First night in Veliko Tûrnovo

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 Yantra. We 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 SelectBG, who 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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Moving to Bulgaria: Day 7+

This is the last post of the series of my first week in Bulgaria! Don’t worry, I will be posting more about Bulgaria as life goes on here. This was also a way for me to journal what had happened during the first week while here. :)

 

I can’t believe it has already been a week that I’ve spent in this gorgeous, unknown country of Bulgaria! It has been an amazing week here. Full of first impressions, emotions, tiredness, new experiences, surrounded by nature. We came to the country right before there was a small holiday. The holiday was over, even A started his work today! For the first time, I was left alone in our new home.

 

I can’t remember exactly what I did that day, I’m sure it involved tidying up a bit, starting to learn Bulgarian, making dinner, reading.. just regular daily things. The landlord came about that day as well. He had someone to put on the sprinklers in the yard, as it had not rained for the whole week. With him not speaking a word of English, and me not speaking a word of Bulgarian, communication can get quite difficult. Somehow, I did figure out (with body language) that the sprinklers will go on daily from now on, that they’re on timer. That’s great! So we don’t have to worry about that any more!

 

The following two days, he showed up at the doorstep, as he has extra set of keys to this house (and the garage is the only way to get in.. ok, there is a gate that you can open as well but it’s easier to come through the garage). The second day, he came in with two other fellas, and fixed a mosquito/bug screen that fell off when we signed the contract (it hadn’t fallen off since). They didn’t take very long though. The third day, he had sent someone to come and fix the small cabinet, right before before you come in the house, as the door only opened half-way. The cabinet was a custom made, or custom fitted perhaps, to fit in that space. The person took and went in his workspace to fix it. I hadn’t even noticed him bringing it back later in the afternoon, it had just reappeared! I love our landlord!

 

He has kept his word of what he’d still do/fix for the house. I’ve had my share of landlords who would not do anything for the apartment, or claim that it is not his responsibility but mine to fix.. whatever needed fixing. Or a landlord who would promise they’d fix it but never would do it (ie. in the last apartment the fridge+freezer would not work properly.. the fridge was way too warm and you were better off using the freezer as the fridge!). Needless to say, I’m very pleased with the new landlord. As nice and efficient as he is, he does just let himself in (not inside the house though) without any kind of notice or whatever, and to me he could have a bit more privacy-consideration towards us. That’s the only issue I have, and it’s something I can adapt myself to. Coming to a completely new country,  you also have doubts whether someone is trustworthy or not, and I don’t like to get f****ed over, especially when comes to your living space!

 

As A got back from work, he finally got his suitcase! This means, he finally has more clothes and the rest of his things he’s been missing! Thankfully, we’ve been able to wash the few clothes he had, so at least he didn’t have to be in dirty, sweaty clothes every day.

 

All is well that ends well :)!

 

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Follow my stories of the first week in Bulgaria, read Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6. 

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Moving to Bulgaria: Day 6

On the fine Tuesday morning, we decided we would go to Viti again. I think we wanted to find some things that would be necessary for our living situation. You see, while this house has everything you could imagine or want, it doesn’t have the personal items you might need. We have different sized plates, one each, already in the house, and six glasses. Other than we have to get other things on our own, including the bed stuff (pillows, cover, and of course sheets), utensils, pans, vacuum cleaner, etc. On the day we moved in, we got a cover and pillows for the bed as well as under sheet. Nothing else.

 

The first days, we had some frozen pizzas as we could make them easily in the oven, and be creative when eating them. Somewhere, along the way, we found forks, spoons, two pans, and even some spatulas from the local store we have here! We were still missing knives. So, I think we went to town to find some of the things we still needed while A was still off, and try and do groceries for the coming week (neither of really knows how to do that for some reason).

 

I think we walked and walked and walked, trying to find stupid knives. We didn’t find any stores that would look like they sold household items or kitchen stuff. So, we went to the store to find food before going back home. This was the first time, I really felt overwhelmed in the negative sense. I was tired from the walking, quite hot too. The stores in Bulgaria (or the ones I’ve been to, if you have a recommendation for a good grocery store, or any kind of recommendation, that would be very welcomed!) are not the kind of stores I’m used to. Or maybe I was too tired to see much. For instance, I couldn’t find a spice rack, or even salt. This made me get creative, and luckily, at least I found soy. There were other things that were hard to find, and most things are in Bulgarian, which was not all that helpful at all. Good thing you can recognize the items just by looking at it (although, later I found out that on the soy bottle, it does say ‘soya sauce’).

