Much has happened since I last updates, so hopefully this is the first of 2 (or 3) blogs this week to bring it all up to date.

May was predominately rain which resulted in major frustration as the weeds snatched the opportunity to grow and thrive.   Luckily we managed to get some consecutive dry days enabling us to get some weeding done.   The weeds are still winning though

Our rabbit population exploded as a result of the bunny matings in April.    Initially I wanted the rabbits to live as a colony but when we tried this last year we found the kits were getting eaten by the older rabbits.     The, less than ideal, solution is the rabbits live in cages but a buck and a couple of does are let out into the compound for a few days.    The does than go into maternity cages, and we keep our fingers crossed.   So far this seems to be working well, the does don't get to run around as much as we would like but they do get some freedom, and we get healthy litters.   We also purchased (second hand) 5 new rabbits hutches, increasing our number of maternity cages.

As we don't drink that often I'd decided to try finding drinks recipes, for preserving, that didn't rely on vodka, or other alcohol.   So far we have stores of lemon balm cordial, elderflower (foraged) cordial and cherry cordial.

Somehow I managed to break the Bulgarian mini oven that we inherited with the house.      Heating element decided it didn't want to stay at the top of the oven but wanted to drop onto the food being cooked.    Paul managed to fix it but it did the same a couple of days later, luckily we have the halogen oven so not a major disaster.



We'd been given the opportunity to purchase wood 50% cheaper than last year so ordered another 10 cubics.     Following a 9.30pm wood delivery we now have enough wood for the next 4 years IF our consumption is the same as previous winters.

At the end of May we welcomed Pauline and Guillaume, a lovely French couple who had contacted us via workaway, into our home.   They are very different from Julie & Remi but also very similar in their enthusiasm and work ethic.

A week after the arrival of Guillaume and Pauline, Marcus (Australian) and Sarah (Malaysian) arrived with a very different view of the helper/host relationship and work ethic.      

A month of birth and death and more births.

Our French helpers have been and gone, if the rest of our visitors this year are as good as Remi & Julie we'll be very lucky.

Paul and Remi spent a few days replacing the fence down the edge of our fodder field.    I think the concreting the posts in, to stop them sliding down the hill, took them longer than connecting the actual fencing wire.  

During those days Julie and I got on with planting, weeding and playing in the kitchen, we tried some traditional Bulgarian recipes with English/French twists to them.  Walnut milk was an interesting experiment - nice for cooking with but has a Milk of Magnesia taste as a drink.


Timmy  (ewe) had been diagnosed with hypocalcaemia  by the vet and, despite her (slow) recovery we weren't overly confident about her having a live birth so it was a nice surprise for her to deliver 2 live lambs.   Unfortunately she rejected the lambs and our vet was most unhelpful, refusing to visit and telling us if we could get to the surgery before he went home he had some colostrum and powdered milk in stock.  He had no colostrum, so we made a substitute, sadly it wasn't good enough and the lambs died - one after 34 hours the other 11 hours later. 

Because of the time taken looking after the lambs, and Timmy,  I neglected to keep a check on the incubator so failed to notice the cats had managed to adjust the temperature so we lost the unhatched quail chicks.     My brooder design was also not good enough so the 4 hatched quail also died.    We've learnt where we went wrong with the brooder so will give the hatching process another go, once we have everything modified and in place.  Three weeks after giving birth Timmy also died, the hypocalcaemia and birth took too much out of her.     Shaun (10 month old ram) is the last of our current big animals and is due to be culled next week - yummy, more lamb prosciutto to be made.     We will then be taking a break, of a few months, from large animals before deciding if we get more sheep (my choice) or goats (Pauls choice).  We did consider just continuing with the poultry and rabbits but lamb and goat meat is difficult to obtain here and with our own animals we know they haven't been pumped full of chemicals. 

Talking of rabbits we had 2 does give birth at Easter and another doe give birth 3 days ago.    Next week we'll breed another 2 of the does, followed by another 2 the week after,    Bunny burgers will be on the menu a lot this year IF all goes to plan.  We also acquired 6  (month old) chicks and 2 geese with 5 goslings so it looks like we may need to expand Poultry Palace into another outbuilding.

