Ivan grabbing a sneaky peak of Raphael's special offers page
Panel vs. Brick
Panel buildingPanel buildings were erected during communism in the 70s and 80s as a fast, cheap and easy way to provide housing for the growing population. Panel built flats are less solid than brick buildings. They do not provide good insulation in winter. Some people have added outside insulation to prevent drafts creating a patchwork of colours on the outside of the building.
Today neighbourhoods like Trakia that encompass 300 blocs of panel buildings are very popular with young people because they offer space, convenience of 24 hour shops, restaurants and bars and a community that has now been living here for 2 generations.
Today neighbourhoods like Trakia that encompass 300 blocs of panel buildings are very popular with young people because they offer space, convenience of 24 hour shops, restaurants and bars and a community that has now been living here for 2 generations.
Mehmet is dead
Turkish soapsLast night in the latest episode of Perla Mehmet was stabbed by two unknown men and left for dead in the street. "No! Mehmet don't die!" cried his family and half the housewives in Turkey and Bulgaria. The other half was switched on to The Proud Asi.
Story telling evenings in the mountains huddled around the chimney is a myth. From the elderly half-blind grannies to the merry housewife and the young girls all are hooked on Turkish soaps. Gossip is all about what will happen next.... There are fan clubs online. Husbands and wives quarrel to watch their favourite programs.
The Bulgarian alternative is Tsenata na istinata, the price of the truth. One person makes a statement and a selected group has to say whether his assertions are true or false to win money. Here are some statements:
"My mother is bisexual because she wears trousers."
A fat man who looks like he would have trouble standing up on his own says:
Luckily, by the end of the episode Mehmet's condition stabilizes. He's in a coma.
Next!
Story telling evenings in the mountains huddled around the chimney is a myth. From the elderly half-blind grannies to the merry housewife and the young girls all are hooked on Turkish soaps. Gossip is all about what will happen next.... There are fan clubs online. Husbands and wives quarrel to watch their favourite programs.
The Bulgarian alternative is Tsenata na istinata, the price of the truth. One person makes a statement and a selected group has to say whether his assertions are true or false to win money. Here are some statements:
"My mother is bisexual because she wears trousers."
A fat man who looks like he would have trouble standing up on his own says:
- "I have had a threesome."
- "I've had group sex."
- "I've had sex with a man"
Luckily, by the end of the episode Mehmet's condition stabilizes. He's in a coma.
Next!
The KAT Commission
Serving the communityThese are the offices of the KAT commission for the Plovidiv region. If compare it to the community centres in Tower Hamlets where all the information is provided in 15 languages including Sinhalese, Vietnamese and Somali to serve all the groups of the local community what this tells me is that it only serves the people who work there: white, lazy, pot-bellied, middle-aged men.
None of the KAT employees apart from the Police officers wore uniforms so we never knew who was working or where to ask questions. It's probably a great to avoid being bothered.
None of the KAT employees apart from the Police officers wore uniforms so we never knew who was working or where to ask questions. It's probably a great to avoid being bothered.
KAT
A day in hellThe KAT is where you register vehicules and apply for new plates or a driver's licence. It's the Bulgarian DVLA. All cars imported from abroad need to be checked and registered by the KAT.
Bulgarians drive mainly second, third-hand cars that are on average 5-10 years old. All cars are imported. In Bulgaria you'll find the cars that people don't want to drive in the rest of Europe.
To avoid stolen cars making their way to Bulgaria the KAT checks the serial numbers and road-worthiness of all imported cars. The public administration wants to do it itself to avoid corruption and criminality. There is only one centre for the whole of Plovidiv, the country's second largest city. But the Kafkaesque process is so obscure, slow and painful that anybody would be ready to pay any amount of money to avoid a day in hell. Anti-corruption measures breed corruption!
Mechanics who were meant to check the car walked around with their hands in their pockets, smoking cigarettes, and chatting on the phone. Their word decides the future of your wheels so you have to be nice to them.
We had to queue in front offices where men played cards and joked in the warmth as the biting wind outside was burning our faces.
At the coffee shop outside the main building star-spangled police officers were merrily greeting business men with dark eyes and expensive coats, providing a personal service by delivering the documents that required signatures to avoid the queue. Clerks left their posts to provide a similar service to friends and acquaintances.
