Hello again😊

Thank you very much, Eddie xxxx

Hello and thank you for watching my channel 🩷

It’s lovely, isn’t it?😊 whereabouts are you? We are in Central Bulgaria not far from.Karlovo ❤️

Oh thank you so much! You are very kind🥰

Thank you very much! I would like to use some more if that’s okay? I just thought I would try a bit as I didn’t know how it would work - but it seems to have worked okay but I of course will acknowledge your work if I do so thank you once again! Susan.Xx

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime Absolutely, it would be my sheer pleasure and honour! Feel free to use any of my music as you see fit and if you're interested in an particular piece, just let me know and I'll send you the best possible audio quality (.wav file) so it works best in your clip :) You've made my morning - thanks so much again! :)

@witekkulczycki thank you so much!😘

Thank you! And it was so cheap to make - just concrete and one of those moulds 😊🥰

Hello😊 we were quoted 2000 BGLEV by a national company over here. However, we managed to find a local gentleman with a digger who did it for 1000 BGL EV.xx

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime Thanks.

Thank you so much! I actually bought it from the town you see at the end - they have some beautiful clothes there - Nesebar 😊🥰

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime one day I hope to shop there😄!!

Thank you very much Roger😃

It’s a pleasure! We love it here! Are you living here?😊

Hello 😊 this is the Rose Valley - it is situated in the centre of Bulgaria and is surrounded by mountains - nearest townKarlovo

@@EscapetoasimplerplaceandtimeI have been heard there is a lot of gypsies ? trying to avoid them

@Uc9uE3pKsS6uQ ours Is a gypsy village 😃 we have had property there John for 15 years and never had a single problem. On the contrary we have found the Roma population friendly, helpful, and very nice people. Having said that, there are many villages where there are very few Roma it certainly isn’t predominantly populated by Rona 😊

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime good to hear that !! thanks

Hello! Thank you for your comments Yes, I know - I have been researching this and realised that it is very Turkish - obviously if the Bulgarians had been under the Ottomans for 500 years that was bound to happen - the whole thing fascinates me. We are slowly working on renovations and now we have quite a lot of information- some of which I’ve shared in my last video in this series ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MSiC-AuH0hw.htmlsi=ycyhGyx71-HNrR0l This is after speaking to a very knowledgeable lady who gave us a lot of information. We will be sharing more in subsequent videos - we have also found a man who specialises in renovating the exterior of such properties in the authentic style. 😃 The key thing is to look after the wooden structure - you really must not put modern materials next to this wooden structure or you will ruin it after our many hundreds of years it has been standing. This is very important. I explain more in the video. 😊

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime God healp you dear 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

Absolutely!

Lovely!😊

Thank you very much! You are very kind! We reckon it will take us a couple of years - but we’re not in a hurry😊🥰

Looks like a very interesting project. We have lost so many of our traditional skills it is good that you are trying to help keep them alive

@jeffashwell6056 thank you Jeff

Thank you for your kind comment 😊

It’s very unique, isn’t it? We love it.😃🥰

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime Unique - true that, especially nowadays, but also (or, actually even more so to me) so heartwarmingly familiar, bringing back the sweetest childhood memories. The bulk of the uniqueness is this IS indeed a real-life time machine for me🥰

😃 yes! And they are so cheap!😃

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime whatever the cost, they are like dreams are - priceless! 🥰

Well, I didn’t know that! Thank you for that insight. I have seen Rose of houses in the towns though? 😊 I make my channel mainly for English people - and would you believe that a detached house in England is considered to be a rare commodity?😂 and much more expensive than one that isn’t. Thank you.💜

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime I know that I know both sides as a Bulgarian living in uk, in towns and cities are mostly apartments. If your don’t keep this standard for 3 meters rule you neighbour has the right to demolished it

My goodness! Thank you for educating me😃 so you know then how overcrowded England is and how wonderful we think Bulgaria is!😃🩷

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime unfortunately most of the Bulgarian emigrants escaped due to economical reasons related mostly with the big corruption which is ruining every part of the country but all of us keep Bulgaria 🇧🇬 in our hearts at least majority making plans to go back home - we for example didn’t buy house in uk even if we got this opportunity you can see what we’ve got in Bulgaria why should we spend a fortune for something not even a half quality then what we can buy in our country not to mention the space that comes with the house and the garden we think the property prices in uk are far to exaggerated 🤔

