And Jake Makes 3

 

So our residency in Bulgaria begins............ Today we have started our stay in an apartment in the town of Veliko Tarnovo and we have become registered Long Term Residents i.e. Legal Aliens. 

 

 

We decided we need a break after moving etc. so as the weather was nice and bright we went back to Dryanovo Monastery today. As well as the monastery itself the site has an ecotrail for walks and also Bacho Kiro cave and cafes and shops to visit. Jake decided a good walk was in order and took us off mountaineering up the paths and steps to the cave. It is quite a climb but the scenery is beautiful especially at this autumn time.

 

 

 

After a good hour's walk we were hungry so decided to try out the cafe at the monastery. We had a lovely lunch of Gyuvech. This is a traditional dish of cheese, tomato, peppers and herbs cooked in a clay pot in the oven. The pots were traditional Troyan ware made in Bulgaria and very decorative. A lovely way to spend a few hours.

 

 

 

 

Today we had cable TV and internet fitted at the flat. The service was excellent. We visited the office of Evrocom on Friday to enquire what was available, signed the contract today at 10.30am and at 1pm this afternoon the 2 engineers arrived. It took 30 minutes to fit and get working. The TV has 58 channels - most of them we can't understand - but there is EuroNews, CNN, Eurosport and a couple of film channels. We also get Discovery and National Geographic. The best channel is AXN, a Hungarian station which plays things like CSI New York and other American and Australian programmes. Our internet is working fine although we have a problem with Skype at the moment but we think that is down to Skype and not the internet as everything else is fine.

 

The cost - Cable TV - 15lev (£5) a month     Cable internet 2048Kbps speed - 28lev (£9) a month. Also no 12 month tie in, just pay month by month.

 

 

Christmas has come early - We have had our goods from England delivered to us in VT and as we have not seen these boxes for 4 months and some of the contents for 6 or more months it is quite exciting to open them. Mind you the flat looks like a bomb was dropped.

 

 

 

 

Christmas part 2 - we have our first snow of the winter. It is not heavy snow and there was a lot of rain and sleet before it started to settle. We are only glad we are unpacking and don't have to venture out today.

 

 

 25th November

 

Well 2 weeks have passed since we wrote on the web and to be honest I can't really think of what we have been doing. Life has settled down in the apartment and so we have just been doing all the normal things like housework etc...... I go to school once a week to learn some Bulgarian. I know many single words but the grammar was defeating me, so I decided it was time to become a mature student.

 

We decided that if the weather is going to be as bad as some Bulgarians say it will this winter then we needed to find a garage to keep the car in. My Bulgarian lessons finally began to pay off as I drafted a poster to put in the foyer of the apartment block. We put it in the window on Sunday night and on the Monday a very nice man called to see us. Luckily I had put on the poster that I only spoke a small amount of Bulgarian so the man brought his son with him who speaks a little English. He had a very nice garage to rent right across the road from our apartment. It has electricity and a water supply and so our beloved Freelander is now snug and warm out of the way of snow, rain and frost.  

 

Just to prove us wrong, today has been warm and sunny. Sitting in the apartment with the sun streaming through the balcony windows and no heating on it seems very strange to be writing out Christmas cards. We are not sure of the postal system but I was able to ask at the post office about the postal rates and so we have bought stamps and cards and will trust them to the Bulgarian post.

 

The weather is due to get colder again this week so we will make the most of the warmth whilst we are lucky enough to have it. Hopefully we will have more to write about next time. 

 

 

Didn't we have a lovely time, the time we went to Pleven. Not quite the right words but hey.....

Yep! Yesterday we arranged to go to the town of Pleven North West of VT. Our main reason for going was to have the car serviced ready for the winter. The Landrover specialists in Bulgaria have a workshop there and we had the car booked in for service at 9am. First snag - we got up at the unearthly hour of 6am only to find someone had parked their car in front of the garage gates so we couldn't get the car out and we wanted to leave at 7. Thankfully they must work early as they had gone by 7.30 so we were not too late getting away. We got to the garage ok about 9.45 but as Bulgarians don't do "on time" there were no real worries. They kindly got us a taxi into town and we spent the next few hours sight-seeing and wandering around the shops.

 

Pleven has quite a modern town centre and is fairly big. It has a lot of history and is know as the city of museums. Their history goes right back to before 5th. Millenium BC and there have been a number of significant archeological finds from that era. However the major history stems from the Russian/Turkish war of 1877-1878. The liberation of Pleven brought about the ending of the war and was reported worldwide. Many of the monuments and museums are dedicated to this event.

 

There is a diversity of architecture throughout the town centre. Unfortunately I forgot the camera but these are a couple of pictures I scanned from a leaflet the Tourist Information gave to us.

 

 

 

 

We will have to come back at some time to visit some of the sights but we had to get back to the garage plus it was rather cold for wandering around.

 

When we got back to the garage the car was ready but the manager told us "You must have a new clutch". Fine. We knew there was a problem and half expected this so we booked it in for Tuesday the following week. With the car purring along after it's service we headed home. Stopping at a junction there was an almighty snapping sound and the manager's words came back to haunt us -Yep we definitely need a new clutch. Thankfully we have the wonderful back-up of Saga. We took out European breakdowm cover with them before we left the UK and it was worth every penny. One phone call was all it took to get everything sorted. They contacted the Bulgarian breakdown service who rang us to get exact directions of where we were. Their operators spoke excellent English and despite our directions being a bit vague - we are outside a tyre shop, near a level crossing on the outskirts of Polski Trambesh (They don't do road signs and street names here!) a local recovery vehicle was located and despatched. The driver was there within 40 minutes, loaded the car on the truck and took as home to VT. The car went to their compound overnight and has now been taken to Pleven to await the clutch fitting on Tuesday. We broke down at 4.30pm and were home having a cuppa at 6.45pm. I doubt it would have been done any better in the UK and certainly not with the care and consideration we recieved. The operator from Sofia who had spoken to us originally even called us at home to make sure we had got there safely, plus calling us the following day to confirm the car was on its way to Pleven.

