The snow quickly settled as temperatures reached minus 24 degrees at night, and during the next 2 weeks struggled to reach more than minus 5 in the daytime.

As more snow fell and the temperature dropped the roads out of the vilage became impassible.  The snow plough came through the village each day, but made little impression on the icy road.

We were able to get aroung the village on foot and the shop/bar is only 500 metres away, so we could buy bread -an Army truck delivered fresh bread every day to the shop.  We had expected to have deep snow at some point, so we stocked up well in advance with tins of food, milk, water etc.

We woke to a clear but drizzly day.  The temperature was well beow freezing.  We decided to walk up the the village bar to buy some fresh bread and have a coffee.

As we stepped outside we were greeted by an amazing sight.  Everything was coated in a 1/2” thick ayer of ice. The car, the fence the walls the trees everything looked as though it had been dipped in some kind of plastic coating.

Tree branches were encased in ice and with the sun shining on the ice it looked for all the world as if the trees had been dressed in thousands of fairylights, all in colours of the rainbow reflected like tiny diamonds.  We have never seen a sight like this before.  It was like being in a grotto of crystal ornamental trees and plants.  Even humble weeds and bare branches were transformed into the most beautiful of sights.  We could hardly conceal our delight as we walked along the road marvelling at the transformation of ordinary structures like powercables which now resembled a string of diamonds.

We hurried back home for the camera and took some stunning shots.  Later in the afternoon we ventured out again in -10 temperatures to take more photographs.  The effect of the light from the setting sun on the ice covered trees and plants was indeed magical.  The weight of the ice had caused some of the tree branches to break and our neighbour lost one of his oldest fruit trees.

We have never seen such a spectacle, and we don’t expect to see this again as it took a series of weather conditions to create this phenomenon.

 PART 1   Not just a sore throat……….

 December 22^nd 2009.   The date will stay in my mind forever…………

 This is the day I awoke with a sore throat and itchy gums.  ‘Great’ I thought a sore throat just in time for Christmas.  I thought a couple of Paracetamol, honey and hot lemon, and hopefully I will still make the party on Christmas Eve.  Next day it was much worse, and by the 24^th I could hardly swallow my own saliva.   Time to get antibiotics, and as we don’t have a G.P. here yet we went to the local hospital in General Toshevo.  By now my glands were the size of satsumas, my tonsils were huge and I was in a great deal of pain (although nothing like what was to come)

The Dr had a quick look at my throat, commented on the size of my tonsils, then prescribed 3 days antibiotics, vitamin C, Strepsil lozengers and a mild analgesia called Analgin which is similar to Paracetamol.

Needless to say I missed the party and this was to be the last day I ate until January16th!

7^th December.  I had finished the antibiotics and now my gums had started to swell and I had developed ulcers in my throat.  By this time Analgin had no effect on the pain so we went back to the hospital.  They took a look and said it was beyond their expertise so I should go to a larger hospital in the city -  Dobrich which is about an hours drive. We were given a prescription for Dexofen which is stronger than Analgin.

We arrived at Dobrich hospital and I was seen immediately.  They inserted an I.V. line and took a blood sample.

I underwent the most horrific examination while we were waiting for the results of the blood test.  It involved a throat examination which I know was necessary but the ENT specialist grabbed my (ulcerated) tongue with gause and poked an instrument down the back of my throat making me gag.  This only lasted about a minute but it was the longest minute of my life!!

 The blood results came back and showed a white blood cell (WBC) count of 1.04 (normal range is 5-11).  Because of this they would not treat me and said I needed to see a haematologist urgently.  They sent me to a major hospital in Varna which is 11/2 hours away.  We set off with the address but no person in particular to ask for when we arrived. Just ask to see a haematologist.

Before we left Dobrich we called at the chemist and asked for antibiotics which to my surprise we were given without question.  So I had 6 days Azithromycin and some Dexofen which is a stronger analgesic than Analgin.

Varna is a very busy city not easy to get around by car and parking is a nightmare.  We finally found the St Maria hospital, and at this time I was in agony hardly daring to swallow neck head and ears so painful I could hardly speak.  Ron went into the hospital to book me in leaving me in the car as we were illegally parked and once I was registered he would come back and move it. 

We were devastated to be told that they do not have a Haematologist at that hospital. They suggested another hospital in Varna, so without a map and by asking for directions we arrived at the second hospital.  They did have a haematologist but he was on holiday until 6^th January.

It was now 3pm and I had not had a drink since 8am, so we stopped at a garage and bought bottled water which I really struggled to swallow.

Ron spoke to a local man who suggested we go to the main hospital and gave us directions.

I expected to go to the main hospital but the receptionist directed us to an attached clinic.  Once there we had to sit and wait in a crowded waiting room to be seen by a triage Dr.  I was nearly passing out by this time, and as I still had the Venflon in my arm from our visit to Dobrich in the morning Ron used this as a bargaining tool to get me seen faster.  This worked and I was seen by a Dr who had a quick look at my throat and referred me to the ENT specialist.

We tried to explain how severe the pain was, but the Dr spoke no English at all and seemed uninterested in the pain.  Then…. my worst nightmare.  I saw him lighting his little bottle of meths which could only mean one thing – the dreaded hold the tongue with gauze and poke an instrument as far down the throat as possible.  I said to Ron ‘I can’t do this again!!!’  Bless him, Ron tried his best in Bulgarian to get me some analgesia before the procedure, but it fell on deaf ears.  I wanted to cry but I know from past experience that crying hurts like mad.  I survived the examination and thought that now I would get some pain relief.  No such luck…… The Dr gave us a prescription for I.M. antibiotics which they said I should take home and have a local nurse administer it.  We told them that we don’t have a local nurse, but I am a nurse and could give the injections myself.  I just needed pain relief.  They refused to let me administer analgesia by injection myself and so after all that we left with what was basically a useless prescription.

 We decided to try to get some more Dexofen which again was easy as it should be on prescription.

 We arrived back home exhausted and no further to getting a cure.

I spent the following 5 days in bed.  On New Years Eve we were supposed to be going to a party at the local bar and all our friends were disappointed that we couldn’t be there.  I told Ron to go anyway as all I wanted to do was take pain killers and try to sleep.  He did go foe a couple of hours, then at 11.45 he came home, bundled me into the car and I sat in the car outside the bar to watch the fireworks and everyone came to me in the car to say Happy New Year.  It was very touching as everyone wished me well, but after 20 minutes I needed to get back to bed.

 The Dexofen originally took about ½ hour to kick in then the pain was reduced, but not gone for 3 hours.  They are meant to be taken 6 hourly.

As the days passed they took longer to have any effect after taking the maximum dose and the effect would wear off in 2 hours. 

I would sit in the early hours of the morning desperately waiting for 3am when I could take the next dose.  As the pain became more intense I would take them half an hour earlier each time.  I began to feel like a drug addict waiting for the next fix.

Poor Ron was helpless, trying to get me to drink the carrot juice that he had spent hours preparing failed as anything other than water stung my mouth and the pain was becoming unbearable.  I would just sit rocking, or sometimes I would get angry and kick my legs and stamp my feet!

 On 2^nd January things had become intolerable.  The Dexofen was not having any effect and we were worried about the amounts I had been taking. 

I was becoming quite confused, and Ron decided it was time to go back to Dobrich hospital for some help.  There was just one problem – I would not get out of bed.  It was more that I could not get out of bed.  I had no motivation or energy.  Eventually, I did manage it and off we went to Dobrich hospital.  Ron arranged for a friend of a friend to meet us there.  She is Bulgarian and speaks good English.  They explained how much pain I was in and at last I was given I.V. analgesia. At this point I nearly passed out with relief or the effects of the I.V. I am not sure,

I was taken to see the ENT specialist again.  The dreaded examination loomed but I had gotten past caring by now.  They could have told me that they were going to cut my head off and I would have happily agreed.

