Another Bad Experience From Expatriates In Bulgaria

I bumped into a couple of expatriates the other day and just couldn’t avoid it. Normally this doesn’t happen as if a see an expat or expat couple I just keep my mouth shut and like ships in the night that pass by unnoticed. This normally happens in supermarkets where expatriates normally shop, I know an expat straight away by the contents their shopping trolley therefore I am forewarned. I will give you an example of an expat shopping trolley contents that I saw only yesterday and yes I do have a photographic memory, but I forgot the cuddly toy!

• 10 kg Pedigree Chum
• 3 x Tins of tomatoes
• 3 x Tins baked beans
• Countless Amounts of crisps and crisp type snacks
• A variety of English Tea
• Frozen chicken
• Frozen mince
• Tomato sauce (Heinz)
• 2 Boxes of tinned beers (Becks)
• A couple of bottles of wine (Bulgarian)
• Three loaves of bread (two for the freezer)
• 10 sachets of instant soup (Maggie/Nestle)

This was the I have no grievance or hatchet to bury with most expatriates over here, but when I see things like this in their shopping trolley I wonder why the hell they are here. Cheap comes to mind straight away, they certainly have no desire to eat Bulgarian food other than the wine (which is cheap as well.) The thought was that apart from the wine, everything was what you could buy in Sainsburys or Tesco in the UK and even here it is roughly the same price and not a comparative equivalent! So the food is the same price as the UK in that respect.

The people I met had seen me a few times working in a Yambol office as a website administrator and they approached me and I just couldn’t avoid them even though I knew they were British. Like I said, I don’t have anything against expatriates here, some I know are very nice people, but I am here for Bulgaria not expat communities. As long as they respect where they are and don’t try and force their own culture on Bulgarians here that's fine. I was approached without any introductory politnesses being passed. The first introduction comment was “I know you, you’re English aren’t you? Why haven’t they got PG Tips here?"

Well two questions put to me and not being one for being rude I answered both calmly with “Yes” and “Because this is Bulgaria,” respectively. They took offence with this ssecond answer and began their attack on everthing here not adapted to the English culture, food, services etc.

I wanted to get away as I knew what was coming and I was right. Next, all I got was complaints and moaning about how Bulgaria is way behind the times and it was not good enough for Brits coming over here. It was as if they were blaming me for the lack of progress here as they commented on the work I did promoting the country to potential expatriates in my work, then letting them down when they take the bait as it wasn’t as perfect as is was made out to be. Far from wanted to argue with this aggressive couple, I was with Galia and out of a kind of respect for this couple didn’t talk Bulgarian but gave a signal that I “wanted out” here. She took the signal straight away and pushed our shopping trolley forward and on beckoned me to move. I made my excuses and followed her willingly. “Blagodahriya Gal,” were my next words as I thanked her for getting me out of the situation. Oh how I hate people like that was the instant thought in my mind and no matter how hard I tried to block it it was there fermenting all evening.

I just wish we didn’t have to shop in supermarkets, but we have to in our financial position, as certain things that are on promotion are far cheaper than elsewhere. That is the only attraction for us both here and of course it is directly en route to the way home from work.

Another very short moment in Bulgaria spoilt by non-Bulgarians. I will carry on my policy of non-communication with the expatriates I see here.

Finally Got A Job In Bulgaria Again

Thank you all for all your comments regarding my last post. There is a burning inside me that wants to spill all that happens here but it is being held back by time. It is something that I thought I would have lots of here - this is not the case right now. Far from being a rat race, things just take far longer to do here than in my previous life and trying to acclimatise with this is still something I am trying to fight, although never as much as I used to.

After being made redundant here back in 2007, it is with relief that I have now found local work here at the minimum Bulgarian wage (around 18 BG Leva a day.) I am now otherwise occupied for over 40 hours a week sweating out with other labouring non-English speaking Bulgarians. I am very lucky indeed, as many people here do not have any work at all here. It was found through the family grapevine and social connections, without this I would now probably be on a plane to the UK with borrowed money for the flight and find myself homeless and jobless there.