 

As we were walking on the bus stop, I see a store that sells kitchen stuff – the first one at that! We go in to check if they would have any knives, and sure enough they do. However, this was one of those fancy-more-expensive kind of stores. Well, we had to get eating knives, and one sharper knife to be able to cut. Out of desperation of not finding anything, we end up buying two knives and a sharp knife. It still didn’t cost as much as you’d pay for it in another western country, but it was plenty for the prices they have here. After we had bought the knives, we get out of the shop, and notice that they have a bigger shop right next to the one we went – a shop that looked a lot cheaper than what we were just in! Oh, the irony! At that point, all I could do was just laugh at the Universe’s humour.

 

When neither of you speaks the language, or barely even reads the language, daily things such as going to the store and getting things, knowing what they are, can be quite rough. If you would have a local person with you, who knows their own system and would help you find the necessary things you need, that would be a lot easier. I personally would love to learn some of the traditional dishes Bulgarians make, or even some of the delicious pastries they have, but I don’t want to get it off the internet from a person who was on a vacation and taught themselves to make a dish they had eaten on a restaurant, if you know what I mean. I want the real, authentic stuff.

 

On the flip side, however, if you have a Bulgarian partner, you might miss some of the things than when neither of you barely knows anything of the culture. Nonetheless, both are excellent ways to get to know the wonderful Bulgarian culture!

 

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Follow my stories of the first week in Bulgaria, read Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5. 

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Moving to Bulgaria: Day 5

If I had stick to my plan and write as I go along, I would have remembered more of the day’s happenings and whatnot. Ok, I did write a lot more on the first days of being here but unfortunately, the computer I used doesn’t seem to want to turn on anymore. So, I just need to base this on memory, which isn’t a lot for the rest of the days of the first week. Oh, well… c’est la vie!

 

On Monday, 30th of April, we decided we would just stay in our little village. It was yet another gorgeous and hot day – it’s not even May! – so we wanted to explore the village a little bit. We walked down the road, which eventually led up to a small (tiny!) lake. From what we hear, a lot of people go fishing there.

 

Once we got there the sounds of frogs was overwhelming! There were so many and they were so loud! It was like listening to a frog choir! I had never heard them so loud. That is what happens when you leave nature to be as it is, you start hearing and seeing things you might not normally hear or see. Overall, the sounds of the nature – the frogs, the crickets, the birds, even the sheep and cow the herders take for walks – are beyond my wildest dreams! It’s definitely amusing to watch the herders go by right outside your house. Where else would you be able to see such a thing?

 

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Follow my stories of the first week in Bulgaria, read Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4. 

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Moving to Bulgaria: Day 4

It was so surreal and yet wonderful to wake up in our new home. This is our new home. What’s even more beautiful, is to wake up to sunshine. That is just one of the little daily miracles, and I’m thankful every time I wake up to one. What I may have forgotten to mention is that this new home is a little bit outside of Viti. Both of us were getting tired of hearing constant cars, drunken people at night, or whatever kind of noise from the neighbors. In other words, we’re tired of city life. This little village is just very nice, people are so kind and polite! Hardly any neighbors, we don’t hear a lot of cars.. and yet the village is just close enough to town.

 

On this beautiful Sunday, we wanted to check out the bus route and just get to know Viti a little bit better. So we took the bus to the center. A couple of things surprised us when we were on the bus; the first thing was that they have the driver and the ‘co-driver’, a person who collects the money and gives the tickets. This is very interesting style of working, not sure if it’s more efficient or less efficient than what I’m used to. The second surprise was the price. It’s only 0,70 lev for the bus ride per person! That’s about €0,35/$0,45/£0,30 for one way ticket! Can you imagine?!?! This was a complete shock to me, especially when the public transport everywhere else I’ve been is ridiculously expensive!!

 

We just were like tourists, walking around and having the camera on in case there was an opportunity to take a picture or two. We stopped for something to drink. Continued walking, and we even visited Tsarevets castle but we didn’t go in as we weren’t exactly prepared (plus I felt my skin was starting to burn as I didn’t have any sunscreen..let it be known that I can burn quite easily, I just need to pace myself) and decided we’d come another time. We did want to check out the prices though, to prepare how much it would cost to visit this well known attraction. Much to my surprise, it was a lot cheaper than what I had anticipated, only 6 leva (€3/$4/£2,50)! Do you know how much they would charge if it was, say, in Holland? I don’t think it would be under €20 ($25/£16)!

