Oh, dear! There is central heating in the cities - ask Carolyn. And I am sure that even in the States there are places with actual fireplaces and chopped wood.
If you think that Southern Bulgaria is cold in the winter, you should not by any means visit Northern one - especially my hometown which is on the Danube river - Ruse. Actually, I would recommend for you not to go there in the summer either because then it is very, very hot.

Carolyn, you must've been very unlucky during your first winter in Bulgaria. I don't know how you managed to find a place without central heating in Sofia. This is really very rare. And the gas crisis - it was an exception, not a rule. At least it was not a rule until the winter of 2008.

I'm a little bit reserved about this book - it describes things as they were immediately after the changes and actually things have changed. Definitely.