After a year in Plovdiv, we’re packing up.
In this video, I share why our new town won us over, how it compares to Plovdiv, and what we’ve learned about finding “home” as expats in Bulgaria.
We’ll also talk about what finally made Jeremy say yes to another move (spoiler: it involves mountains, bikes, and finding kindred spirits).
Join us as we start our next chapter in Bulgaria — and subscribe so you don’t miss our Bansko home tour, cost of living breakdown, and tips for renting here.
🏡 Related videos:
➡️ [Why we chose Bulgaria: https://youtu.be/dCNsVQTC_3g]
➡️ [Plovdiv Apartment Tour & Monthly Costs: https://youtu.be/KOEMQI4AG54]
#livingabroad #expatlife #expatliving #internationalliving #Bulgariaexpat #americansinbulgaria #Banskoexpat #banksornramaneklap
Chapters
00:00 – Intro
02:02 – About Maureen
02:29 – Researching Bulgaria
02:46 – Bansko
05:39 – Arrival in Sofia
07:37 – Veliko Tarnovo
08:27 – Plovdiv
10:33 – Summer in Bansko
18:50 – Plovdiv vs. Bansko
28:52 – Who Plovdiv is good for
29:54 – Bansko a better fit for us
Okay, so here’s the backstory for this video. You need to understand my husband hates moving. And I know everybody dislikes moving. Everyone has a distaste for it. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about off the charts, can’t stand it, would do anything to avoid it. If moving were a person, he would put a curse on it and damn it to hell for all eternity. So, his pain point has to be really high before he’ll consider a move. Or more likely, my pain point has to be really high because, you know, happy wife, happy life. And because we’ve moved around a lot, which is an understatement, not only from country to country, but within countries, I try to make sure I do a lot of thorough research before we start discussing the next move. Number one, because it helps if I have all my ducks in a row. And number two, if there’s something about a place that’s going to rule it out for us that we can find out before we even get there, then I might as well find that out. Take that one off the list and move on. Now, if you followed my channel, you will know that we did not have the time to take an exploratory trip to Bulgaria before we moved here. not something I’d necessarily recommend. Although we took a six- week exploratory trip to Ecuador and that country did not work out for us after 18 months. And we didn’t take one for Bulgaria and so far in Bulgaria, we’re really happy here. So, I don’t know that an exploratory trip makes that much of a difference. I think it’s really hard to really find out how you’re going to feel living in a country when you’re only here for a few weeks. It’s better than nothing, but I’m not sure how comprehensive an exploratory trip can be. So, we didn’t take an exploratory trip to Bulgaria before we came here. And now it’s time to move on. Hi, my name is Moren. In 2024, I moved to Bulgaria with my husband, Jeremy, and our two tuxedo cats, Damon and Pytheus. And I make videos for expats and wannabe expats so that you can make informed decisions. Prior to moving to Bulgaria, I did put together a very comprehensive spreadsheet that I’ve already talked about that had all the countries listed that we even would remotely consider as well as all the criteria we were looking for. But that’s all we had to go on. We relied on uh people with YouTube channels, people with blogs, Americans who had done this before us, and there’s not that many Americans living here. So, we had to do a little bit of digging. Now, the town of Banskow, Bulgaria, interested me right from the beginning. I liked the vibe I was getting when I read about it and watched videos about it. So, for those of you who don’t know, Banskow is a mountain resort town in the western part of the country, and it’s known for a couple of things. It’s always been a ski resort and it’s much more affordable than some other ski resorts in Europe and certainly in the US. So, it draws a lot of winter tourism from December through I guess around March. And then in the last few years, Banskow has also been positioning itself as a hub for digital nomads. It’s the home to the digital nomad fest every year at the end of June. And they’re really starting to add to their infrastructure so that they entice digital nomads to come to Bulgaria and stay in Banskow for a short or a longer period of time. Subsequently, the internet there is very good. The vibe is very energetic. Most digital nomads tend to be younger people. There’s a lot of co-working spaces. There’s at least four and they’re also developing some co-working co-living spaces. Banskow also is a home to a very vibrant retiree community, mostly British, but there are folks from other countries here as well. There’s only a handful of Americans, but there is a very vibrant and active retiree community that pretty much interacts in English. That’s a good thing for me. Jeremy on the other hand before we came here was not impressed with Banskow. Our family joke that Jeremy always says about