First topic message reminder :

A week has almost passed since we made the momentous and epic journey from Turkey to Bulgaria and 40 cardboard boxes still remain to be unpacked and a lot of shifting things around the house to be done, not to mention endless amounts of rubbing down wood and painting. Our journey started at 2.23 am, on Sunday night from Altinkum a tourist destination on the south coast of Turkey. We set off in our car following Phil and Russell in the their van with the contents of our apartment, which included over a 100 boxes and our four lovely dogs.

The journey went well, even the ferry at Canakkale was almost ready to leave, so no waiting about there for us, then the long drive towards the border with Bulgaria. At the border the usual passing over and inspection of passports and Residency Permits were carried out by the Turkish authorities and the inspection of the contents of our apartment which took all of 10 seconds. Then the short drive to the BG frontier, another inspection of the passports took place and then onwards towards the Customs. At this point the Customs Personnel took an interest in the dog Export Papers and proceeded to photocopy everything and then put the official stamp on other documents and also photocopy them as well. After an hour and half had passed we were given the green light with the dogs and we were asked if our boxes contained anything new to which we responded in the negative.

Next thing we know we are in BG and heading towards the first garage to fill up with diesel which is far cheaper than the Turkish equivalent, we also purchased our Vignette at the garage so that everything was legal even down to switching our headlights on whilst travelling. Then onwards towards Elhovo where Russell headed for a car mechanic to fix the water system on his van, half hour later we headed for Yambol, Nova Zagora and onwards to Veliko Tarnovo which meant we went over an awful mountain and zig zagging all over the place.

Veliko came into site and and we went north a short distance towards our village and going over some rather basic roads with holes in it and bits missing so this part of the journey was rather slow. When we got to our village we couldn't find the house, can you believe this after 1200 K's, after 10 minutes of driving around in circles I had to admit to Phil and Russell that we didn't know where the house was. "
What,"
replied Phil, "
no problem,"
I said, and phoned the man we bought the house from to find out how to find it, luckily I got through to him and he told us how to find the house.

So there we are finally at the house at 7.30 in the evening with four dogs and 100 boxes to unload in the dark and all of us feeling completely "
cream crackered."
Half an hour later the boxes were all in the house and me, Phil and Russell are carrying our kingsize bed that we had brought from Turkey up the stairs in our BG house and then having to build it together so Annette and I could get some proper sleep in our newly acquired homestead.

Our many thanks to both Phil and Russell for bringing us to BG and putting up with us!!

oddball wrote:

A piece of cake Itchy - really glad all went well without a hitch, not all you have to do is get yourselves settled in. No doubt we will see you in Silistra on Sat 6th Oct Good luck in your new home.

Oddy

Annette and I would love to come to your do on the 6th of October, it would be good to meet you and your loved one in the flesh as it were. We very much enjoy the banter on the forum and it would be really good to meet you both and exchange some views on life here in BG.

Oh my word what on earth have I let myself in for now Will I ever learn

Sounds a bit like my place in Hungary, although my windows are probably in better shape. I prefer polyester car body filler instead of putty but that itself is not easy to get here. I've not tried fire on my 1.5 acres but I have a lot of Christmas trees which would not look good in black. In my case it has been a chore of endless strimming / brushcutting, fortunately not all done by me. I'm registered as a host with the workaway and helpx websites. People come for working holidays in exchange for food and accommodation. I had 2 Swedish lads here for 10 days this month. They cut and stacked a truck load of firewood and then dug out the dirt floor of my barn ready for hardcore and concrete. I did have 2 big single glazed windows and an iron door which they also helped me to replace with UPVC double glazed items.

:Good post:Itchyfeet. I wondered why I hadn't heard from you for a while. I must have missed your initial stories. Sounds like you are settling in well.

oldun wrote:

Itchyfeet. I wondered why I hadn't heard from you for a while. I must have missed your initial stories. Sounds like you are settling in well.

Many thanks for your thoughts and expectations on our joyous living here in BG oldun. Whilst furnishing our house we have bought numerous pieces of furniture which come flat packed, which has resulted in myself becoming something of a flat pack king. Not a moment goes by without a turn of the screwdriver or a tap of a dowel with a splodge of glue on the end, I seem to be endlessly on my knees doing some pack or another. Some of the instructions leave a lot to the imagination and only the challenge and conquer motto appears to have got me through it all.

My latest escapade is buying a chain saw, but I cheated and got my DIY shop to put the saw together, but tomorrow I am getting a petrol driven strimmer and this will mean that the afternoon will be spent putting the wretched thing together. Let's hope all goes well.

I sympathise with the flat-pack saga Itchyfeet. When we recently had to move in 10 days I rushed out and bought basic furniture (it was easier and cheaper to leave our stuff such as it was with the old property) from the multi-purpose store JYSK. I knew by the pricing I would get what I paid for and while I was in UK my other half was tearing his hair out trying, like you, to put it all together from the very basic instructions and a lot of screws. The worst nightmare was the wardrobe which he had difficulty in getting the doors to shut! The easiest was the bed. In the end we are very happy with what we got. You can get 'proper' furniture here but it tends to cost a fortune as it is mostly imported. Others might correct me here but the furniture I saw in a very posh shop at the top of Bulgaria Boulevard (if its still in business) was way out of my budget. I am now very happy with what I bought and really fits in with our old house. It was one of the most stressful bits of shopping I think I've done in Bulgaria although the shop was excellent for delivery - same day!
Funnily enough, it is one of the things which was easier in the halcyon days of 2004 because the very Bulgarian shop we found on the same Boulevard actually came and made up the furniture for us and installed our kitchen. Unfortunately he is now out of business or moved we don't know where - yet! Why don't shops put a notice in the window if they are still open elsewhere???