Ellis and Jodie's Bulgarian Adventure

During the two years that Jodie and I lived and worked in Bulgaria, we traveled extensively around the country. We learned about Bulgaria's history and culture, we visited its villages, and climbed its mountains. We studied the Bulgarian language and made many friends. It was truly an adventure, as witnessed in the many posts and pictures on this blog. Just over two years after our departure from Bulgaria, I am proud to announce that my novel, Valley of Thracians , has been published and is now available for Kindle, with other formats to follow. In Valley of Thracians , the Bulgarian adventure continues, only this time it's a fictional account. The novel is a tale of suspense as the characters make their way across beautiful Bulgarian landscapes in their pursuit of a missing American and buried treasure. While the story is fictional, the places, customs, and traditions of Bulgaria I describe are very real. Bulgaria is an off-the-beaten track destination. This fascinat...

At a distance of one month, it's sometimes hard to believe that we spent two wonderful years living in Bulgaria. We look back with fond memories at the many places we visited, the many people we met, and the many things we learned about Bulgaria, its culture and history. This started as a Top Ten list, but there were too many places to list, so it became a Top 15 list, and still, some of the colorful destinations we visited are not included. The list is presented in alphabetical order. Balchik . On the Black Sea coast, this town was the summer home of Queen Marie of Romania . We enjoyed walking around the botanical gardens, seeing the old style houses and the simple palace that captured the heart of the Romanian queen. Belogradchik . Belogradchik is a town in northwestern Bulgaria and also the name of a fortress and nature reserve of bizarrely shaped sandstone, limestone and other rock formations. The Belogradchik Rocks were Bulgaria's candidate in the campaign for N...

When Ellis and I came to Bulgaria two years ago, we had no idea what awaited us. We just had a long-standing desire to try living in a different country for a limited, set period of time and to experience something else. So, when Ellis was approached by his company to relocate, we jumped at the chance. Most people's initial reaction to our announcement was "Bulgaria? What's in Bulgaria?" I admit that I was wondering the same thing, and asking myself, "why not England, or Spain, or Gibraltar?" Today, after living here for two years, I can tell you what is in Bulgaria. It is a country with friendly people, who are interested in the strangers living amongst them, and are happy to talk to you, even when you tell them that you don't understand their language. As Israelis, we never felt uncomfortable talking about where we come from - most people had a warm and positive feeling toward Israel. This can even been seen at government level - Bulgaria was one of th...

We still had the time to try out one more restaurant in Sofia, so today for lunch we headed to Cru , the city's healthy alternative. Cru is located on Tsar Assen Street, and it's quite a small boutique restaurant, with only about five tables. The waiter was very friendly and the service was excellent. We both started with the Pea Soup, which was spiced with curry and served in a very large bowl. It was made from fresh peas and was extremely tasty. Jodie had the Organic Adzuki Beans Croquette with fresh salad and sprouts. I had the Tortilla Pizza with roasted red peppers and mozzarella cheese. The food was very good. The only thing unhealthy about Cru is that the prices are a bit high. The lunchtime meal for the two of us came to 42.50 Leva, which was more expensive than we usually pay.

Happy is the name of a chain of Bulgarian fast food restaurants. This sign was seen in downtown Sofia. We had lunch at a Happy restaurant on Sunday. None of the waitresses were smiling, so maybe they weren't too happy to be working in the New Year.

In mid December, our offices moved to The Mall, the fourth and biggest mall in Sofia. This mall is also known as Carrefour, as that is the main store there. Carrefour is a huge supermarket, clothing goods store, electronics shop, and more, all rolled into one. And that is just one of the stores in The Mall. Our offices were in one of the buildings alongside The Mall. I (Ellis) was no longer able to walk to work, as getting there was a 20 minute taxi ride at best, and a burden that could be more than an hour in the evening traffic. The new offices were very nice. Jodie's company was on the 8th floor, while my company was on the 5th floor. We tried out the many different restaurants in the fast food court during our lunch breaks. Our Carrefour days are over now, as Thursday was our last day of work and we begin our preparations for our upcoming return to Israel.

Another restaurant on our list of must-try dining experiences in Sofia was finally visited this past Sunday. JJ Murphy's is a very authentic Irish pub in the center of the city and we had lunch there. Jodie had the Leprauchan Burger and I had the Steak Sandwich. We had a side order of Onion Rings which topped off the good food. To drink, Jodie had a Guinness while I went for a half pint of Murphys Stout. (And, by the way, the sign pictured in the previous post is in the building entrance just across the street).

A Bulgarian traffic policeman pulls over a car for speeding. "You were driving with 60 km/h, and there is 50-km/h limit here!" the officer tells the driver. "No, I was driving 40 km/h," the driver starts arguing. "I can show you what the radar detected!" retorts the officer, already getting upset. The driver's wife speaks from the back seat, "There is no point, officer - when my husband is drunk it is really no use arguing with him!" From the Sofia News Agency .

The special Christmas tram on Vitosha:

Despite the -5 degrees Celsius on Sunday, we took a long walk with the successful goal of buying me jeans. After completing this purchase at a shop below the NDK plaza, Jodie agreed to continue walking towards the center of the city. Eventually we found ourselves on Angel Kunchev Street and this time we were able to try out Annette , Sofia's Morrocan restaurant. We were the only lunchtime diners and enjoyed the ambience that was, well, very Moroccan in style. We found so many tasty dishes listed on the menu, attributed to the owner's mother's original Moroccan recipes. But as we were there for lunch, we selected sandwiches. I had a pita meatball sandwich; the pita was also filled with aubergines, carrots and a tomato paste. Jodie chose the pita with falafel, tahina, and aubergines. Our sandwiches were served with a very tasty green salad. We drank homemade lemonade. The food was very good and we may end up returning to try Annette's main courses.