BG Dreams

No blade cuts blade - a forlorn lawn is waiting for me
There are now 45 days to go, to the end of my teaching career. Well, it has been quite interesting: the UK for about twenty years, followed by my misadventures in foreign parts: Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Romania, Qatar, the UAE and now China. On Thursday, 14th June, 2018, I shall be teaching my last-ever lessons at Green Oasis School and then on Monday, 18th, we will be flying to Bulgaria.
"The Tear", one of the Rila Lakes

As you may have noticed, this blog is called “Bulgaria with Noodles” because Irena and I are still in China, but in many ways our hearts are already in BG. But what will we do, once we have settled down in Bulgaria? A lot of travelling is fairly high on the list of priorities.
The Rila Lakes (there are supposed to be seven altogether)

A Church with a View, aka Asenovgrad
The truth is, we really do not know most of Bulgaria. Sofia, Kalotina and a Veliko Tarnovo: that is about all we are familiar with. Whenever we come to Bulgaria for the summer, there is a long list of things that need to be sorted out: the grass in the back garden is about two metres high, the car will not start, the fridge is empty and there are all those bills and taxes that must be paid. Sometimes there is an added emergency and / or crisis, such as having no electricity and the year when I discovered that a horde of squirrels had used our sitting room as their playroom and maternity ward.


The Rila Monastery
I hear you ask, “Yes, but when all of those little problems have been sorted out and the lawn is behaving itself, what will you do then?” And my reply is “Travel”.

Let’s start with the most obvious places in BG (and no, we have not seen any of them): the Rila Monastery, the seven Rila lakes, Belgogradchik (it could have been Bulgaria’s inspiration for Tolkien’s Mordor), Plovdiv, the Devil's Bridge and Asenovgrad.

Inside the Rila Monastery
As a teenager, I walked about half of the Pennine Way in the north of England. I have also been thinking of having a go at some long-distance walks, such as El Camino de Santiago in Spain or maybe the Via Francesco in Italy, from Assisi to Rome. Recently, however, I have been even more excited about kayaking. That will have to wait for another post.

 Oh, I should have mentioned that this is my fiftieth post and yesterday was my birthday (21 again). My blog is cruising to 11,000 "hits", but I am a bit disappointed because hardly anyone every bothers to write a comment at the bottom.

J.R.R. would have approved of Belgogradchik Rocks
Yippee! Half a century of posts and I only started writing it in October. Please, please, pretty please write a comment (yes, that means you) because I really enjoy hearing from my readers.  

Comments

  1. Tammy8 July 2024 at 08:16

    I discovered your blog only today, and it is a real pleasure reading! Thank you for sharing!
    I am a teacher as well, still teaching, but dreaming about retirement to BG and travelling with my dear husband.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the hippopotamus10 July 2024 at 00:56

      Dear Tammy, how wonderful to get a comment from someone, at long last! Yes, Bulgaria is absolutely wonderful and you cannot possibly retire anywhere else. It is too blooming expensive! Here in Bulgaria, you can still buy a lovely country house with a big garden and nice views for fifty or sixty thousand euros. Property taxes are also low. Recently I wrote a long piece about the cost of living in BG, so I would recommend you to read it and please stay in touch. In case you did not know, there is also a Facebook Group called "Moving to Bulgaria".

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