After the ordeal of our journey through Europe, a short stay with friends near to Veliko Turnovo was very welcome. We relaxed, helped to feed the pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits, and asked lots of questions about keeping livestock. Feeling much refreshed, we set off to Palamartsa to find our rented accommodation. From the description…
Read moreDriving to Bulgaria
Having spent weeks paring down our belongings, our load consisted of a 750kg, 8ft x 5ft trailer, a full estate car and a bike on the back. This restricted our speeds to 55mph. This was actually quite enjoyable, as we were able to sit at a steady speed, without having to worry about all that…
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Bulgaria here we come!
Finally, after what seems like several lifetimes waiting, it’s looking like we’ve sold our house and will be off to Bulgaria this week. It’s been a roller-coaster few months, deciding how to get there and what to take, as well as riding the waves of “We’re so excited to be going to a new life”…
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My first sourdough bread
Making sourdough bread has always been one of those love-to-try-it-but-it-looks-really-complicated kinda things, but this week I’ve decided to give it a go, see how I got on. First, I need to make a starter culture. Then I will bulk this up to make a ‘mother’, from which a loaf of bread can be made. I’m…
Read moreNatural plastering DVD
One of the skills we’re certain to need to learn is plastering. Most of the houses we looked at in Bulgaria use a natural plaster, developed from locally sourced clays, and bound with straw. We have backed this Kickstarter project to help a Canadian, Chris Magwood, produce a DVD showing the range of techniques he…
Read morePotholes
We filmed this on a fairly busy road towards the end of our trip. We’d been bouncing along this road for so long, slowly driving round the massive craters in the road, while trying to avoid all the other cars coming towards us trying to do the same thing. Competition for the bits of road…
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Camping in Bulgaria
Be careful what you ask for! During our tour of Bulgaria we had really struggled to find camp-sites. We had seen loads of them marked on our map, but had been met with a mixture of truck-stops, seedy cabins and run-down facilities. The exceptions seemed to be those campsites run by English people, such as…
Read moreBulgarian music in space
Izlel e Delyo haidutin „Излел е Дельо хайдутин” [audio http://www.balkanfolk.com/pic/samples/180400/Izlel_e_Delio_haidutin.mp3] (mp3 from balkanfolk.com) The spaceship Voyager has a large collection of Earth music recorded on it, for the entertainment of any alien species it might encounter on it’s mission. This is one of them a piece of Bulgarian music from the singer, Valia Balkanska. The lyrics go…
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