Mariya pulled out our secret weapon, Raphael, to jump the endless queues. When she dared to ask the clerk how long it would take to get the new number plates the lady behind the counter screamed at her threatening to keep the papers till tomorrow. We would have had to leave the car and come back for another day in hell. It summed up the whole experience. She was doing us a favour by doing the job she's paid for...
By the time it approached closing time people were arguing and ready to fight each other out of sheer frustration. Mariya was in tears.
Bulgarians drive mainly second, third-hand cars that are on average 5-10 years old. All cars are imported. In Bulgaria you'll find the cars that people don't want to drive in the rest of Europe.
To avoid stolen cars making their way to Bulgaria the KAT checks the serial numbers and road-worthiness of all imported cars. The public administration wants to do it itself to avoid corruption and criminality. There is only one centre for the whole of Plovidiv, the country's second largest city. But the Kafkaesque process is so obscure, slow and painful that anybody would be ready to pay any amount of money to avoid a day in hell. Anti-corruption measures breed corruption!
Mechanics who were meant to check the car walked around with their hands in their pockets, smoking cigarettes, and chatting on the phone. Their word decides the future of your wheels so you have to be nice to them.
We had to queue in front offices where men played cards and joked in the warmth as the biting wind outside was burning our faces.
At the coffee shop outside the main building star-spangled police officers were merrily greeting business men with dark eyes and expensive coats, providing a personal service by delivering the documents that required signatures to avoid the queue. Clerks left their posts to provide a similar service to friends and acquaintances.
Mariya pulled out our secret weapon, Raphael, to jump the endless queues. When she dared to ask the clerk how long it would take to get the new number plates the lady behind the counter screamed at her threatening to keep the papers till tomorrow. We would have had to leave the car and come back for another day in hell. It summed up the whole experience. She was doing us a favour by doing the job she's paid for...
By the time it approached closing time people were arguing and ready to fight each other out of sheer frustration. Mariya was in tears.
Booze & booze
Home-made Wine with "Bouquet"In Bulgaria booze is categorised in 2 ways.
First there's the home made stuff which is true alcohol. It's clean and strong. People make home-made wine and rakia which is a form of brandy. Rakia can be made from plums or grapes and flavoured with herbs or Acacia.
Then there's the other stuff which is not considered alcoholic: beer and wine that comes from the shops.
Some time ago one evening we found our way to a makeshift "Mekhana" (tavern) in the mountains. It turned out to be someone's home. But they were so drunk they didn't care and we couldn't understand. They offered some Rakia but we declined and asked for something non-alcoholic. They suggested beer or wine. They just couldn't understand why we would want to drink water. Water's for washing.
And more recently our neighbours wanted to offer us a drink and insisted on pouring us a glass of wine from a 2 litre bottle with a plastic flip top similar to the ones drunks cradle in Paris. "It's not alcoholic, you know. It's from the shop!"
Then again a few weeks ago we tasted one of the best wines ever. It was fresh and sweet like a juice. We could roll the raspberries and blackberries around our tongue and sipped it like a syrup. The Grandad that makes it only produces 100 litres and gives it to friends and family in Coca-cola bottles. He won a prize in the Troyan region for best home-made wine.
Dimitrovgrad
Dimitrovgrad has one of Bulgaria's biggest Pazars. It is a market town comparable to Jatujak for Bangkok and Merida in Yucatan. You can find all sorts of local products as well as imports from Turkey, Greece and China. It is situated in the South-East corner of Bulgaria, close to the Turkish and Greek borders and a short drive from Plovidiv the country's second largest city. People come from all over Bulgaria and South-East Europe to trade. You can taste lots of different foods and buy almost anything. But the fashion style is pretty drab.
Dimitrovgrad, named after the Bulgarian Lenin, Georgi Dimitrov, was built by volunteers in the fifties who came from all over Bulgaria to erect a modern communist city. The architecture is Russian, solid brick-built buildings and wide avenues.
Merry Xmas
Be my turkey!If you're having trouble keeping the kids happy during the recession this Xmas just call Santa's Little Helper. He'll sort'em out proper.
