21.4.2007

'If it was a scam, at least we'd enjoy the trip...'

Vicky and Nicki's big Bulgarian adventure began when the two friends agreed to buy adjoining cottages in a village they had never heard of, in a country they had never visited. The properties were advertised on a website at €2,000 each. The women's theory? "If it was a scam, at least we would enjoy the trip." And they did.

Two years ago, teacher Vicky McElhinney and restaurant-owner Nicki Cartmill left their husbands at home and flew to Sofia. Their knowledge of the country was so scanty that early doubts included: "Would it be snowing in February?" Yes. "Was the food all sauerkraut and beetroot soup?" No. "Did they produce wine?" Definitely.
However, despite arriving "tired, excited, enthralled and horrified, by turns", and with no knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet, let alone the language, the two managed to complete the purchase of two properties on that first visit.
The homes were not, in fact, the ones the women had chosen from the website - the agent discovered those cottages had too many "owners" with conflicting plans - but two alternative houses in the north central village of Malinovo, near Veliko Turnovo, in the hills above the Yantra river.
Each one cost €4,100. Vicky chose a "solid, calm, pleasant" two-storey, 1940s house on the village green. "It was looking at me, waiting for its new owner," she says. "We didn't even have the keys to go inside but I peered through the kitchen window, saw a range and stone sink, walked round the back to a barn and beyond, the forest. It's real Hansel and Gretel country."

Nicki, who wanted something more practical, opted for a 1960s, single-storey, three-room bungalow in a side street, also with a barn and garden. "The two houses had our names on them," says Nicki. "It was Sunday morning and it was all happening in the village - ramshackle but fun. We knew there was life there." The women shook hands with the agent on the green and confirmed the deal in a roadside café.
Why did they choose Bulgaria? Vicky, a food technology teacher at Lancaster High School, in Lancashire, and Nicki, a restaurateur from Derry in Northern Ireland, are neither typical expats nor property speculators. "We had thought about buying in France, Spain or Italy but it was just too expensive," says Vicky. She describes the two of them as "alpha females" in the chronicle of their experiences, The Big Bulgarian Adventure, written under the pseudonym of Sue Seddon, published this month.
"When I saw properties advertised at this price in Bulgaria, I couldn't believe it. But we didn't want to be in a place where we'd see Union Jack underpants or the 'here for the beer' crowd. We want to try to get under the skin of local life. It's much harder work but very rewarding.
"We had an absolute ball on that first visit. It was a mad trip where we found ourselves in this strange landscape, driving on a foot of snow, bitterly cold but exhilarated. We misread road signs; forgot that shaking the head means 'yes' and not 'no'; and drove miles before we managed a coffee, but learned to restore our vigour with two large golden beers."

On their next visit, a couple of months later, they completed the legal formalities on their first properties - and headed off to buy again. This time Nicki splashed out €14,000 on a stone-built house, wattle and daub intact on its upper walls, in the architectural reserve and film-set location of 200-year-old Staro Stefanovo, a holiday spot for Sofia professionals.
Not to be outdone, Vicky found her second property on the web when she was back home, a 200-year-old tumbledown cottage in the hamlet of Bulgarene, near Lovech, for €3,000.
Now, two years on, both have completed essential renovation work on their first homes but done nothing to the second properties. They have also enjoyed a handful of holidays in the country, with Vicky spending six weeks in Malinovo last summer.
She has met the mayor, "a little, neat man in a warm jumper", with whom she discussed house prices relative to income in the UK and Bulgaria - all in a mix of sign language and scribbled figures.
Her new neighbours, intrigued but welcoming, are already good friends. Anna, "tiny, wrinkled, bright-eyed", is almost self-sufficient, weaving, rearing goats, growing fruit and veg, says Vicky, who includes a recipe for "Over-the-Fence Ratatouille" in her book.

"Mrs Next Door is famous for handing her garden produce to us over the fence when she thinks her husband isn't looking," she says. "We manage to pay for some without causing offence, or at least swap it for her favourite olives after a trip to the market." Shopping - for everything from the chic, red leather, lambswool-collared jacket she found in Sofia to the yogurt cultures "which put Viagra to shame" found in most markets - is fun, according to Vicky.
The two friends are part of the growing British invasion of Bulgaria: 30,000 Britons now own homes there, according to figures released by the Bulgarian government in February.

The country's property market, which has grown by 30 per cent in the past four years, is thriving; in Veliko Turnovo, at least 80 new estate agencies have sprung up in the past two years. And prices are predicted to rise another 10 per cent this year, now that the country has joined the European Union.

Many Britons have bought there simply as an investment. But for Vicky and Nicki, the way to enjoy Bulgaria is to go with a sense of adventure. "Do not try to recreate your lifestyle at home," says Vicky. "You will pay a lot more for it and not have half as much fun."

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 21/04/2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/