First topic message reminder :

Experiences of Brits Abroad

Please feel free to post you experiences here good or bad or indifferent? please be careful about anything you post and please do not mention any names of individuals, if you do post anything and a member wishes to know more they can then send you a pm for more information however there is nothing wrong with you posting the facts so long as it has been dealt with through any court of law and come to a conclusion, Ok that's the legal stuff over with so its over to you to share your experiences.

we my family and friends call our place home. There is always some thing baking in the oven coffee and tea on the go and dinner for how ever many turn up. Theres a christmas tree and presents for every one at christmas and birthdays are celebrated too. In the summer their is a party in the garden and the dogs are friendly too.
When it's hot we open all the windows and the doors are flung open wide we spread over into the garden and live with flowers and butterflys as we eat fresh home grown and freshly baked bread and in the winter we snuggle by the fire with crumpets and hot chocolate instead.
This place is on one level call it what you will we don't climb stairs to bed these days the bodys not so clever but the mind is able still.
Theres knitting on the table and slippers on our feet books and tv to entertain us and make our lives complete.
we only have two sayings one for the camper and one for our home
home is where you park it with out love there is no home

so what ever you call it remember it's a thing you can't take with you any where but you can take the love it brings
your always welcome in our home

In Bulgaria ...it would appear to be the norm to call a residence in a town or village a house
in the country outside the the boundry of these place is is refered to as a Villa
i do know many brits that insist on calling their property in a town or village a villa ..but as pc . stands they are incorect !!!

my place is actually in a "
Villa Zone "
...but to me its a house...in spain maybe a villa .....no acounting for folk !!

Chrissybg what you have described is exactly what we have and love. What Willowsend describes is the factual description of the terminology. The fact remains that some descriptions, including villa, are used incorrectly by agents and owners alike. I wanted to advertise my home as a cottage (also on one level as the upstairs is a monument to Bulgarian tradition) but my son advised against it because that would make it a bit downmarket. He is in advertising and so he knows a thing or two but I am proud to call our home a cottage because that is what it really is albeit a Bulgarian one and only someone looking for that kind of property would recognise it as somewhere they could also call a home.
There is a difference between the professional view and the amateur but the fact that we attracted a Bulgarian buyer seems to prove my point.

[size=150:978dzf1k]Copied from another forum as I thought that the issue warranted everyone knowing.....

Slight change of topic, Very Important Information, you have been warned-------------------------------------------------

Quote:
We have just returned from a visit to Bulgaria and felt I must share our experience with you...

To some extent we were forewarned…just before we left to go to Bulgaria we read something about Romanian car gangs pretending to break down in Holland, flagging down people who'd just got off the ferry and then robbing them of their cash and cards. I’m just sorry we weren’t also forearmed!

We were about half hour from Budapest in Hungary (heading to Bulgaria) when we felt like a stop for a coffee so we pulled into a service area. These are generally popular but in this one there weren't any cars in the car park at the approach to the service station and as we drove round the back and towards the exit there were a couple of Romanian-plated cars in the car park. One on bricks with no wheels on it with some guys trying to fix the engine and an orange-coloured one with no number plates beside it. We decided not to stop and carried on driving out of the service area. Mr M next commented that the orange car was right on our tail and not wanting to hang around he put his foot down and we sped off. About a quarter of a mile down the road another car (with Romanian plates) was slowing down to stop on the side of the road but then suddenly swerved back onto the carriage way with the driver frantically waving out of the window trying to get us to stop. Fortunately having read about the scam going on in Holland Mr M just put his foot down harder. We think the orange car behind might have telephoned the car in front but we got to it too quick for them to act as having broken down on the side of the road.

On the way home two weeks later things got a lot worse. At around 5am we had passed Pitesti and had gone through the village before the road goes up into the mountains. Traffic was very light at that time of day so we thought it suspicious when on the way up into the mountains we passed a BMW car stopped in a lay-by with four men in it. As we drove past it started up and came out behind us. A couple of miles on we came up behind a 4x4 Jeep and all three vehicles carried on driving up into the mountains as normal but as we got to the top and started to come down the other side the 4x4 suddenly stopped making us break hard and we stopped inches from it. I initially thought it has stopped to avoid hitting a dog. The BMW came alongside us on the left to block us in. Fortunately for us there was space between the 4x4 and the crash barrier on the right and quick-thinking, Mr M floored the accelerator and we forced our way passed the ‘blockade’. The BMW chased after us but we lost them when they couldn’t keep up with our speed through the hairpins and especially after Mr M adopted the Romanian style of driving (overtaking on blind bends and overtaking into oncoming traffic leaving seconds to spare before forcing a way back in). Unfortunately our car has sustained significant damage to the front wing but that's a small price to pay for getting back home with our car, money, cards, phones, laptops etc.

We have been driving to Bulgaria twice a year for a number of year and this is the first time we have encountered anything like this. Twice in one trip is certainly off-putting. I don’t want to worry anyone intending to drive over but please be vigilant.


Then TODAY:

Quote:
We had a potentially nasty incident on the road today actually in Bulgaria, though I believe this is more of a Romanian scam - we were driving on the Kantardjievo - Varna road towards Varna and were overtaken by by an old Merc and a smaller car on British plates. We turned off towards Kumanovo and came across both these cars stopped at the side of the road and waving us down. I told my partner not to stop, but not to be as could be in trouble, I was told. I wound the window down halfway and had a "
gold"
ring thrust in my face, with a gypsy explaining in English (we were on BG plates, so he actually thought we were Bulgarian, but spoke English to lend credibility. Problem there is that he was obviously a gypsy and spoke bad English, but then he wouldn't know we were British!) his friend had broken down and had no money. As I know the rest of the story, I would the window up and we drove off quickly. For those that don't know, the rest of the story is you give the man money and he gives you the "
gold"
ring as collateral while his friend gets money. Yeah sure - watch out for this scam in this area. It is the first time I have seen it in this country.


AND TODAY

Quote:
just to let other users know this happened to me on the Kranevo to Balchik road today as well so possibly the same group. This time a man was standing next to his car waving a map I stopped as I thought he just needs directions wound my window down. He says "
I am from turkey and have run out of fuel"
I said there is a garage just down there "
he says no money and promptly thrusts a gold ring on my sons knee. I picked it up shoved it in his hand and drove off. So, they are obviously operating in the varna/balchik area so do not stop

i hope that these problems on the roads have been reported to the police. there have been problems in England like this too and other countries. I know of a couple that stopped in England on the motor way because there was a baby in a car seat on the side of the motor way and they were robbed.