Month: August 2016

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31C in the Shade by 10:30 a.m.

It’s a bit of scorcher today! I got up “early” (7:30) to walk the dogs before going to town and it was already hot and sticky. Sausage took off like a mad man, but soon flopped down on the trail panting before resuming at a more sedate pace. We walked a good 20 minutes roundtrip and I made sure they had lots of fresh water when we got in.

By the time I’d had coffee and toast as well as checked my email, dressed, and packed, it was getting close to nine. I grabbed my bag and headed out. There was a nice breeze out in the open and the sun wasn’t pounding down yet, so I decided I’d be quite happy to walk all the way to town, but would make an effort to get a lift home.

I was in Yablanitsa by ten and started with produce. There didn’t seem to be much choice today, especially in the fruit department. I’m tired of melons and stone fruit (peaches, apricots), so I just got tomatoes, zucchini, and onions since I still have heaps of carrots and potatoes at home as well as a couple of grapefruit.

My toast already felt quite far away by the time I was done with my produce shopping, so I grabbed a kebapche. This seems to be the go-to fast food in Yablanitsa and I’m so glad that I’ve figured it out. Market days just don’t feel right if you don’t indulge in some street food. I’d seen the kebapche every time I was in town and recognised it was what it roughly is (sausagey thing in a bun), but had no idea how to order it and hadn’t managed to time things to get in line behind someone and point to their order. I really felt like a local today as I put down my 1BGN coin and said, “One kebapche, please.” The lady gave me a huge smile that was even warmer than the sun.

After I ate, I went to the ATM to take out money for the month and I’ll admit to being relieved that there was no problem with my debit card!

Next, I wanted ibuprofen as I’m almost out. I thought the pharmacy (apteka/аптека) would be a good place to go for that. I did some research first and learned the Bulgarian name for Advil (nurofen/нурофен). The lady at the counter apologetically said, “No.” I tried again with ibuprofen (ибупрофен) and she said, “No,” again. Hmm. Well, can’t say I didn’t make a valiant effort! I’m sort of kind of thinking of going to Sofia on Monday, so I’ll try there.

I then popped into the grocery store for a bit of a top up (still have tons of stuff left from my unexpected trip to Botevgrad) and was surprised that I could not find baking soda. Google translate put it as “soda for bread” so I tried that and got an apologetic “no.” Oh well… I didn’t have any more stops after (I thought at that point), so I rummaged through the ice cream case and got a chocolate orange cone!

Needless to say, I tore into my treat the second I got outside and it did not disappoint, a super dense dark chocolate ice cream with orange liqueur and candied bits of zest scattered through it. It was a bit bitter and not too sweet, rather like eating a creamy grapefruit. I hope I can find one of these again!

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I was done with my ice cream by the time I passed the other food store, so I went in to see what kind of produce they have. It’s a tiny bit more varied than what the supermarket has and I picked up two apples that looked good. I also asked them about baking soda and got a no. Another thing to add to my Sofia list!

It was then time to head home. I climbed the long hill out of town and when I got to the top, a car roared to a stop beside me. It was full, but the man in the passenger seat got out and the driver called to me, pointing down the road. I said Malak Izvor and a lady in the back said something that I assumed meant, “Would the turnoff be okay?” and I replied in the affirmative. She motioned for me to get in.

They tried to engage me in conversation, but I was pretty useless, of course. Then, they started to say things in English, like good day and thank you, to test my Bulgarian vocabulary (it would seem). When we got to the corner, I said, “Thank you.” Then I realised that wasn’t quite right. They had just saved me walking 4KM under a scorching sun in tropical heat. So I amended that to “Thank you so much/Mnogo blagodarya.” The driver did a double take and said, “Brava”!  It’s lovely to have my meagre efforts rewarded. 🙂

I’d no sooner walked about ten steps toward the village that another car roared to a stop beside me. It was… the handyman who has been working on the house all week and was headed to my place!!!

Well, it’s been a lovely relaxed morning, but I need to get to work. I’ve already got as much as I can handle for the next week and a bit!

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Electrical Power in Europe

One of the legacies of having spent so much time off grid in my RV is that electricity is at the forefront of my mind. When I was preparing my packing list for my European adventure, I looked at the ridiculous amount of things plugged into my uninterrupted power supply and knew I had to reduce my electrical needs dramatically because I wouldn’t have the luxury of access to lots of outlets in Europe. In fact, I would have just one, into which I would plug an adapter to go from my North American style plug to a European style plug.

It was easier than I expected, but not cheap, to reduce my electrical needs. I replaced my large external hard drives requiring AC power with slim credit card sized drives that only power through USB. I bought a 1TB Western Digital My Passport Air external hard drive for my backups and a slightly thicker 3TB Toshiba Canvio external hard drive for media. In this way, I also went from four external drives to just two. I’d been “collecting” drives for years, starting with a 500GB one in 2009 and then getting increasing capacity every year as prices began to drop, so it was nice to consolidate everything into two drives. The reason I put my media on an external drive is that I have a Macbook Air, which has a solid state drive. When I replaced my computer in 2015, I went with the smallest drive possible because a SSD is crazy expensive. So I have to store my media on another hard drive or else I’d run out of capacity.

