Max, my host, was here this weekend and just left. He’ll be back “sometime” Thursday. He’s rarely here till late morning… so we said our goodbyes and thanks. I aim to be on a bus to Sofia by 11AM Thursday. There’s one more walk into Yablanitsa in my future, unless I look pathetic with my suitcase and backpack!
That was my first thought this morning, that I had only have three full days left here… And I still only have a very loose plan for the next week. I think I’m living in a river in Egypt…
As I said to Max, my time here was exactly what I was hoping it would be. I have no regrets, except how much I am going to miss the pets! It would, of course, have been nice to have had a car, but based on how many full days of work I had, I could not have justified a car rental for my whole time here.
I think the pets know I’m leaving and Max agrees in that they have been extra cuddly, Penghu especially. Believe it or not, he was sound asleep and snoring in this picture!
I’m so glad I came to Bulgaria, but I’m also ready to go. I really look forward to spending some time in a more urban environment in the next few weeks and eating someone else’s cooking! I really think I’ve exhausted the limits of my creativity as to what can be made with the ingredients available to me in Yablanitsa and Malak Izvor.
So I think next for me will be Belgrade for seven to ten days, then on to Sarajevo before heading south to Athens to catch a plan to Madrid. I just need to figure out how to balance travel with work! Since I’ve lost out on the chance of a monthly rental rate for an apartment, I think I will focus on looking for inexpensive private rooms in hostels and only commit to super easy jobs that don’t require a huge time commitment, just enough to cover my expenses for the day and a few days of exploration in Athens and Madrid. I don’t want to be completely off work for a full month, not with all the time off I’ve had this year!
There is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go.
I had a tight deadline today, but also a full weekend of work ahead of me, so I decided I was best off going to Yablanitsa today, for a final trip to the market, since I’d have a better chance of getting lifts.
I had just passed the village limits when I heard a vehicle come up behind me and honk. I thought it was my chauffeur because of the van type, but no. It was a couple in a similar vehicle, which is a two seater… Let’s just say I’m glad I don’t carry my excess weight in my hips because the three of us just barely squeezed in!
They dropped me off just within the town limits, so I had a short stroll to the market. I hoped to pick up another pair of capris, but the lady wasn’t there today, the only time this has happened in all my visits to the market. Am I glad I at least got the pair I had on!
Produce was pretty usual today, but I did see some folks had cauliflower. I found a vendor who had nice tomatoes, but he was the kind who doesn’t let you pick out your own. “Kolko?” he asked me. It literally means “how,” but I’ve heard it used for “how many?” and “how much?” I said four, then amended it to five. I was very happy with the ones he picked out! I also got onions and carrots from him. I got potatoes and zucchini from another vendor who looked at me like I was a moron when I thought he told me my total was 1.20, I handed him as much, and asked if that was okay. He shook his head (which is a nod in Bulgaria) and again repeated what I thought was 1.20 before moving on to the next customer. So I’m guessing I heard right!
I was happy to do my final shop at the supermarket since I am really tired of buying and eating the same foods from there every week! I had a bit of a stumble when they were out of the two different jam brands they normally carry and the brand they had not only didn’t have clear pictures, but the writing was in lower case, which I haven’t mastered yet, and in a super fancy font. I was looking for strawberry, “yagodi,” which looks like this in “normal” Cyrillic: яагоди. Look at what the label has instead!
If I squint, I can see the Ya letter (“backwards R”) and the o is, of course, clear. But the hard g is sort of like a backwards s, the d looks like a g, and the i looks like a u! I think they just want to confuse the tourists!
My shopping was particularly heavy today so I was glad I’d come on market day since, surely, I’d get a lift home. So certain of this was I that I didn’t pace myself heading up the hill out of town to the junction where I usually get lifts. Hmm. No cars today. Okay, maybe by the underpass. Nope… I got all the way to the village turnoff, with 2KM left to go, and thought surely I’d get a lift at this point. I even properly stuck out my thumb a few times, to no avail. By the time I limped into Malak Izvor, I was pretty annoyed with myself for having started off so fast since I had barely enough energy to get up the hill to home!
But I made it! I put my shopping away, then pulled out a tin of sardines I’d bought for the pets as a treat. Normally, Mechka and Penghu each go for a bowl and Sausage gets the tin. But today, Sausage went for a bowl. I put the tin down for Mechka and was very amused when she picked it up and carried it over to the far side of the yard to enjoy her treat in peace!
This was my last trip into Yablanitsa. If I need anything in the next week, I can get it at the village shop. I thought I was leaving next Friday, but it’s actually going to be Thursday (it was always going to be the 22nd, I just messed up the day of the week) and I have to be out of Bulgaria on Saturday. So this time next week, I could very well be in Serbia!
I had a loose plan what what was going to come after Bulgaria, staying in Eastern Europe until December and then going to Spain or Portugal. I kept an eye on housesits and when a nearly perfect one turned up, I pounced even if it would put me in Spain a full two months sooner than I had planned. Thanks to Croft and another friend who acted as references, I got the job!
So I am flying to Madrid from somewhere on or about October 20th and then taking a bus to Almería, in the south of Spain. This is my dream Spanish location — far enough south to have warm weather, but still off the tourist path in a very expat-centric part of the country. My Spanish skills contributed greatly to my getting an interview. I would be lying if I said I’m not tired of being somewhere I don’t speak the language and that it will be an immense relief to land somewhere that I do.
I will be watching a house and a 12-year-old cat for seven weeks. That is the limit of what I can say in deference to my host’s privacy. I will not be sharing pictures of her cat or her home, but I am allowed to say where I am when I get there (I’ll actually be in a small town outside of Almería). And that I am looking forward to having access to a proper desk and chair for working!