 My symptoms now are massively swollen glands in my neck.  Grossly enlarged tonsils, bright red inflamed gums, ulcers and abscesses in my throat, on my tongue, lips, between my teeth, on my lips and inside my cheeks – oh and inside my nose.   My ears ached my neck ached and my head felt about to burst. My ulvula was inflamed and had adhered to my right tonsil.  All my teeth ached and everything was throbbing along with burning pain, stabbing pain which was constant and relentless.

 Of course they wanted to send me to Varna hospital again, having told Ron that I was very ill and needed to go to a large hospital as they were still concerned about the low WBC count.

We wanted to get the pain and the raging infection under control first and sort out the cause once I was stable.

Ron asked ‘are you telling me that you cannot treat her here?  In the end it came down to money, and although they had beds available no ward wanted to take me because of the cost.  Ron was enraged at this and asked to see the hospital administrator.  He also said that if he had to take me to Varna in this condition he would hold them responsible if anything should happen to me, and he wanted a letter stating that Dobrich hospital was unable to treat me.

 Although Diana (the interpreter) was present Ron made a fantastic job of getting his point across in Bulgarian. He has a little pocket translation device which helps if he is searching for a particular word but on the whole he gets by on what he already knows and I am most impressed.

 Eventually, and because Ron persisted a bed was found for me – on a ward for the dying- but I didn’t care as I thought I was dying too.  My throat was so swollen I could swallow only half a teaspoon of water and I worried that if I should vomit I would choke to death.  Sometimes in these early days I worried that I would die, and sometimes I worried that I would not.

Looking back I think I said so someone I would rather be in labour for 7 days than have this pain for 7 days.

   PART 2      In Hospital

 One thing really surprised me.  The environment in hospital is cool to cold at times and heating is only turned on for limited times during the day.  For this reason the staff wear theatre scrubs and a dressing gown!!  Honestly they really do look like dressing gowns.  They are thin fleece, calf length with patch pockets. Seems to be that the senior staff wear blue and the juniors a maroon or brown colour.  I could hardly believe my eyes at first – I thought that the patients had taken over the hospital like some mad ‘Carry on’ film!!!

 The ward was a long corridor with 10 rooms down one side there were 2 or 3 beds in each room.  On the left of the corridor were clinic rooms and offices etc.

I was admitted to a large room with one bed.  Diana was still with us and told us we would need to get a few things for my stay. We were expected to bring the usual soap towels etc. but we were surprised to find that we needed to buy a thermometer – and toilet paper!  Also as they don’t supply drinking water we had to buy some bottled mineral water.

The room is large with one bed but space for one or tow more.  The walls are pained white with stains on them, and by the window there is a radiator underneath a long shelf.  All around the window frame and on the window wall is black mould.

There is a small T.V. on the wall and underneath a box for payment to watch.

My bed is a narrow steel bed frame, with no height adjustment and no back rest.  The mattress is just a piece of 3’’ foam (with bits missing as though someone has bitten lumps out of it.  It has no plastic covering, just a sheet.  It’s a bit like lying in a trough because there is a dip in the centre.

The ‘quilt’ is a double layer of blanket inside a cotton case.  The nurses never make the bed, and in the 13 days of my stay the sheets were not changed.  Thank goodness I wasn’t incontinent.

 The room has a sink but hot water only between 7-9 am and 7-9 pm.  The cleaners come for water to mop the floor and they seem to empty the buckets of dirty water here too.  There is a litter room containing a toilet and shower.  I made the mistake of looking into the toilet pan when I first arrived – I have tried to avoid doing so since it is black at the waterline and looks scary.

The shower works, but it is more like a wet room with no shower tray, and the shower does not have a shower head, so water comes out like a tap.

The only chair in the room for patient or visitors is a plastic padded one with holes in it and bits of foam sticking out.

The locker and drip stand should have been in a museum.  The locker was made from tin and was filthy.  The drip stand rusty painted white and rusted over again.

The window faces a block of flats but there are no window blinds curtain or screens, and physical examinations take place without any consideration for modesty.

 I was admitted on Saturday 2^nd Jan and on Sunday morning the chief consultant came in from his holiday to see me.  I don’t know why – perhaps it was because of the fuss Ron made to get me admitted.

 On the first morning when I could not eat, breakfast was ½ a packet of dry biscuits. Lunch was a piece of dry bread and supper was a piece of cheese.  I was thankful that I wasn’t hungry!

Nursing care is practically non existent.  I never had my blood pressure taken during my stay.  I was expected to take my temperature and let then know if I had a fever.  I actually took it 4 hourly and recorded it so that they could see any pattern as there are no observation charts for patients.

Patients don’t have wrist tags or any visible form of identification, the nurse will just say your name then administer the medication.

There is no ‘nurse call’ buzzer and unless they come to do a procedure the nurses never just look in to see if patients are O.K.  Usually 4-5 hours pass without contact.

The day begins at around 5.30 am with the first medicine round of the day and blood samples are taken, then no one comes into the room until 12-1 pm with a piece of bread for lunch.  Medications are given again at 5pm – 6pm, then no contact with nurses until 9pm when they bring bottles for urine samples for the following morning.  These are not collected from patients’ we must take them to a table half way down the corridor.

Not once during the night does a nurse call in to make sure that all is well, so for most of the time many hours pass without contact.  Usually a medic will call in for a few minutes around 9pm.  The ones who don’t speak English just have a look at the temperature that I have written down, then leave without speaking.  I do make conversation with the nurses and cleaning ladies.

 On the Monday our Bulgarian friend came to visit and suggested a schedule for pain relief for me and eventually I managed to get some strong analgesia.

I was so relieved that the pain was diminished and was about to sleep, when I was called to go for an ultrasound scan.  I had to walk to the department which was a fair way away, and I don’t remember how I managed to walk there given the strong analgesia I had just been given by injection.

I was told to bring tissues or toilet paper to the scan to wipe my skin afterwards as they don’t provide this for patients!!

I must have been rolling around on the ultrasound table like a beached whale as the medication had definitely kicked in and I was struggling to understand the instructions to turn this way and that.  Again no modesty cover and bright fluorescent lights – I was hoping that Ron wasn’t looking too closely – it would put him off for life!!

 Although nursing care seems to be lacking the medical care could not be better.  I was seen by 8 different Consutants including 2 ENT specialists Haematologist, a Dermatologist ( because when my illness started what was a tiny scratch hardly noticeable and should have healed within a couple of days had spread and was not healing but looking worse.  I used this wound as a kind of barometer – it appeared to improve along the same timeline as my other problems.

 The Chief consultant comes to see me every 2 days.  He calls me Queen Elizabeth (Queen of England) and he speaks fairly good English, and as I begin to feel better we share a joke.

 The nurses are all good at venepuncture although the only time they use latex gloves is as a tournoquet, not on their hands which incidentally they never wash.

 Nurses have massive amounts of jewellery, earrings, dangly bracelets, big necklaces, rings on every finger and nail polish!  What would Matron say??

 Nutrition does not appear to be a priority, and although I was to be nil by mouth for 16 days I was given 500 ml glucose daily and vitamin C.  Strangely, the only person who took an interest in my diet was the Haematologist.  Her main concern was that I should avoid milk until my mouth is completely healed, and she prescribed gel for my gums which was very good and did reduce the pain. The Haematologist speaks some English but I had to laugh when she told me to coat my mouth with the gel, then ‘do not eat for 2 years’ – I am assuming she meant 2 hours!

 The I.V. antibiotics twice daily and a small dose of steroids meant that after the first few days I began to improve and from Wednesday I began to feel better each day.  Friends came to visit and I could actually speak to them which I wouldn’t have been able to do on Monday.

 At one point the nurses asked me to provide a sputum sample.  Thank goodness I didn’t have a cough I can’t begin to imagine how I would have managed to cough with my throat so incredibly painful.  I told then I have no phlegm, so the next day they bring the jar again and still I tell them I don’t have any phlegm.  Next day I am given medication three times daily.  I ask what it is for and they say something about antibiotics so I assume it is Nystatin or vitamin B.  It turns out it is an expectorate so that I can cough up phlegm….   I told one of the Drs who speaks a little English that I don’t need to expectorate and thankfully she stopped the medication.