 

Now for the surreal bit. You are 2000 miles from home. You are broken down in the centre of who knows where. You are surrounded by horses and carts, Ladas and tumble down buildings. You are approached by a man on crutches. He is wearing a big coat and bobble hat. You open the door bracing yourself for a torrent of indistinguishable Bulgarian, so you tune your ears to listen........ "Thought you must be British" states the widest Lancashire accent we have heard this side of the Balkans. Your brain does a double take and you think where are we, these bloody English get everywhere!!!!!!!!!!! Turns out to be a man called Tony who lives nearby and was having tyres fitted at the shop where we had broken down. It proves the world is getting smaller.

 

 

What a beautiful day.We have been for a walk and we are now sat on the terrace, glass of wine in hand soaking up the sun. Second day in December and it's 17 degrees.  Just watching the planes and a lone paraglider going overhead.

 

 

 

Contrails from various planes

 

As it is a sunny day we have taken some pictures of the apartment so you can see where we are living.

 

Lounge area

 

Diner and kitchen area

 

Terrace

 

Main bedroom

 

Jake at home

 

 

 

Good news today. We received a call from Saga to say that the car is now ready to collect. Excellent as we had been told the repair could take 2 weeks  - having to get bits from UK. We have arranged with our friend Toma for him to take us to Pleven in his Taxi.

 

 

Off to Moto-pfone in Pleven to get the Freelander. It appears the timing is good as the weather is forecast to get worse throughout the week with temperatures below freezing and much snow. As we headed out of VT West towards Lovech we realised how cocooned we are from the weather here in the town. 10 kilometres out of town and we start to see snow still on the ground from the last snow falls and the beautiful backdrop of the Stara Planina Mountains with their peaks covered in deep snow. Must get out with the camera soon. Towards Lovech we drop slightly and hit heavy fog but once we start to rise again the air clears and it is a lovely sunny day. 

 

Toma delivered us safely to the garage and as our Bulgarian is still lacking he kindly checked that the car was ok before he left. We really cannot fault the service we have received from Moto-Pfohe. The car has a new clutch and master cylinder - all fitted by a Landrover dealer and all for under £400. Plus we know the car has been thoroughly checked as their manager, who does speak some English, showed us another job which needs doing in the New Year. 2 bushes on the drive shaft are worn and he says the car will be quieter if they are replaced. John is extremely pleased with the work; he says the car is like new, even better than when we bought it. We got home safe and sound and the car is now tucked up in the garage away from the weather.

 

 

Had a quick walk into town today to pay the electricity bill. It was £30 for the month which may sound a lot but as we have no other fuel bills and all our heating, cooking and lighting is electric it isn't expensive to us. The weather is colder and there is a bit of snow in the air but not too bad still.

 

The one thing I have discovered is how much I enjoy cooking here in Bulgaria. The ingredients are fresher and most of the vegatables come from the open air market and seem to be locally grown. No prepacked stuff here, just take a look at these leeks we bought this week.

 

 

5 leeks for 30p and they were beautiful. Everything here seems to come out better, pastry, sponges, bread. I don't know if it is the ingredients entirely or if it is because I have more time and therefore take more care over things. We had the most delicious leek quiche last night made from the leeks and goats cheese and, of course, local eggs. The problem is it doesn't do our weight much good. My favourite meals are the casseroles or pot roasts. The pork here is really good for pot roasting and the traditional cooking pots made from terracotta seem to just enhance the flavour. I shall definitely be bringing these pots home with me.

 

 

 

 Thursday 20th December

 

The last week has seen heavy snow followed by really cold weather so the snow that fell is still around. The pavements are really slippy as they don't seem to grit them so you take your life in your hands every time you go out. We have decided the car is best left in it's nice warm garage as the roads are not much better than the pavements and we would hate to damage it now we have had all the work done on the clutch. We did take one quick trip to the supermarket to get some food in for Christmas but other than that we have walked/slid everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

It will be strange to celebrate Christmas here in Bulgaria. The Bulgarians have their main celebration on Christmas Eve as this is the last day of their Pre-Christmas Lent. Therefore, their meal is strictly vegetarian and they have an odd number of dishes for good luck. The dishes include beans, wheat, rice or other grains as well as walnuts and dried fruits. The walnuts are very significant and are used like fortune cookies. If you crack one and it is bad or empty you will have a bad year, whereas if it it is good you will have a good year. After midnight they can return to eating meat so have a traditional meal like the one we have at home. We are lucky as this means we get to have both their Christmas and ours.

 

See www.abvg.net/traditions/christmas/index.html for details of Bulgarian Christmas traditions.

 

We took a walk into town last night to see the Christmas lights. They are very simple but very effective. No gaudy flashing santas or anything, just nice lights which, coupled with the snow on the trees, look really lovely.

 

 

 

 

 

We hope all that read this have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year, or as they say in Bulgaria