I still have only an inkling of an idea of what I am doing between Bulgaria and Madrid, so please don’t ask me about that at this point. 🙂 Belgrade for a month is still on the table, but I’m also investigating the possibility of an organised tour of some sort through the Balkans. I really would love to see Sarajevo, Kosovo, and the Adriatic coast. But at the same time, work is slow, not particularly lucrative, and I didn’t manage to add to my savings here so I have to be frugal what with having to pay for accommodation for the next four weeks. The cheapest option is definitely a monthly rental and that’s also the option most conducive to working.
By far the cheapest option for getting to Almería is to fly from a large city, like Belgrade or Athens, to Madrid and then taking a bus to Almería. I toyed with the idea of a very long train ride through Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Italy, and France, but the cost was exorbitant. I’d rather fly to Madrid a few days early and play tourist.
Now that I have a hard target, I suspect the next four weeks will come into focus. And so, the coddiwompling continues!
I didn’t have work again today and didn’t want to start on the small easy job I have due Monday night. So I decided this morning to go on a long hike with Mechka and Sausage beyond my Bulgarian Shangri-La. I thought of having coffee and breakfast first, but our routine is firmly set and the dogs would not have had the patience to wait for me. I’m not addicted to coffee and could definitely wait till we got back. I did pack a couple of jam and butter sandwiches, an apple, and water.
Autumn is definitely coming despite the fact that it’s still quite hot out. So many leaves crunching underfoot!
I love that rebel yellow house!
An unexpected burst of colour.
He looks so happy! I was being slow, so he’s coming back to make sure I’m okay!
One thing that I really dislike about being out in nature in Bulgaria is how aggressive the flora is. There’s these things with super long thorns:
I caught my right calf on one of these early in my arrival here and have a more one one-inch long scar with which to remember the event. I was shocked by how long this wound took to heal and, in hindsight, I actually regret not seeking out sutures immediately after it happened or at the very least some butterfly closures, which I should have in my first aid kit.
There are also low lying vines (possibly from a blackberry plant) that wrap around your ankles and shred them. And then, my “favourite” are the shrubs with barbs that snag at you on the side of the road. One got me yesterday on my way back from Yablanitsa:
Beyond Shangri-La, we followed a very rough 4×4 road.
There’s a picnic table at the top of a hill, for some random reason. Max says he likes to go up there for breakfast. I wasn’t ready to eat yet.
There’s also a fire pit.
And some ruins:
I think these are blueberries, but I didn’t try them:
In the video, I mentioned that it was quiet. Well, no sooner had I stopped filming that I heard a vehicle and found it (and a person) quite far away up a hill:
At first, I thought I found the scene of an accident, but then realised it’s just a dump. I have access to a dump just like this on a friend’s property near Haven.
We eventually turned back and, to my horror, we came to a junction I didn’t remember! I figured, worst case, I’d pick the wrong way and have to double back, but I was getting tired. Sausage seemed convinced as to the direction to go, so I asked him three times where home is and he kept starting down one path and looking back to make sure I was following. He’s never led me astray before, so I followed and, in very short order, I was able to confirm I was going the right way!
We got in a full two hours after leaving. I gave the dogs their breakfast, but all they wanted was water before flopping down! I had coffee and, an hour later, another coffee with a second breakfast of toast with sirene cheese and berry jam. I’ve been eating a lot of peanut butter since I got here and am trying to curb the habit, so I’ve switched to the cheese with jam on my toast. Very yummy. 🙂
Around four, it was time to take them on their second walk. I took a different path, where it was still very clearly autumn.
While the dogs had been very enthusiastic as we set out, the minute we got to the first big uphill, both stopped and looked at me with a “we’re done, thanks!” look. I decided to push on and they followed, but stuck close rather than going on ahead. I have a favourite spot to stop and turn around (start of the second video in the link above) with a nice flat rock for sitting on and admiring the view. I sat there and cuddled with the dogs for a good ten minutes, trying not to cry as I realised how much I am going to miss them. They have spoiled me for life and I will have to be very careful before I accept another dog sit since they’ve raised the bar so high with their intelligence and sweet disposition.
It’s been a lovely homey weekend, but I hope work picks up! I don’t expect anything for tomorrow (since it’ll still be Sunday in North America) and had thought to go to Sofia, but the museum I wanted to visit will be closed. I have to really watch the calendar and bus schedules, but I’m thinking of delaying heading to Serbia by a day or two to have time to visit a couple of Sofia museums. Or I might be able to get away at a late date this week. We’ll see. Work has been surprising the last few weeks!
I just got back from the village shop, where I hoped they would have the good German butter. They did! But not only that, they’ve seriously expanded their product line. They now consistently have deli meats, cheese, butter, yoghurt, bread, decent produce, and now even a meat freezer. What a contrast to when I arrived and was forced to walk the 12KM to Yablanitsa and back in torrid conditions just for a few staples!
I got the butter, cheese, and salami on my list, and then added a package of kufte meat (think seasoned ground pork with which to make meatballs) from the meat freezer.
While waiting for the cashier to fix the coffeemaker and serve me, I noticed a new spice rack (which had baking soda, LOL) as well as an improved sweets display that featured Milka-brand chocolate, which is really good. I’ve gone in less than three months from the gal who was scared to go into the shop to the gal who could say, “And Milka chocolate with hazelnuts, please,” in Bulgarian! The clerk immediately grabbed the right package. It never fails to astound me when someone understands my small bits of Bulgarian. 🙂
Back to work I got. I’m in overtime mode from getting some extra work yesterday when everyone else was slacking off. I take Labour Day literally! 😀