 A ‘Cell mate’

On the third night at 10.30 pm I was just about to go to sleep when the doors banged open overhead lights went on and an elderly lady patient was brought in.  They made no attempt to be quiet and the light was on and off all night as they came to examine her, put drips up etc.

I was worried because the lady was coughing and as my immunity is compromised I was desperately hoping that I didn’t catch a cough.  Worse was to come when the lady began having diarrhoea, and because the bathroom light does not work she had to leave the toilet door open in order to see.  The smell was putrid!

They gave the lady a little pot to provide a sputum sample, this was about 4am.  Good grief you would have thought she was trying to fill a wheelbarrow with the stuff!!

I had a chat with her the next morning.  She is a lovely lady and not staying here as she is being transferred to Varna Hospital for more tests.

She was examined stripped to the waist with no consideration for her privacy.

 On the 8^th night another patient was brought into the room.  They put her into the bed vacated by the previous lady without changing the sheets or pillowcase.  I was amazed.  This lady is in her thirties, and doesn’t speak any English but I think she is too poorly to make small talk.  She too coughed and coughed from the minute she arrived at 8pm, so once again I had little sleep, and fear of catching a cough.

At around 7.30am we could hear a great commotion in the next room.  A man was screaming very loudly in distress or pain, and then he began crying and sobbing.  There were a lot of other loud voices then suddenly all went quiet leaving us wondering what had happened to the poor man.

 That evening my drip was going through too slowly.  They tried the usual, squeezing the tube altering the position of my arm etc. then she held the bag above her head and hep presto the drip ran through quickly.  I motioned to the chair intending to lower my body as the drip stand would not extend higher.  The nurse misunderstood and stood the drip stand on top of the chair which I held onto with my other hand for 30 minutes until the bag had gone through.  – Only on Bulgaria!!!!

 The lady in the next bed coughs constantly day and night and doesn’t cover her mouth.  When Ron came we decided to have a walk to the snack bar and around the Hospital grounds so that he didn’t have to sit in the room with the coughing.  I really hope that I don’t develop the cough it would be a disaster.

  Nearly better  Home in 4 days

Monday 11^th January 2010.

 Sore throat is 99% healed.  Gums about 95% healed.  They are still wrinkled where they have been stretched with the swelling, and a few craters where the ulcers were, but only a minimal amount of discomfort.

I was given an I.M. injection this morning with the I.V. antibiotics which is unusual.  I have never had an injection at this time of day before.  I asked what it was but couldn’t find out.  The nurse was insistent that I should have it so I did.  I was also given 3X 20ml medication directly into the venflon at 9am.  This too has never happened before as meds are usually given all together at 5.30am.  Perhaps this is a good sign and I will be allowed home soon.

 The lesion on my hand which I am using as a kind of barometer to see how well things are going inside is healing well.  No scab now and looks nice and pink (apart from when it’s cold in here then it turns purple)

 Chief consultant came to see me with what he calls ‘the big visit’ (a ward round with Haematologist, Drs and nurses)  I can go home on Thursday morning if everything is O.K. as my WBC count has increased slightly.  He said you are a very lucky and beautiful lady Queen of England.  He went on a bit embarrassingly saying how beautiful I am and called me a sex bomb.  Some of the Drs present could speak English so they could hear all this!!  Only in Bulgaria #2.

 Dr Injeravo (female registrar) came to see me at 9pm she apologised for the sex bomb comment made by the Consultant.  More importantly she told me that my WBC count is now 4 – fantastic news.  They think that the white blood cells were suppressed by the Sumomed (Azithromycin) oral antibiotic that I was prescribed at the start of my illness, and because the infection was so severe I should have been admitted for I.V. antibiotics immediately.

The infection score has fallen from 100 to 50.  Not really sure what that means but it is going in the right direction!   She said I have been very lucky as I was so toxic when I was admitted it was ‘very very serious’.     

Looking back I think that I was probably a day away from toxic shock and I don’t think I could have survived another car journey to Varna.  Thanks to Ron being so persistent I got help in time.

  Oh no!! another room mate

Wednesday 13^th January.  Another bed was brought into the room.  It is in between the lady by the window, and me by the wall.  There is about 18’’ between the beds now.  This new lady brought sheets and pillows with her, and spent ½ hour carefully making up the bed.  Guess what?  She is coughing as well.   She says she has pneumonia.  Hope it’s not TB.  She snores too at about 1000 decibels.   Looks like I won’t be getting much sleep again.         

 Help – get me out of here!!!!!

 Discharge day

Ward round at 9am.  Consultant said blood results look good.

Br Berzole (Haematologist) came to see me.  She gave me a slide of my latest blood sample.  She told me that I can come back to see her every day if I feel unwell or have any pain.

I was sent for a chest X-ray.  I had to find it on my own as they didn’t send a nurse with me, just told me in Bulgarian that it is on the 4^th floor.  Found it O.K. and had X-ray done.

 Had to wait for results to be entered onto my report – I will have a copy to take home.

We have to pay bed tax of about 4 lv per night.  Even though I have been here 12 nights I will still pay for 10, and in the future should I be admitted to hospital anywhere in Bulgaria I won’t have to pay this tax again.

 I have a prescription for 10 days medication.  Prednisolone and Ranitidine.

I have an appointment to see the Haematologist Dr Berzole in 2 weeeks to have blood tests.

 Went to chemist for Prednisolone but after trying 8 different chemists we were told that it is not possible to get prednisolone in bulgaria, so we had to go back to the hospital to try to find a Dr who would prescribe an alternative.  We expected that this would take quite some time.  I was feeling cold and tyred by now so Ron dropped me off near to the hospital entrance and went to park the car.  I was waiting for him to park when walking towards me was the Haematologist.  She recognised me and came up to me.  I had the prescription in my hand and was able to tell her that we could not fill the prescription.. She immediately took me into the nearest chemist and after speaking with thE Pharmasist she re wrote a prescription for an alternative steroid which thankfully they had in stock.  This coincidental meeting saved us hours, and soon we were on our way home.

The final diagnosis is Toxic Infection syndrome and Agranularcytosis which means a serious lack of a certain type of white blood cells.

I will need further investigations to identify the underlying cause. perhaps here in Bulgaria or possible back in England.  We will make a decision after the follow up visits. 

 Follow up visit

Visit to haematologist on 1st February 2010.  Blood test showed that white cell count is normal, so no need to return for further tests unless illness returns. Great relief!

Will still need to have tests to determine underlying cause but this is not urgent. Will wait until we visit the U.K. and see G.P.

Began to build a garage / wood store.

We had 10 cubic metres of wood delivered for the fires.  It came in tree trunk sized logs.  Our neighbour Rumen cut it into slices with his chain saw, then a young local man came along with his axe and cut it up further into pieces that would fit into our wood burning stove.  It was all stacked very neatly, and the cutting and stacking took nearly a day.

We now want to keep the wood dry so we began construction of a garage.

Our friend John came to help and between them Ron and John dug out foundations.  The trenches then had to be filled with cement for the foundations.  As we didn’t have a cement mixer we had to mix the sand and cement by hand.  In one day we shovelled 2 ½ tons of sand and cement.

The garage /wood store is hand made by Ron & John from wood.  They even made the large double doors themselves.  The roof had to be felted which involved rolling on a layer of thick black material and then heating it with a flame thrower to melt the tar. 

The neighbours were horrified that I was on the roof helping with this – it’s not a job that females are usually seen tackling, but I enjoyed it.  We all had a great sense of achievement when it was finally finishes and varnished.

They were long hard days, but eventually it was finished, and I thought that I had seen the last spade full of cement.  How wrong I was!!!!!

Ron decided that a patio at the side and back of the house would be good.

This time I suggested buying a load of pre mix cement, but I was over ruled and so the mixing of another 3 tons of cement began.