   
 
The little bedroom, which was my project, was at the install electrics and then remud-plaster  stage.   While Paul and Remi were installing the electrics Remi and Julie showed interest in learning the techniques involved with the plastering, and getting dirty, so that room is now much more advanced than expected.





It wasn't all work as a friend was having a birthday celebration a few villages away and the 4 of us had a very pleasant night out.   Two days later was Pauls birthday and Julie was leaving for France, followed by Morocco for a wedding, so she cooked a brilliant birthday/leaving lunch.



We were sad to see Julie leave but she did loan us Remi for a further 2 weeks.  Those 2 weeks seemed to include an extreme number of conversations between Remi & Paul regarding how 'to be reused' items could be repurposed into things that involved explosives and missiles.   Boys will be boys - whatever their age.

Ok so apart from great laughs and some great food, including both of the chocolate fondants (should have been mousses) that Remi made, what did we achieve during April - other than losing an upsetting amount of livestock?   We have a field fence, again.   We have solar powered outdoor lighting, that works finally.    We have guttering that feeds into our IBCs.    We have a junk room well on the way to being ready for decorating and turning into a bedroom.  We have the base for the pool nearly finished - we ran out of sand/gravel/cement due to underestimating amount need. 

All our crops were planted out although a hailstorm last week did wash away/kill a large number of the seedlings.   Luckily the fodder crops were unaffected and we managed to get replacement seedlings from the pazaar and they are now in the ground with no more storms forecast.   There is a great satisfaction in seeing crops break the surface and start to grow, although the weeds seem to grow much faster I'm slowly getting areas under control.  




I have a better idea this year of when crops will be ready so have started devising recipes to preserve as much as possible, without using alcohol.   So rather than fruit vodkas we will have lots of bottles of cordial this coming year, at least that's the plan.

Since the last posting the weather has been mixed, some days needing just shorts and t-shirts whilst other days definitely justify bundling up before venturing too far from the house.

More crops have been planted and I experience frustration when seedlings don't appear and little (silly) bursts of happiness when a row of greenery pops up.  Last month I mentioned the rhubarb my mum brought us from England had not survived the winter - I was wrong.    We have a rhubarb plant, admittedly not the 3 we had last year but we HAVE rhubarb,  Yeah

Paul has declared I have a root obsession.   It took me 3 days (with lots of coffee breaks) to dig a 6 square metre area, previously uncultivated, to a spades depth  removing weeds c/w roots at every spade full.   The poultry loved me as one 2 metre row was producing a full bucket of weeds for them.    The cleared area will be used for growing baby corn this year as the transplanted vines will not be established enough to affect their growth.
 

Also following on from last month, we cut and tasted the Lamb Prosciutto   WOW  it tastes awesome, even if I say so myself.     We also had friends come over to scrounge some compost and used them as guinea pigs they agree that the taste is pretty awesome, I did do other items for lunch just in case they didn't like it..  Lessons have been learnt though - next time we cure and air dry a joint, of meat, we will debone it first.   By we I obviously mean Paul who is much better at butchering than me,  he prepares, I process, seems to work for us.   Another conclusion was that if this becomes a regular occurrence we will need to purchase a meat slicing machine, getting the meat thin enough with just a knife is difficult and very time consuming.

As we keep killing the livestock, to eat, we (actually I) thought we better expand the range.   Paul would like to increase the number of sheep we have and get some goats, I'm not convinced.     We have bought 4 Muscovy ducks and bartered, some seedlings, for 23 quail eggs which will hopefully hatch in the next week.     Incubating eggs is nearly as frustrating as planting seeds due to the 'wait and see' element of the process.    If incubation is successful the quail will be for egg production and also meat.   The 4 (original) ducks are not intended for the table although their eventual offspring will have no such protection.   It is very likely that we will be purchasing some chicks at the market next Friday to replace the chickens that have either been killed by the Byalka (pinemarten) or wandered off, never to be found.

