Move to Bulgaria: July 2017

Hello everyone, welcome back!

Girls in the sunflowers

We have been hosting guests constantly since I last updated and have really been enjoying the weather and having a proper holiday! This post will mostly be holiday snaps as we've done absolutely no work on the house - although we have, of course, been keeping up work in the veg garden.

I've just looked over my previous post and the landscape has already changed so much in 3 weeks! The 'hose-pipe ban' I reported last time is still in place and has even lead to some villages being without water (thankfully not ours!) The surrounding countryside is scorched yellow and brown - and our veg patch is looking pretty similar. We have had some intermittent storms, but not enough to give the earth the proper drink it needs. (UPDATE - I wrote that yesterday and it has been raining all day today, so that is good news!)

I've also been trying to promote our site through social media too, so if you all could take a minute to follow us on Facebook and Instagram we would really appreciate it! (I also update regularly with pictures of what we've been doing here.)

Our FB page is ... https://www.facebook.com/kukuvitsacampingbulgaria/

Our Instagram is... @kukuvitsacamping

Okay, that's enough self promotion, on with the blog... :-D

6th - 11th Mabel and Bert

My cousin and her friend were doing a bit of travelling in their summer holidays so came to stay with us for a few days. We had such a lovely time with them. The weather was unbelievably hot for the whole time they stayed so we did lots of relaxing and swimming, as well as eating the usual amazing food and strolling lazily around the village. They were fabulous guests and we hope to have them back here again soon!

Cousins :-)

Cheers!

The first couple of days they were here we had a couple of things to do n the mornings. We went to Chirpan market on the Friday morning and showed them around the town. On the Saturday morning we had the monthly Car Boot Sale so we all set off early to sell bacon rolls. Unfortunately it was the quietest event yet - probably because it is festival and holiday season so people have other things going on. Still, we sold a few sandwiches and the girls picked up some bargains from the other sellers. On both of these days we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, reading, sunbathing and swimming by the pool at home. Every day we ate cheese, salami, salad and melon for lunch under the shade of a tree before dozing off in a hammock late afternoon - it was all very idyllic! Evenings were spent taking a walk in and around the village and then cooking and eating dinner under the vines.

Hammocking

Lunching

Early evening walk - still too hot!

Bacon day

There's nothing else for it

Pool girl!

Evening meals on the patio

Watermelon, onion, cirine and olive salad made by Bert - delicious

Cooling off in the spring

Village life

Evening walk in the light of the full moon

Sleepy cat :-)

The next day we'd lazed around enough so we decided to have an adventure day and try and find a lake or river (to laze around by!) I found an area with a river about an hours drive that looked interesting so we headed there. It is always risky to explore with guests as more often that not things don't turn out how you expected. So after our van broke down (we fixed it) and then we came to a bridge with a too short height restriction for the van we thought we'd just sat melting in the van for an hour for no reason! Luckily I found another road to our destination and we got there with no problem and parked the van in the local village. The river was certainly drier than it probably usually is, but there was some water and the area was stunning. We spent the day strolling up the river, taking dips and having a picnic. We also met a young shepherd who told us there were some small waterfalls further up. We all walked up, including the shepherd, and went for a swim in the very pretty and refreshing (but frog and foam infested) waterfall! It was a fantastic day. We would love to come back to this area in the (wetter) future.

Adventure day...

The next day we were knackered from walking so much yesterday so we had a lazy morning and then spent the rest of the afternoon at the local hotel swimming pool. It was so hot Mabel burnt her toes.

Hotel Trendafiloff

On the 11th we just chilled out at home for the day and then all four of us set off to get the bus to Sofia. Mabel and Bert were catching an early flight to Greece the next day and Pete and I were off to meet our friends for a night out in Sofia! The bus broke down on the way to Sofia but thankfully it was quickly replaced so we got to our hostel by about 7.30. We all quickly changed and then headed out to meet our friends - Lucy and Gib.

Lucy is another one of my oldest and bestest friends and it was her birthday today - hence the rare night out! All six of us had a drink to catch up and cool off before heading out for a massive and fantastic dinner at restaurant Manastirska Magernitsa (I highly recommend.) We then we found an outside bar in a park with a gorgeous view of a lit up church and we stayed there until the early hours of the morning. Mabel and Bert left slightly earlier to get some sleep before their flight so we said our goodbyes to them in the evening too. Thanks for coming girls, it was our pleasure! It was a gorgeous balmy evening sitting out under the stars on beanbags - a great night.

Big dinner!

Stunning view for the evening

I had carried on writing this post for two more weeks, but it is just going to be too long. It will leave it there for tonight and do another one in a couple of days. Leka nosht! xxx

Goodnight

Maisie and Sarah 19th - 26th

So we said goodbye to Caz on the Sunday afternoon and then we had that evening and the next morning to clean up the house and get ready for our next guests! There was a massive storm in the afternoon which gave the veggies a good drenching and made for some gorgeous views over the Rhodopes.

And so it begins... courgettes galore

Our friends Maisie and Sarah were flying into Plovdiv airport - the first of our friends to do so. Train times didn't work out well so we decided to go and pick them up as it's only an hours drive away. The airport is the tiniest I've ever seen!! We all got home around 10pm and had dinner, drinks and a good catch up.

Sarah was only here for four days so after a day chilling at home - sunbathing and walking around the village - we decided to have a day out in Plovdiv. We got the train there as it is cheaper and easier than driving and had a lovely day wandering around the old town and through the Kapana. We'd taken a picnic which we ate in the park, under the shade of the trees, by a big group of men playing chess. It was a very hot day today and set to be getting hotter and hotter as the week goes on. We got home around 6ish and the sun was still blazing so we relaxed by the pool for an hour or so before having dinner.

