Category: Bulgaria & Exploring Bulgaria


This is not going to be a Wordless Wednesday, it’s going to be very Word-ful Wednesday. I’ve already shown you a glimpse of what happened last Saturday, on the Scavenger Hunt Sunday. Here comes the full story…

 

A and I love Samoyeds, it is our absolute favorite breed! Since losing our first Samoyed, we’ve been heartbroken. Although, we know that he is in a very loving and lively home, we still think about him nearly daily. For some reason, Samoyeds are not very well known. Or that is the impression that I have. We’ve been looking for a Samoyed breeder here in Bulgaria, and we found one who doesn’t live too far away from here (Sofia would’ve been too far). After many emails back and forth, we were able to go meet this breeder. Boy, were we in for an adventure!

 

The day didn’t start on the best terms. Being a foreigner and not speaking the language can get frustrating. That was our morning. We went to a bus station here in VT, just to find out that the bus leaves twice (or was it even once) a day. Oh great. We went to the other bus station that this town has. It didn’t look all that promising at first. We still went and asked if there were any buses going to this town. Thankfully, they wrote down three times and we took the first one! Phew – that was a tiny scare.

 

The thing about Bulgarian public transportation is that it’s not one company that runs the show. They have several bus companies, from which many of them are also taxi companies. When you go to a bus station, you see the offices for each company. Usually, you also see the towns the buses go to. All written in Cyrillic. To me personally, the letters start jumping and the letters don’t mean anything anymore. What’s good about this country, is that there is usually always someone around who wants to help you. A lot of times it’s a bit of guessing game and charades but so far, we’ve been able to understand what they’re trying to say.

 

We had almost two hours to kill before the bus left. So, we went to check out some shops we knew were close by. We went in one and found there was a locksmith. After a little over a month, we’ve only had one set of  keys! Finally we were able to make another set of keys for us!! In Ireland making an extra set of keys cost us €30 (that’s for three keys!), for the same amount of keys we only had to pay about €3, that’s 6 leva! I am so amazed about this..

 

Moving on, our bus left. We arrived at the other town on time. It is always a little bit nerve-wrecking to meet someone you’ve only exchanged emails with. The couple came to pick us up from the station. Right from the get-go, we hit it off. Bare in mind that this was our first time of being welcomed into a Bulgarian home. On the way there, I asked A how many dogs they have, he said he thought 3. When we actually got there, there were 6! Six amazing white Samoyeds! Even when the Sammies don’t know you, they’re very eager to meet you! They barked. They jumped up and down. They ran. They sniffed. They wanted cuddle. So many lovebugs that I wanted to cuddle! All of them have the same mannerisms as our first Sammy.

 

I wanted to cuddle with all of them! They were just so happy, and very loving. After the initial reaction, they calmed down a bit. Still curious and wanting to know who we were. There were two smaller girls, one of them (or perhaps both) followed me around constantly. If I stopped petting, she started whining and got closer to me! It was so adorable!

 

The family set up a table for us in the backyard since it was a very lovely day. I thought they would just offer coffee type of thing, or lunch at most. When N, the hostess, came out with two plates full of food, I was so surprised! I had not expected that at all! She just kept bringing more and more. A salad, rakia (a Bulgarian drink)..it seemed never-ending. As she finally was able to sit down with us, A and I found out that back in the day, it was mandatory for Bulgarians to make a full meal for their guests. Since Europe, and being part of EU, it is not mandatory anymore. I remember when someone would come over, we would just offer like a dessert of some kind with a beverage of the guests’ choice.

 

The day couldn’t have been better! After the dinner, N had prepared dessert for us! WOW! A full-meal to complete strangers. The meal was some of the most delicious meals I’ve ever had! I want to learn how to cook like that! After the meal,  the least I wanted to do is clean up. All I got to do was bring the dishes inside, and even that was a surprise to her. At least, I helped with something!

 

This is what I know about Bulgarians – they’re incredibly nice people! They give so much, and they do it with such a huge heart! It’s incredible to see. Right off the bat, A and I felt very welcomed to their home. The feeling what I got there, could not be described in words, it was out of this world. Something very magical about it.

 

After the meal, we still had some time to play with the doggies before we had to head to  catch the last bus. For the meal, they put the dogs in their big dog house so that we could eat at peace! How considerate! They calmed down while they were there. As soon as they were let out though, they were so happy! It’s as if we were gone and they noticed us again for the first time. I took the last pictures.

 

We had a little bit of extra time, so they wanted to show us the well-known attraction of their town, Covered Bridge. They wanted us to come over again, though for a weekend. They want to show us waterfalls nearby and some other attractions. We’d love to come by again, we were honored that they would even ask! So, hopefully, next month we’ll be able to go there again! I’m so looking forward to that.

Now, enjoy the best of last Saturday’s visit…

This little one is Lora, she weighed nothing! She was one of the two who kept following me! I wanted to take her home ;)

Once you meet a Samoyed, you’ll notice how they will take your heart immediately! It is a very special breed!