We have now been living in Bulgaria for 2 years and apart from occasionally missing my family and friends I have no regrets at all.   One of our friends came over, for a week, 2 months after we moved in and is coming back this year, it will be interesting to hear her comments as I often feel that we have not done much at all, other than what seem like day to day activities.     Other visitors this year include Paul's youngest 2 children who will be here for 5 weeks and possibly his aunt and uncle from New Zealand will be taking a week out of their visit to the UK for a detour to Lomtsi.    Both Paul and myself will get to spend a week in the UK this year, independently, as airline restrictions mean an adult needs to accompany his youngest son.     I get to see my family early July whereas Paul has to wait until mid August to visit the rest of his family.

On the subject of visitors, some of you are aware that we are registered with Workaway and Helpx - we host travelers, infrequently, throughout the year.     These people provide us with help around the place in exchange for bed and board with the added bonus of new faces, topics of conversation and often increased enthusiasm for what we are doing here.   Although we enjoy having helpers stay with us after 5 months of no (live-in) company it was daunting the week before the arrival of our first helpers of 2014.     Julie & Remi arrived a week ago, during our communication beforehand I was impressed by their enthusiasm and  sense of humour which is so much more impressive in person.  If the rest of the 2014 helpers brighten our days as much as this couple we are in for a good  year.

To round of this months update I had been thinking about a bee tattoo for quite a while but although I knew the bee I wanted I realised it needed something more, probably something floral.   Talking to the local tattoo artist she took my idea and worked with it until we were both happy with the final design.   The top of my right leg is now adorned with the most fantastic body art.  No more tattoos planned - unless I lose something else important to me.

More than I thought

Half way through March and this is Februaries blog.   I kept procrastinating the writing as didn't think much had happened here, until I read last posting here.

The snow came and went  in February and March started drizzly and not so warm but it is now sunny and warm - in fact t-shirt weather whilst working in the garden.    Talking of the garden we have now installed a greenhouse 16' x 6' with a trickle irrigation system.    I can imagine you all thinking WHY? considering the hot summers we have here.    Currently the greenhouse is being used to raise seedlings and during the summer will, no doubt, be used for overflow planting and dehydrating BUT it's main purpose is to provide us with winter vegetables.    The winter of 2013/2014 was remarkably mild with not much snow, however the previous winter was deep snow for extended periods.   A greenhouse, hopefully will just entail us clearing a path to it for harvesting, rather than trying to remember whereabouts crops are under the snow and digging down to them.

On a less positive note when we started the van, to go collect the greenhouse, the cab quickly filled with smoke and the engine didn't start.   Subsequent investigation, by Paul, discovered the fuse box had a short circuit which had resulted in some of the wiring loom melting - hence the smoke.   Hopefully this will be resolved soon as we have some stone slabs to collect for the outside dining area, as well as some furniture which should have been collected end of last year.

Crops:
The garlic and onion that was planted last October/November is doing well, with the plants protected by cloches much further advanced - this has the unintentional result of successive harvesting.   Unfortunately the rhubarb my mother brought over from UK for us did not survive the winter so we are now attempting to grow some from seed.   The herbs had a mixed winter with the chives, lavender, lemon balm, mint and sage coping well, the rosemary is currently in intensive care with seeds having been sown just in case it doesn't survive.   Talking of herbs I made a mistake when positioning the herb bed and placed it near the outside dining area, so have repurposed an old animal feeder into a backdoor herb trough, this will be moved into the greenhouse during winter.

As I type we have 8 varieties of tomatoes germinated, along with some annual herbs and sweet peas.   we are still waiting for the trays of chillies, aubergines, peppers and brasscias to show themselves.  Although in previous years we didn't plant direct to ground until the end of march/early April the medium to long term weather forecast is good so I've gambled on an early sowing of mangetout, beetroot and carrots.

The warm and dry weather also means Paul can work in the field preparing it for the sowing of lucerne (alfalfa) and maize.   The field will be divided into 4 strips (1 lucerne and 3 maize) meaning 3 paths down the field, these paths will be edged with peaks planted with onions, carrots, beetroot, parsnip, mooli and turnip.    Normally we would also plant garlic in this area but I think I may have overdone it pre-winter by planting 500 cloves, we will see.

