Countryside Holiday Homes - A Dream Undone

The idea of a holiday home in the Bulgarian countryside paints this lovely picture of living in a beautiful unspoilt part of the world with an abundance of nature around. Wake and get real, it is a major headache for many who fall into this trap of 'The Garden of Eden' waiting for them.

It's not so bad in towns and cities without gardens, perhaps just a yard, but in the villages and rural areas, it can be a nightmare with the land that comes with the property. Nature being nature takes over is left to run free and invade the land turning into a jungle and breaching the property with their wedge affect roots, lifting cement based foundations with ease. The vermin and insect community take residence there and eat their way into every nook and granny. Ants actually enjoy picking up a grain of mortar and storing it elsewhere, so even if you think you property is sealed, think again, eventually, a maze of tunnels will give access to more insects and vermin if left unattended.

My brother has a house in Bulgaria some 15 kilometres from Yambol City, right next to the River Tundzha. To be quite honest you couldn't get a better setting. It is a dream house in a dream position and bought and renovated at a dream price. It is only used for maybe two or three weeks a year.

It is left for up to 6 months without anyone living there and the problems with this are dream shattering and soul destroying. We went there recently to find that apart from all the overgrowth in the one acre of land that surrounds the place, the pathway had been decimated with couch grass roots, a massive outbuilding have collapsed and was in rubble, nicely kept flower beds where shrubs had needed pruning in the autumn were ruined. Quite a few vines had toppled down during the winter; some will no longer produce grapes.

In the house the rats had got into the kitchen and had eaten away at the fridge door, the food and utility cupboards had been breached with big dropping and electric plugs and plastic gnawed everywhere. To the side of the house, a big crack had appeared where a small leak had been left unattended, which had frozen and defrosted. To get the electric connected again you needed to pay a fee on top of the last bill and this would take three days to get switched back on. So when he arrives there would be no electric for that amount of time. Luckily this year we had insulated the water mains garden shaft and drained the system to prevent bust pipes, this is what happened last year and the year before so we knew. The list of problems goes on.

Many holiday homeowners have exactly the same problem and maintenance and a weekly check on the house is essential to keep in check of the problems of absent owners. The biggest problem is finding someone to do this without taking on specialist expatriate companies and paying extortionate prices. Local Bulgarians can usually take care of security in the villages, they are around all the time, but the foreign styled garden and modern house maintenance is a major hurdle and headache for all.

We were away from our village home for six months the year before last, but we knew all the problems that are involved with being away and we made sure our time away was in the winter when the growth in the garden is minimal. When we got back everything was in order. We had our neighbours to pay our electric and water bills throughout so no need pay and wait to reconnect. We even put the Lada car battery on a trickle charge on a sunny windowsill with a solar charger - It was fully charged when we got back.

These problems with countryside residences are not restricted to Bulgaria of course, anywhere where nature can take hold is a headache.

A Miracle Cure - The Healing Stones of Skalitsa

Last month I was in great pain due to twisting my back. I was in bed for over a week not being able to walk. It was a long haul from first doing it to recovering and the remedies that were used to cure it were diverse to say the least. All the tried practices failed except one.

From the initial aspirins and other painkilling tablets, this went on to massage, then two courses of painkilling injection. It didn't stop there as the Rakia treatment was tried, both internally and externally. This still didn't work, I was still in gross agony so the burning lead ritual was performed to rid me of evil spirits and finally to hospital for x-rays, which didn't show anything wrong - but I was still unable to sit down and trouble standing and walking.

So how did I get from this state into now jogging? It was something that I should have done straight away, something that had been tried and tested not only by me but others with resounding success. It is the healing stones in Skalitsa that finally cured me!

There have been many occasions where illnesses had just suddenly disappeared by just laying on the stones, which are situated just a ten-minute walk from my farmhouse in the village. This is the place where two magnetic field cross each other with only one other place in the world where this phenomenon happens somewhere in Mexico. A top professor from Sofia had made conclusive tests that scientifically verified that there is a phenomenon there and healing does take place. Two previous articles have been written on this Healing Stones in Bulgaria and Skalitsa Healing Stones More Evidence. - Please feel free to get more of the background here.

This particular healing experience was the greatest yet of my own personal evidence that these healing stones really do work. I had just managed to drive to the village in great pain this particular weekend and the next day gingerly walked to the stones. It was a sunny day so the winter sun had already warmed up the healing stones. I chose a flat-topped stone and lay there for around 40 minutes. As before, I didn't notice anything happening whilst I was lying there, or when I painfully tried to stand up and walk again. But what happened next was yet another amazing experience!

As I walked back to the farmhouse, my walking became much more fluent and the pain gradually subsided. By the time I was home, this had improved even more. I had a good night's sleep for the firs time since the problem started. The next day, I just felt a bit stiff, no pain as I drove home without any pain at all. I was not on any medication other than an aspirin in the morning.

Back in Yambol Sunday evening it was as if a magic wand had been waved over me as seemingly I had been cured. The following morning I was sitting down at work without any problem at all and no need for any medication at all. A few days later I was jogging and haven't stopped since.

