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.

Fascinating story Mike and I'm looking forward to reading more about your adventure especially being dragged round the shops :LMHO:but seriously keep it coming this will help quite a few people and maybe give the some encouragement

Great read and what I would call a real insight to life seen through the eyes of REAL people thank you both without being rude do you have any pictures to go with you diary

Another good story please keep it going I love to read real life stories like this and to see how others overcome any problems they may face

Nice story Mike ... I agree, some photos would be nice!

Great story Mike &
Tanya I like hearing about the different villiages you visited, I bet the shopping was your highlight Ha! Ha!

Excellent and look forward to reading more of your adventure in the not to distant future

Love it :Howdy:I'm now waiting with baited breath for the next episode

Thank you Mike and Tanya this is a lovely story so far and its good to read this from someone who has actually been and seen the places you mention normally we hear what others have to say about places they have never been to so this is very refreshing and like the others I look forward to more from you both

Good story lets have more when you get time and some pictures would be a good idea

Ok as requested, part 2 follows, sorry about the grammer on the first one, i really should check it through before submitting it. As for the pictures I have so many (every year we end up taking hundreds) I dont know where to start as Tanya and her friend are fanatical about taking photos, maybe i should try this photo bucket site. I was hoping that everyone could look up the places that I have highlighted on the internet, perhaps i am just being lazy.

2005.
from this year onwards our trips became split into 2 areas, as this was the year we bought the apartment in POMORIE.

Pomorie.
Tanya had gone out a couple of weeks before me, and during one of the many phone calls she got very excited about an apartment that one of our friends had found for her to look at.The owners were living in it, so it came complete with central heating and all the extras that you would not get from a holiday apartment. We had discussed maybe buying an apartment, so when the owners suggested that when i came out we could stay in it ( they moved out temporarily) to give it a trial run , we jumped at the chance. I had not been to Pomorie before but Tanya nows it very well and has many friends there, but when I arrived I was very impressed with the area and even more so with the apartment.It is in a small block of 8 apartments that where built about 5 years before (properly), it is on the fourth floor with a sea view (about 3 minutes walk away) has 2 bedrooms and covers 120sq metres which is much bigger than most of the other apartments nearby. In the last couple of years there has been a massive increase in the apartments built in the area but not many of them are built as well as ours.
I was in Bulgaria for 3 weeks that year and a lot of the time was spent sorting out the buying of the apartment. We bought in it Tanya,s name to save all the problems. i did get to do some sightseeing though, we went to NESEBUR which although was very crowded I was very impressed with, the buildings are beautiful. We then went on to SUNNY BEACH which I am told was very nice years ago (but to be honest it was "
not my cup of tea"
i enjoyed the few hours we spent there but was happy to get back to the more natural Pomorie.. We also managed to get a visit to SOZOPOL , which again is very busy but a much nicer atmosphere, and I like the place very much.We were taken to meet an amazing guy, who almost single handed is building from scratch what I can only describe as a very luxurious castle. Actually words can not do it justice, and what was more amazing was that he spent a couple of hours happily showing us around (including introducing us to his herd of Ostrich and a very tame black swan on his lake), and telling us about his plans including showing us the very up market fixtures and fittings he has gathered together.He was unsure when it would ever be finished, but did not seem to bothered, he invited us back anytime we where near. We actually went back 2 years ago and although it had moved on and was even more impressive, it was no where near finished.

Kliment.

We spent the third week in and around the village, with frequent runs to Sopot-Karlova, where I was intruduced to even more of Tanya,s friends. We spent some time helping her parents digging up potatos, and I had my first ride on the donkey cart, when we filled it up with rubbish and took it to the village dumping area. at the end of the week Tanya and her friend took me to Sofia Airport, as Tanya was staying on for a couple more weeks, as she was not working that year.

Nice story lets hope some pics are on their way

mickhev wrote:

Nice story lets hope some pics are on their way

Fab!! look forward to seeing the pictures.

Oddy

You seem to have got round quite a bit of Bulgaria so far :Sunny:looking forward to more and if you have any pics that would be

Thank you again Mike and Tanya I'm sure those who have never been to Bulgaria will now feel they have!!!! after reading this it's also real please lets have more when you find time