Last time I mentioned making Lamb Prosciutto,   this is a long drawn out process of curing a leg of lamb in a salt/sugar/herb/spice mix and then wrapping in muslin before airdrying it until it loses 40 - 50% of it's original weight.    We are nearly at the desired weight and tastings will be happening SOON.

Out of cure, about to be wrapped.


I also mentioned the fact I was removing the mud plaster from the small bedroom in order to install electrics and straighten the walls (hopefully).   I have had to admit defeat after removing over 90% and ask for help, even with step ladders, which I have an annoying habit of stepping backwards off, I struggled to removed the plaster from the ceiling.

The biscuit and cake making has eased off a bit as the weather improves and I spend more time outside.    When I do make a batch up it is not all cooked but stored in the fridge and cooked in small batches which means we don't eat as many in one sitting but also if we need a sugar hit fresh baked cookies can be ready in 10 - 15 minutes.

Interesting start to 2014

Well  what happened with the weather.   We go into winter with stockpiles of essentials ready for being snowed in and mid January I'm building raised beds in the garden only for the snow to arrive and bury them all a couple of weeks later.

Admittedly it's only our second winter here but we were worried at one stage that the snow wouldn't arrive.   Surprisingly it feels much colder than it did last year, even though the temperatures haven't dropped below minus 15 celsius.   It may be that this year is more windy and we had some days of fog which dampened spirits.


The boys room has been put on hold as I'm too mean to heat parts of the house we are not yet living in, and I refuse to voluntarily give myself frostbite.    The only part of the main house being used currently is the bathroom, which is wonderful  when the petchka is lit and we can have a soak in hot water before getting out into a warm room.  It's a guaranteed way of warming my feet up, which are rarely warm at the minute.

January feels like it has been a month of not doing much, other than keeping warm, but small steps forward have been taken on various projects, like the garden and the boys room.   I think I have probably made more biscuits than normal this month, so another reason to look forward to spring and getting rid of the winter tyres.

Paul has been working on increasing the supply of pieces he is turning so that when we eventually list them, for sale on  Etsy, he has a good selection of work to display.    His work did get interrupted by a most unusual commission, it can't be every day a woodturner  gets asked to make a new wand as the old one broke after the cauldron was dropped on it.

As a point of interest only novice witches use 'whippy' wands

We are also experimenting with making lamb prosciutto (lamb ham), more about that at a later date.    The jars I 'put up' during the summer are supplementing  the dried goods we stockpile in the run up to winter and some weird but tasty concoctions are being enjoyed.     One gap in the  'made' jars  is curry sauces - all the ones in the cellar are tomato based so research is being conducted into other options such as spinach and aubergine for this summers crop.    I think a cabbage based curry sauce may be a step too far though.

There are lots of things that need doing but at the moment the weather is against us, although we have taken a gamble and covered half our kitchen table with seed pots of herbs and spices in the hope they germinate - it's really too early for them but if it works it frees up tubs for later sowings.

More about crops sowings, lamb prosciutto and room demolitions next month.

Love and laughter to all.

Blogging hasn't happened since May 2012, as most of our family and friends have been following our progress on Facebook but we've recently had requests for updates from friends who don't use social networking sites.   This post  is intended as a quick bring up to date and then I will try to make time to update on a semi regular basis.

We have now been living and thriving in Bulgaria for 21 months, during which time we've made mistakes (not many and none serious), learnt new skills, found new inner strengths and laughed a lot.

Friends and family have visited, some loving it and planning return trips, others we'll have to visit in order to see again.

The house is still not fully renovated which can cause stress at times, but then I remember hearing of people who have completed the renovations quickly only to be dissatisfied with room layout, or more seriously location.    We considered 4 possible rooms as the bathroom before we decided on it's final location 

We removed 30 bags of mud flooring before installing a wood floor

 

 

 

 

Another view from bath, bookcase made by one of our volunteers

Back of bathroom door, painted by my sister and nephew

  

Most of the house windows, there are a lot, have been stripped back to bare wood and repainted.  

