First topic message reminder :

I intend to work my way through our various trips by year, and i will put places that you might find interesting in capitals, all of which can be looked up on internet to get much more detail.
2004
When i first met tanya in London, I like most people did not know much about Bulgaria. My first visit was in October (2 months after we got married) to visit her Tanya,s parents, who live in a village called Kliment which is close to the towns of Sopot - Karlova. We flew into Sofia Airport and were met by 2 of her close friends, the plan was to stop over night and go the the embassy the next morning before traveling on to the village. Unfortunatly no one told us that we had to get there before 10.00am otherwise they will not deal with you, and yes you guessed it we got there 10.20am. This meant another day in Sofia, I thought thats ok we will do a bit of sight-seeing (silly me), I was with 3 good looking fashion concsious woman so I got dragged up and down the up-market clothing shops for most of the day. We stayed another night in a very nice hotel in the foothills just outside of the city, and managed to get the paperwork sorted the next morning and get on our way to the village.
I got a very nice surprise on arrival in the village, the surrounding scenery was quite outstanding, being surrounded by lowwooded hills on one side that seem to go on forever, and acroos the valley much higher more rugged hills above Karlova, I never get tired of looking at this. I got a very warm welcome from Tanya,s parents and some of the neighbors, and enjoyed looking around the there property, which consisted of a traditionally built mud block bungalow, with a massive barn and a big plot of land full of all kinds of vegetables and fruit trees. There was also 13 sheep, a donkey, cats and a dog, it seems that during the communist times Tanya,s dad was a well respected shepherd until he retired
We spent a few days in and around the village and SOPOT - KARLOVA (they are almost joined together and I think of them as twin towns),and then went onto what was to become the first of many sight-seeing trips over the years. We went to SHIPKA-MONESTERY (very nice), which has a beautiful gold coloured domed roof and like all monestery,s full of brightly coloured icons and murals. From there we went onto an open air museum called ETAR (well worth a visit) which is full of original buildings dating back through the centuries and also demonstrations of Bulgarian culture and crafts. We then went onto a town called GABROVA which has a museum of humour (it was ok).
At the end of our holiday we were taken to Sofia Airport by a friend from the village, and on the way called into a very well preserved town called KOPRIVSTITSA, which although our time was limited , what i saw was very nice and I intend to go back and have a better look one day.

That it I hope you enjoy this installment and I will add more soon.

What a lovely update from you two I love reading about your adventures and admire your energy, it must be wonderful to travel as you have and to see so many different places and people and to see how they are all so different even though in the same country. thank you and I look forward to reading more from you both and about your adventures and maybe more about you vehicles too.

Its been a very long time since I updated the diary,and in case everone had forgotten me, I thought I had better write something, but the reason for such a long gap is that I have been busy organizing my work.
I have left BSM after working for them for 11 years as an automatic and disability instructor, and set up on my own as an independant driving instructor teaching automatic and specializing in teaching disability pupils, i have bought my own car and had all of the adaptions fitted, work seems to be picking up, and at least I do not have to pay an extortionate franchise each week. Anyway back to the diary.
2009
In fact I did not go to Bulgaria in 2009 due to worrying about finances ( ironically it is much worse this year (2011). Tanya only went out for 1 month as she is now working and cannot take her usuall extented break with her parents and friends. Apparently everyone was asking for me but sadly I had to priorities, whoever I did go in 2010 so there is another chapter of the diary to come, which I will write soon.
Regards to everyone Mike.

Looking forward to the next chapter and I'm sure you have made the right decision going alone and good luck to you both

Thanks for the updated Mike Good luck with your new business well done!

Now perhaps you might fine a story or two to enter in the book composed for the Silistra Orphanage here: viewtopic.php?f=40&
t=4704 Go on have a go.

Oddy

Good luck with your new venture and I hope it all goes wel;
l for you both and I too am looking forward to reading more from you it seems ages since I last read anything

Good luck with you new job and looking forward to reading more of your adventures I think they are amazing as you too are

Lets have some more when your ready and able and good luck with you new career

I keep looking in here and hope that there's more but as you can see there isn't so Mike and Tanya don't keep us old ones waiting to long we may not be hear for long [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Still no more from Mike&
Tanya ? come on I need a good read

I was hoping for another good read but I see they haven't been back yet. Hope they are both ok and nothing is wrong?

I don't think there is anything wrong they have been on the forum but not posted.

