The first thing we had to do upon arriving at Sofia at 3am in the morning was to endure the wannabe formula one taxi driver. I already knew that the drive to our hotel was about a 10 minute drive around the airport perimeter but James Hunt wanted to take us on a longer route hitting every speed bump at 70mph. I am sure bits fell off his taxi. Eventually we reached a very wide road in which he abruptly stopped and reversed backwards at 50mph to find a side road in which the hotel was located. As if that wasn't hair raising enough the story doesn't end there. When returning the hire car back to Sofia airport at 2am a fortnight later, I recognised this very same stretch of road and we had been driving on this road for the past two hours. In fact this road was actually a motorway into Sofia! Yes, our taxi driver had reversed along a motorway at 50mph. The only difference is that in Sofia, there is zero traffic on it in the small hours of the morning. To demonstrate how much of a low key city it is, we missed the turning off the motorway to the INTERNATIONAL airport because after turning around, on closer inspection we saw that the slip road off the motorway to the airport had a hand painted sign written 'Sofia airport' in Bulgarian tacked to a post! Obviously it must be a throw back to communist times where you didn't advertise the drab communist built airport with naff all to buy or do in it in case too many people tried to leave.
Refreshed by a few hours sleep, upon leaving the hotel with a much more sedate and considerably cheaper taxi driver, on our drive back to the airport to collect our hire car, Mount Vitosha loomed over Sofia covered in snow. Bulgaria had just had another snowfall and this was evident on our two hour drive to our village. Luckily it was a beautiful sunny day and not particularly cold.
Turning off the main highway and heading towards the villages.
Arriving in our village the gate to our property was open and we eagerly bounced through the gate to see what work had been done in our absence. Well it certainly looked different! Most of the old fruit trees had been cleared on the land of both the top and bottom houses by a digger. There was now no lumpy grass and two huge mounts of brush wood waiting to be burnt. There was also a large gap in the wall for the digger (or bagger as the Bulgarians say) to pass through and the bottom house was now completely exposed. Looking back at the original photos, things now looked completely different and much more of the surrounding countryside was now in view including our stunning walnut tree which now takes pride of place in our garden.
Looking down the garden towards the bottom house which is now exposed. Note the smattering of snow which hung around for ages even though the daytime temperatures were high.
On exploring our house, not a lot had happened since Billy's photos, This was mainly due to the Bulgarians' not working much during the winter due to the cold and snow. However, a lot of the house drainage pipes were put in and a trench for our new septic tank was already being dug.......in the wrong direction! Since our last visit I had drawn up plans for our garden and hopefully the location of our proposed swimming pool. The pipework for the septic tank was now heading through the middle of our proposed pool. Luckily we had arrived in the nick of time as after a few measurements and calculations we hastily sent the trench off in a different direction. It took another week for 4 labourers, countless fag breaks, a few bottles of beer, and many rocks and tree roots to negotiate to dig the long downhill run to the furthest point of our land. By the end of the week it was painful to watch them work so slowly but eventually the digger returned to dig out the huge hole for the sceptic tank and also finish the last 20 metres of the trench. Thankfully the labourers disappeared to work on another job. In the meantime the stonemasons turned up and started to cement the floors of the house and start work on the septic tank which had a stone wall built around it. After 3 days it looked like a work of art only to have an ugly cement lid put on top of it.
The trench heading down the garden. Billy's house is the white house on the left.
Our new sceptic tank before a concrete lid was put on it.
In the meantime Chris cleared out the bottom house of all manor of junk especially shoes! We had a massive bonfire to get rid of it all. When the digger came in to dig out the septic tank the stone plodgers on the roof of the barn and the second storey stone wall was also demolished. The stones from the barn wall were now used to build the septic tank and will also be used for stone work in the main house. Chris then set about removing the tiles and taking down the roof of the bottom house. Some of these tiles and beams will be used to extend the roof of the main house. As the roof came down the view beyond began to be exposed. In a country where nothing is wasted, word went around that there were free bricks going to anyone who wanted to come and get them. Despite lots of interest, no one as yet has come to remove the top storey for us. Either way, the top storey of bricks will be taken down eventually either by ourselves or hopefully by someone who will come and take them away.
