Sometimes you have to create chaos to achieve calm

We frequently wonder if a Bulgarian couple had bought this house, whether they would have made nearly so much work for themselves. Our neighbours think we’re bonkers catching dormice and driving them a couple of miles down the road before releasing them (well perhaps we are a little). No-one can understand all the effort we’ve gone to to exterminate the ants – funny how there seems to be different rules about what creatures are acceptable to kill, perhaps if the ants had cute fury faces we’d feel different, either way, neither is particularly welcome. We have taken up 6 pieces of what would probably be deemed perfectly suitable linoleum in the living room and are intending to lay wooden floor boards – and to complicate matters further we want to put in some kind of damp course – totally unnecessary according to any Bulgarian we’ve asked – in fact we might even have to lie about why we want the polythene so that they will sell it to us! Anyway, here is a picture of our hallway the day we moved in, and also one of it now. While certainly the house looks more lived in, I am looking forward to eventually returning to some kind of happy, tidy medium.

If it ain't on the list it's not a priority

After a little too long of us both referring to an imaginary priority list, i.e things we need to do to get the house safe and sound before winter, we decided to sit down and actually write one. Of course it’s a working document and some days it feels more is added than accomplished, but we’re getting there. The majority of the exterior jobs (not including gardening) are done or at least started. First job was to build a compost heap, so we had somewhere to empty our bucket –embracing the concept of human manure (and the pit toilet is full, enough said). Tom was an apprentice for a day replacing the broken tiles on the roof. We’ve put up guttering around the back where the trees and damp had been coming in. Most of the windows have been scraped and a form of putty put in – being made from sunflower oil it has a very different texture to what we’d be used to, more like play dough, but the biggest problem with it is that the birds love it, and we are on constant watch for their destructive attacks.

Am I working him too hard?

Inside the house we now have light in the dark room, thanks again to Max and a very long drill bit. Unfortunately rats and mice are still able to get into this room, so we’re currently operating a keep the door shut policy and we’ll deal with it when we have time. Eventually this long wide cupboard will be our bathroom, but that is a good few years off, this autumn we only hope to seal floor, walls and ceiling and take some measurements so we can start to plan. Two rooms and the hallway are quite habitable, so one is very full of all the furniture from the kitchen, living room and a bedroom, the other is where we eat, sleep and sit by the fire in the evenings. Not a whole lot different to living in the van! We’ve found two great second hand shops in Popovo, and I think we’re probably their best customers, now all on first name terms we are greeted warmly every time we drop in, because more than likely we’ll see something we need or want – slightly different things, good job the money goes a great deal further

Not quite Picasso

As the weather is turning cooler so our focus is turning more to the kitchen and living room. The later now plastered and had its first coat of whitewash today, definitely not quite mastered the professional finish, but it will be a talking point in the years to come, I think the style is called rustic, but it’ll hopefully look passable with low level lighting. The kitchen is still just a store for sand, cement, plaster and a whole host of other materials I knew nothing about 6 weeks ago.

We also built a small fence today from the trees we’ve cut down from the vegetable-garden-to-be. They’re not much good as fire wood as they’ve huge thorns, but perfect fence material - except while you’re making the fence, ouch

err.... surprise!

Just to let you know we are still alive! We've actually stopped our travelling at the moment, rather unexpectedly. In short we arrived in a village in northern Bulgaria just over a month ago to do a week's volunteering on an organic small holding, one week became two, and before we knew it we decided to try to buy a house here - very abridged version. Essentially though, we're hoping, all being well, to be the proud owners of a nice little bungalow sometime next week. It needs a little work, but we plan to stay here till early November, so if anyone fancies a visit.....? you'd be most welcome (particularly if you have any plumbing, building or electrical skills). Will be able to give more details once all is final. Still planning move to Dublin this side of Christmas and getting proper jobs again, longer term beyond that it's all a bit grey, we'll see what pans out. exciting times though. Hope everyone's well, looking forward to seeing you again soon.