 Rewiring is being done in stages with separate distribution boards covering each area as done.    Bulgarian electrics are 'interesting'.   On the good side we no longer get electric shocks off appliances.

We have had 2 successful growing seasons and our cellar is now looking well stocked with preserved produce.    The freezer is well stocked with animals we have reared and slaughtered - yes we kill and butcher ourselves.   Currently we have 2 sheep, 7 rabbits, 6 chickens, 1 goose and 7 cats, although these numbers fluctuate depending on births and our requirement for meat.

Garden - as was

The coming year will see new techniques tried in the garden (assorted raised beds) and hopefully the garden terraced with flat paths and wide steps - I have slipped and fallen a few times on the slopes.

This will be the base for the pool.  Off the picture you have garden to left, fodder field to right

The vines are being removed and new vines established in the bottom corner of garden as they attract too many stinging insects, for me to be comfortable - although we were impressed with A & E when I got stung last year.


No doubt in future posts I will make reference to things I should have mentioned here and you'll be thinking WTF but you'll just have to ask, if it doesn't make sense.

Love and Laughter to all who read.  xx

Journey to New Life aka well we wanted an adventure.

Short version of the trip to the new life is:

Paul and myself left the UK on the 21^st of March 2011, in separate vehicles both towing.  I had a blow out on the trailer in Germany.   A few miles later the van broke down.  While waiting for repairs/recovery we were robbed.  Help eventually arrived from the UK.   Van returned to UK for repairs, trailer left in storage, in Germany, we continued journey in car towing caravan with as much as we could reasonably carry.  Arrived Lomtsi 29^th March totally exhausted and emotional, with no money to complete the house purchase.

Ok that’s the synopsis - you gluttons for punishment out there can read the long (winded) version below.

So the caravan, trailer, car and van are (over)packed, farewells have been said, nothing stopping us now it’s off to Bulgaria to live on minimal money.

Left Ellesmere Port Wednesday afternoon  to get to Dover in time for the 4am ferry to Dunkirk, actually arrived in time for 2am crossing, which was the same price £200.  Managed to get an hours sleep on the ferry and then headed to Adinkirke (Belgium) to get some cheap cigarettes for the journey.

Up until Bruges I’d been towing the caravan with the Audi and Paul had been driving the van with trailer behind, for some forgotten reason we decided it was time to swap the towed vehicles over.  Grabbed another hours sleep here – now you’re possibly beginning to see why it was necessary to stock up on cigarettes and boy did they come in useful when touring Antwerps’ many ring roads.  This was added fun as Paul had forgotten to print out the road by road directions I had spent days working on, including reasonably priced fuel and food stops.  The solution had been to write out the road numbers, junctions and places to aim for and give it to Paul as he was in the lead vehicle.  Just as well we had walkie talkies as relying on memory I ended up navigating from the 2^nd vehicle, once it was noticed Paul was missing overhead signs and struggling to change lanes, due to the amount of traffic.  He blames the inconsistency of European road markings.

By the time we got to Wassmunster (near Aachen) the nicotine was losing its effectiveness so we decided to stop for lunch, after realizing we hadn’t eaten in over 18 hours.  Lunch was followed by a much needed, by me, 2 hours sleep and then on the road again.

Just south of Koln the trailer tyre blew out.   Unfortunately because of the terrain all Paul received over the radio was ‘hard shoulder” and didn’t have a clue what was happening.  As I hadn’t had a response over the radio and he hadn’t stopped I sent a text letting him know the wheel was on the rim.   What did people do before mobile phones?   Luckily Paul had pulled into the next lay by and once he was aware of the situation dropped the caravan and returned to try and get the trailer back on the road.   4 hours later I’m off the hard shoulder but we’re not going anyway soon. 

