyoubelieveitt@reddit

Madrid looks much more orderly though?

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Sheb1995@reddit

Rijeka and then Pula, Dubrovnik, possibly Varaždin?

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snjevka@reddit

It is Split, Rijeka, Osijek, Zadar in that order. The guy above doesn't know what he is talking about

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DrVital1s@reddit

In Romania we have Bucharest, who is the capital, then on 2nd is Cluj and close behind Timisoara

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Archaeopteryx111@reddit

After Timișoara comes Constanța, Iași, and Brașov.

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No-Championship-4632@reddit

I always thought Constanta is the third largest city, similar to Varna here.

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Thing with Romania is that (not including Bucharest), its next largest cities are fairly evenly populated. The difference between Cluj (2nd most populated) and Craiova (7th most populated) is roughly 50.000 people. And this is including the 20%-ish drop post-revolution.

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Leather-Card-3000@reddit

That 2021 census was a bullshit. I didn't answer it like many others, so datas are probably misleading

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DrVital1s@reddit

agree

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Consistent-Shoe-9602@reddit

In Bulgaria, that would be Plovdiv and then Varna. I think they are not bad cities to live in with Plovdiv being pretty nice and Varna at the seaside, but personally, I've had enough of city life in Sofia, and would much rather spend most of my time in the country instead.

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XRaisedBySirensX@reddit

American here. Varna was always somewhat known because of the sea access, but since the release of Elden Ring, and the popularizing of the history of the Varna necropolis, it's become a place for us Fromsoft nerds to wanna see. It's def on my list and if I ever save enough money for some international travel again, it's a top 3, top 5 place I'd wanna go. I'm probably not quite a standard American traveler, but I doubt I'm alone in my interests/travel ambitions.

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tamzhebuduiya@reddit (OP)

Why Plovdiv above Varna?

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MartinBP@reddit

Varna is a mess, run by organised crime groups until 2023 and they still control the local economy. It could've been much more developed if it were governed by competent people (same goes for Plovdiv tho).

The only reason it's more well-known by foreigners is because it's on the seaside and has lots of resorts nearby which were popular with Russians (and the Russian mafia) before 2022.

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dwartbg9@reddit

Golden Sands and the resorts near Varna were popular with tourists from all over Europe, if anything Germans and Scandinavians were still the biggest visitors after the Russians. You wrote it like it's some obscure place that's just known to Russians which is false.

Germans even have that funny name for the resort - Balleman on Balkans. They even have CD Compilations about it, and I think the nightclub still exists over there. They have that brand of nightclubs in Mallorca and Ibiza, if I'm not wrong. Golden Sands is a very nice place that's still famous even without the Russians. You really wrote it, and people not aware of Bulgaria may get the wrong impression. Here's a photo that I took some years ago.

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Consistent-Shoe-9602@reddit

It's the larger and thus more developed city. To be honest, I like visiting both, but Plovdiv seems to have a bit more going on. As far as Varna goes, personally, I'm not a big fan of city beaches as they are crowded, but I do enjoy a stroll along the shoreline when I'm there.

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No-Championship-4632@reddit

I'd say they have different profiles with Varna having the stronger economy by almost all objective indicators (GDP/capita, average wages, unemployment rate, etc). Plovdiv has stronger industry even if we count Devnya and valley of chemistry. Varna has stronger tourism and services sector (like call centers, software companies although that is on par with Plovdiv, shipping, commercial/logistics ones). Plovdiv has larger metropolitan area population while being more compact, while Varna is spread out, but the region has less population. There are arguably more things going on in Varna in the summer, but less in the winter. Both are large university centres, but Plovdiv is the larger one. Both have big traffic problems with Varna having the better public transportation. Differences are not as huge as those between them and Sofia. Apart from that, it is a matter of preferences, Varna is a seaside city, while Plovdiv is not (but it has mountains nearby). Plovdiv is also much closer to Sofia, at some point when they finish the railway project, it would likely take about an hour by train, while traveling from Sofia to Varna is quite the adventure that takes many hours (unless you take an airplane, but AFAIK Ryanair and Wizz were pushed out by Bulgaria Air and it's not that cheap anymore).