Banskow or at least used to say was, “Oh, it’s just like Breenidge.” So for those of you who aren’t from the US or aren’t from Colorado, Breenidge is a very popular ski resort town in the mountains of Colorado and it has a certain vibe to it. And Jeremy’s whole argument against Banskow was if it’s going to give you a Colorado/American vibe, then we may as well stay in Colorado. Of course, that leaves out the fact that Banskow is a heck of a lot cheaper to live than Breen Ridge. And quite frankly, I knew it was still going to have Bulgarian elements mixed in with it. It’s impossible to be in this vibrant culture that is so pervasive and have this one little isolated town that’s totally unbulgarian. That’s not the case. But that was Jeremy’s perception and he seemed so adamant about it that even though Banskow was really number one on my list, I decided to let it go. He was being a great sport about leaving Ecuador and spending some time in the US and then before we came here and then coming here. So I decided not to rock the boat and put Banskow on the list for a later time. Just temporarily though, cuz I had a plan. Here’s what we did when we arrived in Bulgaria on December 4th of 2024. We had rented an Airbnb in Sophia for the entire month of December and we knew that that would be our base to explore some of the other areas around the country that we were considering to live. We liked Sophia very much. I don’t know that it was really a contender for us to live in. Even though there are some wonderful perks in Sophia, it’s well connected to the rest of Europe. The airport is right there. There’s a ton of English speakers there, which makes day-to-day living easier. But the one thing that was off-putting about Sophia is that Jeremy is a road biker. And there’s so much traffic in Sophia. And let’s face it, I don’t want to be insulting, but it’s pretty well known. Bulgarians are really crazy drivers. There’s not a lot of bike lanes. There’s some, but there’s they’re not continuous for miles and miles and miles. And I know I would have been a wreck if Jeremy was out on his bike in Sophia. So Sophia was really not a contender until he gives up his bike riding days. And I don’t see that happening anytime soon. But it was a great base. It was wonderful walking around there, particularly at Christmas time. We kind of got the lay of the land. We figured out how to use like grocery stores and ATMs and the metro and the buses, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you have to tackle those things and they’re brand new to you every single day. And the other thing we realized in Sophia is just how safe Bulgaria feels. I would walk out in Sophia after dark, no problem, by myself or the two of us, and we would feel perfectly safe walking around. And that after leaving the violence in the United States was a big deal. Okay, so we had Sophia as our base. Our first city to visit was Veliko Tarnavo. I hope I pronounced that right. We found that pretty charming. The old town is wonderful and there’s cats all over the place. Everybody takes care of the cats. Everybody puts food out for them. So these cats are like community property. It was great. We loved that part. But the vibe of the city, I can’t explain it. It It’s a chemistry thing. It’s like online dating. You have to just find the right one. And the chemistry of it, it just it didn’t click with us. It was a great place to visit, but we couldn’t see ourselves settling down there. So, we had a wonderful long weekend there. We did look at some apartments and got a feel for pricing and what was available. And we came back to Sophia, left the door open, but I think in our heart of hearts, we knew that the Leo Carnival was not going to be for us. Plavde was next, and as most of you know, that’s where we ended up renting an apartment. And I did promise Jeremy that wherever we went, I would commit to a year. The poor guy just can’t handle moving any more frequently than that. So, I committed to a year in Plav. We rented a great apartment. There’s a a house tour of our apartment. I’ll put a link to that up above if you want to see the apartment that we’re living in and what we pay for it. So, we signed a one-year lease on this apartment uh beginning January 1st. We moved in a little bit early and are committed to staying here through the 31st of December of this year, which is 2025. But I didn’t give up on Bansko. Plav is known for getting very warm in the summer. It’s in a valley. And I knew that when we came here, we prefer the mountains where you get up higher in elevation and it’s a little cooler in the summer. And we also like the four seasons. We like winter. I mean, as long as it’s not a brutal I mean, we don’t want like a Midwestern winter where it goes on for months on end. But snow in the winter, we’re used to that. We like it. So, we enjoy the four seasons. And Plativ would have given us the four seasons. They get a little bit of snow here, not as much as areas at higher