Bulgaria with Noodles

After our exhausting exposure to the international media, Irena and I went for a pleasant lunch in Elena for our 29th wedding anniversary. We have had lunch in the outside seating area a couple of times, but the inside bit is actually much nicer.  As usual, I had some schkembe chorba (that is tripe soup, if you have trouble finding your way around a Bulgarian menu). Then we had some skara (Bulgarian barbecued things) and the real stars were the cheesy stuffed peppers.  After lunch, we went for a little wander around Elena and we visited a rather interesting and quaint three-hundred-year-old timber-framed house cum museum. In the garden there were some pear trees full of fruit, with more lying on the ground, so we took some pears back to Daveri.    

This morning we went to the notarius in Elena and we completed all of the paperwork. We now have the keys for our new home, this beautiful house in Daveri, built in the traditional Bulgarian style. Our agent assured us that the socks are not a permanent feature of this property. This is the left side of the house, looking towards the fence at the end of the garden. This is the outdoor dining area or "summer kitchen". A millstone's life is one long grind! The pond is a bit overgrown. Maybe we should buy some goldfish. This is a view of the garden, looking towards the fence at the bottom. It really is a lovely view! This fence is going to need A LOT of work. Painting this fence with wood preservative will keep me busy for a long, long time. And what are we going to do with the extra bit of land? I think that it is about 600 sq m.

As regular readers of my blog will know, I am a great fan of Bosch. They make some great kitchen appliances (washing machines, coffee grinders, toasters and so on). My wife and I have bought quite a few Bosch things. However, I am now a fan of Yantra Homes as well because this estate agency gave us some excellent service when we went to Veliko Tarnovo for our house-hunting expedition.  We saw quite a few properties and most of them we did not really like. Yes, they looked great in the photos, but they were not so wonderful when you actually went to the houses and saw how they really are.  The side of the house and you can see the massive wooden gate. There was, however, one splendid exception. There was one house that actually looked a lot better in real life than it does in the photos! The bad news? Yes, there is some. First of all, it is a bit further from Veliko Tarnovo than we had wanted (50 km or thereabouts) and, at 81,000 euros, it is costing u...