Four years ago we decided to visit Bulgaria. I knew very little about the place. In fact, as I have now travelled there and explored the country widely, from the Danube to Burgas, from Sofia to Ivalovgrad, I really knew nothing about it's wonders at all!
What we have discovered is a beautiful unspoilt paradise, as untouched as anywhere in Europe could possibly be. As a painter, I have been inspired by its breathtaking beauty, and have decided to live there, permanently. Its just taking a while to achieve this, that is all!
From the moment we landed at Plovdiv's airport, with its views to the snow topped Rhodopy mountains in March 2010, I was in awe.
We decided that we wanted a small house, big enough to house us and a few guests, when they came to visit us, with a plot of land to grow vegetables and keep chickens, with a well or spring of its own, have a few fruit trees and have a view of the surrounding scenery. Autonomy, simplicity and privacy being the guiding criteria.
On this initial trip we found a very special house in a village called Beli Plast (meaning White Layer) just north of Kardzjali, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardzhali which is famous for its stone mushrooms. http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/stone-mushrooms-beli-plast It was just the right size, with just the right amount of all the criteria. However, we soon heard that the place had been sold shortly after we viewed it. It was not to be!
On our second visit we stayed in a Hotel with a chap called Maneve, who along with his friends showed us some interesting properties in the little villages around Djzebel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzhebel Unfortunately, they were all unsuitable, either perched on promonteries over 500 metres (too high to grow much in the way of vegetables), or in need of vast quantities of care before one could even set foot in them.
Our third visit saw us exploring the places outside of the Kardzjali basin, and on this trip we explored the north in VT, Burgas and then down to Stara Zagora, Yambol, Elhovo, Ivalovgrad and right over to Smolyan, but we soon decided that Kardzjali was the only place we wanted to be.
Our fourth visit yielded a fantastic house in a small village outside Podkova. https://plus.google.com/112754894448308628884/about?gl=uk&hl=en Next to a tiny train station, nestling on the side of a hill. It has a well, enough land and a small house with a villa adjacent to it. We put in an offer for it, it was accepted, and we excitedly put everything in place to purchase it. Going to the Bulgarian Embassy in London and signing all the documents for power of attorney for the solicitor we had in Sofia.
Regrettably, the solicitor found the documents incomplete, and we lost the house and deposit we had paid.
Despondently, we arranged to visit again, to see if we had any chance of finding another house, and even toyed with the idea of just buying somewhere from ebay in the adjacent areas of Haskovo or Simeonovgrad, just to get somewhere. But, fortunately we resisted this, as in fact we are determined to find somewhere in the exact area we love, and not to be on the rebound for anything that just happens to turn up!
A friend of ours discovered that event though the house had issues, there was another house in the same village, which fitted the criteria, and that it was for sale. We started to get excited again, and made steps to return to see the house and put in an offer. Excited plans ensued, with CAD designs and bathroom fitting brochures (as you do!)
We returned and saw the house on our fifth visit, and agreed to put the plans in place to make an offer.
On our sixth trip, we went to put in the direct offer for the house, only to discover it had been sold two weeks before! Devastated, our good friend rallied to find if there were any suitable houses in the area, and we went to see a house on the hillside, as well as some other properties we had found on the internet.
It was at about this time we needed to move house very urgently in the UK for many reasons. Our visits to Bulgaria continued, with many dreams of buying a house, but these all proved impossible to realise. And so we had to wait. We visited again for a seventh time, unable to put in any offer for anything, even if we had found something BUT thinking if only we could find the right place ...
Until this visit....our eighth...when driving along the new Makaza road I saw a sign for Bregovo.