Next, I had to find a better way to power my iOS devices. At home, I plug them into the USB AC adapter that I then plug into a wall socket. You can, in theory, charge iOS devices through their USB cable plugged into your computer, but I didn’t want to have to rely on that. My computer only has two USB outlets and they are always in use, with one dedicated to the backup drive and one powering a USB hub into which I plug a mouse, the media drive, the keyboard (which I didn’t bring with me), and, of course, my transcription foot pedal. Little did I know that the solution for that would present itself.

iOS devices notwithstanding, I had reduced my power needs to just my computer. The computer charger has a built-in voltage adapter, so I just had to find an adapter that would let me plug into a European socket. After doing some research, I decided to go with a much larger unit than I had hope for, but that would let me plug into just about any socket in the world, the FosPower FUSE worldwide universal AC international adapter with dual USB charging ports. Notice that last part! The two USB sockets are well powered and charge my iOS devices perfectly.

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I’ve now used my adapter in two modes. First was in the UK, which has enormous sockets! I had a hard time getting the adapter to work (didn’t help that it was the middle of the night and I was still half dead with jet lag) until I remembered reading a review by someone who had the same problem, where I’d learned to push down on the plastic part in the middle to get it to pop up.

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UK power adapter

Now, I’ve been using it in European mode and it is still working great! I was a bit (lot) nervous when I saw the Schuko outlets, but the prongs on my adapter fit it perfectly. The thinner Europlugs also fit in the Schuko outlets.

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As long as I’m plugged directly into the wall, the adapter does not get hot. I once wanted to charge my iPad while I was in bed and tried to combine the adapter with an extension cord, but the adapter got really hot!

The FosPower FUSE worldwide universal AC international adapter with dual USB charging ports is proving to be very robust and reliable. It does take a lot of room in my luggage, but I’m sure it’s less than if I’d had to bring multiple adapters. The only negative thing I have to say about it is that I’m annoyed by the incredibly bright blue light it emits to show it’s working as it actually lights up a whole room! But I can cover it with a scarf or sock and it doesn’t overheat, so that’s what I do when I have to sleep in the same room where it’s working hard to charge my things.

Converting to European electric power has been really easy for me because I only have the computer to worry about and it has its own voltage converter. You’re on your own if you want advice on how to power things like a North American hair dry or curling iron here!

My biggest complaint about power in Europe is that I can’t just blindly reach down and try to plug in something because I’m trying to align very slim prongs with tiny holes. I thought it would be easier with sockets that fill the whole outlet, but nope. Still, that’s just a minor inconvenience!

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After Bulgaria

I’m starting to be asked the question of what I’m planning to do after Bulgaria. My original, very loose plan, was to go to Turkey for about a month, take a short holiday in Lebanon, and then head to North African (Morocco or Tunisia) for a bit. With Turkey being flat out of the question after the recent attempted coup and speaking to a lot of women who have been to North Africa alone, I decided to completely scrap that plan and stay in Eastern Europe, in countries outside of the Schengen Area (so Greece is not an option), as long as I can stand the weather.

My itinerary will really depending on ease of getting around. Flights are very cheap, but sometimes go through cities I don’t want to land in (because of Schengen), and buses and trains are iffy in this part of the world.

But here’s a rough idea of that I have in mind:

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So from Bulgaria, I’m thinking of going to Serbia and living in Belgrade for about a month. Research tells me that Belgrade is lovely, Serbia is inexpensive and has decent internet, and Serbians are very welcoming. Sounds like a good next stop!

From Serbia, I would go into Kosovo for a bit. I’m doing it in that order because of the tense relation between the two countries (Serbia does not recognise Kosovo as being a sovereign state) and I’m worried that going to Kosovo first would impede me from going to Serbia.

From Kosovo, sometime in the last days of October or first days of November, I would then like to take three to four weeks to go through Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia, stopping only in the major cities. The cost of living in these countries is low enough that I’m hoping I can do a work four really full days/travel three days sort of schedule. I’m told the Adriatic coast is beautiful and the weather is still good for swimming in November, so I might want to find myself a beachside residence for a bit. Who knows 🙂 So that would bring me to the end of November.

From Croatia, I envision flying to Bucharest, Romania, for a few days and then possibly traveling through Moldova into Ukraine. I’d like to do a tour of Chernobyl (yes, it’s safe now!) and whatever dates I book for that would help me set my post-Serbia itinerary.

From Kiev, I would then travel to Poland, which would start my “Schengen clock.” I primarily want to go to Poland to visit Auschwitz near Krakow. Average December temperatures in Krakow are much warmer than I expected (around 7C), so I may want to hang around the area for a bit and enjoy my last chance at a lower cost of living before heading to Portugal or the south of Spain for the worst of the winter.

So that’s a rough idea of what I’m looking at through the end of 2016.

But first, I have my grand tour of Bulgaria to plan! I should be able to get away for a week to ten days at the end of this month!

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Compromised!

I wasn’t too concerned today at the grocery store when my Visa got declined. Well, I just called CIBC and learned that my card was compromised! Someone used my number at Wind Mobile (interesting because that would put the breach in Canada…) and when that got approved, they went on a mad shopping spree to the tune of several thousand dollars!