Once Paul was back at the trailer the wheel was removed and trailer pushed onto the grass verge, as the bits we needed to put the spare tyre on were with the caravan, in the next lay by, such is life.  Once the new tyre was on and inflated we found a new problem – soft grass verge + heavy trailer = a long struggle using various ropes and straps to get the trailer off the grass.  We might still be there struggling if not for an Iranian guy who although not dressed for the situation helped us manhandle the trailer into a position we could hook the car up to it.  Problem solved, Bulgaria in a couple of days!!!  Yeah Right.   Spare tyre deflated within 5 miles and we limped into the lay by, at least we had the caravan to sleep in although the amount of stuff in there didn’t make for a spacious sleeping area.  That combined with the busy train track next to the lay by didn’t make for a brilliant nights sleep.

Friday morning …….. New day, sun shining. Let’s get this tyre sorted and get back on the road.   Flagged down a cop car that had stopped to talk to ‘speed trap colleagues’ in the lay by and got directions to where we could get a new tyre.  Drove into Fernthal (nice village) and although the garage in question couldn’t help us the neighbouring business owner spoke great English and directed us to a company called Reifen-Weinz in nearby Rottbize who were fantastic.  Refifen-Weinz supplied and fitted a new inner tube with seal, which they manufactured then and there before charging us a very reasonable €20; the time they spent on the job had us expecting a bill for double that.

After the blow out, and Paul mentioning he’d like to put more air into the tyre, my confidence in towing the trailer wasn’t great so Paul went off with van and trailer me following with car and caravan.   Oh shit, is the van meant to be billowing that much smoke and why is he going so slowly?   The previous day we had been keeping an eye on the vans oil consumption and it had struggled a bit on the longer hills but this looked more serious, especially when Paul radioed that he was pulling into the next services (3 miles) and limped there on the hard shoulder.

Serious decision time!  The chances of the van making it another 1300 miles, with or without the trailer) are remote.  Internet search time, whilst I put out a ‘scream for help’   on Facebook Paul located and contacted a couple of nearby transport companies.   Facebook people, including those I’d never met, sent possible helpful contact numbers and provided moral support, unlike the super efficient German companies who couldn’t be arsed to get back to us.  I also ‘phoned my level-headed sister and asked her to Google nearby companies who could transport van and trailer to Bulgaria.   She’s a star – texted me 3 numbers one of which she’d spoken to and been told they could do the job and were only 20 minutes away from us.   However by the time we received the text it was too late to contact them.

Totally unrelated to the vehicle saga whilst at Fernthal services we saw a flock of

Storks, we joked they were on their way to Bulgaria, unlike us at this stage.

Despite the fact that Fernthal services do nice coffee we needed to accept that a solution wasn’t going to be found today.  Fernthal services have a motel attached that although not cheap (€80) offered us the chance to charge our phones and laptops, have a shower and a good nights sleep.

Saturday.  Left England 2 and a half days ago and only part way through Germany.  Just as well we had a good nights sleep and shower as this morning is spent waiting for people to get back to us.  At least German autobahn services don’t charge for parking up for more than 2 hours, and although they do charge 70 cents to use the toilet you get a 50 cent voucher to use against purchases.

The company my sister found for us aren’t interested once they find out we are not stuck on the autobahn and need transporting to Bulgaria.  Another Germany company (www.lenz.24.de) have a weird idea of time as despite saying the could do the job never managed to phone us back with price and time, after 3 attempts to get that information we gave up on them.  A British guy, in Bulgaria, had seen my message on Facebook and been trying to contact a Bulgarian he knew with a suitable vehicle, however that option fell through as the Bulgarian was already on a job which would take 3 days.

Good things about today?   I’m not on my own, even if Paul is as helpless, at the moment, as I am, and family and friends text messages are making me smile.

Service station staff contacted ADAC (German AA equivalent) for me, after I asked if they knew of any vehicle transport companies.   Whilst the service station staff were helpful ADAC were anything but, turned up with a vehicle that might just have taken the van but definitely not long, or strong, enough for the trailer and offered to take the van and trailer to a secure compound for €300 but that’s all they could/would do.

Realised after I’d ran out of internet time (time limited at German services) that I’d fucked up, although I’d put an appeal for help on Facebook I’d forgotten that Paul was a member of a Volkswagen and a Truckers forum.   We might have had more success asking for help there, oh well, such is life.