Yes absolutely they are - and this is part of the British corruption! Long story and very complex. But this is how Britain bolsters the economic system by constantly raising house prices.😃 it has got to a point now where children are no longer in her property they inherit a mortgage from their parents. It’s very sad. But not only do you have cheaper housing here - you have sunshine almost every day! You have beautiful scenery that is not overcrowded - we can’t even go for a walk in England very far as there are fences everywhere because people own land and won’t let you walk over it. the weather is awful! And the food is also expensive and full of chemicals - people do not have gardens because Land is too expensive - the food here is much cleaner and healthier - my allergies have completely cleared up from moving here - I have them from being 17 to 55 and they have no cleared up because I moved your country! I think that says a lot. life is wonderful.💜🥰

Bless you! And do feel free to contact me direct - underneath the video is a link to my blog and on the homepage under “about me” you will find my email address😊 I would put my email address here for you but RU-vid remove it for some reason. Leaving family is always an issue when moving abroad. We were only discussing this afternoon the fact that our children are not here with us. However, four of them live either abroad themselves or was situated many miles from where we lived. - so even if we had stayed at home, we would only have got to see them once a year at the most whereas now they come to see us on a holiday. we could not have had the quality of life we have here If we had stay at home and although we do feel a little selfish sometimes our children are all grown up and have their own lives.Obviously having an older parent is a different matter altogether. Jeff‘s father was in his 90s when he died and we had been over here for about two or three years at that time. Thankfully, he was extremely fit and well and had a very good support network - including a much younger girlfriend! So we didn’t feel too bad about leaving him behind. He came over for a holiday the year before he died and thoroughly enjoy himself! But as I say, he was extremely fit and well for his age.With regard to purchasing property - we purchased our home here nine years before we actually moved here. As you say, prices are going up all the time - so it would not be a bad move if your heart is set on moving here eventually.there are companies who can take care of the property for you in your absence including pay bills etc that is what we did until we were able to move over - our Estate agent did this for us - although maybe someone in the villagewhere you are thinking of buying would do it. You could even pay the bills online they won’t be very big as you won’t be here. Our Friend used to check on the house every few months to make sure everything was okay and we had a security company - that really was not expensive. I think currently it’s less than £200 per year for an alarm system and The security come within a few minutes if the alarm goes off. They are all also armed! So it’s a big deterrent.😃We came over and spent two weeks here twice every year - one week renovatingand one week having a holiday! We used to come over in early and then again in late summer. there really isn’t a problem owning a house even if it’s empty. But as I say, if I can be any further help do feel free to contact me and good luck with your plans - we have never regretted moving here! One other thing - I’ve just remembered - also on my blog you will find two blog posts about buying property - one is all about where to buy and the other one is advertising a service that my husband provides which you may find helpful.😊

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime wow ! That was so incredibly generous and kind of you to such a lengthy reply . I will read your reply to my wife after work today , and we will be in touch . I do not want to take up to much of your time , but am beyond grateful to have someone that has no direct interest in making money off us , so we can trust the advice to be more genuine, if that makes sense and does not come across to negative? Thank you again for sharing so openly. Paul& Simone from Canada . By the way as a point of interest, I was born in Ireland, so hold an Irish passport. So that should make things much easier for us as far as I know .

Thank you again for your lovely comment! And yes I am only too happy to share our knowledge with you - for what it is - we have had property here now for 16 years and we absolutely love this country and I make my videos purely to promote the country! I feel driven to do this - in the same way I felt driven to enter my social work career. I just want to share our experiences with other people as life here has just been so wonderful - it would seem almost selfish not to tell other people!😃

Hi! Nice to meet you 😊 so you are in the mountains? Do you get snowed in in winter time? 😊

Bless you! And yes, she did. I still think about her nearly every day.🥰

What a beautiful comment! Thank you so much!! You are very kind. If you can find my blog from the link below the video - there is an article on there you may find useful if you are thinking of visiting the country - regarding places to live favoured by, ex- pats. And dependent upon your lifestyle choices. So for example, the further down you go tends to be more expensive - as do the cities - the villages are cheaper to living but some of them can be quite remote with poor infrastructure. VT is a very popular place For English speakers as is Sophia - though I personally don’t like Sophia very much and much prefer Plovdiv - which is a fabulous city and a must to visit if you are coming over. I I would also highly recommend a trip to Nesebar on the Black Sea coast 😃 thank you again and good luck!💜 (do let us know how you get on!)

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime You are very welcome and thank you for reminding me of your blog/website, many interesting and helpful hyperlinks of all the right topics as i am interested in exploring an escape to a simpler place and time, homesteading and self sufficiency which is diametrically different from the western city life i am leading right now. Nessebar and Plovdiv will both be on my list to visit as well as the VT area. I will certainly let you know how things go and will probably send you an e-mail before the visit because you and your husband have exactly the experience i lack.