Thanks for all the inquiries, yes I am still here on the forum, and although i have joined in on a couple of threads, I have been a bit pre-occupied to continue with my adventures, but as requested I will try to continue with it within the next couple of days (yes I know I said that before and did not deliver, but I will try much harder this time).
My last edition was 2008, I did not go out in 2009 due to being worried about the finances (credit crunch) , but I did get out there to continue with a few adventures in 2010. Again due to various circumstances I did not get out there for 2011. So to write about 2010 I am going to have to get my thinking head on and look back at the reams of photos to remind myself what exactly we did as it seems so far away now. I seem to remember writting a little bit about it on anther thread but I cannot remember which one it was.

Looking forward to it. All that you have written so far always makes for a good read and a nice cuppa.

Glad your back both of you and can't wait to read more about your exploits.

Well here goes, as promised here is the latest installment.

2009.
As mentioned i dd not get out to Bulgaria , but although Tanya is now in full time employment she still managed to get out there for a couple of weeks in the spring and a month in the summer without me, to visit her parents and friends, and to keep an eye on out apartment. She spent most of the time in the village with her parents, also overseeing some more improvments that we were having done.

2010.
I got out to bulgaria this year, we were picked up from sofia airport by Tanya`s nephew in our car, and spent the first couple of days in the village before driving to the apartment to spend acouple of weeks there.

Pomorie.
We spent a couple of days relaxing around Pomorie, and I got some dental work done which would have cost a fortune back here in the UK. The first trip we did was a day trip to VELIKO TARNOVA wit Tina &
Spiro to see the walled fortress, which I was most impressed with, we then went to ARBANATSI where we had luch in a very nice garden restuarant, complete with a lovely old church in the grounds and a very nice traditional bungalow, (Tanya said the wooden veranda looked just like how she remembered at our place in Kliment before it was removed) having seen it I am thinking of having another one put back when we renovate the roof. After this Tins suggested we went on to a traditional village called BOJENTSI, which she assured me was not too far, actually it took ages to get there but it was worth it in the end , there are only a few houses permantly lived in but the village is very nice with the heavy stone roofs. By the time we got back to Pomorie it was late and it had been a very long tiring day.
Another trip we took was a surprise visit to meet Wilola at there camping site towards Varna, it was not easy to find and we ended up at their local beach first, called SHKORPILOVTSI which turned out to be a pleasent surprise with sand dunes and a wind surfing hut/cafe on the beach, we found a chelet site a little further along the beach and had something to eat . We eventually found Wlola`s place and spent a couple of hours with them and there dogs being shown around and just chatting before heading back to Pomorie. We spent the rest of the time doing the usual trips to the beach, Nesebur and Sozopol.

Kliment.
We drove to Kliment and pent the rest of the holiday there. Although I still have not managed to get my Suzuki SJ413 jeep out there yet, I did manage to get one of my motorbikes out there in the back of a van that was heading to the village. The bike is an Yamaha Xt350 kitted out for off road with big knobbly tyres, so it is perfect for the village, (although any one that knows about bike will know that it has a kick start which is not so good when you fall off going up steep slopes) Alot of the guys in the surrounding area have off road bikes and go out for the day up the mountains. One of the neighbors offered to lead me up the mountain on his very old 250 MZ , and when Tanya`s dad found out he also wanted to go, so he went on the back of the MZ as I had no rear foot rests.I thought the village side of the valley was going to be an easy ride through the wooded hills, but I got a bit of a surprise when going around 1 corner I discovered there were sections that had been ripped apart by the village 6 wheel drive logging lorry, it was like going up the side of a rock face, (and yes I did fall off a couple of times). There is a locked rest hut higher up the montain, that the local guys use , we had not been there long before 4-5 bikes turned up including the village mayor with the key for the hut (he is a biker too). We spent the rest of the day riding around various tracks and visiting a couple more rest houses, it was a great day out even with the falls, and a lot harder than I had expected, god knows what the other side of the valley will be like as that is far higher and much bigger.
Unfortunatly Tanya`s dad became very ill a couple of days later, and we had to rush him to Karlova hospital, where he was kept in for a couple of nights, so we were back and forth taking him food and visiting him. He came out and was fine afterwards, Tanya thinks it was to do with the bike ride, but I am not so sure, cause although he is old he is as tough as old boots.
Whilst up the mountain I discovered that there was a complex half way up the other side of the montain above Hisarya, so when we got the chance on our last day we drove around to the other side, it was a hell of a drive , once you leave the main road it takes about an hour of very careful driving up a dirt road to get there,but once there it is well worth it. We met the ownres who are a Bulgarian couple who lived in canada for many years and came back to open BYALO KAMENE resort after seeing similar places in canada. They hgave us a guided tour around the chalets and apartments that you can stay in , there is also a very nice outdoor pool and a restuarant as well as horse riding and trips in a giant Hummer to the local Thracian remains. There were a few off road motorbikes there that had come across the paths from where i was the previous days , so next time that`s the way I am going, we flew home the next day.