Azis
AzisIn a country that is traditionally traditional (can be read as homophobic and intolerant of minorities) Azis has become a superstar. Of Roma (Gypsy) origin and outrageously camp and openly gay he is an icon of the Bulgarian Chalga music scene. He is a trans-gender hit. Everybody loves to hate him.
Recently he has come out as straight! Even Wacko Jacko couldn't perform that trick, aie!
Chi, check out this video:
Edno mi
Recently he has come out as straight! Even Wacko Jacko couldn't perform that trick, aie!
Chi, check out this video:
Edno mi
Swing da batty, bad boy!
Baby travel essentials 5
Ten fingers and toesNothing better for self-soothing and gymnastic contortionism!
Baby travel essentials 4
A wooden spoonIdeal for helping teething tots. With a taste of special porridge (oats, 7 types of nuts, honey and pollen and a few mushroom powders). It makes him as warm as a Scotsman without knickers and as strong as a Viking!
Baby travel essentials 3
Baby bouncerAs you can see we've gone native for the decoration of the room we live in. Curtains and bed covers come from the local market in Troyan.
Baby travel essentials 1
Breast is bestEven when it's minus 5 celsius in the mountains Raphael gets a warm nutritous meal. The mother's milk naturally adapts to the baby's neeeds. The amount of water and nutrients varies for each feed depending on the baby's health, temperature and stage in his growth.
We couldn't trek in the mountains in winter if we had to prepare a bottle every few hours!
We couldn't trek in the mountains in winter if we had to prepare a bottle every few hours!
We have a pet
Merry Xmas Mr. MouseWe have a mouse in the house. We've been tracking its movements around the kitchen as it gets more brazen. I saw it today on top of a cupboard sniffing around the bags of flour and oats we have in store for winter. I smacked it real hard with a towel. It bounced off the top of the furniture and fell behind. I haven't heard it since.
Tomorrow we're buying our little pet a trap. Snap! Who says a pet is not just for Xmas?
Mountain Fashion Mum Winter 09-10
Mum:- Fur hat from antique shop, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
- White scarf from George, Asda, Isle of Dogs, London.
- Colourful baby change bag from sexy tranny with a beard, Brick Lane, London.
- Brown duvet coat from Zara.
- Ski trousers and gloves from discount ski shop, Franco-Swiss border.
- Keen mountain shoes, London.
And underneath:
- Cherry coloured jumper, Zara, London.
- Purple jumper, H&M. Alternating the two jumpers for variety every other day.
- Elle Macpherson maternity bra, John Lewis, Oxford Street, London.
- Blue knickers, Jatujak, Bangkok, Thailand.
Mountain Fashion Dad & Baby Winter 09-10
Dad:- Retractable ear-muff cap from DIY shop in Dienze, Belgium.
- Sheep skin and fake fur coat, Camden Town, London.
- Blue sheep skin lined mits, Workers Cooperative, Troyan, Bulgaria.
- Purple silk scarf, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
- Chinese Army trousers inlayed with fake fur, Troyan weekly market.
- British Army boots, cheap on eBay.
And underneath:
- Red and blue Norwegian jumper, 40 years old borrowed from Dad.
- Quechua blue fleece, Decathlon, London.
- Gap brown jumper as per so many other pictures in this blog!
- Original French army issue kaki thermal T-Shirt. It never lets me down.
- Blue boxer shorts, Jatujak market, Bangkok, Thailand.
Baby:
- Baby Bjorn carrier with winter muff.
- White muslin square to catch the saliva.
- Winter space suit, Gap. Thanks Grandma and Auntie!
- Light blue bear hat, eBay.
And underneath:
- Long-sleeved white and yellow knitted jumper.
- Sleeveless brown knitted jumper.
- Light grey Gap tracksuit bottom.
- Blue and white striped socks.
- Hand knitted baby shoes by a granny at Troyan market.
- Red striped vest, the same for this week.
- Throw-away nappy, changed every 2 hours to stay dry!
Bob
Beans, called Bob locally, are the national dish. They come in all colours and sizes. Cooked in an earthenware pot with onion and carrots and flavoured with savoury, paprika and a special type of mint they are all delicious. Mmmmm!