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I’ve been showing you what my living environment looks like. I think it’s time to switch up a little bit, and show you some more pictures of the actual town. Although, I haven’t gotten to do as much tourist-y things, I’ve still gotten to take some pictures from when I’ve been to Veliko Tûrnovo (VT or Viti as I like to call it). This town is so picturesque, you would not even believe it! Pictures are nothing compared to the real thing but I hope I’ve captured some of the beauty this town offers…

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If you would be so kind, and respect copyright, to not remove the credits – always check 

with me first if you want to use my photography! Thank you!


Please read A’s side of the stories and his perspectives on life


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My home is my sanctuary, it is a very sacred place to me. So for me to let you in to see my home, is a big deal. My home needs to inspire me everyday. From the moment I wake up, I want to have a smile on my face or when I go to the living room, I just want to feel at ease and inspired. This home does just that. When I open the curtains in the morning, I feel blessed to have found such a gorgeous spot to live in. It’s like a little miracle each morning when I see the mountains, sometimes even mist in the mountains. This has been exactly what I’ve been looking for and dreaming of. I couldn’t be more grateful to have found such a beautiful spot!!

Let me show you what I see everyday..

A actually took this picture of the gorgeous sunset we see nearly every evening

The crescent moon was spotted..

We see some farm animals that the herders walk nearly everyday

The sheep herder sometimes goes by our backyard

This was taken from the top floor bedroom at sunset

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If you would be so kind, and respect copyright, to not remove the credits – always check 

with me first if you want to use my photography! Thank you!

Please read A’s side of the stories and his perspectives on life


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For those of you who have been following my stories from Bulgaria, you may be wanting more visuals than what I’ve given you. No? This time, I will show you the house I live in. Yes, the one where the landlord is awesome – he fixes everything immediately, but sometimes he lets himself in. As I’m accustomed to people giving me notice when they want to come and fix something, I just need to get used to it.

The house is the same price as when I rented a studio back in Holland!

So, that is the grand tour of our new home. It was love at first sight, even when we saw it online in pictures, we knew that was going to be our home if it was still available. It had been up for rent for quite some while so it was a surprise that it was still for rent when we got here. Maybe universe kept it available for us, as it has everything we could have hoped for! Ok, maybe there is one thing missing, a pool. I’m not greedy though, I’m grateful that we have such a gorgeous living environment!!

I could have shown you some more, such as the opposite sides of the bedrooms and whatnot but I felt it was unnecessary and there is already so much to show! You might have not gotten till the end of this post had I posted more pictures! What I do want to point out, however, is that everything is very nicely decorated in here. We have lots of beautiful art on our walls. This house is colorful, which I truly love, but it’s not tacky colorful if you know what I mean ;).

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If you would be so kind, and respect copyright, to not remove the credits – always check with

me first if you want to use my photography! Thank you!

 

Please read A’s side of the stories and his perspectives on life


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So, if you’ve been following my stories of the travels in Bulgaria, you would know some of the stories of the first night in the gorgeous city of Veliko Tûrnovo. We stayed at a very beautiful hotel called Grand Hotel YantraWe had the privilege of having the view to the beautiful Tsarevets castle. Upon arrival in Viti, we immediately went to look at the house we now call home. A’s company works with realtors called SelectBGwho helped us in many ways – they’re not just realtors but they help you with other things as well. They helped us get this house and translate the things the owner was explaining to us. It was a no-brainer we were going to take the house.

After the tour, we checked-in at the hotel. We freshened up and went to eat at Ego. On the Friday evening, we went for a walk around town, eager to get to know it. The next morning, we went to SelectBG to sign the contract and get the keys so we could move in. Bulgarians do not hurry nor stress about whether they’re on time or not. We were so exhausted from the couple of days that we just went to get some groceries and bed stuff, after all was done we just stayed in and relaxed.

Anyways, let the pictures show you…

The view from our hotel was right to Tsarevets

At Ego restaurant

On our evening walk through VT after dinner

VT at night

Tsarevets at night. During summer months they hold a spectacular light show.

The first morning in VT – look at the mist!

The mist in the morning

The city of VT at daytime

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If you would be so kind, and respect copyright, to not remove the credits – always check with

me first if you want to use my photography! Thank you!

 

More pictures coming very soon! I will do something really exciting

for Wordless Wednesday… so keep checking in!

 

Please read A’s side of the stories and his perspectives on life


Join the fun on Pinterest, have a conversation with me on

Twitter, and check out what I’m up to on Facebook.

So, in my previous post, I showed you my first glimpse of Bulgaria. I didn’t have the chance to take too many pictures while we were in Sofia but I still took a few, and here are the best photos;

We stayed in a beautiful hotel, Hotel Kabu, which I would recommend for anyone to stay at if you don’t have a place to stay in Sofia. Right next to the hotel, there is a very nice restaurant, Happy Bar & Grill, which has very nice food and excellent atmosphere. It was really sweet to unwind at this restaurant! The last picture is from the hotel, I thought it looked neat what they had on the wall.. and yes, I am a geek so of course I had to take a picture of that!

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If you would be so kind, and respect copyright, to not remove the credits – always check with

me first if you want to use my photography! Thank you!

More pictures coming very soon! I will do something really exciting

for Wordless Wednesday… so keep checking in!

Please read A’s side of the stories and his perspectives on life


Join the fun on Pinterest, have a conversation with me on

Twitter, and check out what I’m up to on Facebook.

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