Well its been a while!

Our plans, along with most other peoples, hit a bump called Covid 19.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully a more 'normal' way of life will resume for all of us soon.

I will have to read back over the blog to see how much of the renovations I have documented. I dont think I've written much about what has been done on the house so I will do a separate post about that. 

We haven't been to BG for 18 months. We have had 3 trips cancelled, 2 because of cancelled flights due to covid and 1 because my mum passed away shortly before we were due to fly out. This year we have fights booked for September with a view to spend 3 weeks out there. We MUST get over before the end of December as we need to change our residency to the new type (due to UK leaving the EU). 

Our youngest children are now 16 so our permanent move is getting closer and closer. Covid has meant we haven't been able to save as much money as we had planned but I now have a part time job that, subject to them approving, I should be able to do remotely from BG. This means we don't have the immediate worry of having enough savings to live off until we find an income in BG. We just have to hope that they approve me working from abroad; I haven't mentioned it yet as I've only been there 4 months and I want to impress them enough that they won't want me to leave my role! 

I will sign off for now and go back to see where I got to with my previous posts. I will then post over the next few months to bring the blog up to date with all things BG related! 

The House

By the time we got home we had discounted one of our 3 favorite houses due to it not being in a location that would work for us. Whilst it was a stunning looking house we couldn't see it offering everything we wanted.

Which left two houses. We called them 'the ranch' and 'the grey house'. We had some questions about both so exchanged a few emails with the agents of both. It turns out the ranch had 1500sqm less land that had been advertised. Due to the layout of the land we could still make it work but we wanted a reduction in the price to reflect the loss of that land. They offered to drop by 500 euro which we were not happy with. I emailed them an offer which was 2000 euro under the asking price. And they totally ignored my email. I left it a few days and emailed them chasing an answer. Which they ignored again. I would have negotiated a bit if they had bothered to reply but they didn't so that was the end of that!

So that left the grey house. I asked a lot of questions which the agent was happy to answer. I found and spoke to other English in the same village and they told me how great it was there. The agent knocked off 1000 euro without me even asking. So we decided to buy it!

Its a 3 bed bungalow with a one bed annex, garage and outbuildings. It has 5200sqm of land and we still have the option to buy another 4000sqm at a later date. Its on the edge of a small village near Silistra and close to the Danube. The village has around 300 people including at least 5 UK households. There is a shop, restaurant / bar, post office and library. Silistra is about half hour drive away.

Here are the long awaited pictures ……

We sooooooooo love it!

Today we go home..... Or do we?!

The hotel made us breakfast early so we could be on the road by 7.30. Plenty of time to get to Sofia for our flight back.

 

About half an hour into our 2 hour journey the car started making a strange noise again. Another flat tyre, in fact it was the one we had replaced the day before!  NOT HAPPY.
Obviously we had no spare as we had used it yesterday and now that was flat too. We were only in a small village with no garage nearby. So I called the car hire company. Luckily they have trackers in the cars so they could see where we were, cause I had no idea! They said they would see what they could do and call me back. They were fairly quick to call back and say they had arranged for a recovery truck to take us to the nearest garage. But the driver didn't start until 9am and it was now about 8.15. Oh and as we didn't buy the extra insurance then we had to pay the recovery ourselves (in cash!) and pay for both tyres to be replaced.

So we waited. We watched stray dogs wander around trying to find food. We watched an elderly lady go through other people's rubbish to find metal to sell for scrap. It hard to understand how both Bulgaria and the UK are both part of the EU yet there is such a difference in the levels of poverty. But then again its difficult for many people to understand why we are choosing to move to a county which seems stuck in the 1950's.

 

Anyway moving on, the recovery driver didn't speak a word of English nor could he seem to understand Google translate. Still he was friendly and helpful. He got us to a tyre garage, like ATS, and sorted it all out for us. I tipped him about £10 which he was overjoyed about.

 

So back on the road again and we think we can just about make it to the airport on time as long as there are no hold ups but it will be with minutes to spare.

And then Matt makes a mistake. He directs me down the wrong slip road and we end up on the motorway heading away from Sofia. Sods law that the next junction is 20 minutes away so it's a detour that adds 40 mins to our journey and means we have no hope of getting our flight. Sigh.

