My online account of my time in Pamporovo..
7 Dec 10 – Day 1
Arrived on time from Stansted to Plovdiv.
Had a bit of a mare offloading extra weight at airport.
Nearly missed flight – last call – missed priority boarding! Got an aisle seat though.
Massive thanks to Louise for taking me and taking my discarded items! Cheers honey! x
Picked up by a lad called Abraham at Plovdiv airport and drove to Pearl Lodge.
Had coffee and some lunch with Amanda.
Amanda gave me a little car to use while I’m here. Drove to my apartment and met by mad security guy! Got into apartment ok. Heating on – very cold.
Unpacked, had a cup of tea and went to bed in my thermal underwear and ski socks!
My complex – Elite Holiday Village:
8 Dec 10 – Day 2
Got up about 9am and had breakfast. Drove to Pearl Lodge to meet Amanda, Michelle (hotel manager) and Paul (head chef).
We drove into Plovdiv to do some shopping. I bought a microwave and a bedside table lamp and a few bits for the apartment. Had lunch in the Happy Grill.
Stopped off for dinner on way home, half way up the mountain.
Got an extra heater from Amanda and Dougie.
Drove back to apartment and did some work. Have a dongle that Amanda has lent me. Need to get one for internet access.
9 Dec 10 – Day 3
Got up about 9.30 and had a leisurely breakfast. Spent the morning editing articles.
The house keepers came round. They had a call from the developers office reminding me to pay the maintenance fee of 410Euros. I will pay once they have sorted out my shower and the leak under the sink!
Coming back on Sunday to sort the sink and Wednesday to do the shower..we’ll see!
Had lunch and drove into Smolyn. Got 2 keys cut for me and Amanda. Spent 100lev (£50) on food shopping. Not particularly cheap for Bulgaria.
Filled car up with disel – 50lev.
Worked on articles and uploaded them to sites.
Made dinner – boiled rice, chicken breast and peas..mmm I like peas!
Carried on working til midnight.
Decided that I would try and do 100 press ups a day. Only decided that at 8pm so had to cram them all in before midnight. (Did the last 20 at 12.30!)
10 Dec 10 – Day 4
Woke up to the first snow fall of the season. Nothing too much but a covering non the less.
Had breakfast and did some work.
Drove over to Pearl Lodge after lunch. Went for a swim which was nice but very cold! Stayed there for the rest of the day working and chatting. Met some girls working there on a gap year. The internet connection is super fast there so downloaded lots of information so I could work on it when I got back to my apartment.
Came back about 9.30pm
11 Dec 10 – Day 5
Slept in til nearly 10am this morning. Had my breakfast and cracked on with some work.
The house keeper came round about 1pm to fix the leak under the sink. All sorted now. Also tried to explain the gap in one of my windows that was letting in freezing cold air! Between sign language and playing charades we managed to agree that yes there was a gap and it was letting in cold air! It’s something he can’t fix but hopefully he’s going to pass the problem to someone who can fix it! Well that’s what I think he indicated.
After lunch I decided to try and find a short cut up into Pamporovo resort. Found a make-shift path up through the woods and was in my first pub within 10mins. Happy days! Before I got to the pub I was accosted by a bloke called Dave (good ol Bulgarian name) who tried to sell me some tacky cowbells. Not sure how I resisted, as they were half price! Anyway he was dead chatty and excited that I was English (think he smelt the money that I don’t have!) wanted to know what I drank so I told him beer. So from there he frog marched me to this little restaurant. Glad he did now because I probably wouldn’t have gone in without some convincing!
It’s an authentic Bulgarian restaurant that is quite quaint and has a roaring fire with dodgy Bugarian music. Friendly staff and a girl called Ivana spoke good English and naturally wanted to talk the back teeth off me! Could be my local!
A pint of draught larger was just 2.5 lev (£1.25) and the food menu looked pretty reasonable too. Had my pint, a good chat and headed off into the snow storm outside. (-12 degrees!) Good start to my adopted town.
Walked into the main resort where all the pubs and clubs are. Obviously very quiet right now but I can imagine it getting verrry busy in the next couple of weeks. After walking up and back down the strip I called into the White Hart pub which is one of the main pubs in town, especially for the Brits. Had Sky Sports on and good old 80’s music playing.
A local boy called Jimmy (I’m sure they give themselves made up names) served me a bottle of the local stuff. Tasted ok but not as nice as the Tuborg I had half an hour earlier and nearly double the price! By the time I left, I knew Jimmy’s life story. Nice lad but Jeez..
It was dark by the time I reached my path down through the woods. Lucky for me I bought my wind up torch and I followed my footprints like Hansel and Gretel back to the complex! I can imagine after a few more Tuborgs that journey might be rather more hazardous!
Made myself a slap up dinner of chicken, rice and peas and did a few more hours work.
12 Dec 10 – Day 6
Didn’t get to sleep til 2am last night as I started watching the series ‘Supernatural’ on my notebook. Probably not the best idea to watch a scary program in the middle of the night, in a foreign country, in a 5 storey complex with just me in it! Every creak and bang was the Devil coming to get me!! I’ll be glad when the place fills up with holiday makers.
Worked until 2.45pm and then took a walk into town via the road. It was actually quite a nice walk and only talk 25mins. Had a coffee in the White Hart pub and a chat with my mate Jimmy. They have wifi but I couldn’t connect – rubbish reception.
Came back via the woods and wandered around the complex. There’s still plenty of work that needs doing and a lot of the building is still unfinished. The Spa centre still hasn’t been built. Probably another year or 2 before it’s all finished. Bulgarian developers are just so crap. Mind you, at least its not mafia built.. I think!
Watched American Pie 7 and did some more work.