Cement gets everywhere.  It made a mess in the road outside the house where we mixed it so every night the road had to be washed down, and all the equipment cleaned before the cement could dry on solid.  My clothes and shoes were splattered with dry cement and my hair looked like candyfloss at the end of the day.

We now have a lovely patio at the back of the house so next summer we can have a BBQ and a couple of tables.  Might even get myself a hammock – I deserve it after the hard work, and I now have a great aversion to concrete!

Bought a car………..and had it stolen

We had been renting a car from some friends who have a car hire business and they had done us a very good deal, but we thought it was time to buy a car of our own.

These friends have a Bulgarian friend who owns a car sales garage, and so we asked him to look out for a good car for us.  Left hand drive cars in Bulgaria are very expensive, and a second hand car costing £1000 in England would be double here.

The salesman has a secretary (who is also a close friend of his) the secretary’s brother-in-law wanted to sell his car we were told that he had serious financial difficulties and needed to raise some cash.  The car was a 2002 Passat estate nice condition and within the price range we were looking at (14000lev or about £6000).

We bought the car and the salesman’s secretary went with Ron to register it.  As with everything else in Bulgaria buying a car is not straightforward, and they had to re register it for Dobrich area as it was originally registered in Varna and cars must be registered locally.  This involves lots of paperwork a visit to the police station and new number plates with a Dobrich number made and fitted.  There were visits to other offices and a bank to pay the taxes due etc.  The secretary was meant to be sorting out the car insurance, but only insured it for the necessary legal purpose which allows the car to be driven on the roads, but does not insure for fire and theft (in effect 3^rd party only)

We were going to go and see to the proper insurance ourselves, but discovered there was no valid MOT.  We arranged to have this done.

The same day we got the car, the electricity was connected!!! We were so happy!  We decided to go to the local bar to celebrate.  It was the bar owner’s granddaughters birthday and we were invited to the party.  We don’t stay out beyond 9 or 10 pm usually, but the party lasted until about 11pm, then we went across the road to our friend’s house for a nightcap and some music.

We arrived home at 2am to find to our horror that our new car which we had never even driven had gone. Our friends called the police, our next door neighbour came to see what all the fuss was about – by this time it was 5am.

‘There has never been a car stolen from this village’ everyone would say, but ours was well and truly gone.  Because we had only had the car for 2 days, very few people knew that we had it, and because of the area we live in it is very unlikely that it was an opportunist theft.

I spoke to the Passat engineers via email, and they say that it is extremely difficult to steal that type of car without either a key or specialist equipment in experienced hands.   They said that these experts would be more likely to use their skills to steal a Farrari rather than a 7 year old Passat.  As we were only given one key when we bought the car, it is assumed by virtually all that there was a second key perhaps sold to a third party along with our details of our address.

  It does sometimes happen in parts of Bulgaria that cars are stolen then a few weeks arer the owner is called to say that they can have the car back for a certain amount of monet (essentially ransom money) We waited a couple of weeks but no news, so we had no choice but to look for another car.

This time we went to a garage in Dobrich and the poor salesman was given the third degree. Luckily he spoke English and could understand our caution when buying another car when we had just lost ours (without insurance)  It would not have been so bad if the thief had waited until we had the opportunity to insure it, but as it is we lost all the money including most annoying a full tank of fuel.

The car we bought is a Pergeot 405 a nice looking car blue/grey metallic immaculate on the inside and hardly a mark in the outside, but it is not as good as the Passat, and it has none of the gadgets including the 6^th gear which Ron was so excited about.

So, here we were once again – back to the police station re register the car call to the bank to pay the tax, have the plates fitted….  The salesman was very helpful.  He came with us to arrange all the paperwork and even arranged full insurance cover before we drove it away.

HEATING

We have had a large wood burning fire with a back boiler fitted.  Our friend Graham plumbed it in, then professional fireplace fitters came and measured up for a fireplace.  It took a day to install the fireplace in a corner of the kitchen and it looks lovely.  It has a set of granite for the base and top which extends to the side as a little seat with shelving above for ornaments.  I was worried that it would look cumbersome in the kitchen / diner but it is such a large room that the fire fits in perfectly.  We bought a little leather sofa (very similar to the one we had to leave behind in Dover), and it is really cosy sitting there watching the flames dance as the wood and coal burn.  

The house is so large and open plan that we decided to have a second smaller log burning in our smaller living room where we watch T.V.  It isn’t as elegant as the one in the kitchen, and we will take it out in spring until next winter, but it gives out a lot of heat, and it’s good to boil a pan of water for a ‘free’ cup of tea!

CAT

Harry with his hot water bottle

The night the car was stolen we adopted a 5 month old kitten from the friends we were with. He is all black – even his paw pads- and his name is Harry Potter.  We didn’t name him but we were asked not to change his name, and ‘Harry’ does suit him.

He didn’t choose a good day to come and live with us as he was trying his best to bond with us doing all that ‘kneeding’ that cats do.  I am ashamed to say that I didn’t have much patience with him and as he was very clingy I was beginning to have second thoughts about keeping him.  We had to keep him in for 2 weeks so that if he went out he would come back to us and not to his previous home.

I am so pleased now that we kept him as he is a joy.  He has his own little ways and each meow means something different.  He is a truly expert climber as Ron discovered when he was putting up the fairy lights on the apex of the roof ready for Christmas.  Suddenly a little black paw appeared over the edge of the roof playing with the hammer as Ron nailed on the wire holder.  I think he nearly dropped the hammer in shock as the last thing he was expecting to see was Harry’s paw taking a swipe at the hammer.

His expert climbing can be a bit of a pain as he has discovered which bedroom we sleep in and he regularly appears at 3 in the morning on the balcony crying to come in.  Trouble is he then wants feeding and won’t rest until he has eaten and had a cuddle.

He acts like a proper cat and loves to sleep in his basket (complete with his own furry hot water bottle) by the fire.  If he is staying in at night he sleeps in a basket outside our bedroom door and just waits there until we get up.

He is a great mouser and he has brought us ‘presents’ of dead mice and one nearly dead.  It is difficult to believe he is a killer when he is so cute and gentle in the house.  The first time he did it we were shocked, and for a while we saw him in a different light – our baby murdering things.  Then we got a grip – he is a cat and that’s what cats do.

We bought him a pretend mouse on an elastic thread which he loves paying with, and he is ace at catching flies – we just wish that he wouldn’t eat them after he has caught them!!

When I was ill he seemed to know, and came to sit on my knees doing his Kneeding thing and purring loudly.

Can’t imagine life without him now.

Our first month in Bulgaria

We certainly had a very warm welcome – besides the weather being hot and sunny – our Bulgarian neighbours ran out to greet us with hugs and kisses bunches of grapes, fresh bread, and offers of help if we needed it.

Our British friends sent ‘welcome home’ texts and invitations to meet up for a drink whenever we felt up to going out.

We spent the first few days showing Karl (son) around the houses and gardens, and we spent a day at the beach for a little R&R.

Bought a petrol Generator as in Bulgaria the electricity supply can be interrupted for a few seconds, minutes or even hours in the winter when the snow is 3 metres deep and the lines are down.

Also bought a petrol strimmer as we have acres of land to look after with the 3 houses each with massive gardens.

All too soon it was time for Ron and Karl to head back to the U.K. with the empty (and underweight!) van.

I followed their progress as they travelled back through Europe and then again as Ron returned.

When Ron arrived back we spent a few days just chilling out seeing friends and getting used to the house.

We were invited t a BBQ in a nearby village.  We have quite a few friends here now, and we arrived at the BBQ courtesy of our friends and neighbours Anne and Julian who own amongst many other things a mini bus.  As eight of us piled out of the mini bus, the host of the party plated the theme from ‘The ‘A’ Team’, which got the evening off to a great start.  Had a fantastic evening and met lots of people – British and Bulgarian.

We have been practicing our Bulgarian language skills and we do know lots of words.  We still struggle with the masculine and feminine verbs, but this usually causes great hilarity rather than embarrassment.

