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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Letters from the beginning !!!! Part 3

And on we go :

Well hello all, sorry its been a while but i have been very busy
with work type stuff.

Right so the first topic today is transport:
In Bulgaria there are many modes of transport and here are a few
that seem to be most popular:

Horse & Cart : For the dashing Gyspy around town this is a must.
The horse (or donkey for the little lady) looks as though it has been on
the planet for 1000 years and never been washed. The cart is a master
piece of bodgery . This will usual have a vans chassis as a base, after this
they take any non essential timber from their home and bolt it on to
fashion a crude cart. These are used for any type of work and generally cause
the most problems when they decide to move from field to road without
any indication.

The LADA : Two versions The Lada Car or for people who dont want
back problems at the age of 20 the Lada Niva Jeep !!. The jeep is a good
vehicle and quite competent on most terrains , so lets look at the car. This
is a classic,no power,no style and no brakes but do not fear,the bulgarians have cracked the style issue.
To improve the looks they will smash the headlights, pour salt water on the body daily to rust it and to top it off they will hang various religious icons from the interior
mirror (if they have not pulled it off). Its a master piece. Now usages for this vehicle can be anything from 6 overweight people to 1 and a half tonnes of bricks. One thing is certain though, there will be a lunatic at the wheel who has had far too much to drink and no driver training whatsoever.

The Modern Saloon : So you are probably wondering what the young
trendsetter around town will dare to be seen in. This can be classed
loosely as a modern saloon. It arrived from germany by strange means
,has 150,000 on the clock and, only if you are extremely well connected
will it have 4 wheels that match.
They come in all shapes and sizes, the best i have seen so far was an old model vectra, the bodywork was held together with chewing gum and the tyres were bald, BUT, it had 4 brand
spanking new alloys and the owner had even taken the time to paint the brake
calipers the same colour as the car. Unfortunately he forgot to add spots of
rust to match.

The rest of the population use buses that have been sold to them
after that classic show " On The Busses" finished in 1964 or using some
form of Scooter that is nothing more than a seat shakily tied to two wheels
and a hairdryer.

Letters from the beginning !!!! Part 2

Here is the second rambling installment from my entry into Bulgarian Life....please enjoy ...:

Well guys ,

We are fairly settled into the chaos which is our life on a building site. So lets have a look at Bulgarian building traditions and work practices.

The group of men working on the house seem to share one set of lungs and as one is working the others rest through lack of oxygen.
They're scaffolding is a work of art, the basic foundations are as you would expect , metal supports with the standard planks to stand on. As soon as they need to do any high work they then attach a variety of chairs and ladders as support, it takes building to a new extreme level.


The outside of the house has recently been painted in the classic style , which is a light textured affair.
To achieve this they use metal tins full of bristles attached to a rotary device. Fill it with paint , turn the handle and hey presto ,paint on the walls ,windows ,next door neighbour and the stray dog which is trying to get into my caravan and steal my biscuits.


Yesterday we were able to use the lounge for the first time , it is a vacuous room with great acoustics, we set up the Sony Stack System , The DVD Player , The satellite and the 14" T.V, yes that's right 14" , it was great , surround sound afforded by the Sony hifi and a stinking headache trying to squint at the minuscule screen in the corner of the room trying to watch The Last King of Scotland.
The film by the way is great, in an upshot its about a silly Scottish lad who decides the best way to spend his first year out of university is to shadow a vicious dictator in Uganda for a laugh. Boy, what a shock he got , the stupidest part is that even though he realised that this leader was a maniac, who enjoyed putting people to death more than golf , this young Scottish lad sleeps with one of his wives , shock, horror, when his life takes a turn for the worse.


Anyway folks, Must bring this to a close as we, my dad and i are going to build a shed. This should be a laugh, I have ridiculed the Bulgarian Building practices , now they will get the opportunity to see how the Brits do it....... Shout at each other for 3 hours , break something and then let them use their ridiculous practices to get it right.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Letters from the beginning !!!!