Monday morning tourist
Monday morning is the best time to visit a city. You can catch its essence. People go about their business without noticing you. The vibe is raw. They are caught up in their thoughts, planning the day trying to catch time. Drop off the kids at school. Catch the bus, metro or tube. Try not to be late for work. I'm hungry, what am I going to eat?In Trakia you can see people picking up a Banitsa. In Paris the sombre mood of the metro is punctuated by the people dressed in grey and black. In London at Piccadilly Circus the last revellers go home after full-on binge weekender. The crazy ones go straight to work. On the DLR in the direction of Canary Wharf there are no holds barred, like a Muay Thai fight elbows are in. Just say "Sorry" after thrusting your laptop into their kidneys. In Cairo men huddle around a cart to eat a Fool sandwich. In Damascus microbus drivers sip on a cup of Mate, some add milk. In Bangkok they'll cross the canals of the delta in long boats and stop at make shift restaurants on the pavement to have some rice with a bit of fish. At the Wat Pho temple you can do yoga before starting work.
If you're not sure where to go follow someone and see where it takes you. Share a piece of their life anonymously.
Meet the grandparents
We've completed one loopWe wanted Raphael to meet his family. He got so many kisses and hugs that his cheeks were burning.
Diana
We've traded in Camila in exchange for DianaDiana's more reliable in the pot-holled mountain roads. We can also go off-road where we're looking for a place to live.
She's a bit old but more youthful and bouncy than Camila. Sasho and Ivan have made sure that she is reliable during the difficult winter months. She has more gadgets and features that we know what to do with... it feels like she's a bit wasted on us.
Winky-winky Prince Charlie ;-)
She's a bit old but more youthful and bouncy than Camila. Sasho and Ivan have made sure that she is reliable during the difficult winter months. She has more gadgets and features that we know what to do with... it feels like she's a bit wasted on us.
Winky-winky Prince Charlie ;-)
3 secs
What would happen if there was no electricity in London for 3 seconds?
No grid supply, no backup generators, a complete black-out. What would happen if the unexpected black-out lasted 3 minutes, 3 hours or nobody knew when it would end? No TV or radio for information. No server farms to maintain internet connections. The tube would shut down. Passengers would be in the dark. People would panic thinking that it's another 7/7. The financial district that makes money on millisecond trades would go into panic and probably melt-down once systems are back up... Maybe some people would just chilax, enjoy the moment and go for a walk. People might switch off their iPods and talk more to each other.
We arrived in the mountains determined to have the internet as fast as possible. Never mind TV, it's boring. Switch off and log on! We need the internet. Within the day the internet company came to set it up. They threw cables over roofs and telephone lines to connect our half-built house to the nearest routing point 100 metres away.
Internet speeds in Bulgaria, even in the mountains, are faster than central London. In Sofia the capital you can reach 100Mbs compared to less than 4Mbs in London. Here in the mountains we're running on 10Mbs.
That is, if we have electricity.... We switched on the new modem, tried to log on but nothing happened. We quickly worked out that there was no electricity. At first we thought the mains switch from the old fuse box had jumped. Fuse boxes here looked like a crop of antique ceramic mushrooms. You could flog them off in Portobello Market as Victorian Arts & Crafts.
Any suggestions are welcome!
Happy Birthday!
Raphael has completed his first 12 monthsRaphael has spent 9 months inside Mariya and completed the last trimester to adapt to the outside world. He is sleeping very well and waking up with a huge smile and loads of energy.
Life's a remix
Nothing is created ex nihilo and everything is a source of inspiration.
Do your thing
Do your thing again
It doesn't matter where it started or even where it's going. It's about what you're doing to move the flow.
Thought shower
We're discussing what to do next whilst picking rosehip in the mountain. It's very therapeutic. The thorns keep you focused.We wanted to make Rosehip Marmalade but apparently it's difficult if you're a novice. So we'll dry them and make tea. It's one of the best sources of Vitamin C.
The Negotiator
Mariya organises our lives from the back of the camper van. With two mobiles, one for each network in Bulgaria she wheels and deals to find us everything we need from a roof over our heads to goat's yoghurt.Raphael is our secret weapon. He coos to charm the grandmas who hold all the information on what's going down in the hood. They're all helping us out. We always leave a business meeting with a bag of apples and walnuts.
Mona Lisa: Shut up!
How to keep him quiet...Raphael sometimes likes to whinge and moan, hence the name Mona Lisa. But we have found a way to keep him quiet. Thank you YouTube!
