Four Months in Bulgaria and Counting

The Safe Streets of Yambol

Well it was April this year we we arrived in Bulgaria now four months into the life here. Getting used to Bulgarian ways didn't take long as we had basically been living like Bulgarian in the UK in terms of lifestyle and habits.

Now retired from work the main issue is planning what to do each day. When working you know what the routine is 6 days a week. The only plan is what to do on the days off and that wasn't difficult, it was mainly catching up with things you couldn't' do on the days of work, i.e. go to the launderette, get groceries and housework. Working 6 days a week, it was not an issue knowing what to do. Here we have to plan 7 days a week and that is difficult.

Needless to say all is going to plan here. I have a car, so we can go anywhere we want although I tend to shy off using it as I don't enjoy driving anymore. But it does cone in useful as we are by the Black Sea in a place called Pomorie right now on a three day break - We decided to go on Friday at 12:30, by 16:00 that same day we have booked it up online, packed out bags and were in the apartment! How many years has it taken to be able to do that?

Many things here I'd forgotten about, the simple things such as not having to worry about being mugged when walking the streets. Going fishing and bringing home the evening's meal. Picture of the result shown here.


Next post will given more detail of our home and how a simple abode can give such comfort.

The Lada Car Keeps Going In Bulgaria

The funny thing about our Lada is that although it is 19 years old, rough around the edges and seemingly falling apart at the seams it get us from A to B. There have been many stories attached to this particular Lada and it will remain with me for the rest of its life, as I can’t sell it due to it being in my company name. It needs both managers’ consent for this to happen and my business partner is nowhere to be found in the UK so I am stuck with it.

Originally my plan was not to have a car in Bulgaria, I had a donkey and cart and that’s all I needed when I first came here living in the village. But then work called and work was only in Yambol 35 kilometres away. I struggled using the bus services spenting five hours getting there and back and only two hours actually working. It wasn’t practical, so I bought a car and a Lada was the only type of car I could afford bar a Trabant.

Work dried up and I was left with the Lada, like I said I couldn’t sell it. Then Galia came along living in Yambol and the travelling backward and forwards 70 kilometres each week from village to town just carried on. The Lada has never let us down, even on airport trips for guests and family coming over to Sofia and Burgas airports 300 and 130 kilometres away respectively.

Each year that goes by the car gets rougher and the ride a bit bumpier, I haven’t enough fingers and toes to count the little problems that the Lada with things not working. The Lada still moves forward and backwards and stops and that’s what a car is primarily for.

We are now in the habit of taxiing our neighbours backwards an forwards to the village each weekend as they work in the town and retreat to the village as we do. We don’t’ accept any money, but are forced (without too much resistance I might add) to accept fresh food from their parents smallholding where they stay so we are basically catered for when getting back to town with our own produce to add.

The car is also borrowed to our neighbours, they used it recently to attend year anniversary of the death of a relation in a neighbouring village 6 kilometres away. I am more than happy to do this even though I know the driver has impaired vision and a sense of coordination and direction more than suspect. The car puts up with this with ease. That's what rough verges are for on the road, to tell you that you are off course my neighbour tells me.

One might feel that I have some sentiment for the car, but to the contrary. I still have a mild hate for all cars and it if I could get rid of this one I would, but there are hold ups. Firstly the administrative hold up in selling it and secondly a Galia, who I think just puts up with the indignence of being seen in public boarding a Lada in town, she wants a Mercedes in its place. Well she knows my thoughts on that as I said I’d compromise by getting another donkey and calling it Mercedes!

Bulgarian Cart Wheels

The invention of the wheel has had a major impact in Bulgaria without the wheel Bulgaria would come to a standstill. Can you imagine Bulgaria without their carts?

Everywhere you look there is a wheel turning but not necessarily a round wheel. The come in all shapes and sizes circular in the main but can come in many varieties of oval and the occasional rectangle but these are generally gypsy owned and stationary.

Car and engine driven traffic aside, the wheel is the most practical means of transporting goods and personnel around, it always has been here. Carts, trolleys, bicycles all are used extensively and in the most practical way in Bulgaria.

You can find wheels on horse drawn carts here of all ages, some going back 100 years. The Bulgarian carts are the most useful means of transport and in most villages this is the only means of transport that still has its use. Many will still be working 20 or 30 years down the line, it's all down to cost, hardly anything other than donkey or horse feed and that's generally free if you cut your own.

I have a cart myself a fine specimen and also three old spare wooden wheels in my barn, one I gave a way to a neighbour who had a three wheeled cart with wheels roughly the same age. These are the wheels you see are put into posh gardens as a bit of garden furniture, very nice. There are no rubber tyres as the wheels that made with wood have a metal tread. There is less friction on these wheels and therefore less effort to pull by the donkey and horses. Yes, the ride is a bit rougher but less energy is used and that is always preferable to Bulgarians.

Many now use old car wheels on their carts, with pneumatic tyres, these are hard work to pull. Some carts have smaller a smaller diameter metal plate wheel with solid rubber tyres like those on young children’s bicycles these are perfect for riding through mud and a good alternative to the wooden wheel.

It is a shame that the old wheels are now fading fast and the makers of these wheels now almost extinct. I just hope the one-day they come back into fashion but they won't. The reason being that there are too many cars on the road now and car wheel will become even more plentiful. The age of the wooden handmade wheel will continue in a downward trend, pity, as they are so practical and efficient as well.