We drive on and pull into the airport just in time to see our flight taking off. Then we had to spend 45 mins sorting out the paperwork about the car / tyre issues.

 

Finally we drag ourselves to the easyjet desk and explain we missed the flight. No worries they say, we can put you on Thursdays flight for £150 each. Bear in mind this is Tuesday. Matt is meant to be back at work Thursday morning. Matt's mum, who is baby and dog sitting is meant to be back at work on Wednesday. The flight lands in London. Then we have a 6 hour drive home. We would get home very late Thursday night, so wouldn't be able to drive Matts mum home until Friday morning (as its another 2 hour trip and we would be too knackered to do it that night) so she wouldn't be able to get to work that day either.
Hmmmm, not looking like that flight is going to work!

A quick google found us a way home the next day, via Istanbul. Another google got us booked into a hotel next to the airport for the night.

 

That evening we decided to explore some of Sofia seeing as we had ended up with an extra night there. The hotel booked us a taxi to downtown and we had a fab meal and then a wander round. We then found a taxi and returned to hotel. The taxi driver tried to charge us 8 times the price of the previous journey. Ha, I may be British but I'm not stupid! I paid what I felt was reasonable and walked away. Please go careful ….. some people are lovely, others are out to take your money.

 

Problem free flight home the next day. Normal life resumes.

And relax.....

The next day we took a LONG drive from Dobrich to Plovdiv. Whilst it was long it was also stunning. The views of the mountains were amazing, the roads in the mountains weren't so amazing!!

We arrived at the hotel, had dinner, booked some treatments for the next day and hit the sack.

I think that nights sleep was the worst. Before I explain more I just want to tell you something...... In Bulgaria dogs bark all night, every night. Big dogs, small dogs, every bloody dog. I vividly remember texting my friend upon waking on our first morning asking if it happens everywhere in Bulgaria. 'oh yes' she replied 'you get used to it'. OH JOY!

 

So back to the first morning at the spa hotel. My husband always wakes up and says 'morning baby, I love you' (how cute is he?!). This particular morning he said this as usually followed by 'I don't love the big dog or cockerell though. Fucking pricks'. Then turned over and went back to sleep!!!
'Big dog' had a very loud and low bark and had been barking, and setting off a million other dogs, all night. The Cockerell decided to join in at about 2am and also carried in all night. Roll on the point we are 'used to it'!!

 

We had breakfast at the hotel. Matt can't understand why they always give you salad with breakfast!! He doesn't like salad at the best of times but point blank refuses to have it for breakfast!! Bulgarian yogurt for breakfast is YUMMY and, as it was a vineyard hotel, we had grape jam which was amazing.

 

Went for a drive to check out a ruin of a church. Car was making a strange noise so pulled over to discover we had a flat type. Ahhh the Bulgarian roads had taken their toll. A quick change to the spare (by matt as I have no idea!) and on we went.
The ruins were fab to see. I ended up sunbathing (in November!!) on a bench while Matt did arty things with his camera.

 

 

Back to the hotel for an afternoon of spa stuff. It was Matts first time in a spa, he was a little uncomfortable! We bathed in a double ended bath of red wine and herbs while drinking red wine. I have always hated red wine with a passion until this point. No matter which one I tried it always tasted of vinegar. I loved the one they gave me in the spa! How random is that?!
Then we each had a massage. From a man. Now Matt is a kinda rough round the edges, skin head, tattooed, rugby player type of man. He had never had a massage before and was quite nervous anyway. Let's put it this way, he was not at all relaxed by the end of it and I don't think he will be having one again! I however was totally blissed out. Makes no difference to me who does the massage as long as they are good at it!

 

 

As it was our last night we had a huge dinner with more red wine before packing ready to leave first thing.

Little did we know just how eventful the next day would be!

More viewings ......

Finding our next place to stay was, ummm, interesting!
We know at the time but post codes in Bulgaria are pretty pointless when trying to find somewhere. They are just an area code for the village. And yet again the sat nav proved useless! We drove round and round and round the village for ages trying to find the guest house.
In the end we parked at the local shop and  the owner walked down to meet us and direct us.

