Week seventeen.

Sunday - Monday

 

So the week ended last week with a 'mini-break' to the mountains for John's last couple of days. We were up and left the house by 9 - our first night away since we got here - and sadly we had to keep Bilko locked inside with a mountain of food, water and kitty litter to keep him going. It was another brilliantly hot dayand we drove the scenic route north over the mountains towards the town of Kalofer. We took smaller roads and did come across about 5 kilometre of very bad pot-holed roads which we could only drive about 5mph, but the rest was nice and we passed some pretty villages.

Me and Pete had visited Kalofer before when we were out here house hunting so we headed to the same little guesthouse run by a lovely old lady. We weren't sure what we would do with Lucy over night but were very happy when they offered her her own little dog kennel in the garden.

Lovely guesthouse on the river.

Bless her - the lady doesn't quite know how to stack a bookshelf!

Lucy has her own room

 

We arrived at about 1 and set straight off for a walk into the mountains. We headed on the path to Botev - the highest peak in the Balkan Mountain Range (not planning to get to the top!) and had an amazing, and very hot, four hour hike through beautiful mountains. At the base of the walk we were surprised to find a fun fair set up and hundreds of families wild camping along the river - if only we'd known we could have bought the tent!

Busy fun fair!!

Just a few panoramas...

 

Back down in Kalofer we had a little rest then got ourselves ready to go out for dinner. We found a small restaurant in town and enjoyed the local offal and red wine. Back at the guesthouse we had a few more beers and played some scrabble in the outside seating area. A fantastic evening!

Nice seating area in guesthouse, overlooking the mountains

Found these kittens thrown by the side of the road in a plastic bag :( Wish we could have saved them.

Another early start and after a coffee in town and a quick walk up to the communist statue dedicated to a famous poet (he helped Kalofer make sure 'no Turk could pass through' -I quote the information board) we set off towards Buzludzha. I won't bore you again with how cool it is and loads of photos... but it is just SO cool! We did explore a little further than last time and went down into the really dark bit. We would have gone further but scary graffiti and shrines made us turn back.

View over Kalofer

That's me at the bottom in pink!

We stopped at Shipka church

Not going down there thanks...

Lunch!

 

Another couple of hours drive to get home and we spent the evening relaxing.

 

Tuesday

 

Today was Johns last day so afetr a lazy morning we headed into Chirpan to get him a few last bits for his onward travels. He wanted to get his phone unlocked so it owuld accept foreign simcards, so we took it to the same shop we'd done ours - which had taken 10 minutes. The guy told us to come back in three hours so we wandered around Chirpan (not really big or exciting enough to walk around for 3 hours!) and eventually went back to the shop. In true Bulgarian style the man hadn't even started to look at Johns phone so we ended up waiting another hour in the shop for him to do it. Only to be told it was not possible. Annoying!! All feeling very hot (it is now 40 degrees and we're all melting) and annoyed at wasting the day we went back home for a beer and a dip in the pool.

Hanging in Chirpan

Tomatoes are doing well...

...But who needs them when your neighbour keeps giving you hers!

In the evening we had a lovely BBQ feast for Johns last supper but made it a fairly early night as we had to be up at 5.30 for the train in the morning.

For just the three of us!

 

Wednesday - Thursday

 

So up we were at 5.30 the next morning to take John to the train station. It was so lovely to be up in the cool of the morning and we actually watched the big red sun rise over the train tracks. Amazing. We said goodbyes and good lucks to John as he is off to travel in Greece for another month and then headed home to start work.

 

The big task on hand was to start tiling the yellow room (NEW NAME!) and I got to it with Pete mixing me more adhesive when I needed it. It took me all day to do just over half, which I think is pretty good going. The cement floor we laid in this room was not exactly the most level, so the tiles do have a a kind of ocean effect - but nevermind at least we have done it all ourselves! Pete spent the day out in the 40 degree heat doing some weeding, pruning, bonfiring and just generally tidiying up the place.