The roof off the bottom house with Chris and Galun waiving. The side barn on the left has also almost disappeared.
The bottom house from the lane at the bottom of the garden with the main house in the distance.
Meanwhile, up at the main house, the pipes for the heating were being concreted in and electric cabling for the new electrics was being strung about. We ordered a shower, toilet and basin plus tiles for our upstairs bathroom which we hope will be put in before we come back in May. We also agreed on a new kitchen which will be made for us and installed in June.
Despite the speed in which we were trying to sort out our lives ready for our move in May, the building work still seemed to be going painfully slow despite assurances from Billy that things would 'really start to happen' now. However, we were in the hands of the workers and as we had excellent reports for other people who had used them we tried not to take too much notice of the lack of pace of work. After all, this is Bulgaria, they do it different here and we don't want it all finished by the summer. In fact, the truth is we would rather be there to see the work happening before our eyes.
Whilst we were staying in our very cold, dusty and drafty house, the digger ran over the old septic tank pipe rendering our sewage system useless. Therefore on the second week we moved our stuff over to JP our German neighbour's house and stayed there. JP only comes over to visit when he can and he rents his house out at a very reasonable rate to anyone who needs to stay in the village. The house was a lot more comfortable than our place and I slept much better not only because the cold was not rising from the open room below but also due to the double glazing, I couldn't hear the jackals howling at night in the woods which then set all the dogs off around the villages! These noises we will just get used to but they seem alien at the moment. A bit like the rushing noise we could hear far away a bit like traffic travelling along a distant road. However, there was no traffic even remotely near and it turned out that due to the recent heavy rainfall it was the river gushing along about a quarter of a mile away.
The view from JP's garden with plum blossom everywhere.
The Yantra river near Slaveikovo.
Our temporary sign for our house 'Arkadia'
Slaveikovo church
A salamander sunning himself in the road. We made sure he reached the safety of the woods though.
Advertising the gym in Veliko Turnovo. We couldn't work out if the advert was serious about looking that good or not!
Our view being increasingly exposed. Note the tree in blossom. We are not sure what type of tree it is yet.
For March we were very fortunate with the weather and before our very eyes we went from winter to spring, each day more and more plum trees burst into blossom and the air was so alive with buzzing bees you could sit and listen to the hum! Different butterflies started to appear and flutter about, many that we hadn't seen in the UK for a long time. It was so nice to see them existing here. Visiting the local market we purchased about 10 new fruit trees which we planted where our vegetable patch will go. It is just a temporary measure and will be moved to their final places as soon as we can sort the land out a bit more and the digger is not going to run them over. The plants I bought from the UK gradually recovered from their ordeal and perked up. The local Brits being envious that we will have an English rhubarb crop next year. The asparagus started to come through as well. Our main hope now is that the spring is not too warm as we still need rain to keep them watered in our absence.
In our second week our cats and tortoise arrived in Bulgaria so on the only day it rained we drove down close to the Turkish border to see them. Going over the mountain pass and stopping for coffee it actually started to snow! However, arriving near the town of Elhovo we were greeted by Sue and Phil who had driven our pets over and now had them living in their flat with their other numerous cats and dogs. Angel and Putin appeared unfazed by their ordeal and Sebastian was residing in the utility room for the day as it was still raining. It was a long drive but at least we know they are ok as they will have to stay there for the next six weeks until we arrive.
As our time in Bulgaria drew to a close again neither of us wanted to return home again. We wanted to stay and see the work on the house unfold and enjoy the warm spring weather. We had also been in a bit of a whirlwind trying to achieve everything so really wanted to stay and slow down a bit. Still, in six weeks we will be back with furniture and in the meantime have a house to pack so will be busy back at home.
Our little mate who came to see us everyday. He lives at the farm but made himself at home with us.