We called our builder ‘wealthy woman’ when we meant to say ‘wealthy man’.  This caused much laughter and teasing by his workers as the builder has a rather large pot belly and his colleagues were saying things like ‘he is a wealthy woman – look he is expecting a baby!’

Things like this break the ice and having a laugh is as important as getting the language  perfect all the time, and the Bulgarian people really appreciate that we are trying.

The most important thing for us was to get a good internet connection.  Ron had limited internet via his phone but it was not ideal, so we went to the nearest large town General Toshevo to speak to the Toshevo Net people.  Ron had been in touch with them several times beginning when we were still in the U.K. so they knew our requirements already.

Internet was arranged and the engineers came out within a couple of days to fit the equipment.

We were now on line and could contact everyone at home via SKYPE.

Our Grandchildren already used to seeing us on TV (SKYPE) as we had practiced at home for a couple of months first, so they were comfortable chatting to us and we could show them around our house and gardens.

The next thing was to arrange T.V. reception.  We were shopping for a hoover in Technopilis (a shop similar to a massive U.K. ‘Comet’ or ‘Dixons’ store– lots of choice) when we came across a salesman who could supply a satellite receiver to access  T.V. channels from Bulgaria and the rest of the world.  We were there at 3 in the afternoon and he said he would come to our house at 7pm to install the service.  He did!!! 

We are always amazed at the efficiency of the Bulgarian workforce.  If they say that they will arrive same day / next day they actually do.

In general we have found people to be kind and helpful.  We were in Mr Bricolage (a large store similar to B&Q). We didn’t really need any assistance, we were just looking at curtain tracks and trying to work out what we needed.  An assistant asked if she could help, and because her English – and our Bulgarian – is pretty basic, she sent for an English speaking colleague to help. 

Having bought the curtain tracks and Hoover, we thought that we had better put then to some use so we spent a hot day hanging curtains and cleaning the house.  In retrospect we should have been sitting in the garden with a cold beer, but work ethic habits are hard to break.  I expect we will learn to adapt very soon !!

The worst thing at the moment is looking for things that we think are in the house or in one of the packing boxes only to realise that it was one of the things we had to leave behind in Dover.

Last night (Sunday) we had a spectacular thunder and lightening storm.  It began as we were sitting in the courtyard of the village bar.  We saw both sheet and fork lightening, but no rain.

We decided to stroll home and sit on our bedroom balcony to watch the lightening show.

We have a big sky here in Malina with views for miles so watching the lightening light up the whole of the sky was something that we had seldom seen before.  The thunder came next and we sat watching and listening for about an hour until it began to rain. 

The storm lasted from about 8pm until 4 or 5 the next morning.  Storms do seem to go on for many hours here unlike in the U.K. when they are usually over within a couple of hours at most.

Speaking of big sky here, star gazing here is incredible.  Because we are well away from industrial areas the air is very clean and clear, and there is no light pollution.

We can easily see the milky way with the naked eye, and I have never in my life seen as many stars!

We often see shooting stars and sometimes we can make out the international space station or satellites overhead

After we had been here a few days I noticed a rash on my upper arm.  It started as a small red flat mark, like a spot.  Then suddenly it expanded and formed a perfect circle with a small ‘dot’ in the centre.  Because it did not hurt or itch I ignored it until a Bulgarian friend spotted it and told me it was a bite.  I looked it up on the internet, and discovered that this was a erytherma migrans or bullseye rash which is a sign of infection by a tich which causes Lyme disease.  I wish I had taken a photograph of it at the time, but as I didn’t realise that it could be serious I didn’t do that.  I did feel quite tyred and lethargic when we arrived, but I put that down to stress and the long journey.

It was time for Karl to return to England.

As he had no driving licence, Sat Nav or mobile phone Ron said that he would drive all the way back with him to ensure that he arrived home safely.

Monday 24^th August 5pm Karl & Ron leave, and I am left alone.

No T.V. no radio, no internet…….and my reading glasses broke!!!!!

Felt strange being here alone.  It is very, very quiet.  Nothing in to eat, so had a walk to the village shop.  Nothing much to eat there either, so bought some bread and cheese – and a bottle of wine.

t

Kept in touch with Ron and Karl by text.  They kept me up to date with progress.

Tuesday 25^th August  The dynamic duo are now through Romania and into Austria.

Wednesday 26^th  The guys are in Germany and spent a couple of hours looking at cars.  They were thinking of buying a car in Germany where they are much cheaper than in Bulgaria, and Ron driving it back. 

Decided against buying a car as there were no suitable ones and they had very little time to look properly.

Thursday 27^th August  Thriugh Germany and France without problems and arrived for 9am Ferry back to U.K.

No flights from U.K. airports on a Thursday, so Ron booked a 6pm flight from Heathrow to Sofia in Bulgaria – about 8 hours drive from Varna.

Ron caught flight which was on time, and I had researched bus and train times from Sofia to Varna.

The last train was at 11.30 and Ron was due to arrive at 11.25, so that was out of the question

There was a bus at midnight, so Ron got a Taxi from the airport to thr Bus Station.  Great – Bus was there ready to leave.  Sadly withourt Ron as he needed a ticket to board and the ticket office closed at 11.30.  The Bus driver refused to let him pay on the Bus so he had to stand and watch it leave without him.

Taxi back to the airport where he booked a flight for 6.30 am to Varna.  A long night sitting in a deserted airport waiting for morning!!

Friday 28^th  August.   At last, flight from Sofia to Varna took off carrying Ron.  I had arranged for a friend to collect him at Varna, and Ron completed the last hou of his eventful journey to arrive safely in Malina at 9.30 am

Our new life starts HERE…………………………………………………………………..

Landed in Dunkirk.  6pm local time. Sunday

Decided to drive for a couple of hours so that we were well past the border.  We had been advised that there are many break ins and thefts near to the border.

Gosselies France

Around 9pm stopped at a Motel called Formula 1.  As it had no Restaurant we ate at a lovely little Italian place across the road.

The Motel itself was very basic but clean.

It had very interesting toilets and shower cubicles.  After one had finished using the toilet instructions were to close the door properly.  Then the toilet cubicle went into a ‘self-clean’ mode and disinfectant and / or water came out of grills in the walls.  We don’t know exactly how it was done as we could only listen from the outside of the closed door.  I lived in fear of setting the thing off accidentally when still sitting.

Paid 5 Euros extra for breakfast which turned out to be bread and jam – no croissants or toast, cereal or anything much else.

Germany     Monday

Left Formula 1 in France at around 9.30 am and drove until lunchtime.  Stopped at a Motorway cafe for lunch and spent half an hour talking to the toilet attendant who was Bulgarian.  He took us into his liitle ‘office’ and wrote down contact details abd said ‘’if ever you are passing mt town call in’’.

Saw a sign which made us laugh ‘Ausfhart’  We saw the sign again afer a couple of kilometers, then again after a few more kilometers.  We said either this is a very large popular town or we are on some sort od ringroad.  Only after we had seen the same sign a few more times and 20 kilometers further on did we realise that Ausfhart actually means exit.  Made us all laugh.

9pm Feeling a lot brighter now so speeding along singing and chatting. Nearly forgotten about being overloaded when blue flashing lights appeared behind us.  The German Police !!!  Of course they pulled us over, and began carefully examining the van.  They asked ‘is it very heavy?’  we said ‘’well we were weighed in Dover and they let us carry on’’ (which was not far from the truth)  Ron tried to distract them by shaking hands and asking them if they could recommend somewhere to stop for the night.

They kept asking for documents that we didn’t have because it was a hired van (We assume they wanted a log book because we showed them the road tax, Insurance and passports etc.)  Luckily Ron happened to be driving so the driving licence issue was not a problem.

They were eventually satisfied and said we could carry on, then as we were getting ready to set off they said that one of our tail lifgts was out and we must stop at the first garage to have it fixed.  Felt like being in the film ‘The Great Escape’ when the escapees were safely on the train to cross the border when one of the police foiled them at the 11th hour. 