Decided to take van down to the garage we’d initially been to for a tyre, on Monday, and either get them to repair it or allow us (Paul with my hindrance) to work on it in their workshop.   If they want to do the work themselves, possibly leave van with them and ask English speaking guy next door if we can leave either the trailer or caravan there until we return to pick up repaired van.

As not sure how long we will be stuck here decided motel an unaffordable luxury so spending night in caravan, on services.

Might be Sunday but Fuck, Bollocks, Shitting Hell, and Bugger.   This is more adventure than wanted!!!!!!!!!

Paul got out of the bed first and made a joke about being robbed as he couldn’t find his jeans, I know he’s male but how can you lose anything in a 2 berth caravan????    Went over to show him where he’d dropped them – oh shit my laptop bag has gone!!  Phoned police who when they turned up weren’t very helpful to say the least – did we really need a lecture at that time about having been parked at services longer than was acceptable, after all it’s not a campsite.   I made a phone call saying I needed help – the fact that I made the call and who I made it too are both decisions that were out of character for me, but I wasn’t thinking, I was acting on instinct.  I was scared – not about what had happened directly but how was I going to get out of this mess and what implications did it have for the future.

We now had a broken down van with no keys (in Pauls jeans pocket), no money or credit cards, no internet access, no balance of payment to complete house purchase (yes I was silly enough to be carrying it in cash) even if we could get to Bulgaria and the police were indicating we should vacate the services.  A lot of crying, swearing and tyre kicking went on.

Paul supported me during my worst times but when he thought I was strong enough to cope for a while he also had his moments of despair.  At some point he ‘phoned his brother letting him know what had happened and saying we needed help from the families.

I’m typing this up over a month later, from notes made in diary closer to the time, and it still makes me cry (with gratitude)  remembering how those who love us worked to get us safe and achieve ‘the dream’.  Tim, Paul’s brother was shutting his business and driving over to either repair the van or transport it back to the UK for repairs. Which he would do along with Pauls other brothers (all Volkswagen specialists).  Tim was also bringing some cash with him to enable us to continue on our journey, I don’t know how they managed to transfer money on a Sunday but thanks to Mum, Vikki & Sharon we would get to Bulgaria. 

It wasn’t just our families who gave us help though.  A German trucker (trucks can’t travel on Sundays in Germany) stopped for a talk and when he found out what happened suggested it wasn’t uncommon for thieves to put gas into vehicles in order to rob them.  More than that he distracted us from the problems when he saw one of us getting down and did his best to keep our spirits high.  He was also useful for arguing our case with the transport police when they wanted us to move off the services, we eventually were told that we could stay another couple of nights until help arrived.  We were parked next to a Turkish truck who although speaking no English, or German, when we started seeing if we could get the van running got out his toolbox and indicated that we should help ourselves to anything that we needed.

Paul had already rigged up a ‘toilet’ for wees in the caravan which we emptied on the verge in the morning but I really needed to use a ‘proper’ toilet but it would cost us 70 cents and we had less than 3 Euros.  It had to be spent but later when one of the transport police us €5 for showers it didn’t matter how much I wanted a shower I wasn’t spending what limited money we had on luxuries.   That view didn’t change when I found €30  and £50 in the pocket of a dirty pair of jeans.

Luckily I’d put some food stuffs in the caravan so we had coffee and that night we cooked up some pasta before stirring cheese and tinned tuna through it – not brilliant but hot, filling and free. 

3am Paul woke up to find me sitting on the side of the bed in tears looking out the window.  I’d been watching the car, van and trailer for hours and was knackered but paranoia wasn’t going to let me sleep, he forced me into bed and held me to stop me getting up – it worked I fell asleep.

Monday was a good day, help was on the way in the form of Pauls brother and a friend.  Harry, a local military vehicle dealer, was willing to store the trailer if the van couldn’t be repaired and needed returning to UK.   Surprisingly the fact that Paul told me what COULD have happened when I had the blowout was also good – it didn’t happen and I brought the vehicle to a safe/controlled stop – WOW pleased I didn’t know the worst before the blowout.