Here's some tunes we recommend:
No limit
Rythm is a dancer
Power
Musical appreciation starts young. We started with Raphael, Bobcho at the time, when he was in his mother's tummy. Thank you Basement Jaxx and hello Brockwell Park!
Here's some tunes we recommend:
No limit
Rythm is a dancer
Power
Musical appreciation starts young. We started with Raphael, Bobcho at the time, when he was in his mother's tummy. Thank you Basement Jaxx and hello Brockwell Park!
The Fire Starter
Mariya keeping the family warmNearly everybody here uses wood to stay warm, cook and heat the boiler for hot water. We took turns cutting the logs to fit into our new wood burner.
Our lives at home revolve around the wood burner. The temperatures drop to zero at night. In the morning I wake up at 6am to start the fire so the living room warms up before Raphael and Mariya get out of bed. In the evening when we get back we leave Raphael with our neighbour Stoyanka to start the fire before he comes in.
Quote of the day:
"Don't take that newspaper it's not thick enough. This one burns better too, it's got oil from the coloured ink."
Mariya's the Gypsy queen. She can start a fire under any circumstances. With her hips or with a match she can set the place alight. But she doesn't like to get up early in the morning when it's cold. I'm an early bird so I don't mind. But I'm a city boy. I can flick a switch but I can't light a fire. The first days it took me sometimes 2 hours to get some smoke with no flames. So now I use firelighters. They never fail. If I had a flame-thrower I'd squirt a bit of kerosene in the corner of the room and set the place alight to save time.
It was the first proper exercise we did since we left London. We were so excited we cut down all the trees in the vacinity.
Sultan Sladur Pasha
Rafi- Pilense > petit poulet > little chicken
- Sladur > cutie
- Slansho > Sunny
- Huggy lump > when waking up
- Fils a son papa > daddy's boy
- Munchkin > Oops! Dorothy lost Toto at TG.
- Klein Mann > petit homme > little man
Our first warm meal
Cabbage and carrots ManjaThe cabbage was as big as a football and looked like it had been kicked around the field for 90 minutes. There was no plastic packaging, no label, no health warning or dietary information. It didn't need to say that it was organic. Just cabbage. I peeled the first leaf off. Underneath it looked fresh. Cut a few slices and tasted a bit. Wow! it was so sweet. Subtle in taste and fresh as a fruit. I ate half of it and put the other half in the pot.
The carrots looked like they had actually lived in the ground. Not the nice shinny supermarket ones from plastic wrapped blightey. They had a nutty taste and were sweet too! I ate a few while I was preparing dinner. And I was still hungry for the manja. Too good to miss! The taste of the vegetables blended together. Mmmm!
The carrots looked like they had actually lived in the ground. Not the nice shinny supermarket ones from plastic wrapped blightey. They had a nutty taste and were sweet too! I ate a few while I was preparing dinner. And I was still hungry for the manja. Too good to miss! The taste of the vegetables blended together. Mmmm!
Where's the Monday blues?
We're lying, there were no clouds in the sky today...We only realised by mid-morning that today is Monday. But there was no feeling blue. We were neither tired nor grumpy. We didn't long for the coming weekend, nor shudder at the endlessness of the next 5 days...
We haven't stopped all week and even Sunday we were busy sorting out a million and one things. And yet today we're feeling so positive. There are no grey clouds, London drizzle or moody bastards on the tube to make our day even worse. The air is crisp and fresh, the sun was warm in the afternoon and everything just rolled.
We ticked off nearly everything on the long list of things we had to do today. But no stress. We smiled at each other and at many other people. We found time to chat, laugh and play with Raphael.
We're doing what we want to do.
We haven't stopped all week and even Sunday we were busy sorting out a million and one things. And yet today we're feeling so positive. There are no grey clouds, London drizzle or moody bastards on the tube to make our day even worse. The air is crisp and fresh, the sun was warm in the afternoon and everything just rolled.
We ticked off nearly everything on the long list of things we had to do today. But no stress. We smiled at each other and at many other people. We found time to chat, laugh and play with Raphael.
We're doing what we want to do.
Here we are!
TroyanWe're waiting for Zara to join us and all of you to come and visit us soon!
We'll keep posted on life in the mountains in Bulgaria.