Ride on, Willie

While driving from the Danube Delta down towards Constanta, we were hailed by the Police. “Here we go” I thought and got myself ready for some fine for some rule just made up. Perhaps I was a little hasty in my judgement. It transpired that the police were attempting to help a German cyclist who was no longer able to cycle his bike. As I greeted the police with a Buna Zeau they assumed I was a local, so I then had to communicate that I could not understand him!!…thought the steering wheel would have given it away.
The cyclist had a trailer with his bike and was doing a world tour, he was also due to do a tv interview in Constanta the next day as he was famous for his cycles. I then remembered about Heinz Stucke, but could not recall his name at the time. This cyclist called himself Willie. I kept asking him if he had had his bike stolen in UK, but he misunderstood my English. After measuring the van, he said his bike and trailer would not fit. By then the police had hailed a bigger van, so we are optimistic that Willie made it to the next town.
Finally we made it to our campsite between Constanta and the border. It is a resort campsite…..with the pleasure of squat toilets whose doors don’t lock!! Nice. Still we are making the most of wifi and communicating and researching the next bit of our trip. We are hopeful of spending one week in a small village in Bulgaria helping out on an organic farm/campsite and getting to meet some local village folk.
To all who would like to visit Romania, I advise you to do so before it is homogenised into the EU empire. The cottage food industry is still alive here, but it wont be for long. The traditional peasant life continues in the north of the country, but who knows for how long if it no longer is necessary. As the roads get better, more people from the west will surely come here in greater numbers and so the prices will rise and rise…

On Thursday we cross the border and say hello to Bulgaria and attempt to get to grips with its fine language and alphabet.

To swelter in the Delta

Our trip to Romania could not be complete without visiting the Danube Delta. It was a fair distance out of the way, but well worth it. After a very long hot drive, where we left the slightly cooler mountains and crossed the scorching plains, we eventually arrived in the arid delta region. So much of the land looked parched beyond belief. Crops were totally wilted and grass was quickly turning to dust. It seems the devastation we’ve read about occurring in England due to the floods, is equally matched over here due to draught. On arrival in the village of Murghiol we were approached by Serghei Condrat, a local man who offered accommodation and boat trips. As we were in search of both, we struck a deal (in my school girl French) and were soon parked up in his farm yard. Serghei and his wife have a small plot of land where he’s built a house from local resources and traditional methods. There were lots of examples of items being reused, and lots of things stored, awaiting a new purpose. They had dozens of chickens, a pig, cats, dogs, vegetable plot and small vineyard. The kitchen was outside, there was no running water and all the heat came from an enormous wood burning stove.

When he first said “donc demain, cinq heure et demi?” (excuse poor spelling) I thought ha ha very funny, then I realised he wasn’t joking. So at 5am our alarm clock sounded, not that we would have needed one as the cockerel was equally punctual and we would have been awake from then on, boat trip or no boat trip. By 6am we were on the water. The sun was just about to rise and not another sole was in sight. The next 5 hours were spent cruising the river, canals and lakes of a very small part of the great Danube Delta. In no particular order we saw, pelicans, cormorants, glossy ibis, egrits and little egrits, a bittern, various unidentified terns, gulls and waders. A few lapwings, lots of white storks, herons – purple, grey, squacco and night – and some ducks, coots and mute swans. Down a narrow tributary we chased several kingfishers for almost half an hour. We also saw a small mammal which looked a bit like a beaver, our guide could only tell us what it was called in Romanian, but said they make nice hats and ladies coats from its fur, nice! In parts of the delta we had to punt along as the plants growing on the bottom just got caught in the motor every few meters. Serghei said that normally the water level is between 3-4m at present it is only 50cm. This is having a big effect on the whole ecosystem. The most obvious example was the giant shell fish that normally live on the bottom. The water temperature has increased substantially due to the level being so low, and so many of these creatures are dying, the surface being littered with floating shells. As we came back to shore most boats seemed to be just leaving for the day, packed with tourists, but we were very glad to be missing the heat of the day.