It's often said that things happen for a reason and little could I imagine that when my Sister Cathy bought a house in a Bulgarian village, we would end up as proud owners of a house in the neighbouring village.
When Cath decided to up sticks and move to Bulgaria it all sounded very exciting but definitely not what my husband Colin and I would do, being civil servants for the last 22 years and living a very conventional life, married 15 years two children and a dog.
Cath bought her house on ebay and everything went through in 6 weeks and she was on her way driving across Europe. That was in September 2007
One evening in November I'm browsing the internet doing some research into the area Cath had moved to when I came across a house in the next village, it said excellent condition, fully furnished for 10,000 Euro, showed it Col who agreed it was definitely worth looking into.
Cath agreed to contact the estate agents who were based in Ruse and arranged a visit to the property with
an interpreter, many phone calls and photos later we decided to purchase the house. This all ran smoothly as we used the estate agent and their solicitor, Krassy who spoke English, as we were buying a house with land it was required at the time (but not now) that we had a Bulgarian company. This was also arranged by Krassy and everything was done either over the internet or by post. On the 1st of January 2008 we became the proud owners of our Bulgarian village house.
It wasn't until May that year we could get out to the house, with 2 kids and my mum and dad we set off, we flew to Varna and hired a car from the airport.
It was a pretty good drive most of the signs were in both Cyrillic and the Roman alphabet so on the whole we found our way quite easily. We picked Cath up on the way and seven of us arrived at the house. Looking back the villagers must have been hardly able to contain their interest of these new occupants as we arrived, nearly a bus load, what must they of thought.
The first view of the house was all I could of hoped for, walking along the path under the grapevines. A
cream two storey house with with dark wood windows and a red tile roof bathed in sunshine, surrounded by gardens - overgrown gardens, but perfect.
The next two hours was spent sweeping and cleaning and making beds and in no time the house was ready it was amazing how clean it was and how few creepy crawlies there were. That week seems to have passed in a blur of cleaning and clearing and trips to the local tip, as quick as we left our stuff at the tip it found a new home.
The village had two shops a bakery and a café so
supplies were plenty, Colin, Al and Chris still laugh at my trying to explain I wanted eggs at the local shops which involved chicken sounds, hand waving and actions, (I'd forgotten the dictionary, there was no google translate in those days). The shopkeeper was friendly and helpful, showing no surprise at this crazy English women in his shop. I came away with a frozen chicken as most villagers have chickens they didn't stock eggs. The villagers were friendly and welcoming and all too soon our Bulgarian visit was over, and we were England bound.
When Cath decided to up sticks and move to Bulgaria it all sounded very exciting but definitely not what my husband Colin and I would do, being civil servants for the last 22 years and living a very conventional life, married 15 years two children and a dog.
Cath bought her house on ebay and everything went through in 6 weeks and she was on her way driving across Europe. That was in September 2007One evening in November I'm browsing the internet doing some research into the area Cath had moved to when I came across a house in the next village, it said excellent condition, fully furnished for 10,000 Euro, showed it Col who agreed it was definitely worth looking into.
Cath agreed to contact the estate agents who were based in Ruse and arranged a visit to the property with
an interpreter, many phone calls and photos later we decided to purchase the house. This all ran smoothly as we used the estate agent and their solicitor, Krassy who spoke English, as we were buying a house with land it was required at the time (but not now) that we had a Bulgarian company. This was also arranged by Krassy and everything was done either over the internet or by post. On the 1st of January 2008 we became the proud owners of our Bulgarian village house.
It wasn't until May that year we could get out to the house, with 2 kids and my mum and dad we set off, we flew to Varna and hired a car from the airport.
It was a pretty good drive most of the signs were in both Cyrillic and the Roman alphabet so on the whole we found our way quite easily. We picked Cath up on the way and seven of us arrived at the house. Looking back the villagers must have been hardly able to contain their interest of these new occupants as we arrived, nearly a bus load, what must they of thought.
The first view of the house was all I could of hoped for, walking along the path under the grapevines. A
cream two storey house with with dark wood windows and a red tile roof bathed in sunshine, surrounded by gardens - overgrown gardens, but perfect.
The next two hours was spent sweeping and cleaning and making beds and in no time the house was ready it was amazing how clean it was and how few creepy crawlies there were. That week seems to have passed in a blur of cleaning and clearing and trips to the local tip, as quick as we left our stuff at the tip it found a new home.
The village had two shops a bakery and a café sosupplies were plenty, Colin, Al and Chris still laugh at my trying to explain I wanted eggs at the local shops which involved chicken sounds, hand waving and actions, (I'd forgotten the dictionary, there was no google translate in those days). The shopkeeper was friendly and helpful, showing no surprise at this crazy English women in his shop. I came away with a frozen chicken as most villagers have chickens they didn't stock eggs. The villagers were friendly and welcoming and all too soon our Bulgarian visit was over, and we were England bound.
