Bulgaria with Noodles

The weather forecast said that it was going to be warm and sunny. The Nissan garage had finally (finally!) fixed the problem with the powered steering, so we decided to have a weekend away from Sofia and go to Kalotina. There was an extra reason for going: Ira needed her old passports in order to apply for her Russian visa. We left at a reasonable hour on Saturday morning, so the traffic on the ring road was not a problem. It was sunny and pleasant spring weather as we drove to our villa in Kalotina. Yes, the house was still there and the dogs in the village were pleased to see us. When I went up into the loft to check, there was no sound of buzzing and nothing flying about, so perhaps the fumigation smoke did its business. Although we had the central heating system going full blast all day, it was slow to get going and make a difference to the temperature inside the house. I suppose that the whole house was so cold, after nearly three months of standing empty.   ...

Yes, here it is. A real Russian visa! With the news about the poisoning in Salisbury still making the headlines, I was a bit worried that the Russian authorities would not allow British citizens to go to the Crimea, but hey ho! As well as the hassle of getting the Bulgarian residency cards, the Russian visas cost us 100 euros each, plus two trips into Sofia and the medical insurance (in addition to the medical insurance we already have for Bulgaria). In order to apply for the visas in the first place, Papa (my father-in-law) had to complete (and pay for) a special invitation and then we had to fill in two very long online visa application forms and print them out. When we get to Moscow, we will have a long taxi ride between the two different airports and that will not be cheap either! On the subject of fruit, a neighbour from across the road heard Zlatka complaining to Irena. It seems that I may have broken the window of her old Lada three years ago, when she gave me a l...