Austria  Monday night

Safely over the border into Austria, but now worried that Austrian Police will pull us for having a tail light out.  We decided to go to an Hotel straight away.  Because this was a major town, all the Hotels were in the town center and my toes were curled up at the thought of being stopped again by the Police.  All the Hotel carparks we came across had underground parking but with heifgt restrictions, so we couldn’t park the van.  Ron and Karl wanted to fix the bulb immediately so we stopped in a side street to change the offending bulb. 

Changed the bulb, no light – changed the fuse – no light.  Also at this point we thought that we had left the torch in Dover along with the rest of Ron’s tools, so Karl had to try to fix the fuse inside the van by the light of my mobile phone which kept turning off every few seconds.

We decided to drive on out of the town centre (Passau) and find a n Hotel for the night. 

The Sat Nav showed a Hotel or B&B along a small road, so off we went in the big van into what looked like a private housing estate.  We were sure that there was no large Hotel here but perhaps a B&B so that we could park the van and sort the lights out in daylight.

We parked the van and Ron got out to have a look for somewhere to stay.  He saw a light on in a house so walked up the path.  The door flew open and a totally naked man stood in the doorway, shouting in what sounded like German.  All poor Ron could think of to say when confronted with this sight was ‘Hotel???’  The naked Austrian kept shouting ‘Nine Hotel, nine Hotel’ We thought we had better leg it quick before he called the police who would be interested in our overloaded van with no tail light.

Karl drilled small holes in the headlights, this allowed water to drain out and the fuses held.  It turned out that the torrential rain we had driven through in Germany had collected inside the light cover.

We all piled back intto the van and set off again looking to stop at a Motorway Motel as soon as possible.  At 12.30am arrived at a nice Hotel which to our relief was still serving food and cold beer.  We satayed up until about 2am trying to wind down before bed.

Austria  Tuesday Morning

Bought the necessary vignette pas th drive in Austria – lasts for 8 days and cost about 8 euros

Left Hotel at 9.30 after reasonable breakfast, with lights now fully operational, then had an uneventful journey until we stopped for at a service ststion lunch at 3pm.  Thank goodness we stopped then because as Karl checked the van he noticed that the tracking had been out of line and the tyres were scrubbing off.  We couldn’t risk driving any more miles like that as soon the tyres would be illegal.

Fortunately, there was a garage near the service station – unfortunately they didn’t have the correct size tyres, but they told us where we could find another garage who could have the tyres in stock. 

Arrived at the second garage who said it would take 2 days to get the tryes.  Karl said the only other way would be for him to put the front tyres on the back and the back tyres on the fromt.  As we had only one jack and the van was so heavy it would have taken him half a day to do the job.

At 4.45 pm we came across a garage who would change the tyres over for 25 euros.  We were so lucky because the garage was about to close and they were in the process of pulling down the shutters when we arrived.

I had to close my eyes as the van was lifted up, because the garage was using a jack that was only supposed to lift cars.  One slip and the van (and possibly the fragile contents) would be ruined.  All went well and the van (and the mechanic) survived!

Hungary Tuesday

5.30 in the evening by now, so we decided to push on and try to make up some time.

By 9.30 we were looking for somewhere to stop but not having any luck.  Stopped at a garage to ask and they directed us to a place about 20 kilometers away.  We arrived about 10.30, and Ron got out to see if they were still open and whether they had any vacancies.  He came back grinning saying ‘Gurss what? They say we can have a bungalow for 24 euros for all three of us tonight’

We thought that this was a piece of good fortune and couldn’t wait to see what the bungalow was like. 

The bungalow was like a Wendy House.  It has 2 single beds, bunk beds and a sink.  It was about 12 feet square, and we had to laugh as we had been expecting something totally different.

The place however was lovely.  The dining room was still open, so we had a meal before bed.

Next morning when we cme to look around, we found ourselves in the most picturesk surroundings with many weeping willow trees, a pond and swimming pool (which was , sadly, empty)  The little ‘bunhalows’ in the grounds were cute, and really ment for camping holidays.  The shower block was pretty basic with no doors on the shower cubicles, but hey ho you can’t have it all!!

Had breakfast and a walk aroung the grounds before setting off once again at around 11am.

Hungary Wednesday 

Set off once more to see how far we would get before night time.

Throgh Hungary and into Romania.  Ron had to make sure that he was the one driving through the boeders because we didn’t want to complicate things with Karl’s lack of driving licence.

Had a vote for stopping overnight somewhere in Romania or just driving on until we reached Bulgaria.  I would have preferred to stop but the boys were doing the driving and they opted to carry on.

We hadn’t filled the van up with fuel, as we were trying to keep the weight down as much as possible especially when going through borders. 

Romania Wednesday

Bought the necessary vignette pass to drive in Romania & Bulgaria which lasts for 7 days and cost 8 euros.

Romania is very mountainous and driving around hairpin bends in the dark with hardly any road markings and a drop at the side of the road was a bit scary.

We followed a convoy of large wagons, as it was easier to follow lights, and the grooves in the road from the lorry tracks made trecherous driving as our van was too small to follow the lorry grooves and kept slipping on and off them.

We dicided to folloew the lorries until we got through the worst of the winding roads and onto motorway reads again, so we didn’t stop for fuel so that we could stay with the convoy, thinking that we could re fuel somewhere along the way.  How wrong we were!!!

We turned off the bad roads onto more normal ones, but there were no petrol stations for miles and miles. 

The fuel low light was on constantlt by this time, ans still bo sign of a garage.

Eventually the inevitable happened and the fuel ran out.

The roads were dark and had no lay by’s to pull into.  We couldn’t even pull off the road a little as there was a grassy 4ft drop at each side of the road.

We had been advised not to stop at all in Romania, as it is dangerous to do so.  Now here we were at 2am on a fast road with no diesel.

By now we were all very tired having driven for 15 hours and it started to rain.  We put the warning triangle behind the car and Karl put on the high visibility jacket – then we waited………….

Thursday Romania (early hours)

Karl flagged down a car coming in the opposite direction.  Not sure it would stop but thankfully it did.  There were 3 young men and a girl in their late teens, and as luck would have it their car was a diesel like the van.  They let karl syphon off some fuel (he was still tasting it days after) and then took Ron 23 kilometers to the petrol station to buy a can and some diesel.

The petrol station would not take euros, so the young men changed some for local currency so that we could fill up.

The van was difficult to start after being starved of fuel, so Karl used aftershave to get it going – don’t ask me how. 

We were so grateful for the help these young people gave us as no one else stopped and left there we would have had to walk hoping to come across a garage but not knowing how far, and worried that the hazzard lights would run the battery down.  All our posessions were in the van, so one of us would have had to stay with it. A very dangerous situation to be in in Romania.  Also the road was so dark and fast that it was likely that a vehicle would run into the back of the van smashing all our things.

We were told that very few people stop for breakdowns or even emergencies in Romania as they are afraid of it being a set up and being mugged.

We gave all the rest of our euros (probably only about 50) to our rescuers, but it was worth much much more.  We must have had a guardian Angel that night.

Filled up with half a tank of diesel and carried on heading for the border with Bulgaria.

What we hadn’t realised is that at that particular border crossing (Silistra) there is a Ferry boat to take vehicles across.  By now it was 4am and the ferries had stopped for the night.  We bought a ticket and were told to get in line and await the first morning ferry.

The first ferry turnrd out to be 5am so we didn’t have very long to wait.  We were in line behind a lorry, then more lorries came behind us.

At about 4.45 the loading began.  The first lorry went on, then the second, then us.  The van made an almighty scraping sound as we went up the ramp onto the boat.  We thought we were not going to make it as by this time Karl had said that the clutch was neat to the top, and we could smell it as we dragged the van up the ramp.  But at least we were on.. Or so we thought!!!  After much shouting and arm waving, a man came up to our van and ordered us off.  We pretended not to understand as we desperately did now want to have to get off and on again.  The man insisted saying ‘first the lorries  you last’ so, we scraped our way back down the ramp.  Of course this time the men heared the noise and we were worried that we may not be allowed back on at ass seeing as we had scratched their ramp!

