After Bulgaria’s entrance into the EU, more and more individuals and companies from the Netherlands are visiting to check out the possibilities of this country. Unlike the Brits and Irish who have been coming here in droves for the past five years or so, many of my fellow compatriots seem to take more of a wait-and-see approach when it comes to leaving money behind in former socialist block countries.
Right after the entry into ‘the club of the privileged’, the Dutch climbed all over Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Especially in Hungary, you will find dozens of camp sites and bungalow parks full of camper-towing cloggies.
In recent weeks, I met several newbies to Bulgaria and it was wonderful to see their predictable reaction to the home of Orpheus and rakiya.
The very first thing a Dutchman will comment on is the condition of the outside of the older buildings. After all, even the most run down crack house in Amsterdam will get a lick of paint every ten years or so. A Dutchman’s home is not only his castle but also one of his tools to display conformity to the expectations of society. Thus, he will always make sure that his neighbours do not take any offence about the look of his house, the state of his garden and even the level of sound omitted from his property in general.
The look of a Dutchman’s house is followed closely by that of his car, which has to be just right in terms of his standing and place in society. Recently I was looking at buying a second hand Jaguar in Rotterdam and I questioned the rather low price, expecting the reason to be some technical problems with the car. Instead, I was told, that it is very difficult to sell such a luxury car into a lower market since people would be worried what their neighbours would think. Hence, some funny looks from these newbies to the abundance of second hand ‘formerly’ expensive cars on the street of the poorest country in the club. Some years ago, we saw many Turkish and Moroccan immigrants drive these wrecks home to show their newly gained wealth, but even they have migrated to Renault Scenics and more sensible cars.
Anyway, back to the visiting version of the species from behind the dykes. Next to the finger-pointing comments about the houses and the cars comes the garbage collection system. It took some explaining to convince some of my visitors that most Bulgarian burgers did actually deposit their trash into the big grey containers on the corner of the street, but that all day long gypsies poked around them and when they found something of their liking, moved the entire content to the pavement. A hard to sell story, but as most of you know, very true!
You may wonder what does a Dutchman appreciate about Bulgaria and how can he be convinced to leave some money behind.
I believe that the main attractions were the cheap and good food in restaurants, since you need to take out a mortgage for a quality meal in a Dutch restaurant, the big country feel of the mountains and the valleys since we have neither and as far as the Dutch guys goes, the beauty of the women. I have only met very few Dutch women who looked twice at local males. (Sorry guys).
All these opinions brought back similar memories of my own when I first landed on these shores all those years ago.
Interestingly enough very few of my visitors showed any real interest in real-estate investments (old or new) stating that the prices where very similar to home and the condition of the buildings were either too run-down or too badly build. A bit like the Bulgarian guys who build them…
Koos Jan Schouten (1954) was born in Amsterdam, has lived in Bulgaria since 1998, owns www.webfactory.bg and has been married since 2002 to his lovely Lilly.
Source: www.sofiaecho.com