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OnlyZac@reddit

I’d like to visit Plovdiv, seems like an interesting city

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Nflnbafootball@reddit

Gjilan i think

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Kaminazuma@reddit

It is Ferizaj by a large margin.

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baraumba@reddit

In Romania Cluj or Timișoara. It depends on what we are comparing.

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StevenAdamsInDallas@reddit

Cluj, Iasi, Timisoara, Craiova - in this order. Cluj being the cleanest (but with the biggest problems on the housing market). Timisoara is pretty industrialized in the outskirts. Craiova has some of the most beautiful Romanian old boier buildings you'll ever see. Iasi as well in terms of architecture and cultural buildings tops Cluj (as it was the city where the Ferdinand retreated in WW1), imo.

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baraumba@reddit

De când Iași-ul e peste Timișoara? Și Craiova în top 4? Pe ce considerente?

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MeditativeRaven@reddit

You are not wrong, but Iași's cultural significance comes from something else. Firstly, for being the capital of Moldavia, before the union with Wallachia in 1859 which led to the formation to Romania as a country.

Secondly, it was pretty much the birthplace of Romanian literature. Before the unification, a group of people wanted to create an original national literature. So they started publishing a magazine, containing works from aspiring authors. The ideals of these writers was to create literary works inspired from Romania's (it wasn't only about Moldavia, but all Romanian principalities), history, folklore and nature, as well as discourage copying from foreign works. The magazine was short-lived though. However, shortly after the unification, a group of people who studied abroad founded Junimea, a literary society. Their goal was to stimulate the cultural life by encouraging people to write and publish their works. This society was also publishing a magazine with literary and art reviews, as well as translations of foreign works. The most important Romanian authors were members of Junimea and started their career with this society.

Iași is also the home of: Romania's oldest university, its first national theater, the first memorial house and the first botanical garden.

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StevenAdamsInDallas@reddit

Eh, my list wasn't exhaustive. I just succinctly presented some information, to be easily read by people.

Great job in presenting the significance of Iasi in the 19th century socio-historical context.

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MeditativeRaven@reddit

Oh, my bad. I completely misunderstood the sentence.

Nothing wrong with a succinct presentation. I'm the one who went overboard with explaining 😅

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not-sib@reddit

Iași mentioned💪💪💪💪🇷🇴🇷🇴🇷🇴🇷🇴

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North-Library4037@reddit

Craiova is very nice. Beautiful architecture. Lovely city center. Great Christmas market!

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Sakky93@reddit

In Croatia it seems to be Rijeka, then Istria.

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tamzhebuduiya@reddit (OP)

Not Split?

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Sakky93@reddit

Here is the chart, because it looks like I cant comment images

https://financije.hr/tek-dvije-zupanije-i-zagreb-s-vecim-bdp-om-po-stanovniku-od-nacionalnog-prosjeka/

We call Split Africa with electricity :)

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verssus@reddit

I am not disagreeing but I your chart Split county is above Rijeka and Istria

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_whatever_idc@reddit

That’s because statistic is for counties(zupanije) not the city proper.

Split is a weird one anyway, its very chaotic city, it feels like a rich shithole if you ask me.

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verssus@reddit

I understand. But why share the link stating almost opposite of narrative?

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bljuva57@reddit

You have to look at the bdp per capita chart, you were looking at the bdp only chart. Scroll down.

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_whatever_idc@reddit

🤷‍♂️

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Sakky93@reddit

What are you talking about? There is one chart on the page, and its showing BDP per capita for each Zupanija, and it goes Zagreb, Primorsko-Goranska (which i called Rijeka to make it easier), and then Istria. Split is right in the middle of the chart

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Internal-Debt1870@reddit

After Athens, Thessaloniki. After that, probably Patras or Larissa?

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pinkman-alb@reddit

Prizren, then Ferizaj

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Barbak86@reddit

The numbers say Ferizaj is number two.

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Barbak86@reddit

Prishtina, Ferizaj then Peja or Prizren.... Not sure about the third one.

