Road to Bulgaria – Svetlina Garden

Bathtub 2012

The road to Bulgaria really started in Italy, or more specifically in our own bathtub.

That is, we took a bath, presumably after one of our walks in the woods and fields. We often do that, take a bath after such trips, then it is so easy to dream a little away from everyday life.

Winegrower

Becoming a wine farmer in Italy sounded like a fantastic plan. Then the sprout was sown. Roar contacted a couple from Norway who had done exactly what we were dreaming of. Quit their jobs, bought a winery and bet everything. Contact was made and the trip went to Milan in October 2013 was a reality, car hire to Piedmont. A beautiful wine district in Northern Italy. Roar’s parents also joined in the tour and we had a great trip. We looked at some vineyards that were on sale. Italy became too expensive for us, and we understood that life was not just a dance of roses in pursuit of living the dream. But to produce wine they could, beautiful wine, be bio dynamically grown. We left Italy and turned our eyes to other destinations and other ways of earning income.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria, yes why not probe the terrain there. We contacted the Norwegian Embassy in Sofia and were given the name of a lawyer who could help us. Mr Christopher Natchev became our contact person.

He organized several people to show us agricultural properties for sale.

July 9, 2015 we landed in Burgas. We were picked up at the airport by Slavi, who drove us to Primorsko. There we had rented a small apartment of Zarko, a Bulgarian who lives in Norway and is married to the family.

Storks

We bought a Bulgarian phone and soon the line of phones from Mr Natchev glowed which asked us to contact Plamen Kamburov. We rented a car and met Mr. Kamburov in Burgas. We looked at various ‘plots of land’ near Izvor and Sozopol. We did not get the great feeling that ‘here it is’, but we got very close to real life where the storks build huge nests in the lamp posts. Disappeared villages that have no great future. Our fascination is just growing. It is completely devoid of the glossy images of the tourist brochures. Welcome to the countryside in Bulgaria 🙂
5. Hr. Plamen Kamburov

But now we forgot to tell about Mr. Kaburov. It turned out that he worked on agricultural properties in the ministry. An incredibly nice person who had plans to meet his wife on the beach after meeting us, but it probably didn’t matter, because our meeting lasted long after the sun had set.

He took us to Chateu Melida, where we had lunch. A wonderfully wonderful place as it turned out that we returned to several times. We also stopped by a beach and had a coffee. There were no tourists there, just Bulgarians. Toilets with holes in the floor say that only the locals use this beach.

Fighting Dog

Mr. Plamen and his assistant Toni also showed us a villa with a swimming pool. The family wanted to sell the house. We got salad from the family vegetable garden, wine and retro beer. A large fighting dog with domed ears and tail guarded the house. It was unfortunately outside the concept we had envisioned, but for us this was still an important meeting with great people.

Stoyko Stoykov

Day 2 was no less eventful. Our next contact was Stoyko Stoykov. A generous guy who spoke Norwegian after living 16 years in Norway, more specifically Namdalseid. He had traveled around Norway playing piano at many different hotels. He was a music educator.

He was an interpreter for a lawyer / notary who also showed us plots of land. The lawyer was a guy with a lot of humor. Despite the language barrier, he showed us the plant called Bulgaria’s “Viagra”. He laughed so well himself.

Mayor

Suddenly the mayor of Zozopol appeared with his beautiful wife. He had vineyard to sell. In an very old jeep model we went on safari in the forests of Bulgaria. This was a very nice place. If infrastructural had been in place, this would probably have been taken into consideration.

Stoyko Stoykov had to go and take care of his business. He ran a big nightclub in Primorsko. Thus, we were all alone in the forests of Bulgaria with wildly alien people and no one spoke English.

Jeep

In a large Jeep of high price range, a large man with cowboy hat appeared. Another man who has vineyards for sale. We joined a wild Jeep tour no cars can arrive, to take a look at wine lands. It’s also a great place, close to the coast, but too far from infrastructure.
Han var i entreprenør bransjen og ville gjerne bygge hus for oss,

What a day, so many impressions. Communicating when English is the third language is incredibly strenuous.

Solbakke

Before we left we had contacted Roger Solbakke via the Internet. We didn’t know him, but Roger lives in Varna and we thought a Norwegian could give us good advice on lots and lots in Bulgaria. A very nice guy we still have contact with. And yes, he gave us a lot of good advice and input. Thanks Roger 🙂

Aleksi Aleksiev

Aleksi Aleksiev is a new acquaintance. He wants to cooperate with us, enter into partnership.

We met him twice. We also got to meet his wife, son and daughter. He also wanted to show us Chateu Medevo, so there was another visit there. We will have a lot of contact with Aleksiev should it prove.
But we do not know then.

Sunny Beach

Ivan is a Bulgarian who has taken his family with him and moved to Norway. He got in touch with us through our married friend Zarko. An energetic guy with a lot of commitment. We meet him in Sunny Beach where he is on vacation with his family. The hotel owner has agricultural property for sale and we will investigate this. So we take the trip.

Ivan arranges a tour of the hotel, fixes food and shows us the property, and is just as energetic in everything he does. But we think it is too crowded with hotels everywhere. But anyway, thank you Ivan for spending your time on us.

Beglik Tash

Then we spend a few days holiday exploring Primorsko and its sights. Beglik Tash is a place outside Primorsko with a natural and very special stone formation that was used for sacred rituals in the old days. This place is featured on Trip Advisor and Wikipedia, so take a look there. We did not go the same way as we came but found an ancient overgrown path that brought us back to Primorsko. Exciting and a little scary since there are wild boars in Bulgaria’s forests, and way outside the comfort zone.

Primorsko

We have met many nice people on this trip. No doubt we will enjoy the people here.

Tony, who runs the supermarket in the same house as Zarko’s apartment, is also a nice acquaintance. Slavi who drives us to and from the airport and arranges everything convenient for us. He and his father are taxi owners and have the Norwegian text ‘Ut på tur, aldri sur!’ written on their taxi’es. Means “out on trip, never angry!

Slavi has also worked in Norway and learned a little Norwegian.