Hello again - you are very welcome to contact us - we would be happy to come and meet up with you to say hello. I have had a number of people contact me regarding moving over here and I’ve met a few of them😊 if you are interested in homesteading then rural Bulgaria is perfect! It has been the way of life here for centuries so most of the homes are geared up with everything you will need from large plots of land without buildings and grapevines through to the fact that even the supermarkets here stock canning equipmentand wine and cider making equipment in autumn😊

Oh, that sounds lovely! Wishing you all the best with that and thank you for your lovely comment. We don’t have a credit card since moving here so we have also had problems hiring cars - but we found a local guy who actually loans without the use of a credit card which is amazing, this would never happen in England! I haven’t tried the trains yet - it’s on my list of things to do. Have you tried going anywhere by train ? How are you finding VT?

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime We love VT, we travelled by train from Sofia to VT on Thursday, it was cheap and cheerful. 4.5 hour journey (with one easy change) cost us 15€ each, (we discovered 1st class, (slightly comfier seats) would have only been 20€ each). Still we were quite comfy, you have to sit in your allocated booked seat, it took us ages to find ours but everyone was extremely helpful (passengers and staff alike 🥰) and we were regaled with stories and explanations of the fabulous countryside with much pigeon English, Bulgarian, hand gestures and laughter along the route. We will most likely try the bus from VT to Plovdiv this Thursday just for the experience (and its a bit quicker than the train) though we may change our mind nearer the time. 😎

It was Peters replacement driving licence not arriving in time that scuppered us this time. Though it sounds like we would have had a problem anyway, as we don't have credit cards either.

@@angelay1925 that sounds amazing! That’s the kind of thing I’ve heard that people are really helpful on the train! It sounds like going by train when I was a child do they still have compartments? Or was it one big train? I know the ones I’ve seen look really quite old fashioned from the outside 😃

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime it was compartments, just the way we think trains should be. 🥰 it was old and tired looking (inside) but it eas clean, tidy and comfortable.

Excellent video, they always give us a lot of pleasure. Wish we had contact details, we would like to buy you lunch or dinner if you are in the Black Sea area next month.

@nickrushton2506 bless you! We would love to meet up with you - but I couldn’t possibly let you buy lunch! We are in the Black Sea area next month we have a property not far from Burgas. I try to send another lady my email on here and RU-vid deleted it. For some reason they won’t allow contact details it’s some kind of robot thing that operates on here - but underneath my video there is a link to my blog and that does have my email on it if you can be bothered to do that that would be nice to meet 😊 it’s in the article entitled or quotes about Me“ on the homepage😊

😊

Thank you very much. You are very kind.😊

🥰

Thank you! Can you explain it to me please? In England, we have a clear distinction between a city and a town - the distinction is that is city contains a cathedral and the cathedral contains a bishops throne without the throne. There is no city it’s just a town. I would be very grateful if you could explain to me what your distinction is? Thank you very much.😊

Oh my goodness! Thank you so much for that - that is very kind of you! And no, I’ve never heard of him - I will go and look him up now 😊 do you have an older property that you are renovating yourself that you have come across him?😃❤️

I’ve just found both channels, they look fascinating thank you!😃

Bless you! And thank you so much for telling us about her channel we will look it up! We love your country and this would’ve been a beautiful building at one time and we hope to restore it to its original beauty. Thank you so much for your kind comment.😊🥰

Wow! Yes, it’s very scenic isn’t it - were you on holiday here?

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime No just a night out. Live Pazardjilk region.

Oh incredible! You couldn’t send me the link to the RU-vid channel could you? Thank you so much😃

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tIQxHq-6tG8.html

Thank you so much! That is extremely kind of you!😊

You'll have to let me know how it goes before I do my own.

@specialistcarmarketing 😃 yes of course! Don’t hold your breath though - because, as you saw on the video, my husband fell through the floor! So he needs a few weeks where he isn’t doing too much - we also have family coming over - so it’s probably going to be June before we get round to doing the windows - but you will see our progress. They really are beautiful windows 😊🥰

Thank you! We are enjoying the process - do you have a property you are renovating?😃

Bless you! We are near to Troyan 😊 we know that we could replace them, but we would really like to restore them as they are so unique😊🥰

​@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime , thats what I mean ,restoring them-many carpenters in ur area, ask aound

@cami0076 thank you😃

@@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime , so I looked online and made some calls to companies that sell and make wooden furniture. They dont know of anyone locally who would be able to renovate those windows, but I found a company in Sofia. They might be able to advise u at least....type Re-furnish Bulgaria in google, all the best