Walks around the village and to the lavender...

Plovdiv...

Roman stadium and a mosque

Pretty park

Picnic time

View from the train home

The next day was another scorcher so we drove to the waterfall (as our lake is out of use now!) We had a lovely day hanging out by the water, having a picnic, reading and chilling. The waterfall/river is mostly from rainfall and snow melt, so I think this is the last time we will visit this year as it will be too dry from now on. It had already dried up dramatically since we were there less than two weeks ago. On the way home we took Lucy for a walk through a small village and to a very old, little graveyard. We then stopped at the local hotel for dinner as it was Sarah's last night (and we were too tired to cook!)

Breakfast in the garden

Marigolds in bloom

Hot cat

The waterfall...

Pete climbing the rocks

Walkies in Ostra Mogila...

Dinner at the hotel with a big storm a brewin'

We missed the market this week as we have plenty of veg coming from the garden and it will be just the two of us again by next week. We spent Friday relaxing in and out of the hot, hot sun before taking Sarah to the bus station and saying farewell. Maisie was here for the weekend and it was really too hot to do anything except lie down and drink Pimm's! We actually had a go at making our own Pimm's (Google Summer Cup recipes!) as we had most of the ingredients and we got creative for the missing ones. It actually turned out very tasty indeed and is a great alternative whilst living out here where Pimm's is unavailable! I recommend all you other Brits abroad do this! On the Saturday evening we had a BBQ and Maisie and I stayed up into the early hours drinking G & T's and chatting away. Sunday was a very relaxed day and an early night, ready for an early train in the morning.

It must be love! :-)

Homemade Pimm's

Chilling in the garden

Courgette pakoras

Another load of courgettes...

Last dinner with Maisie

Maisie's train was delayed half an hour, which was okay as she had plenty of time to get to the airport. We'd given her the advice to not get into a taxi without agreeing the price first but she messaged us later saying it wasn't possible to do that and all the taxi drivers had insisted on using the meter. She said that the meter had gone up to 60 leva. Now, we haven't actually done this journey in a taxi but the airport is only 10 kilometres from the city centre so shouldn't have been more than 15 leva, if not less! We were so angry as this is typical for Bulgarian taxi drivers to rip off tourists - it's happened every time we, or a friend, have got a taxi in Sofia airport (BE WARNED!!) Pete actually phoned Maisie and spoke to the driver before she'd paid. He politely asked what the guy was up to and why he was a theif and he managed to get it down to 25 leva! Still too much, but still - yay!!! Go Pete!! :-)

Another fabulous week spent with our friends! Maisie is one of my oldest friends so it was so great to catch up with her after 2 years and also lovely for me to have some girl time! Thanks girls! :-) <3

Evening stroll with the doggy...

27th June - 5th July Alone time!

So, for the last week and a bit it has been just me and Pete again - it is so quiet! We've been resting our livers and trying to get a few bits and pieces done on the house. The only problem is that the temperature has been rising and rising and got to about 43 degrees last weekend. This is really not ideal for doing anything, let alone gardening or painting the windows on our south facing house.

Tooooo hot!!

But, of course, we're mad so we worked anyway! We've pickled onions and made courgette chutney. We've cleared the outside, front wall of the house. We've weeded the veg beds, pruned the vines and generally maintained the garden. Everything was looking quite tired and sad after the heat wave but on Monday we had a good downpour of rain which perked everything up a little. There is also a 'hosepipe ban' in the Chirpan area so we have to limit the watering, which is not good news. We also went on a hunt for a new swimming lake but found the lakes we were looking for are owned by a super rich hotelier and are off limits for swimming. We've had campers, who were a lovely Romanian couple and we ended up having dinner and a few drinks with them. We've harvested courgettes, spinach, chard, more courgettes, beetroots and our first few tomatoes and chillies. We've also planted cauliflowers (they were selling seedlings at the market) but I'm not sure how well they will do if this heat keeps up.

Chutney making time

Preparing veg in the garden

Trimming the vines

Vines are making some good shade now!

Salad entirely from the garden (except the cheese!)

We put up the outside cold shower - it connects to the hose

Beans and kale harvest, onions ready to pickle

Front of house before...

And after. Much better!

Lake at Mogilovo...

Very pretty but for fishing only

Tart with courgette base - delicious actually!

Sunflowers near the village

Walking Lucy was only possible after about 8.30 when the sun was going down, it was way too hot any time before then! At least I got some nice evening photos though.

Chard harvest

Hummus made from chard stalks and tahini - very tasty, I recommend you make it if you're growing chard!

And, best of all, we have started to paint our windows and doors! We've decided on a traditional Bulgarian look so picked a dark brown varnish with beige for the details. I started by painting the downstairs windows - we'd already sanded and painted these a year and a half ago so they were easy and quick to do. Pete had the less satisfying job of sanding back the upstairs windows, which we haven't touched since living here! He did a great job scraping and sanding back the old paint, but there is a lot more work to be done to them - including some new glass and new putty. We've also painted over the purple front door and that now matches the windows. The first floor of the house is looking fab!

Trying to stay cool

Window before...

And after

Pete working on the upstairs windows

Bedroom window before...

And after

New front door

Downstairs all matching :-)

So that is it! Summer is officially here and it is so good to be able to enjoy it with friends. We are now waiting for my cousin and her friend to arrive in Chirpan and we have three more weeks with guests ahead. Thanks for reading everyone! Here are a few last pictures from the last week... xxx