If you watched Eurovision last Saturday (17 May 2026), you'll know that Bulgaria had quite a night. Dara's "Bangaranga" won the 2026 contest in Vienna with 516 points, the biggest winning margin in the competition's 70-year history. It was Bulgaria's first ever Eurovision victory, and the whole country is celebrating.
For most British children (and, let's be honest, most British adults), Bulgaria sits somewhere in the category of "European country we know exists but couldn't point to immediately on a map." Which makes this the perfect moment to change that.
So where is Bulgaria?
Bulgaria is in south-eastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. It borders Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. Its capital is Sofia, which is home to around 1.3 million people.
It's a country with a genuinely fascinating history, stretching from ancient Thracian civilisations through the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, with some spectacular geography to match: the Rhodope Mountains, the Danube plains, and over 500 kilometres of Black Sea coastline.
A new flag to learn
The Bulgarian flag is one of the more straightforward ones to remember: three horizontal stripes of white, green and red, from top to bottom. No symbols, no crests, just clean, bold colour. It was first adopted in 1878 and the colours are said to represent peace (white), the forests and agriculture of the country (green) and the courage of its people (red).
If your children are working their way through European flags, Bulgaria is a satisfying one to tick off. Distinctive enough to spot, simple enough to draw.
The currency change that made our flashcards newsworthy
Here's the bit that's particularly close to home for us at Little Wigwam. On 1 January 2026, Bulgaria adopted the euro as its official currency, replacing the Bulgarian Lev after 146 years. Bulgaria became the 21st member of the eurozone, joining countries like France, Germany, Spain and Croatia in using the single European currency.
We updated our Flags of the World flashcards earlier this year as part of a broader refresh, and one of the changes we made was updating Bulgaria's currency from lev to euro. We couldn't have predicted that a few months later, the whole country would be dominating Eurovision headlines. But here we are.
It's actually a lovely illustration of why keeping educational resources up to date matters. The world changes, borders shift, currencies change, countries rename themselves. A flags flashcard from a year ago would have shown Bulgaria using the Lev. Ours shows the Euro, because that's the reality for Bulgarians today.
Using big moments as a way in
One of the best things about Eurovision, the World Cup, the Olympics and other big international events is that they hand parents a ready-made excuse to talk about geography. Suddenly "where is Bulgaria?" is a question with an exciting answer rather than a homework chore.
If your children watched the contest and are curious about Bulgaria, or if you want to use the moment to explore the map of Europe more broadly, our Flags of the World flashcards cover all the countries of Europe, including Bulgaria, with the flag on one side and key facts on the other: capital, continent, currency, population and size. And not forgetting our World Map Placemats and Posters or our Europe Map Placemat.
It won't make your children Eurovision winners. But it might mean they'll know a bit more about Bulgaria before the 2027 contest rolls around. Which, of course, will be held in Bulgaria.
Our products are designed by qualified teachers and made in the UK & EU. They're regularly updated to reflect the world as it is, not as it was.