On Relocating to Bulgaria by Cathi Morgan

One year ago I was searching for information about buying a property in Bulgaria with a view to relocating here. First of all I needed information about regional features to help me choose exactly where in the country I would like to live. After I had chosen where I wanted to live, what interested me most was what day-to-day life would be like there for an ex-pat from the UK. I found very little relevant information about this and so I have decided to write a blog about it myself.

I chose to re-locate to Bulgaria for the lifestyle. Property can be very cheap here, in fact there is no way I couId have bought a detatched house with nearly 2000 sq metres of land for cash in my country of origin. My house - which I bought on ebay - cost me just £3600 plus another £500 or so costs for the paperwork and taxes. I live in North Eastern Bulgaria near a town called Tutrakan, but this price range is common throughout Bulgaria for a delightful village home.

My Hub Buying a Bulgarian House on ebay has details about the process and a link to the current auction of Bulgarian Houses.

The residents in my village are easy going, supportive and friendly. Despite speaking only a few words of Bulgarian I feel a strong sense of belonging. The welcome I received from my neighbours was unprecedented. Many came with gifts of vegetables from their gardens, eggs from their hens, excellent home made wine and rakiya. If ever I comment on this custom, and the helpfulness and friendliness - I am told that this is the "Bulgarian way". I have tried to offer money for some of the help I have been given, it has never been accepted. I repay in kind by giving gifts, cooked dishes and help when ever I can.

I bought my house in Bulgaria because it gave me the opportunity to live a different lifestyle. One of the advantages of living here in my Bulgarian village is the peace and quiet. As long as you don't object to the sound of cockerels crowing, sheep and goats bleating and noisy birds and crickets at certain times of day! The volume of traffic is very low, there are more carts with horses and donkeys than cars around here. The cost of living is extremely low in comparison to the UK (although petrol is expensive - almost the same price).

It was October when I moved into my house and I got busy decorating and doing the minor repairs that were required. The weather was warm and by the middle of November I hadn't got around to installing any form of heating. My neighbours, bless them, must have been concerned about what it would be like for me if the weather turned cold. One day four of them arrived with a wood burning stove and then they proceeded to clean the chimney and install it for me. They even brought a trailer full of wood, and helped me to order more wood, giving me advice on how much I would need to last through the winter. Eventually I replaced this old but extremely efficient stove with a modern range that I also use to cook and bake.The wood stoves were efficient enough to keep us warm and cosy even though the winter of 2007 uncharacteristic in that a state of emergency was called in the region due to the sheer volume of snow.

The severe weather led to villages being cut off even from deliveries of food for some days, but Bulgaria is the place to be if you are going to get cut off! All my neighbours have basements full of wine, rakiya and preserved (canned/jars) fruit and vegetables, and delicious pickles. As in most things, the people in my village have adopted more modern methods of operation only where it makes sense and enhances their life. Hence all of my neighbours also have freezers full of vegetables and fruit they have grown in their gardens during the summer, and free range meat they have raised and butchered theirselves. Help and support is just the way of life here and no-one went hungry during the crisis.

For more details see my hub Real Life in Bulgaria in which I have invited my friend Molly to describe her experiences and insights about living and buying property in Bulgaria. In the Hub she discusses the best places for buying a village home on the Danube coast in the Tutrakan area and describes some of the features that make the area so attractive. Molly Kirova is a journalist and published author and lives in Tutrakan.