The first visit

So, where did I leave you?

Oh yes, we were just planning our first visit to Bulgaria.

I think it is important, while I am writing this blog, to detail things I have learned which may help if you are planning on doing something similar; not just things which I have managed (by luck) to get right, but bring out the mistakes which I have made as well.

The first and most important thing which we did right was, before making any firm plans or buying any of the oh-so-temptingly cheap properties on eBay, we went to visit the country. This may seem obvious but I have read so many posts where people have been tempted by what appears to be a bargain, only to get to the country and realise that they really don't like it.

The second is to really think about what you want. Don't just jump; make plans because if you have a reason for doing something, when it gets difficult (which it will) you can look at your carefully thought out reasons and it will help you to drive through them. The first decision we had to make was; what kind of location were we looking for. After a lot of discussion we came up with the following rules that were cast iron; if a location did not have these characteristics then we would discard it:

1. There had to be a shop within relatively easy walk of the house (30 mins or so)
2. There had to be a main town with an hour drive of the house
3. We had to be within 1.5 hours drive of the coast

Obviously the first two points were not relevant until we had found a more general location but the last point was vital; it enabled us to ignore the majority of Bulgaria and focus in on the locations which would work for us. Other considerations were then applied; we did not want to move to an "expat community" was probably the next most important, and my love for mountains and gorgeous views meant that the Rhodope became the top priority.

Our visit was made much easier and more pleasant because of a contact we had made in the area we were looking to move and this kind and generous lady went so far as to recommend, and book us into, a couple of convenient hotels for our visit. This took a lot of the stress away as it is easy to pick something which looks nice on the internet, but is actually no where near where you should be; another useful point here - develop local contacts.

We flew out in February, the earliest we thought the weather would support a visit, but not so late that we would not get to experience some of the harshness of winter and the reality of a snow-bound mountainous region. This was the first time I had driven on the "wrong" side of the road for any extended period of time and it was a baptism of fire; we drove into some of the worst fog I have ever experienced; you could not even see the sides of the road, and by the time I drove out of that I had developed a level of confidence with being on the right hand side of the road which I probably would not have had otherwise.

Ice in the carpark when we picked up our hire car

The first visit we decided clearly would just be an exploration; we wanted to feel how comfortable we felt there, whether the people were friendly, the towns had the facilities we felt were important. It was important, we felt, before even thinking about looking for a house, to decide if we WANTED to go to this strange new place.

We spent our time driving around the villages in the region, walking into shops and cafes (we had spent a little bit of time learning a few words so we could get by as almost no one speaks English in the non-tourist parts of Bulgaria) and just trying to get a feel for the atmosphere. We built a snowman in an isolated field, ate bread and cheese several times sat on a ridge with only the sound of cow bells to disturb us, ate cheesy chips and Shopska salad in a cafe with our friend and shivered at night with the heating on fall blast as the temperature plummeted.

The snow man stands proud....

Only the sound of cow bells to disturb the peace

Shopska Salad

Our meal partially destroyed in the cafe

Shivering in the hotel room by the heater

The drive back presented a different meteorological challenge to the fog of the inbound journey; as we drove over the mountain pass to get back to the main motorway it started snowing and it got heavier and heavier; I drove at about 15 miles an hour max all the way over, going sideways round corners and sliding whenever another car came up towards me. It was a useful reminder that while we had been relatively lucky with the weather (it had been t shirts warm every day) the winters in Bulgaria are rather more severe than UK ones and the chances of being cut off were very high, even in not very remote parts of the country.

The mountain pass as I skidded down it

As we returned it was clear that this was where we wanted to go, and a plan was made to come back and view houses in the area, with the aim of escaping the UK hopefully within a year or so.

Now we just had to find a house.... just.....