When i first arrived in Bulgaria I wrote a series of insightful (ha ha) letters to my friends in the UK. I have decided to re-issue them here starting today. I hope to continue writing these this year ....so please enjoy xx

Part 1 :

Just as a pretext I have written all of this once and the computer froze, with my limited Bulgarian ( which extends to hello, goodbye and more vodka and ice please) the lady in the cafe turned off the computer wiping the whole lot ha ha ha (as you can imagine I am in a great mood now) .

Hello Folks,

Here we are finally in Bulgaria. We have travelled 2006 miles, stayed in many lorry parks and one campsite. If you asked me what Europe is like, my answer would be “I haven’t got a clue but it has a lot of tarmac”. Sightseeing obviously wasn’t on the menu on this trip. But it has been therapeutic. Travelling 2006 miles at an average speed of 55 miles an hour has a profound effect on your sanity. Thankfully I had my music and have come up with a few soundtracks for countries:

The Doors - Greatest Hits: This was great music for Romania; the communists don’t appear to have told them they have the freedom of speech and seem to be very down trodden. Come on Baby light my Fire as I pass 10 old women sat on a wall discussing local politics seemed very fitting.

Tenacious D : This was a German favourite, these people had their laughter boxes removed at birth and all I could think is that they would just sit there stone faced throughout the album and complain how many times Jack Black say "F&^k"

Ying Yang Twins: Austria with its tranquil scenery and lovely mountain ranges were shaken to such classic lines as “Shake your fat ass" and “Damn I broke my pimp" Say no more

And Bulgaria itself, it’s a very interesting country full of contrasts and opportunities. The house is a building site and the caravan park will be one soon, but hey I am white trailer trash so I live in the caravan with my vodka, diet coke and fags so I am happy as a sand boy.

Will be going to my first Disco on Friday with some friendly locals. So will let you know how that goes. The people are great they all want to help. The local police chief has helped us with our registration forms, and also with a tumble dryer salesman.

Costs are brilliant here: 200 Fags, 1.5 Litres of Vodka and 4 litres of Diet Coke: 14.00 pounds. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Anyway, must cut this short as I must go and have some food. Dinner for 3 (3 courses) 10.00.


Friday, January 29, 2010

Looking for a Camping Site in Bulgaria

I have found, being a self professed "web head" that when people try and look for anything on the web today, they are always bombarded with a lot of information. 90% of which has very little to do with the subject. Take Camping in Bulgaria, enter it and before any viable businesses are allowed to get in the rankings there is a lot of what i call "Bumpf" that will eventually give you the info you require .....27 pages later.

There are some great places to stay here, Sakar Hills Camping of course, Camping Veliko Tarnovo is very nice too, Trinity Rocks has character and Kamenovo Camping offers facilities that Europeans all expect.

Many travelers that have visited our site have said that they wasted many hours trying to find Campsites that no longer exist. So my first useful advice is to contact us, we can help you on your trip and give you names and addresses (if they exist) of Camping in Bulgaria.

And on a final note , please come and see us at Sakar Hills Camping and enjoy our hospitality.

Signing off for now , Matt xx

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Camping in Bulgaria . . . a solution !!!



This blog is designed to help people who are looking to travel around Bulgaria and explore the Beautiful country that I now call home. Please visit our website as a good start:

"Welcome to Sakar Hills Camping in Bulgaria.This is a modern Campsite located in beautiful southern Bulgaria close to the borders with both Greece and Turkey. It offers full on-site facilities for Caravans, Motorhomes and Tents. Tours & Trips are available, so stay for a few days and see the best of Bulgaria.
Come and stay at our campsite and find out why Bulgaria is such a great holiday location"

There are many great places to visit. If you wish to link to us here, lease send me a request , or email for consideration. Please subscribe !!!!!!