After our eventful first day we decided to chill out for the morning. We went for a long wander around the castle in VT before setting out on our next long drive. This time from VT to Silistra, about 4 hours I think.
To those that haven't driven in Bulgaria, it is very typical European driving. Not at all like the UK. So much so that my husband refused to drive for most of the honeymoon (he had never seen driving abroad before!). The motorways are in ok condition as they are fairly new but the white lines don't reflect so it can be hard at night. The side roads are full of holes and in some places just dirt tracks. The drivers are NUTS. To overtake they will pretty much get to within an inch of your bumper and then go round you..... Usually whether there are cars the otherside or not. They hate it when you stick to the speed limit, instead they rely on other drivers flashing them if there are speed cameras or police nearby. I personally just ignored them all and pootled along in my own little world!
Thankfully the village and guest house were well sign posted and so we found it problem free.
It was a little one bed flat above the home of a Bulgarian couple who didn't speak a word of English! It made for interesting conversations using hand gestures! They even left us a bottle of wine and a bar of chocolate to celebrate our marriage.
We went to the village restaurant for dinner. We sat outside and I sent Matt in to get menus. He came out complaining about the lack of manners offered by the server. Another reminder that he isn't well travelled!! He has yet to learn that not every country offers fake smiles and pleasantries like ours does. I am trying to teach him that it isn't a lack of manners, its just that their culture doesnt work the same way as ours. It's going to take time for him to adjust!
So the server, who doesn't speak a word of English, brings out menus. Luckily the menus were in both languages so we could read and then point!!
Yes, at first she came across as a little standoffish but strangely the ice breaker was a tattoo on my arm / hand. She pointed at it and then to one she had. From that point on she was really friendly and helpful!
So the server, who doesn't speak a word of English, brings out menus. Luckily the menus were in both languages so we could read and then point!!
Yes, at first she came across as a little standoffish but strangely the ice breaker was a tattoo on my arm / hand. She pointed at it and then to one she had. From that point on she was really friendly and helpful!
So the next day was the first day of viewings. We were picked up by an agent who took us to about 8/10 properties (we lost count!) in various state of repair with land ranging from 2000 to 5000 sqm. Most of them we disregarded within minutes. Too much work, too little land, wrong lay out of house / land etc. The first one we liked we nicknamed the grey house (3 guesses why?!) and this remained the only one we liked until the last house. It was stunning. The land wasn't perfect but it was doable. It certainly gave us something to think about.
The agent dropped us back to the village restaurant as we were starving after a long long day with no food. I had the joyful experience of using the restaurant toilet. Think a hole in the floor, quite literally. Being a girl wearing jeans made for an interesting peeing experience!
The next morning was spent walking around the nature reserve. We were accompanied by 2 dogs that appeared from no where and stayed with us for the whole of our walk. We lovingly named them fatty and longy. It turned out that they belonged to a lady selling souvenirs in the car park. She didn't seem surprised that they came with us, hand gestures suggested they did it a lot! Fatty was actually called Oliver. We can't remember the other ones name though.
The afternoon was then back in the car for a few hours drive to the next location! More on that soon x
No comments:
Post a Comment