I am totally convinced that the healing stones were responsible for this. It is not a one off, they have healed and others on countless occasions. Everyone knows about them locally, but hardly outsiders other than those I have told. I was such a sceptic when I first heard about these stones, but now I am a firm believer that they have healing qualities that have now cured illnesses before and now cured my back, something that professional doctors and a hospital couldn't.

Galia and I now carry a little healing stone each in our respective handbags and slightly bigger ones lay in the farmhouse and in our Yambol home. It should keep illnesses away all the time judging from past experiences.

A Bulgarian Present - An Apartment

It is traditional in Bulgaria for the parents to provide their children with a home of their own this is normal. This is the main reason why mortgages are rare in Bulgaria the homes are passed down to the siblings without any need for them.

Today was such a day where this happened and the thoughts and emotions of the day were quite profound from everyone who was party to it.

Galia has two sons and two homes in Yambol, one home is the family home in Yambol where here mother and son who will end up with this home. The other is an apartment on the other side of Yambol which where many years ago she worked hard to pay for this over most of her working life, solely to provide for her other son. This is even more of an achievement being a single mother in Bulgaria.

How sensible that this tradition takes place and how unfortunate that the tradition is on the point of collapse, as the housing market prices have rocketed due to tourism, EU admission and greed, not necessarily in that order. The purchase of a new home in Bulgaria for Bulgarian children is beyond the reach of most people here without now the aid of the Banks who are laughing in the face of tradition here with their incessant need to control people and breed credit just for profit. No wonder there are so many banks in Yambol now, many Bulgarian need them to achieve their goal of finding homes of their children and can’t without them.

The tragedy is that the land and credit they can get from banks isn’t enough for property now as the price of an apartment is now longer commensurate to securing a loan based on wages here. Modern Bulgarian families now face the prospect of children who will become homeless when adults with their own families, will this lead to families sharing homes or finding work elsewhere and extended families fragmenting the very foundation of traditional family values in Bulgaria?

The other fact about Bulgarian families is that sensibly only have one or two children, this is purely practical in view of the responsibility that comes with parents. If you can’t afford to have the children and provide and set them up into adulthood with a home then don’t. How many other people in other countries look at this value when considering a family?

Back to the apartment that is now going to be handed over to Galia’s elder son, he has his girlfriend with him this evening. They called at the house at 8:30 it was dark and we all went see the apartment, which is now empty from the previous rent paying residents being ousted for this moment.

We arrived to be greeted by all the neighbours who were sitting out in the street talking. The smell of barbecued peppers and Rakia was strong but I couldn’t quite see where it was coming from, perhaps on of the many balconies that hung out of the small apartment blocks. It made my mouth water, even though we had had barbecued peppers to eat earlier that evening. It was a full 20 minutes before the talking stopped and we went inside the block.

Everyone is excited, Anton and Koyna for this was the first time they were to see the apartment. Galia as she was proud that all her lifetime efforts were now seeing a result in her son having his own home. Not least me as this was a totally new concept for me to see, a parent providing security for here son with the knowledge that she will be giving everything she has away. No need for wills to be made promising inheritance; this is all based on family trust and custom here. She will be looked after in the family house with her other son and future partner until she dies, he has the bigger share and therefore the responsibility of looking after his mother, just like Galia is looking after her mother in the family home presently. The idea of living in a home that you don’t own is something I find very hard to accept. The degree of family trust and a total materialistic stand off are the reasons that this happens here.

In the ground floor entrance was a series of brown painted metal post boxes as Anton checked his with number 8 written on it. He joked when he saw nothing in there saying that it will be full of bill for the apartment soon.

The basement of the block was explored, each apartment has a basement room for storage and we saw there were stacked metal shelves with lots of glass jars full of preserved tomatoes and peppers and old Russian Christmas decorations and a big wooden barrel that had some ancient wine in. On the top shelf was a new plastic covered single bed, something the previous resident had either forgot to take or will come back for as it is far too good to leave.

We finally got up to the first floor where the apartment was, before we entered Galia gave Anton the key and that was the formal acceptance of the apartment as a gift. He gingerly opened the secure front door amidst three other very individual doors in the hallway with hand made mats and slipper placed on them.

On entering the place was swarming with insects and a stale smell greeted us, but we were all beyond that as we explored the kitchen living room, bedroom and wet room (bathroom). There was a box room next to the kitchen and a sealed balcony with interconnections with the living room and bedroom overlooking the street.

For us all the place was a home but needed a lot of work all the tile were falling apart in the kitchen area and the rest was just in need of a total stripping and redecoration, the place has never been modernised since it was built some 30 years ago. We of course will all work together as a family to get it into shape. Money was offered to help with this as the gifting goes on. But I feel that Anton was overjoyed as for the first time he has now a place he can call his own home, but of course this will be passed down to his children in around 25 years time. No need to die to give.

We locked up and reflected on the moment of handing over and what work was still to be done and ended up in a local bar where the owner is a Bulgarian television celebrity. Ivo Anton brother had just finished work and was invited there as well as we all finally sat drinking a beer or two in celebration of the day in which Anton was given an apartment as his home. A lovely end to a day of giving.

ADD: I just noticed the Christmas tree on the post in the middle of the lower picture, this is there all year round, not early for this coming Christmas!