 

When we got back home, I noticed there was a note on our porch. I just thought it was a piece of paper from one of us, when A picked it up and it was a note from the owner. He gave us his wifi logins so we’d have internet! We were wondering how he could have had anything done on Sunday… I have to say our landlord is quite awesome, and very nice!

 

Other than that, we didn’t do much else. We got home, and just relaxed as we were both quite exhausted from everything.  It just blows me away how cheap it is here! Everything is beyond what I have imagined! The view from our house, is really gorgeous – the clouds look like they’ve been painted in the sky, unlike I’ve never seen before. I just love love love to see the sun set, and from here, you can just count the seconds of it setting. It’s really gorgeous to watch. All you hear is sounds of the nature. This place of its own, is like a little miracle, which hasn’t been touched by man… well not too much at least. I’m so grateful to have been guided here, it has been an answer to all of my wishes!

 

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Follow my stories of the first week in Bulgaria, read Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.  I will be posting pictures soon! :)

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Moving to Bulgaria: Day 3

On day three, we woke up from the beautiful hotel in Viti, Yantra Grand Hotel. We went and got ourselves a nice breakfast, and made sure we’d get the traditional things they were serving since it was a buffet. There was Bulgarian yogurt, which is so delicious, best yogurt I’ve ever tasted! Then there was something that seemed to be deep fried, it was a salty pastry thing. There was also some cake and other sweet stuff. Based on this breakfast (and the other meals I’ve already had in Bulgaria), I’ve noticed that Bulgarians don’t put a lot of salt or sugar in their things. It may take some time to get used to, but overall, things seems to taste a lot better. I am just in love with the Bulgarian cuisine, there’s something special about it! Although, nothing beats Indonesian or Surinamese cuisines, so I guess Bulgarian is my third favorite then ;).

 

After breakfast, we just hang out at the hotel until we had to check out. We then went to the brokers’ office to find out they weren’t at the office yet. We had to wait outside with our luggage until they came. We had an appointment with the owner of the house at 1 o’clock to sign the contract. As it so happens, we signed the contract already but he had another appointment to go to so he gave the brokers the keys in case we wanted to go to the house already. The brokers were dealing with other people (new employees, just like A) to deal with as well. So we just decided to take a cab to the house and wait for the owner to come there.

 

Around 4, there were other brokers, brokers he has hired, who would translate for us. They have a very relaxed way of doing business, everything seems to take longer than what you would expect. It wasn’t only about signing the contract but also going through what was in the house, room by room, floor by floor. Overall, things took about an hour until we got everything settled; all the papers signed (things seem very bureaucratic here..), we paid the deposit, and he showed the very few of the rest of the things that needed to be further explained. He seems very nice, making more jokes than the previous time; he was even worried about us when we didn’t have pillows/cover for the bed/sheets and told us that one of the brokers (or the broker’s assistant) would take us to a shop where they sell all that sort of stuff. Again, another very nice gesture on their part!

 

We got to the shop, which seemed like a rip-off store of Ikea, as we were paying for the groceries and bed stuff, I had a complete blackout of my card. Suddenly, I had no idea what numbers I should press. I guess, this was my first clue of how tired I really was at that moment. It had been very intense couple of days, a lot of first impressions, a lot had to be done within just a couple of days, moving from one country to another and on top of all things, I hadn’t slept well for the past nights – I guess all those things would explain the blackout. Luckily, this is a country where people don’t start huffing and puffing if someone’s taking a bit longer at the register. Still, coming from a country like that, I was freaking out quite a bit. Thankfully, we had enough cash on us.

 

We were brought back to our new home. Finally, we could just relax and be on our own now. Finally, alone time, what both of us had been craving. A nice bed to sleep on..and just being here. It was so surreal that this big house, with the latest equipment is now ours to call home. I really couldn’t believe it! This all, everything I had experienced these past couple of days, seemed so surreal. It was not too long ago that I had moved to Ireland after living almost 5 years in NL, and now to be in this country I barely even knew! Yet somehow, it feels like this is a huge blessing, there is a reason why we moved here. It feels as though this is what we have been looking for, not knowing it would exist in Bulgaria. I don’t know how to explain it, it just seems there is a bigger reason as to why we are here. Reason, I don’t know yet but hopefully will find out sooner or later. Universe does hear my, and our, prayers. And thankfully, we’re open enough to listen to the answers. Everything has happened so fast.

 

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More stories and pictures coming soon! :)

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