So as it stands now I am working as a labourer full time. It is physically demanding and I’m totally knackered at the end of the day, (which I really love for some strange reason,) but now have a living here where a contribution to the family budget can be made. I certainly feel less guilty eating the food that is constantly laid on the table. After work it is working on the farm, even in the dark and weekends still at the village of Skalitsa maintaining the farm there (without Internet connections.)

The time spent blogging now is maybe an hour or two at the most prior to hitting the pillow for some well earned sleep. Somehow the pressure to fit things in this time is making blogging stressful trying to cram everything in. For now all I can do is keep things ticking over and that’s what I will try and do. This is being written in a rush at 6:00 am prior to setting off to work at 7:00 whilst eating a banitsa and drinking Ayran.

Car Insurance Rip Off For Brits in Bulgaria

My Lada car insurance is due for renewal this week and I know that it would be more expensive than last year, this is normal on a worldwide basis now. It's called a 'Rip off' in case you were wondering. Car insurance is mandatory, even in Bulgaria (well in town areas anyway) so my hands are tied and the only way to avoid it is get rid of the car, which is something I am now considering.

Last year the premium was 140 Bulgarian leva, this was just for third party on a Lada that was valued at only 500 Bulgarian leva. The year previous to this was less than 100 Bulgarian leva! I expected the cost now to rise to the 200 Bulgarian leva mark, even though the value of the car has depreciated and no claims have been made since living here!

But there is another factor involved here when it comes to car insurance and like many other things it really does make my blood boil. When I first came here on my own with limited Bulgarian you rely on English speaking advisors. I was advised to go to a car insurance company in Yambol city centre that had English speaking staff. That's what I did and thought no more about it. Every new expatriate that comes here was directed to go to this company for car insurance, no other options are given. This particular insurance company as I was to find out, was the most expensive around and took advantage of foreigners coming here. This is normal of course.

This week I got information off the Bulgarian grapevine so to speak of other insurance companies and one in particular that had just opened a month ago and a friend of the family who ran it. They provided all the insurance for Galia's brother's boiler factory vehicles. I was told to try them and I did.

We arrived to find the place shut and the shop owner next door who was smoking outside told us to wait while she rang the insurance clerk to come and open the office up. 20 minutes later Katiya the owner, an old friend of the family, greeted us. We were invited in throuoh the cracked glass door, wind damage not vadalism, and spent the next half an hour catching up with family news.

The office as as basic as you can inagine with just had one desk and chair with PC placed on it and an empty shelving unit behind against the wall bar one plastic bound folder and a PC printer place on it. The customer area in front of the desk had a well used, dusty sofa and a second or third hand coffee table with blistered varnish and splintered wood alongside. This single plastic bound folder was taken off the shelf, flicked through and a third party quote was given for the Lada. It came to 128 Bulgarian Leva along with a big apology as it was explained that company owned vehicles (and mine was just that) had risen substantially over the last six months. I can believe that with inflation rates here at the moment and wondered what the other insurance company would be offering. Well I didn't need to wonder for long as I found out later. They were asking for over 200 Bulgarian leva as enquiries were made by telephone. I am absolutely certain this is because I'm English as they know because have my company record on their database!

We continued to talk and catch up with more news. Katiya then asked me if I could spread the word on my blog to other British expatriates who want car insurance, green cards to travel in Europe etc. Now I don't normally have much to do with other Brits in Bulgaria, but being ripped off by insurance companies hits a nerve and obscene profits made from innocent parties is something I hate to see. So with Katiya now offering non-decriminate rates and based on my own insurance over 64% cheaper I feel it is my duty to stop others being taken to the cleaners. So if you are a Brit in Yambol give me a call and I'll pass on the details unless you have money to throw away.

Image via Wikipedia