We sat in the van looking up at the ferry and finally when all the lorries were loaded, we were allowed to drive on.  This time the men had pieces of wood and blocks to make it easier for ud to get up the ramp.  We could heat them later speaking to each other and pointing at us while making scraping sounds!!

We thought the ferry would be a quick 5 minute crossing abut it headed down the river away from Silistra, and we began to think that we had made a mistake ang gtten on the wrong ferry.  There was nothing we could do but enjoy the trip, and watch the sun rise.

The ferry docked at aroung 6am and with much fuss and stop start re position the blocks we scraped our wat gratefully off the ferry boat.

BULGARIA  Thursday

Finally arrived at the border of Romania and Bulgaria.  The end is in sight!!!  All the lorries were waved through. We were told to wait.  Here we go again just as we are getting close to home, produce the documents, have a look in the back of the van etc.  No problem though, and we were on our wat for the final 70 or so kilometers to Malina.

MALINA  at last at about 8.30 am.

We arrived and saw that someone had weeded all the path outside the fromt of the house painted the curb black and white (as is the tradition here) and planted some little flowers.  We had paid one of our neighbors to plant some grapes and said that they could use our land to grow things until we arrived.  We didn’t expect to find a little flower bed, and it made us feel so happy and welcome as we had neither asked for or expected such a thing.  What we were totally unaware of until a week later is that we were being charged 1,200 lev for this, but that’s another story!!!!

The sale of the house was completed on Thursday 13th August as we exchanged contacts, and our buyers wanted to move in on Friday.  We couldn’t get a van until Saturday, so we arranged to stay in the house on Friday night to be out by 1pm on Saturday.  Ferry was booked for 6pm in Dover.

Karl (elder son) and van arrived at 9am which gave us 4 hours to load everything.  Mark (middle son) came to help with the loading. We were packed and ready to leave at 12.55 and just as we were going to set off our buyers arrived.

We had always been working on volume rather than weight when calculating the space we would have in a van.

Everything went in O.K. but the van was so heavy that it was about 4 inches from the road and as it was a low loader type it looked even worse than it was.  We had to go to Marks and drop off the two leather sofas.

Left Morley West Yorkshire with just enough time to make the 6pm Ferry.

Made good time and decided not to stop for a rest, just get to Dover.

We started seeing the Dover Ferry signs and we were only 23 miles away when we were pulled over by a WPC. From the Kent Police Force.

‘You are a long way from home’ she said sarcastically.  ‘Not as far as we are going to be very soon’ we thought.  We thought wrong.  The WPC had been patrolling the motorway looking for vehicles which looked as though they may be overloaded, and she spotted us. 

We had to follow her to a weigh bridge which was about 20 miles away.  ‘We could have been at the docks by now’ we were saying to each other.

As suspected, the van was over weight.  The WPC said that she would empound the van and we could not move until the van and it’s contents including ourselves weighed less than 3.5 tons.  (I nearly weigh that on my own!!)

She asked us to follow her to a nearby Hotel, saying that she could have left us at the weigh bridge if she felt so inclined.  So – we followed her for miles to a Premier Inn Hotel car park.  She said not to move from there until the van was the legal weight.

By now we had missed the Ferry, and it was getting dark and cold. 

We went to see if we could book a room at the Hotel but they were fully booked.  We told the WPC this and she just shrugged her shoulders and said it was not her problem.

Ron started to unload the van into the Hotel car park, and the WPC said ‘You can’t put your stiff on the car park, the local Council will prosecute you if you do that’.

What were we to do? We couldn’t move the van until we off loaded some weight and we were not allowed to take anything out of the van because the car park was private property and we were not allowed to leave it there.

With that the WPC left presumably to go home for her supper and to bed, leaving us stranded in a car park with no toilet, no light, no food and totally fed up to say the least.

Fortunately, the Hotel staff were more understanding.  They let us stay in the car park over night.  We had to take lots of our things out of the van so that we could sleep in it.

By this time it was 9pm and we thought that we had taken enough weight off the van to be within the legal limits, so we called the Police to ask them for a re weigh.

They arrived at 11pm and escorted us to the weigh bridge again, leaving our furniture personal belongings etc. In the Hotel car park. 

We were just over weight, and the Police man and woman (different ones this time) were more helpful, and said just take a few more kilos off ang arrange for a re weigh in the morning.  They told us of another Hotel about 10 miles away, but we couldn’t go there for the night leaving our van and all our belongings on the car park at the premier Inn.

There was nothing else to do but all 3 of us sleep in the van until daylight.

Next morning we woke at 6am cold and stiff with most of our stuff still on the carpark. Most of it by now wet with condensation and bits of it broken from being taken in and out of the van so mant times.

Sunday morning is not a good time to attempt to arrange anything.

We had many thoughts at this time.  We could:-

1. Ask someone to hire a van and drive down to Dover.  Expensive and would take at least 7 hours.

2. We could ask a local hire company to loan us a van and try to arrange storage.  Again expensive and time consuming supposing we could even get a hire van at short notice on a Sunday.

Both these options would mean that our posessions would be somewhere in England and we would be in Bulgaria.

We are not planning to drive back again overland for quite some time, so storing our things in England seemed expensive and pointless.

The only way that we could shed the excess weight ang get on out way was to dump a lot of our things.

The only problem with that was that we couldn’t get a skip hire to come out on a Sunday.

Here again the Hotel staff came to uor rescue and said that if we paid for a skip to be delivered on the Monday morning thet would load it with our things and it was O.K. to leave the stuff in the Hotel car park until the skip came.  We paid the Hotel Chefs to put the things into the skip when it arrived.

The staff at the Hotel were horrified at the way we had been treated by the Police.  We were just abandoned in a dark car park all night without any thought to our wellbeing.  We could have been diabetic or had other medical conditions, but they appeared not to have ay concerns for our health – physical or emotional.

The Hotel Manager, bless her, offered us a room which had been used but not serviced yet so that we could use the bathroom.  She supplied towels and coffee in the room for no charge.  We were so grateful to have some sense of normality after a stressful night discussing ways around our situation, and always coming back to the inevitable – dump our things in Dover.

Now came the task of deciding which of our prized possessions we could bear to leave behind to go to into the skip. 

This was heartbreaking and also humiliating with people looking on in curiosity and sympathy.

We managed to give away the BBQ, lawn mower, garden hose and reel, bike, sofa and some books.

All Ron’s tools which were heavy and most of my clothes, wellie boots, books, a bed and lots of kitchen equipment had to go.

Due to stress anxiety and lack of sleep I feel that we made some rash decisions, and now we are in our lovely house in Malina in Bulgaria, we say ‘why didn’t we dump this particular item and rescue something more useful instead’.  All too easy to say in hindsight, especially as I left my box of underwear and if I had been thinking clearly I would have thrown out some crockery and brought the box of undies instead.  I arrived here with one pair of knickers to my name!!  I have bought some since in case you are wondering (Too much information J)

Still, I dread to think of strangers going through all our personal items like that after we left.

Many times since we have been in Bulgaria, Ron has begun to do a job only to realise that his electric drill or saw or whatever is somewhere in Dover.

We rang the Police again at 7am and they arrived at 10am to take us once more to the dreaded weigh bridge.

This time we were the correct weight and we were allowed to go on condition that we did not return to the Hotel and try to rescue some of our possessions. 

The van was weighed without myself and Karl, so we would have been overweight still had we all been in the van.

Karl and I got a taxi to the docks (which cost £50!) where we met up with Ron who drove there alone just in case the Police stopped him again.  We definitely did not want to go through the weigh procedure again, but now we were worried in case we were weighed getting onto the Ferry.  We had brought with us some photographs and photo albums that I just could not bring myself to leave behind, and later I found that Karl had added a few things to his case for me. 