That is so very kind of you! Thank you so much for your time and trouble😊🥰

😁 yes thank you! Luckily my husband is very skilful at DIY. There isn’t much he can’t do. There is a fun story about the Roof - but I’m saving that for the next video😀🥰

Thank you very much! And yes, we think it is a fascinating old building 😊 this is The Troyan pass over the Balkan mountains 🥰

Goodness! Do people really complain? The only complaint we have ever had is about the stray animals - it really is heartbreaking. However, people think that the RSPCA solve this problem in England, when what actually happens is that they euthanise stray animals every year. We love it here. Thank you for your nice comment.💜

I am a follower all the English people living in Bg. They show only the positives. There is one Russian woman living in Varna, she also shows only positives. Until now I have come across only 2 Ukranian teenage girls who found Varna and Bourgas boring. But of course there are negatives, people are tired of them, we all know them,and normally when we relax watching we like seeing only the good things. It makes us open our eyes to the good around us. Life is so stressful.

@@nadyadobreva9904 yes, life can be very stressful! I’m glad you have enjoyed the video. We are enjoying the renovation very much.😃🥰

Wow! Really? Do you live here? Are you indigenous are you Bulgarian? 💜

@Escapetoasimplerplaceandtime Yes, I am Bulgarian and live in Sofia. Since this house has a hiding place, it is definitely before the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke. It might be 20, 30, or 50 years before that. I am a follower of all the English population in Bulgaria. Why!? At first quite accidentally, because there is one very famous Englishman,known all over the world, called Bald and Bankrup. So, he speaks Russian fluently and loves everything that is Soviet, travels around Russia, and many more countries as well, and makes friends with everybody. I don't know how, but videos of English people that have moved to Bulgaria started appearing and was shocked. Who are these people that move to houses that no one wants to buy and why. I lived in London for a short time 15 years ago. And I know that the English countryside and villages are as beautiful as a picture. They are dreamlike- very neat and green, with all the thatched roof cottages..there are even castles..... and I started wondering what English people find here in our derelict village houses. And it is also very useful to know what you look like in the eyes of outside people. As you might know, Bulgaria fell under the Ottoman empire in 1385. Let's say late 14th century. All the big houses and fortresses were destroyed, and the aristocracy slaughtered. So, to make the long story short- while Europe saw the Renaissance in the 15th,16th,18th century, the Great Geographical Discoveries, science flourished, Europe colonized the world, Bulgaria did not exist for 5 centuries on the face of the Earth, Bulgarians were enslaved, they worked for the Sultan, were badly treated because they were Christians /raya/, not "true believers". So, we don't have here any magnificent buildings, any mansions, we have nothing left. Such houses as the one you bought belonged to ordinary people. And you see - hiding place for the women and girls and the little boys.

thank you so much for this wonderful reply. I found it very moving. I am fascinated by history - especially of your country. I am also fascinated by people - I have a masters degree in applied social sciences and I love to understand people. I find the history here extremely interesting. I understood about the oppression by the Turks - but it was only on a recent visit to the historical town of Koprivshtitsa, whilst reading he oath, taken by the apostles - that I realise that the liberation took place, not just because of the oppressive nature of the Turkish regime, but primarily because the Ottomans were attempting to crush Christianity in this country. I was very moved by this. We love your country for multiple reasons - not the least of which is the fact that you have kept your history alive , and all of your wonderful traditions! We have lost so much of this in “our pretty little English villages”😊 those little villages are now inhabited - usually for only part of the year - by the few people who can afford to live there - which precludes most of the population. Many of them are actually only holiday homes. England has been engulfed by greed and consumerism for a very long time. Thankfully, Bulgaria hasn’t succumbed to this trend so much yet. Thank you so much for replying to me. It has been lovely to talk to you please do forgive any mistakes as I have a visual impairment and thank you for your very informative insights on the age of our property - I am now even more fascinated by it 😊💜

Thank you so much, Simon! You are always so kind! And yes - we intend to take our time Simon - it is a retirement project for us😊🥰

Hello there! Lovely to talk to you - we do own other property here, so we can take our time. We have purchased this as a “retirement“ project.😊 just to keep busy and be doing something purposeful and obviously we would love to see it restored to its former glory. It is 156 years old so it’s a period property. It’s a fascinating house. We are very keen so I think some of the smaller jobs will get done quite quickly, but there is so much to do including the fact that we are going to have to rebuild the outdoor steps and probably replace the roof.😃 do you have property here?

Hi there … I thought we had told you we’re down near Svilengrad 😉

@@thelifeobservant9688 Sorry! Yes, I remember now! Thank you so much😃❤️

Thank you! And yes, we are very excited about it!😃🥰

Oh thank you so much! That is a really kind comment! And yes, we are very excited about it 😃🥰