Head for the slopes

The snow has started to fall.

Benji Lanyado has written a good article in The Guardian on Saturday : ‘Where the pound is still sound’.

With sterling collapsing, he asks if anywhere is still affordable. Bulgaria remains the cheapest destination in Europe according to the most recent Post Office holiday costs barmometer survey. Benji recommends Bulgaria for ski slope bargains and I can well believe it.

You can ski at a slope near Sliven (the town next to us) but we’re in the mountains so plenty of opportunity to ski everywhere here.

We went skiing near Pamporovo a few years ago for New Year with a large group of 15 people (including children) and I really loved it. We stayed in a cosy family run hotel in Chepelare. I had a lovely English-speaking teacher and I managed to ski. I wasn’t looking forward to it and was hoping to slope off to the little bistros for hot wine.

Benji’s article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/nov/22/foreign-currency-consumer-affairs-travel

Comparisons with Italy

Comparisons with Italy

I’ve been reading a fascinating story about the harsh peasant life of Italy’s wild Abruzzo hill country in the village of Santo Stefano do Sessanio. A wealthy millionaire came across the deserted village in 1998 and decided to save it. Daniele Kihlgren has created a beautiful hotel there and is continuing to develop other abandoned villages with a local architect. I don’t really know this region of Italy but I would now love to go there and see what they’ve done. It sounds so eerily familiar with what our plans and dreams are for the hamlets around Kipilovo. One small problem. We’re not millionaires. I also think the Bulgarian villages are still ‘living’ compared to the Italian villages in Abruzzo. Italians were forced to leave the villages to work abroad due to poverty over a century ago.

Stunning in Sozopol

 

Stef is working in Sozopol on this amazing, beautiful sea view house that was designed by our close friend, Anna Nevrocopska, who is a truly talented architect. The weather is mild aparently. Wish I was there as he has taken Nip, one of our dogs, with him and they’ve been going to the beach for autumnal walks.

Mushrooms

 We went mushroom picking just a short sprint to the hillsides by our house. Usually we never meet anyone except for shepherds so I was surprised to see many figures bent over searching the ground with their baskets. It became quite competitive, but friendly. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. We exchanged recipes for what to do with them. I can remember my Polish grandmother’s pickled mushrooms and I loved them (my cousin recalls them as slimy eels). I wish I had paid more attention to her talents now.

New website

We’ve launched our new site

www.bulgariancountryproperty.com

We think it reflects more what we’re about. We can still point people in the right direction if they want coast or city places, but our heart is in the rolling hills around Sliven, Kotel and Elena.

Even if you are scared by the credit crunch you can always just escape for a visit.

www.whitehousebulgaria.com

Pickling

Thought you might like to see the results of the pickling. Here is Stefan and his auntie who spent hours doing all this.

‘Couldn’t we just buy some from a shop? I said.

We went walking with the dogs and picked loads of mushrooms. Usually we never see anyone on our walks apart from the shepherds. Today, they were several people looking for the best mushroom spots. Now what are we going to do with all these mushrooms?

rush hour in Kipilovo

September jobs

Bulgarians (well, those in the countryside) are always madly busy doing things that I can’t keep up with. They’re pickling peppers and bags of vegetables for the winter, the walnuts are being picked from the trees and wood is being sawed into neat sizes for the wood-burning stoves, grapes are being gathered to make rakiya and wine. It is very funny to watch as it is almost a collective action. I feel I should be doing the same. Stefan is now buying peppers from the market so he can pickle them – I ask if we have enough jars? enough lids?

What a slacker

This was the only living thing I met on the way

I didn’t keep up with the blog. What a sin. I can blame the fact I didn’t have internet access. So here is the relaunch.

Here is a picture from my walk this morning.

Austria

I have just returned from a visit to Austria to a village called Aigen near Linz. I was helping my dear friend and former boss, Nicholas Treadwell, celebrate his 70th birthday and also launch his pink prison which will house his vast art superhumanism art collection.

Austria was beautiful, warm and friendly. I made instant friends with a wonderful woman called Shuna who was also drafted in by Nick. We worked well together and I will miss her laughter. The village have made Nicholas so welcome. I didn’t post anything on the blog as couldn’t work out how to put pictures up using Nick’s old computer. I will put some up when I get back to my laptop. I also feel that Facebook seems to be taking over as a way of communicating. I spent the day in Sofia which was hotter and sunnier than Austria and I enjoyed it there for the first time. I met up with Vagabond’s publisher – please comment on the article I wrote if you haven’t already!