Got onto the Ferry at 4pm.  Heaved a sigh of relief until Karl said that he had left his driving licence at home.  To make matters worse he had also left his Sat Nav behind in Dover.  He was going to need this for his return journey back through Europe.

Worse, when we were half way across the channel, Karl discovered that his mobile phone was not enabled for calls outside the U.K.

Just when you think that it can’t get any worse……………….

We just said that we would carry on now and deal with problems as they present themselves.  So our road journey to Bulgaria began.

It was 2006 and our pensions were performing poorly.

We were looking to invest our money in something which would provide a nest egg for us in our retirement. 

We considered buying property in the U.K. but we became aware British housing market was looking decidedly dodgy, so we began to look at property abroad

We ruled out buying in Spain as that was looking as bad, if not worse than the U.K.

During this time we were also looking at booking a holiday, and the orient Express through Transalvania looked interesting.  While researching Romania we found that property there

was very cheap and was becoming the place to buy since buyers were disillusioned with Spain.

We thought Romania sounded romantic, and we decided to go and have a look.

In the meantime we joined Eastern European forums to see what experiences other people had.

Bulgaria was mentioned often as a good place to buy, and so we researched the Bulgarian property market.

We chatted to people on forums – some gave good advice, some not. 

We had been in contact with an English guy who had gone to Bulgaria to work, met a girl, married her and decided to make Bulgaria his home.  He runs a small guest house and said that anytime we decided to pay a visit we were welcome.

We contacted property sales people in the location where we thought property was value for money – in a traditional village, but close enough to the city and the coast.

This was about an hour drive away from our contact with the guest house so we booked flights, stayed with them (John and Ellie) and hired a car so that we could view as many properties as possible in our 2 weeks stay in Bulgaria.

John and Ellie and her mum Mira made us very welcome and they were a mine of information about the Country, the Bulgarian Law and a million other things that without them we would possibly be unaware even now.  Over the years we have become very good friends.  We spent Christmas day with then in 2007 and we were made to feel like part of the family.

At this point we were just looking for investment property with no intention of living in Bulgaria or even having a holiday home there.

We viewed about 50 village houses. Most needed major renovations.  None had double glazing, none had central heating or air conditioning. 90% had soil floors and many had only cold water in the house.  Almost all the houses we looked at had a ‘toilet’ outside. In some cases a hole in the ground inside a sort of shed with no actual toilet or hand basin.

 Houses in the major cities and towns are very different, but we wanted to buy a traditional village house and almost all village houses are very basic.  There seems to be no concept of a ‘living room’ dining room, bedrooms as the rooms are multi – purpose and the living space becomes the bedroom at night.  This does make sense especially in the very cold winter months as all the energy used to heat the house is not wasted on empty or little used rooms.

Forming a Company

In order to buy land in Bulgaria we had to own a Company.  We registered ourselves as a company which was very easy and a local Solicitor arranged it within 2 days.

The properties

Now we were ready to buy and decided on two 3 roomed houses in a village called Vasillivo.  Several British and German people own houses in this village and so it was prospering.  The shop was well stocked and there was a local bar and coffee shop.

The village is on a good road about 20 minutes drive from a major town called General Toshevo, and 20 minutes away from a lovely little sea side town called Karvarna.

Dobrich which is the main City is less than half an hour drive away from Vasillevo and everything we would need can be found here.  It has everything one would expect in any British city, including good hotels, many excellent restaurants, banks and a vast variety of shops and bars, museums, library, markets and all the usual things such as opticians, chemist etc.

The first property we bought we called ‘Policeman House’ – because the man who sold it on behalf of his Grandmother is a Police Officer.  It had 3 rooms and the obligatory outside toilet. We had already made contact with a British property developer and we gave them the task of applying for planning permission to extend the house (as it had only 3 rooms in total) and carrying out the renovation works to our design.  The garden is a huge 2000 square meters with grape vines, mature fruit trees and lots of outbuildings originally used to keep animals and feed.

There is no mains gas in the villages so we had to bear this in mind when designing the kitchens. Calor gas can be used, and it is a good idea to incorporate this into the plans when installing a kitchen as electricity power cuts are common in Bulgaria.  The power cuts can last for a second, so that you hardly notice (unless you are working on a computer) or they can last several minutes or even hours.

The second house we bought we called ‘Pumpkin House’ because the first time we saw it there were hundreds of pumpkins growing in the garden.  Again the amount of land with the house is substantial at around 2000 square metres.

This house consists of 3 rooms (and an outside toilet) but it has lots of original features and is very pretty.

We decided to wait to test the property market when our first house was renovated before commencing work on the second one.  We thought that we would possibly just hold on to this one and sell it on as a project for someone else.

One of the main attractions for this house was the fantastic views over the valley.  It is also on the edge of Vasillivo village and like the other house benefits from having a thriving community but also peace and quiet. 

……………..And then we saw the house in Malina.

Malina is a small village 15 mins drive from Vasillevo. Malina means Raspberry in Bulgarian, so if we are asked where our house is we have to be carefull to say ‘Sello Malina’ (Village Malina) and not just ‘Raspberry!!

Malina village is very pretty and has a Town Hall with a Mayor as do most of the villages in Bulgaria. A village shop and bar and a small Post Office.

The local people are very friendly and want to ask all sorts of questions which was difficult at first because none of them speak a word of English and we knew very little Bulgarian then. The people also ask the most personal questions like how much we earn in Britain what is our house worth do we have a pension etc.  We are unused to being asked such direct questions from strangers in the U.K.

The house is a two story villa which is unusual in Bulgaria, most houses are just one story – bungalow type.

The house had been built by a local businessman but never completed because his wife died and he and his daughter moved away.

So we were looking at what was basically an empty shell – or to us a blank canvas.

The views from the house are stunning especially in the evenings when the sunsets can be spectacular.

The house is situated near the top of the first street in Malina in the edge of the village, and as soon as we saw it we fell in love with it.

This is a dangerous thing to do because the Golden rule when developing property for re sale is ‘don’t personalise it’.

We never intended to keep the house it was going to be renovated to a high standard and sold.  This decision lasted all of 2 days then we decided that perhaps we could keep it as a holiday home and rent it out when we were not using it.  

If we had known at the time that one day it would be our permanent home we may have done things slightly differently (like having a dishwasher integrated into the kitchen for example)  I am still working on that one!

We spent every holiday in Bulgaria checking on the progress of the renovations and choosing kitchens and bathrooms, choosing tiles and light fittings.

We really like the City of Dobrich, and we visited to buy furniture and look around the museums etc.  We have a favourite little cafe bar that we call ‘the comfy chairs place’  After walking around town we often say ‘let’s go to comfy chairs for a drink’  This is because this particular bar has lovely deep wicker chairs with enormous soft cushions  where we can sit comfortably watching the world go by.  This was the place where Ron proposed out of the blue in the summer of 2007, so it holds special memories for us.

Eventually two of the houses were complete (Policeman’s house and the one in Malina.

We were sitting on the patio one evening, and we said perhaps we could retire here one day, it is so lovely and peaceful.  We had also made quite a few friends here and we were always sorry to have to go back to the U.K. after a week or two.

Then we said both at the same time ‘we don’t have to wait until we retire at 65 we could do it now!! Once the idea had formed it took hold and we started calculations to see if it would be possible for us to retire early and come here.

Our idea was to use Bulgaria as a base and travel around Europe – something we both wanted to do, but never had the opportunity before.

We both thought that if we waited until official retirement age we may not feel up to travelling and making a new life in a different Country with all the challenges that we know we will face.

So we discussed our intentions with our children and close friends.  Everyone said ‘go for it’ and with such a positive response we made the decision to put the house in Ossett on the market and see what happened.

We sold the house in a difficult market after about a year, and from then on there was no going back.  We told our respective employers who were surprised to say the least!  But they were very understanding and supportive of our decision to have a big adventure.

We made a date for completion of the house sale, sold the car the week before we were due to leave and we were on our way……….