elevation in Bulgaria, but they they do have the four seasons. It is now the last week of October and the fall colors here, which are not as vibrant as in Vermont, which is where I live for many years when my kids were small. They’re still pretty darn good. There’s nothing to sneeze at. So, I would give I would give the Plavde Fall 8.5. It’s It’s actually very pretty and the colors in the mountains and the rodopies are just beautiful. The leaves on the trees. But to get back to the summer, we knew it was going to get hot and I knew I was going to have a hard time with the heat and I knew Jeremy was too. So I suggested around the middle of May that we rent a place in Banskow for the hottest months of summer, which would be July and August. And oh, by the way, while we were at it, may as well go out there for the last week of June so I could attend the Nomad Fest. So, we ended up renting uh just a tiny, very tiny, too tiny for us, but that’s another story. We managed apartment in Banskow from like the 22nd, 23rd of June all the way through to the 31st of August. We had a good two plus months to stay in Banskow and really see if it was going to feel right for us for a longer term stay. Here’s what I love about Banskow. It’s much smaller than Plavde. It it is totally walkable. There are taxis there. There are no buses because you don’t need them. But everything is within depending on if you stay in the center of town at the in the heart of town, everything you really need is within a 10 or 15 minute walk. And if you really wanted to go further a field, you could go 25, 30 minutes and I think you’d hit probably every place in town. It’s also surrounded by natural beauty. Piering National Forest backs right up to it. As a matter of fact, our apartment that we stayed in actually backed up to the forest. You could go out our back door and through a gate in the fence and you were in the forest. It was just right there. It was wonderful. Plus, there’s a ton of stuff to do there because there’s two distinct communities there and I fit into both of them. So, I fit into the digital nomad community because we still have a business and I still maintain and grow that business online. So, I really enjoy interacting with people who are working remotely. We have a lot in common and most of these people are also welltraveled and Jeremy and I are wellraveled so we have that in common. Plus, I just like having friends of various ages. I don’t want to hang out with everybody over 60. And don’t get me wrong, people over 60 are great. I’m over 60, but I like that younger energy as well. So, the digital nomad population in Banso gives me that. And there’s all kinds of events that are set up by and for the digital nomad community. the co-working spaces that are there have I mean they have Friday night cocktails and they have beer night and they have go to the thermal baths and there’s something going on all the time. So you have that piece of things. Then you have the mostly British retirees and they’re also very active. There’s a hiking club, there’s a supper club. Some of the folks go to a boot camp, an exercise fitness program. There are people there who are interested, English speakers who are interested in everything. So Jeremy has found a photography buddy. Jeremy is a very talented photographer and he can sit and talk about whatever it is photographers talk about until the cows come home as long as it’s not with me. So we always like to find him a photo buddy. In the summer there was a concert in the town square every single weekend starting in July, which was great. And and then there’s just all kinds of things to see as you’re walking around. There’s outdoor cafes. You can sit you can sit and people watch in Banskow for hours and never get bored. Additionally, many many people in Banskow speak English. The Bulgarians speak English and that’s because it is a tourist town. It’s a resort town and obviously if there are people coming from all over the world then you need to speak more Bulgarian. So, in restaurants, we had no trouble communicating in English. In the drugstores, not so much grocery stores, but I don’t have to communicate in English in grocery stores. I can figure it out in Bulgarian. But drugstores, even some of the taxi drivers, I was surprised. I would say about maybe 50 60% of the taxi drivers that we met up with in the summer knew at least some English. One guy’s English was really good. And I always ask where they learned it. Most of them say they they learned it from watching Western TV. And I don’t remember where this guy said he learned it. He’s got an interesting combination of jobs. He drives a taxi in the summer and in the winter he’s a ski instructor on the mountain. So he obviously needs to speak English so he can instruct his student. So I thought that was really cool. All in all, it’s a little easier to get by there if your Bulgarian is very rudimentary like mine is. The Sunday market is also not to be missed. I would