We'll keep posted on life in the mountains in Bulgaria.
Camila check-up
Dental check to sort out the front end rattling
In preparation for the next adventures...
Why you need a cup of tea...
When the wheel fell off the trailer on the motorway in Belgium we nearly bought this caravan. Not so much because it fits the style and grace of Camila but just because it was cheap.
After haggling we gave the owner the money and were ready to tow it off. Only then we remembered that the plug at the back of our camper van is not standard. It does not have 7 wires but only 5. It's part of its English heritage to be excentric. Just like the wheels of our English trailer have only 4 bolts and not 5 like the rest of Europe. In England things follow English standards that nobody else follows or understands. A bit like the rules of cricket really... nowatamean geeza!
Anyway, as the butchers dog had never cut a slice of meat I contained my compulsion to grab a hammer to do the job and volunteered to provide the replacement for our hobbled trailer.
Ken who had sold us the trailer via eBay had spent 2 hours re-wiring the trailer to match the 5 pin plug of the camper. It was a cold evening on the outskirts of the M25 but his kindness and diligence is memorable. His family stood around with us and we all enjoyed a warm cup of tea together chatting and joking while he resolved the conundrum.
In Belgium I tried to apply the knowledge I had gleaned from Ken to re-wire the caravan. It was getting dark. It was also cold and drizzly. But there was no cup of tea to keep me going. Cause it ain't England, innit Harry! I tried and failed. I tried again motivated by the thought of staying stuck in Belgium (we had not thought of Bruges yet) but the cold and damp just got to me.
For years living in England I thought that preparing a cup of tea was a early-warning system invented by Miss Marple to announce an imminent murder. But now I know that it is the famous cup of English tea that has resolved so many criminal cases, repelled invaders by air, sea and land and warmed up the damp, sometimes dreary English climate to make it so attractive to foreigners.
Anyway, it was definitely not my fault that day in Belgium when I mis-re-wired the camper van trailer plug. Had I had a cup of tea we would have had back lights (the red ones). Instead we had a fog light (red too but not suitable for driving). We only realised that there was a problem with the trailer lights when they were broken in Hungary. It explains why the truck drivers were clonking their horns at us all the way from Belgium to Hungary. And all we could answer is: F*&$ off!
All this to say that if Belgiums drank tea they would have conquered the world!
L'aventurra sempre
The journey continues...We enjoyed travelling in a camper van. It takes away the stress of finding a hotel room and knowing where you're going to sleep. You can stop to cook, eat and sleep wherever you want. On the side of a motorway, in a village square or in the middle of the countryside. We were autonomous and mobile.
We've realised that Vienna, Bratislava, Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Sarajevo and Belgrade are all in a 300km radius. Turkey and Istanbul are neighbours and so is Northern Greece. So we will travel more in the region, without the trailer!
We've realised that Vienna, Bratislava, Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Sarajevo and Belgrade are all in a 300km radius. Turkey and Istanbul are neighbours and so is Northern Greece. So we will travel more in the region, without the trailer!
Day 13 Zdrasti!
We arrived in Bulgaria in time to enjoy the colours of the late autumn. The grass was still lush green, the trees were gold and copper. The fields had been tilled in preparation for the winter. The earth was black. The air was fresh and sky a crisp blue.
After crossing most of Europe we could appreciate even more the natural beauty of Bulgaria.
Day 13 What was it like?
We spent quality time togetherWe took care of each other and together took care of the baby. This is how it works: Mummy feeds baby, daddy takes care of mummy and mummy takes care of daddy so everybody's happy. Everybody contributes what he can to maintain harmony in the happy camper van. Ahh!
We split the responsabilities. Sometimes doing what the other doesn't want to do.
We supported each other to find solution to problems. Sometimes one or the other felt that it would be impossible.
And we learnt to be patient with each other in difficult situations.
We split the responsabilities. Sometimes doing what the other doesn't want to do.
We supported each other to find solution to problems. Sometimes one or the other felt that it would be impossible.
And we learnt to be patient with each other in difficult situations.
Day 13 Oh no!
Mummy's taken a wrong turn in Bucharest!There were no road signs in Bucharest. The road to Giurgiu was not indicated inside the city. A taxi driver offered to show us the way with his cab in exchange for a fare.
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