Palamartsa 2

A view of Palamartsa

Village life here in Bulgaria is very different from our life back in Halifax, it is much slower and the people are more self sufficient.  As well as having land attached to their houses, where they grow vegtables, some also have land away from the village in a large field. 







This field is marked out and they have plot to grow more crops, we have been told that they have to give part of this crop to the land owner - just like Medieval Britain.

Some of the villagers also keep animals, mostly chickens and sheep, some have a few cows as well.  They can also use one of the shepherds to take the sheep out of the village in the morning and he or she takes them around on grazing land staying with them all day and when they return in the evening the sheep recognise where they are and leave the flock and 'baa' outside their house to be let in.

Village road

                             

 We have also noticed the complete lack of traffic noise except for cars passing the house, 1or 2 an hour, and no contrails in the sky from passing aircraft - a landscape photograhers dream!

Palamartsa

Jeni & Jordi's home in Palamartsa is a traditional village house, with a little land and out buildings.  The village once had 4 thousand people, but now there are less than a thousand and new people are now moving in.

The village sits in rolling countryside and the first thing we noticed when we arrived was the blossom.  People have been self sufficient here for many years especially through the communist era.

Today, Easter Sunday, we shared a meal with Jeni & Jordi's Bulgarian neighbours, sharing tradional fun games with hard boiled eggs and lots of home made spirits (Rakia) made from plums!!  Later we watched traditional dancing in the village square.

Yesterday Chris drove across Bulgaria to collect Jeni's friend Catherine from Plovdiv airport and saw some spectacular scenery.   

Sofia

Amazing.  An old Trabant, crumbling buildings, new (who gave them permission for that?) buildings.  Around Sofia in an afternoon, the highlight the Ladies Market, sounds and smells fruit and vegetables, groceries, sweeping brushes! Golden domes, dangerous pavements, Sofia needs more than half a day!

The Hostel Mostel is an old Greek traveling inn with separate apartments a short(?) walk away.  What an experience.

Before we go

Now we've got an empty drive and were almost fleeced by Webuyanycar.com.  We escaped the ever reducing price, grabbing the keys and the documents off the desk firing the parting shot, "we'd rather do without the money".  A narrow escape and the car is now sold, for less than we really wanted but rather more than the offer from Wefleeceeveryone.com.

Before we go

Its quite a feeling to be disentangling our lives here in Halifax.  Finishing work and, for Chris, taking a break from Scouting,  has left us surprised and delighted as  friends and colleagues say thier goodbyes.  

Regarding 'stuff'; as ours disappears in to the Tardis that is our loft space, its filled with new 'stuff' the stuff of our new tenants!  Our 'stuff' is rapidly becoming a small pile that will fit into a couple of backpacks!