call it a farmers market. They don’t really have that expression as far as I know here. But for if you’re an American and I tell you it’s a farmers market, you know exactly what it looks like. Everybody comes to a spot just adjacent to the town square. They set up their tents and they sell the freshest and most beautiful produce, honey, peanut butter, beans, cheese, olives, anything fresh is there. And that’s every Sunday morning. That’s where we did most of our grocery shopping when we were there over the summer. And then anything we had to supplement, we just went to the mainstream grocery store. It still took Jeremy a few weeks to warm up to the place, which was very surprising to me because it has everything there that he loves. There’s tons of photography opportunities. It’s just breathtakingly gorgeous. There’s m it looks like the Alps. There’s just mountains everywhere. There’s lots of places for him to ride his bike. Not only on his long road bike treks that he does outside of town, but even around town because it’s a smaller town. It’s perfectly safe if I have to send him on an errand to the grocery store if I need something quickly. I don’t have to worry that he’s going to get hit when he goes to run a simple errand. So, there’s plenty of places, both short and longer duration, where he can ride a bike. Tons of places to hike. As I mentioned, we could walk out our back door of our apartment and the national forest is right there. I think you could live there for a year and never explore all of the hiking trails that are there. I was a little surprised that it took him so long to warm up to Banskow. And I think the only reason that he was holding himself back was he had that but it’s just like Breenidge mindset. I think tape that tape was playing over and over in his head and he had to get past that. The only other thing that he professed any sort of distaste for, I would say distaste is probably even too strong of a word. Um, Banskow because it is a resort town, it can be somewhat transitional. A lot of people own apartments there. They don’t live in them year round. They either rent them out or maybe they just come for the ski season or whatever. and he felt that a lot of the apartments were kind of slapped together, not real well-made, and some of them are. I mean, the one that we stayed in was just okay. And he said it kind of had a soulless vibe because of all these apartment buildings that were all over the place that just, you know, cover the town. What I finally said to him was, “Well, how soulless are those big communist block apartments that they have all over Bulgaria, particularly in Plabiv?” because I see those all over Plaviv. And while Plav is a gorgeous city where those apartments are, it ain’t pretty. I They are soulless. They might be beautiful on the inside. We stayed in one actually in one of those communist era buildings that looks terrible from the outside for our apartment in Sophia, but the apartment itself had been redone and it was beautiful. So, they may be beautiful on the inside, but on the outside they are nothing to look at. I’ll take one of those soulless apartments in Banskow any day. So, I don’t know how much of a factor that was, particularly since Banskow does have a beautiful old town which is not full of soulless apartment buildings, beautiful homes and gardens and just absolutely gorgeous. So, it did take Jeremy a few extra weeks, but after he came around, what the day I really noticed it was he was talking to our daughter Alyssa on the phone. So, it would have been the beginning of August. So, we had been there a good 6 weeks by then and he was just going on and on and on about how much you love Banskow and I thought, okay, I had to ease drop on a conversation to get that information, but it seems like we’re in. So, guys, we’re moving to Banskow. Now, just because we have chosen Bansco does not mean we didn’t like Plav. And it also doesn’t mean that Plav wouldn’t be perfect for you. So I thought I would do a little quick comparison between the two locations just so you can get a sense about what we felt was missing for us in Plavde and that we hope to find in Banskow. So first of all let’s talk about Plaviv. It is a gorgeous city. It’s the oldest continually inhabited city in Europe. Plav really shows the pride that the Bulgarian people have in that heritage. There are ruins here from past civilizations from the Ottomans going back to the Romans and the Byzantines and they are very carefully preserved. They’re beautiful. They tell a fascinating story and I just find them incredibly enthralling and I like to hear the stories about the Roman stadium and how it was excavated really not that long ago. I think it was late ‘7s. I’ll look it up. The old town in Plavde is so much fun to walk around. It’s charming. It’s a little hard on the feet because it has those rocky streets, but once you get used to that, it’s absolutely wonderful. You kind of walk around and you just your head’s