Tile planning

Done for the day

Amazing butterfly

We found a hedgehog in the sepctic tank!

 

The next day we finished tiling the room together and then a quite a mellow afternoon as there is no escaping the heat now and the only place it is bareable to move is in the pool.

 

Tiling done!

Also we found this pillow in a charity shop and it matches the room perfectly (and Bilko)

 

In the evening we went over to M & D's as we hadn't seen them properly for ages and had a great night full of beer and conversation.
 

M & D have a pet tortoise that pooed on Pete!

Friday

 

We were slightly hungover this morning so got up quite late and reluctantly went to the market for the usual weekly food shop. In the afternoon we both grouted the tiles in the yellow room and then went over to SG to do a few hours work at one of our paid jobs, as well as stopping off at the other job to water the garden. Back at home we skyped my parents but got cut off halfway as the storm cut off all our power! We never thought we'd say this but we were really hoping it would rain, but instead the storm swirled around us creating duststorms thundering loudly and flashing huge bolts of lightning. We managed to make some dinner amoungst all this and then had an early night.

I had a go at strimming!

We (I) work hard at our jobs!

Lovely sunset before the storm.

Saturday

 

We had been invited to our friends birthday party, who lives up in Veliko Turnovo - a 2 and a half hours drive north. They are the friends we helpxed with when we first came to Bulgaria 2 years ago - and the people who inspired us to make the move! We left ours at about 1 in the afternoon, after spending the morning cleaning the grout and faffing around the house.

Another nice drive

 

The drive there was quite long but along stunning roads over the mountains, and well worth it for the party! We had a fantastic evening meeting expats from the area as well as quite a few lovely Bulgarians. Pete took his guitar so we also had good old sing along!

 

Sunday

 

We were up at about 9 and hung around for a while in the morning and had a cuppa. We had quite a long drive ahead of us though and were feeling guilty about leaving Bilko again so we set off home quite early. In the afternoon we decided to clean up the yellow room a bit more and start to get it useable. We still have the ceiling to finish (just waiting to get the lights fitted) so we didn't want to move in properly, but we hung a few decorations and put a table by the window and it is such a lovely cosy space now. We are actually thinking of putting off moving the kitchen in until winter now as it is the perfect 'chill out' room! Well we will see...

Not quite finished but we're in!

 

In the evening Pete made a yummy curry for dinner whilst I strung up over 100 chilis to dry out - we had got 1 kilo for 35p at the market! Then we hung out in our lovely new room by fairy light.

Drying chillis

Monday

 

As we are still waiting to get the lights done in the yellow room (happening tomorrow - yay!) we spent today doing a few small jobs in the room. I painted the big wooden door to smarten up the edges and did a small mosaic around the bottom of the wooden pillar (which we think looks great!) I also caulked the skirting boards so you can't tell quite as much how wonky the floor  is. Pete started putting up the batons on the ceiling so we are ready to fix the plasterboard in as soon as the lights are fitted, We also nipped  into Chirpan to get a few bits.

Bilko helping

Looking crappy before

Lovely after

Before

After

We are ready to plasterboard

We have spent the evening in the pool again - it is so good and actually gets hot now - and then back in our nice new room writing the blog.

Another pretty sunset over our wall

Also just wanted to mention that the two nights we have been away we have had one escapee chicken - and both times our lovely neighbour - Baba Villay - has caught her, tied her up and fed her! We have been egtting so many eggs that we finally repayed our neighbour for all her gifts, and now for looking after our chicken as well. I just hope the chicken didn't eat Baba's vegtables.

A small selection of our eggs - we're now getting 5+ a day!

 

Also over the evenings we have been walking Lucy around the village and watering down at our paid job (the lawn is not liking this 40 degree heat!) I thought I'd take a few pictures from around our lovely village, Izvorovo.

The main road

These posters are put up when someone dies.

The church

The worm farm next door

The river

 

Goodnight everyone - thank you for still reading after all these weeks, I appriciate it alot!! :) xxx