Bulgaria

Our holiday continues to the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria where we have an apartment. Bulgaria is a small but complex country; we first came here in 1993 when the tourism industry was just beginning to flex its muscles after straining against the contradictions of communism. Eschewing the purpose built resorts of Sunny Beach and Golden Sands we found the delightful ancient town of Sozopol with its cobbled streets and old wooden houses perched on a peninsula and with perfect beaches for our young family.

Today the town is much slicker in its presentation and forms a contrast with the interior, where life in the villages looks little changed in generations and where one can imagine that the communist era was just a passing fad, a blip in the normal cycle of the seasons. To our south is the Strandja Forest Park, not hugely dramatic but immensely important as a nature reserve. Forming the border with Turkey this was part of the iron curtain, albeit the wrong way round with Eastern Europe on the west side and western aligned Turkey to the east. Because of its sensitive location it remained a deliberately undeveloped barrier which contains wolves and wildcats in the oak woods and isolated villages that still practice fire dancing rituals.

 Now that we are living in Malaysia it really makes little sense to keep the place here as we have exotic locations in Thailand and Indonesia on our doorstep to explore, but we will have to sell at a loss. The Romany looking people still seen in horse drawn carts on Bulgarian roads may lead lives unaffected by world events but we are very much global citizens. Our investment suffered from the crash of 2008 but the market, we were told, was improving with Russians and Ukrainians looking for a place in the sun. That twat Putin has now scotched that market with the uncertainty of sanctions and the Rouble tumbling. I suppose we should be grateful that we’re not in the Ukraine!

And it does give thetraveladdictspuzzle.blogspot.com its first advertisement space:

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Apartment for sale on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria: 65,000 Euros

Bathe in almost guaranteed sunshine and near perfect temperatures.

The apartment is 92 square metres with 2 double bedrooms and a balcony overlooking the pool and the sea. It comes fully furnished and equipped with everything from cutlery crockery and bed linen to satellite TV, barbecue and even a pair of mountain bikes. 

The apartment is part of a complex at Cape St Stefan and the owners (half of whom are native English speakers) have formed an association to ensure its smooth running and employ a manager and staff to care for the large swimming pool, maintain the grounds and provide security. All this is funded from an annual maintenance charge of 10 Euro/Sq Mtr.

The town of Sozopol is a 20-30 minute walk (or 5-10 minute ride) away and dates its history back to 611 BC. It draws many tourists to its old cobbled streets and traditional wooden houses and has excellent sandy beaches as well as plenty of shops.

Bulgaria is a very safe country and is now part of the European Union but remains one of the cheapest countries in Europe. The excellent and very cheap wine is reason enough alone to visit the country.

We bought the apartment from new 10 years ago when property prices in Bulgaria were believed to be set to increase sharply but the financial crash of 2008 dashed those hopes. The market is now picking up but we are no longer in a position to make use of the apartment and are offering it for significantly less than the original purchase price.

We cannot provide free holidays so if people wish to view but decide not to buy the property there will be a charge equivalent to 150 Euros per week or part of a week stay.

For more information e-mail philipgbrown@hotmail.com

Alternatively if you would like to visit the home see the Air BnB listing to book your stay here