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dwartbg9@reddit

Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Stara Zagora in that particular ranking.

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tamzhebuduiya@reddit (OP)

Why Plovdiv above Varna?

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dwartbg9@reddit

I could be wrong, but I believe it's slightly better economically than Varna. Albeit it's true that Varna is nowadays considered the 2nd biggest city by most statistics, the city overall feels huge compared to Plovdiv and sprawls to a very big area.

As for pure speculative opinion - most people would prefer Plovdiv, simply because of the better climate and atmosphere. Yes, Varna is at the coastline and also has amazing sights, but the climate is actually worse than in Plovdiv and the city is pretty dead in winter, making Plovdiv feel more lively.

But overall I could be wrong, and Varna nowadays has better opportunities than Plovdiv.

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MartinBP@reddit

Plovdiv is bigger than Varna by official statistics although the urban populations are very close. Plovdiv's metro area however is significantly more populated than Varna's as it has many commuter towns and satellite villages due to the flat geography. Varna is located on a gulf and residential construction is focused on the seaside, so it's more spread out and harder to traverse.

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dwartbg9@reddit

Yeah, makes sense. Varna really feels massive to me compared to Plovdiv in some ways, since it's more spread out in like two directions and more narrow. And how Golden Sands, St.Constantine&Helena and whanot are more like a suburbs of it, considering they're now literally connected to the city limits and you have public transport going there.

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No-Championship-4632@reddit

St.Constantine & Helena was a neighbourhood of Varna and within the city limits back in the time when I was a kid (80s-early 90s) but now it has sprawled out as far as Golden Sands (and probably within several years it would reach Kranevo too).

If I were to choose between Plovdiv and Varna, I'd choose Plovdiv probably as I can't stand seaside for more than 2-3 weeks and because the winter weather in Varna can be rather brutal, that's why they can't grow palms as much as they try while random uncared for ones grow in the open fields near Plovdiv (that's for real, I've seen those). Plovdiv's summer heats are unbearable on the other hand which is why I wouldn't move from Sofia to any of those.

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MrPsychSiege@reddit

What’s the climate in Plovdiv compared to Varna? I’m curious

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ivanp359@reddit

Very warm. It’s one of the hottest places in the country (if im not mistaken Sandanski is hotter but a lot smaller too). Summers are pretty much unliveable and winters often feel like mid-spring. This year it was an exception, but that was pretty much for all Eastern Europe i guess. I don’t really like the cold, so I like the weather here a lot.

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BurgurluGenc031@reddit

Ankara is the capital,the one come after that is İstanbul ofc since it was old capital. After that any 30 big city is okey like EskiŞehir or Konya or İzmir.

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asterothe1905@reddit

İstanbul >> Ankara . It’s an anomaly in this context.

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BurgurluGenc031@reddit

AFTER the capital post say.

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asterothe1905@reddit

It assumes capital is the largest so it’s an exception

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MomentumSSbrawl@reddit

What about Bursa?

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BurgurluGenc031@reddit

its in big 30 so yeah that one too. Idk much as which ones comes first in 30 big city but Bursa is okey. *warning even tho ı lived and keep livin in Ankara my family wont let me leave street alone until ı was 16 so ı newly discoverin the city ı lived for years for just 1 year actually so ıdk have that much in infos at cities. As long as its in big 30 city list its okey.*

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Hot_Distribution_131@reddit

Is it dangerous or you are a girl?

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BurgurluGenc031@reddit

too much control my parents want even ım boi.

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Hefty_Jaguar4305@reddit

and what about Edirne?

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BurgurluGenc031@reddit

Idk that much but since its not in big 30 city list,other ones comes first then edirne.

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Complex_Shine_1113@reddit

Gevgelija I suppose? The proximity to the Greek border and being on the Corridor 10 highway means that there’s no shortage of Greek tourists, shoppers, and medical and dental patients. The unemployment rate is also the lowest in the country, lower than in Skopje.

In absolute GDP size, probably Bitola. Especially with the construction of the new highway connecting Bitola to the rest of the country, it’s expected to have a tremendous effect on the entire Pelagonia region’s economy.

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