Such is the place the author of these compelling travel notes lives in (she also wrote “East - in Eden” as you remember). The Eden which is found to the east of everything was New Zealand. And to the west of Eden Australia stretches – the new Izabela Shopova’s place of abode. Being a traveller, an adventurer and, it is safe to say, a writer, Izabela describes the largest country and the world's smallest continent with the erudition of a historian, geographer, biologist, botanist, ornithologist, arachnologist, entomologist… and with the pen of a literary man envied by everyone who’s fond of writing.
Izabela Shopova (born 1971 in Varna) is a Bulgarian writer, now living and writing in Australia.
A child prodigy, she learned to read at age of 4, graduated from high school at 15, played piano and dreamed of conquering space. She was a professional model and an amateur astronomer; worked in a radio station but never planned to write on her own... She graduated from the local technical university, with major in radio engineering and then stepped in a completely different direction by establishing a career in business.
In 2002 she moved to New Zealand together with her husband and daughter. She wrote her first letter from the “Land of the Long White Cloud”, which became an instant hit back in Bulgaria. It was published by numerous websites, newspapers and travel magazines. She went on writing about first hand experiences and second hand memories, thus bringing together parallel cultures and histories… Some of her travelogues won awards in travel writing./ide.li; okolosveta.com/ Gradually, much to her own surprise, she emerged as a professional writer. She put together a collection of her writings – a fascinating amalgam of episodes from the everyday life of an immigrant and the amazing adventures of a tourist… Her first published book “East - in Eden” surpassed the success of her Internet publications and gave the readers a legitimate reason to call her “The Bulgarian Bill Bryson”.
Izabela Shopova lives now in Brisbane, Australia; she still writes for the electronic media and Bulgarian travel magazines and works on her second book about her family adventures in Aussie-Land.
* The website www.colibri.bg is optimized 