going all over the place because there’s so many beautiful buildings and you can take a tour and they’ll explain the heritage and the history of the buildings that you’re looking at. It’s there’s the old gate that comes into the city. There’s historical homes. There’s the ethnographic museum. It’s just loaded with history and culture and things to do. There are a ton of places to eat. Kapana is a wonderful area to just sit and people watch. It’s clean. The park that’s downtown is huge. It’s clean. They’ve got the singing fountains at the pond in the summer. It’s just amazing what there is to catch your eye here in Plavde. Nonetheless, Plavdeib didn’t check all the boxes for us the way I think that Banskow is going to do. Number one, and this has a lot to do with where we live in the city. So, Plavde is a much larger city than Banskow. Banskow’s got like less than 10,000 full-time residents. Plavde has got what 300,000. And our apartment, while it is in the city proper, is on the southern edge of the city. And remember, we don’t have a car. So, it’s a good, if you count walking, waiting for the bus and taking the bus and walking on the other end, it can be anywhere from 25 to 40 minutes to get to the heart of the city. And that sometimes discourages us from going out and doing things. We picked this apartment because it’s on the outskirts and it’s quiet. And I’m not sorry that we did that. But in the winter when it’s a little chilly and you know if you come out of a bar or a restaurant or a concert and it’s going to be dark and you have to wait for a bus or call a cab and wait for that, it’s just really easy for me to talk myself out of that. So that was one downside which quite honestly we could have rectified by moving closer to the downtown area. Then we would have had to give up the peace and the solitude that we have from living on the edge of town. We didn’t want to do that. So that was a factor. Overall, my sense is that the English-speaking community in Bansco is more active than what’s in Plav. The We’ve met some wonderful people in Plaviv, but I haven’t found that they are as organized and they don’t put together as many activities as they do in Banskow. I swear there’s an activity in Banskow probably almost every night of the week. Implative we have the jazz club has a meetup every Wednesday evening which is great. We went to that several times. We met some wonderful people but I never really felt like things took off from there. Now of course did I schedule any events? Heck no. So that’s on me. It seemed a bit more challenging here to find organized events that expats put together. Now there’s festivals every weekend. There’s all kinds of places to go and we did participate in those, but that would be just the two of us. We never really fostered a a solid group of friends here. Lots of acquaintances, but not a solid group of friends that we could do things with on a regular basis. And we did that in Banskow within the first three weeks. So, Banskow just seems like a better fit for us in terms of that aspect of our lives. And then the big thing which was the reason we went to Banskow in the first place supposedly is it is cooler there in the summer. You really don’t need air conditioning. There was plenty of circulating air with a fan and an open window. We had a couple of hot days in July. That was their hot spell. It seems like the older I get, the more problems I have with the sun in the summer months. I just can’t I don’t know whether it’s a heat thing or an intensity thing, but I find that I have to stay out of the sun during the brighter parts of the day, which is fine. That’s when I stay home and make YouTube videos. But then going out at night in Banskow, oh, it’s wonderful. I mean, it’s just wonderful. There’s a little breeze and everyone’s out and it’s got a great family atmosphere. Can you tell I really like Banskow? And then the other thing I already touched upon is because Bansco is a tourist town, there are a lot more English speakers there and that makes accomplishing your daily errands a lot easier. Implative. I can usually find an English speaker, but I sometimes have to hunt. I know where the pharmacy is that has an Englishspeaking pharmacist. And I know other places I can go, but if it’s a new type of a store or a new type of environment that I’m going into, I either have to rely on Google Translate or ask if they speak English. So, I preface most conversations in Plavde with, “Do you speak English?” because I don’t want to assume. I don’t expect Bulgarians to speak English. When they do, that’s a perk. That’s a that’s a blessing for me. It’s one less thing I have to juggle. So, I make it a point to ask, “Do you speak English?” before I just start babbling away in English. In Banskow, I hardly ever had to say that. I just knew that people in the service industry there who dealt with with foreigners would know how to speak English. That just makes life a whole lot easier. Banskow and Plabdiv are