Thanks Chris, as always ready to help.
Very briefly then, I like it here in the north-west as very traditonal way of life is still lived in the main. Things are progressing with the advent of technology as it is everywhere, but here much more slowly, so the traditions remain intact that much longer.
It is very beautiful here, very peaceful and I have found the majority of people kind, hospitable and generous to a fault. One example is my being admitted to Montana hospital for a week for an operation (which turned into 4 operations in the end), followed by a week at the Tokuda hospital in Sofia. My Bulgarian friends in my village took the 5 dogs I had then to live at their house where they had a huge paddock and their own shed. the cat was fed and watered every day as was the garden, the house kept clean and someone came down to Montana twice to collect my washing and bring me clean nightclothes. When I went home the dogs were kept another 3 days to give me time to get back on my feet and a meal delivered by hand twice a day for a further week.
All this for nothing even though I offered to give them something for all the time they had spent.
I have woken up to find my friend's husband shovelling snow off my path, carrying wood up to the verandah and many, many other kindnesses too numerous to mention.
I have other Bulgarian friends, including a suoper lawyer, we socialise, I join in their festival days with them and introduce them to some English fare as well ...sherry trifle is an all time favourite with them.
Life can be very good here, but you do have yto be prepared to live village life, and even the country towns are more like a large village really, only the bigger cities will remind one of other big cities.
It is nothing likje the UK, but then I didn't want the UK, which is why I left and although some things are a bit difficult to understand or accept, it is tradition but even those will one day change as ideas progress and more understanding is gained, especially by the younger peole now growing up with access to the internet anf more travel abroad.
I love it here and the positives outweight the negatives by far. ther is a small English community scattered throughout the Montana region, but really this is enough I don't want to be where the English pubs and other such things are. I like it here ....and the living is cheaper anyway.
Viva the north west but I hope it will not be too readilu discovered and over-run.
Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:55 am