This time we were in a little flat attached to the bungalow of an English couple. Whilst is was perfect in every way, ideal for a holiday, it confirmed to us that we don't want to move to Bulgaria and turn our house into a typical English home! You could have picked up that house and put it in the brand new housing estate in the UK and it would have fit in perfectly. Whilst we know that's what some people want, its not for us.

I was super super tired after so much driving so hubby braved taking the car to the local shop and bought something to cook for tea. We weren't certain what it was but it was nice!!

Next morning we were picked up by another agent and taken to look at about 6 houses. The first 5 weren't suitable and we were feeling a little down hearted. But then we drove up to number 6 and WOW. It was on the side of a hill with stunning views. It had a new roof and the inside needed very little work. It had a HUGE workshop with furniture making machines that could come as part of the sale. The land was ok, nicely laid out but on a slope. The owners were by far the nicest we had met, we were fed stewed apples and given a bottle of Rakia (OMG!) and home made wine.

The agent dropped us at into the nearest town so we could have lunch and a wander round. Getting a taxi to take us back to the guest house was interesting, the driver phoned a friend to translate for us! He got a big tip for being so helpful.

That evening we decided that we were exhausted so booked a spa hotel for the next few nights. Another long drive tomorrow to get there but it was our honeymoon so we felt we deserved some us time in a nice hotel.

And so it begins....

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 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

First day of honeymoon / house hunting trip

Our honeymoon was eventful..... And not in newly wed type way!

 

We landed in Sofia, after some waiting got our hire car and, with me driving, we set off..... With me chanting 'I must be in the middle of the road' to remind myself which side to drive 

We drove for a few hours taking in the lovely sights before arriving at the place we booked to stay for that night; in a village near VT. We found it on Airbnb and on paper it looked perfect. In reality it was awful. We were greeted by a man who was a friend of the owner (it turns out he went to stay for a few days many years ago and never left!). He made us a cup of tea and told us all about the salvage hunting he did for a living. If we ever needed ANYTHING he could get it !

The tea mugs were filthy and the tea didn't taste quite right, sound have guessed then that the room wouldn't be great! To be fair , he was nice and friendly, just a little too dodgy for our liking.
He said he has 'upgraded' us from a private room in the hostel (we had no idea it was a hostel until then!) to the private bungalow because it had a wood burner and the rooms had no heating.
Well we managed about 10 mins in the bungalow before asking Google to find as a hotel with vacancies nearby!
It smelt dirty, it was dirty, there was mould on the ceiling, the window was broken so wouldn't close, it was just manky. Even if it wasn't the first night of our honeymoon we wouldn't of stayed there.
We later spoke to a friend who lives near VT and discovered it didn't have a good reputation and that a lot of young girls seem to spend time there.

 

Anyway we found a cheap but nice looking hotel on Google so put it in the sat nav and set off. For those of you already in Bulgaria you will know that sat navs aren't that good over there. We drove round and round and round VT for over an hour trying to find the hotel. Bear in mind we had been up for about 19 hours and I had already driven for 3 hours on Bulgarian roads. We were stressed!
In the end we parked (I think illegally but I was past caring!) and decided to find the hotel on foot. A Bulgarian man decided to try to befriend us to get money. Now I am a hardened traveler who is used to this and am very capable of telling them where to shove it (how nicely I tell them depends on how much they are harassing me!!). Matt however isn't well travelled (this was only his second trip abroad) so decided to stop for a chat despite me trying to drag him away. He is too nice for his own good most of the time! So there was me ranting under my breath about wasting time talking to some bloke who just wanted our money when Matt told him we were trying to find the hotel so he walked us to the door, told us how to drive from where we had parked (dumped!) the car and then asked for £1. OK, OK I am happy to admit when I am wrong. He wasn't so bad after all! In fact he saved the day. We didn't have much change on us but we gave him all of it..... He might of thought he scammed us but I think we did better out of the deal!

We checked in, opened all the windows (to them it was winter so the heating was on full. It was 20 degees outside and about 40 in our room!) and went to a restaurant recommended by reception. It was our first meal in Bulgaria and it was amazing. You get a lot for your money in restaurants!
 

As you can imagine it was an early night for us. We were absolutely exhausted.
 

Enough for one post i think. More to follow soon x