Since I balanced the books the other day, I was able to confirm that everything that’s posted is mine and that I haven’t put through anything since then. So I’m not responsible for any of the charges that did go through before the fraud system froze the card and the representative says that he doubts I’ll hear anything more about this.

The rep immediately canceled my card and is rush shipping me one here to Maluk Izvor. Hopefully, the mail works as well as I was promised it does! Imagine if this had happened in Mexico, where the mail system is unreliable and there is no mail on Isla!

I don’t use my card a lot, favouring cash since that’s easier in these small communities, so I’m not in any sort of pickle as long as the card does come and I don’t have to start all over again.

It was fun giving the rep the address since everything sounded so “alien.” It helped when I said, “This line is the address, street first, then house number. This next line is the town. Now, we’re at the province and postal code.” No, mail in Bulgaria does not have to be addressed in Cyrillic.

The only way that I might wish I had my card is if I go away next weekend and need to book a hotel, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen. The work week is starting very slowly, so I may not want to take off at the end of it.

CIBC does a great job in situations like these of reassuring me that all is fine. I’m not distressed, but a whole hell of a lot curious as to how my card got compromised!

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More Perfect Timing Could Not Be Planned

It was a rather… lively morning here, with one person working on the main roof’s house, another person working on the guest house siding, and Max mowing the lawn. It was a transcriptionist’s nightmare and it got worse as literally all my outlets were commandeered for power tool purposes. With my deadline not being till quite late tonight, I gave up and decided to head to Yablanitsa.

I’d planned to go to town today, thinking Max could drive me in on his way to Sofia, and so I was all packed and dressed to head out. I decided to just get there under my own steam rather than beg a lift from one of the guys here and have to wait for someone to be available. I gave Max a heads up that I was leaving and off I went, hoping I’d be able to get a lift from someone in the village since, really, it was too hot to walk the 12KM to town and back.

Well, I had no sooner made it to the bottom of my street that Jenny pulled up! She said she was heading to Botevgrad, a town about 30 minutes away, to run errands and if I just wanted groceries, she could drop me at Kaufland, whatever that was, and pick me up an hour later. Well, I was all for an adventure!

Kaufland, as it turned out is a huge “proper” grocery store, the likes of which I haven’t seen since I got here. So many treasures! Jenny went in to show me how to weigh my produce and then told me she’d meet me out front in about an hour, so around 12:30.

For the produce, you have to take it to what looks like a self-checkout counter, with an electronic scale and a touch screen. I had to begin by selecting “start,” spelled just like that (Bulgarian start is старт, so same as English). I then had to pick what I was weighing. The names were in Cyrillic, but there were also pictures. The word for sweet potatoes at the bin and the word for them at the machine was different, so I was glad for the picture! Soon as I picked my item, the machine spit out a sticker to put on my bag. Jenny also pointed out that some things are priced per unit rather than by weight. Limes are per unit, but lemons are per weight.

I took my time exploring the store and was thrilled to find yellow mustard, powdered milk, and almond milk, as well as sharp cheddar and Red Leicester, which I like even better than cheddar, but which is hard for me to find in my part of Canada. I was able to get a head of lettuce to go with the balsamic vinaigrette I had at home, so I decided to expand my culinary horizons and grabbed a jar of kalamata olives to put in a salad! I splurged on four “fancy” beers, including Leffe, that are prohibitively expensive back home, but only about 1.50CAD a bottle here. Since I knew I’d be home in short order, I got a little bit of meat and stocked up on paper towels and toilet paper.

Kaufland’s prices are a bit more than at the other stores I’ve been to, but the selection made up for that! I still can’t believe I got all those groceries for just 100BGN, not with all the dairy and beer I picked up. The grapefruit and avocado were a bit pricy and comparable to Canadian prices, but everything else was a bargain for me.

Checkout could have been a disaster, however, because there was a problem with my Visa! I understood “Your card said unauthorised.” I had no idea if it was a problem at my end (security hold) or if I’d put in the wrong pin or if she’d made a mistake. Thankfully, I had 120BGN in cash on me! I’m annoyed that I’m pretty much out of cash now (although 20BGN will go a long way here since I’ve stocked so much food), but relieved that I was able to pay!

I’ve noticed that at most grocery stores in my part of Bulgaria, you’re expected to put your items back in your cart and bag them away from the till. So I did that today since I had so much stuff, managing to get everything but the paper goods divided between two plastic bags and my backpack. BTW, grocery bags here are super high quality, but you have to pay for them. I had only brought one bag with me since I only normally ever buy as much as I can fit in my backpack of heavy stuff and whatever will fit in a plastic bag of light stuff. So I bought one of Kaufland’s bags.

I then went out to wait for Jenny and… guess who was coming into the store? Talk about timing today. Holy smokes!

She drove me straight home then as she had stuff to do there and didn’t want to dawdle. I was glad for that since I had things to put in the fridge. I came in and put together a really yummy salad for a late lunch.

I don’t know what I would have done with myself today with all that commotion and am glad that being independent and flexible paid off!