|
The car that we had booked for the rest of the holiday turned up at
about 9.ooam and we checked out of the Toni but asked him to book us in again later in the week. We were off to have
some fun, it was party time at Chelnik, a small village in the Yambol region where another contact from the forum (Domino) had
bought a house. We were glad to be away from all the problems of the previous few days and we knew there were going to be
loads of people we knew by name but not sight at the party. When we finally arrived after getting lost numerous times we asked
where the nearest hotel was & it turned out to be 10 miles away & probably full anyway. Dom said we could stay there
as there was plenty of room & we took him up on the offer. The weather could have been better but what the hell, we were
at last on holiday and besides the weather was going to get a lot worse in the coming days.I was also suprised how much different
in price things were away from the tourist area's when I went to the village shop to buy a few large bottles of beer. 7 levs
worth of beer and I had a job to carry it all!
The party was brilliant and we met loads of people that although
we knew them to post replies and have some banter with on the website, we now knew them as faces aswell.
The house was really big and it just made us think that if people
in the villages were prepared to look after your property for a small fee whilst you were out of the country, this
is what you could get for your money.
There was
also a large pool which had been built as well and later on people would be in it even though it was not really swimming weather!
I suppose once the beers and the wine start working, it seems a good idea, although thankfully I resisted the urge and
stayed land side.
It seems that most Bulgarian village, or should I say rural, properties
have enough land with them to convert into really nice landscaped gardens with pools, barbecue areas, etc, but the main
reason I suppose they have so much land, is because they have so much land. The country is only home to about 8,000,000 people
and probably a lot of them live in cities so for the remainder a large plot of land brings self sufficiancy. The good life
springs to mind there but in reality its probably a struggle if you have no money and you basically fend for yourself, no
matter how much land you have, so when people want to buy that land the temptation is to sell and move on.
|
|
|
| The pool at Doms by night |
After the party it was off to Sozopol and more holiday.
Sozopol is a lovely area with lots of uncrowded beaches
and a brilliant harbour where we watched people fishing. It's also got some good taverna's with picturesque
views.
We stayed in Sozopol for 2 nights, the first hotel we enquired at
was large and quite palatial but not very welcoming it was also very expensive at about 100Euro per night so we gave that
the elbow.
The hotel we eventually stayed in was a lot cheaper and more friendly,
right in the heart of things with a balcony overlooking the village centre with small shops all round.
After a few days relaxing it was off back to nessebar and the Hotel
Toni.
Not much happened during this time, apart from going into the
Sunny Beach office several times to sign paperwork, and going to Bourgas several times as well to sign even more papers right
up to the last day of our holiday.
We managed to get another final look at the site before we left for
England and just hoped that the balcony fiasco would be sorted out, that the alternative flooring we had chosen would get
put down and put down as we wished, diagonally, as opposed to square to the walls, and that the kitchen would be installed
ok.
We just felt that things were not progressing as fast as they could
but at least what we had seen was good quality and as we said to many people in e-mails later on. 'That is what counts.'
All we could do now was go away and wait for events to unfold, order
the things we wanted the furniture company to supply, arrange for security shutters to be installed, organise a security alarm
and basically wait till we returned again to a hopefully completed complex and what I hope turns out to be a successful
conclusion to a very stressfull couple of years.
But you know what. I think we may just do it again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
More to follow after our trip in May. 2006
|