We went to a nearby village but they had no bureau de change so we ended up in Linz, on the Rhine.  A lovely city that we wouldn’t have seen if bad things hadn’t happened, the banks were closed for lunch so we decided to be extravagant a buy a coffee so we could spend a pleasant half hour or so people watching and relaxing. 

On the way back to Fernthal stopped at an Aldi for bread, water and cooked meats – food for the next couple of days.  We also received a text informing us that Thunderbird 7 (aka Tim and Danny) was at Dover.

Thunderbird 7 arrived just after 9am, Tuesday, and after Virgil and Brains had been supplied with coffee rescue planning began.  Paul and I had already left the trailer with Harry the day before, now we needed to go back to him to ask if he could store more stuff as we needed to remove some wait from the van.  What a lovely man – he located a container we could use to keep stuff dry.  After few hours locating essentials in the van and redistributing items between car, caravan and storage the boys disappeared for a ‘short’ time (about an hour) to have a tour, and lust over, Harrys stock of military vehicles.

We were back on the road by 1pm.  Paul and I in the car towing the caravan on our way to Bulgaria whilst Tim and Danny were heading back to the UK – Tims van towing my van on a trailer.   Don’t know about Thunderbird 7 but I just wanted to get the F… out of Germany.

Spent Tuesday evening in the caravan on an Austrian services car park, after indulging in a purchased hot meal.

Managed to visit 3 countries on Wednesday – through Austria, Hungary and into Romania.   Austrian scenery was a bit disappointing, as was passing massive hopping malls and remembering I had no credit cards (*_*).  I would have liked to spend a bit more time in Hungary, the scenery was everything and more than we expected from Austria.

Romania, last country before home.  Entering Romania by road is not an experience for the feint hearted, we acknowledged all the civilians who were shouting at us to stop and kept on moving.   Romania has some beautiful scenery and villages but we had been advised more than once not to stop there.   Not stopping is all well and good but when you are too tired to drive and lane merging involves the slow lane entering the fast lane sometimes you have no option.   After wasting nearly an hour at Sibiu trying to find a hotel with secure parking we ended up pulling into a lay by near some services which were well lit.  Unfortunately Pauls ability to grab a 15 minute power nap and continue going wasn’t going to be enough and he needed at least 7 hours sleep.  I wasn’t comfortable, after Germany, to sleep in the caravan so spent the night catnapping in the car front seat.

For those of you who want to drive across Romania some points to bear in mind:

a)      Try to do as much as you can in daylight, it really is a beautiful country;

b)      Have some planned stopping points, it’s a big country;

c)      Romanian truck drivers are evil, they will force you off the road rather than let a slower vehicle in front of them;

d)     The ruts can be so deep that if towing the car can sometimes be forced off track.

e)       It wasn’t as dangerous to stop as we’d been told.

With hindsight I’m surprised at the relief I felt entering Bulgaria Thursday afternoon.   Yes, we’d arrived but with less than half our possessions and an uncertain reception as the house purchase couldn’t be completed the following day as planned.  My brother-out-law had offered to loan me the money to complete the house purchase so as long as Hristo and Tanchi accepted the delay I would get my Bulgarian dream.  Andy and Sheleen were brilliant, they’d been fielding questions from the house vendors about why we hadn’t arrived and greeted us will just the right mix of hugs (Andy) and fatefulness/indifference (Shelley).  Hristo, house vendor, was at the car before we’d even got out, with hugs and invites to stay with him and Tanchi.  It might have been rude but at that stage I did not want to stay with people I couldn’t communicate with fully, I needed familiarity and a hot shower.  Again Andy and Sheleen came to the rescue, when we asked about putting the caravan on one of their fields we were offered a bedroom, which we declined – we were imposing enough already.  However we both accepted the offer of the use of their bathroom and the ‘safe’ environment.

We were knackered, both physically and emotionally, but we’d arrived in Bulgaria safely.  If we’d woken during the robbery the ending could have been different, as it could with the distance we had covered whilst tired.   As they say “All’s well that ends well” but this wasn’t the end – it’s the start of a new life.