This blog follows on from the one of the same name which ground to a shuddering halt when I couldn't find a picture and thought I had lost an entire set from one of my visits. However, in bed last night I thought "hang on, that was the November trip, when my friend wasn't in the country and we were travelling without her help, and I KNOW I saw those pictures" and wouldn't you know it, I've just looked and there is the picture. So I'll copy-paste the last paragraph from the other blog, and continue where I left off in here.
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| The rook in the valley |
Carrying on, to another moment in this journey was one of the house hunting trips with George from Bulgarian Properties. We had viewed a couple of places which were not really suitable and were on the way to the last viewing of the day. The drive took us along a really difficult road, bouncing around in the 4x4 and thinking "wow how can we even THINK about moving up a road like this"; a thought which probably took hold of J slightly more than me because when I got up to the houses I immediately felt so happy and relaxed. All you could hear was two rooks calling to each other across the valley, and there were no houses within sight. What an isolated and amazing place. To finalise the memory, complete the story, it would not have been practical to buy these as a main residence as they would have been cut off for a couple of months every year, and getting building materials to them would have proven way too difficult. Also, sadly, one of them got sold and we would have wanted to buy both properties. Just shows again that this process is not simple, and you can't presume things will work your way.
The final thought, more a key moment I suppose, and an observation to give faith to anyone who is house hunting in a foreign country.
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| The dream house in the November trip |
One of the companies which I dealt with a couple of times (Bulgarian House) let me down a couple of times. The first time it allowed me and my friend to go on the drive which took us to the dream house (which in the end I couldn't track the owners down for, but still that day out was another key moment in the hunt) and the second time was just before we left for the trip which I had decided would be the last one devoted to looking for a place to buy.
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| This is the first picture I took of the school |
Because they let me down before the trip (unlike the first time) I went off-script and decided to include a property which had been discarded due to size and cost. My thinking was "why not just go and view it, we don't have anything else to do and may as well fill the afternoon viewing slot". After 13 houses we met up with the agent and went with him and his people across a bridge so narrow we had to pull the wing mirrors in. As we pulled up outside the building I took one look at it and thought "Oh wow!" and J took one look at it and said "it's waaaay too big!" but as we walked around the potential and excitement grew and grew. We had seen maybe 3 other houses this trip which were even slightly suitable but this was trumping them all easily.
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| The wreckage of the celebration meal |
That night we over-ordered food and completely stuffed ourselves while deliberately not thinking about the school but on the plane the next day we spent almost the entire flight planning on how we could use the space, whether it would be practical, and trying to keep the excitement from overwhelming us. It felt like fate when the new price came in within budget and the moment two months later when I walked out of the council offices as the new owner of the school is probably one of the most amazing feelings of my life.
So, if you are house hunting and you are being let down by agents, just keep your head up and always keep some backup properties for this case and you never know you may just see The One as one of those backup properties.
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| Mmmm dark beer |
The final thought is about a theme which has run through every trip I took with J over to Bulgaria. We found a little bar in the centre of the main town within a few minutes walk of the hotel we stayed at regularly. Our habit was to arrive at the hotel, dump our bags, then walk over to this bar and allow the general feeling of relaxation to settle over us while we sunk a beer or two of the excellent local brew. It was in this bar that my first confidence in the language started to develop as I was able to understand and ask for a colder beer than the one they offered me. This is a really happy memory, but also slightly bittersweet as mentioned yesterday as I am going alone.
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