about the same distance from Sophia. So getting to the airport, no change, just a different bus. I looked on NBO to compare the cost of living between the two areas. And the interesting thing is according to Numbo, which is usually spoton, it says that the cost of living in Banskow is about 20% less than it is in Plabiv. And I found that surprising. We did rent an apartment in Bansco that we’re set to move into by the middle of December and I’ll give you a house tour of that and tell you about that in another video. Our rent in Bansow is considerably higher than it is in Plaviv. However, the apartment is much bigger. What we basically had to do because we both need an office to work in and we want, you know, loom room space and we both like to cook. What we in effect did was we found the floor of a house, what we would call in the US a duplex, what they call in Bulgaria the floor of a house that actually used to be two separate apartments, two small separate apartments. And we were able to negotiate with the owner and rent those two small apartments as one apartment. So I would expect it to cost more than our one apartment here in Pliff. I’ll do a house tour video and talk about those expenses there. So, our housing cost is going up. Overall, I was surprised at the 20% difference, but I think it was because where we stayed in the summer was at the south end of town down by the ski resort, and it was in um it was in a a building, one of those soulless apartment buildings, and it had a big huge hill to get up to the back of it. And the street going up to the apartment building also had a big huge hill. And it was a good at least 15 to 20 minute walk to get to any kind of a grocery store that’s bigger than a mini mart. The store that we shopped at the most is called Groch. And I loved Groch. Groch has a lot of Americanstyle items, but their prices are a little bit higher as they should be for the items that they sell. And we shopped there primarily in addition to going to the Sunday market. But the Sunday market could only hold us for so long because we had one of those teeny tiny apartment refrigerators in our apartment. You know, the ones that are like waist high. We couldn’t buy enough produce to last us a week cuz it wouldn’t fit in the refrigerator. Plus, I’ve been told and we actually witnessed firsthand that the produce there is so fresh. It doesn’t have preservatives and all kinds of chemicals on it. So, it doesn’t it doesn’t keep very long. It starts to go bad. So, if we bought stuff on a Sunday, it might last us to Wednesday or Thursday, and then I’d have to go supplement, paying higher prices at the markets during the week to make sure we had enough to last us through the weekend. Where our new apartment is is closer, not only to the Sunday market, but it’s closer to other smaller produce stands that we didn’t have easy access to. I think that’s why our grocery bill went up in Banskow. The other reason is the kitchen in that apartment was the size of a postage stamp. It had a two-burner stove. It had like no cupboards. You didn’t have an oven. So, we I didn’t cook. I mean, some spaghetti with ragu, some scrambled eggs, some, you know, burritos. We just didn’t do a lot of cooking. We ate way more pre-made and processed foods than probably are healthy for us, and they also cost more. Once we get to Bins fulltime and have a decentsized kitchen to function in, then hopefully we’ll see our grocery prices go down. So, that that remains to be seen. All in all, I think Plavdev is a great city for expats that don’t require or want a lot of other expat interaction, history buffs. I mean, it’s all over the place. People that want a mediumsized city which has plenty of amenities and restaurants and bars, but it doesn’t have that overwhelming feeling of a big huge city like Sophia. Also, the cost of living is substantially less in poverty than it is in Sophia. That alone might be a reason for some city people to consider Plav over living in the capitol. And I think expats with a car, unless you want to live in the downtown area. We love to hike. Hiking means getting out into the mountains. You know, you don’t really take a bus out to the mountains. You don’t really take a cab because then you got to get one back and that might be a little bit trickier. So if I were to come to Plaude and not live in the downtown area, I would consider adding a car as a prerequisite. But for us, small town Banskow is a better fit. So we signed our lease in the new place for December 15th. And our lease here in Plaviv goes till the end of December. So we have a couple weeks of overlap so we can move out slowly. We’ve already retained a mover. I want to clean this place up so it is really clean for the next tenants to move in. But we’re going to be in Banskow for Christmas and New Year’s. And I understand they do New Year’s Eve up really big there with fireworks and everybody meets in the town square. So I’m really excited to be in Banskow for New Year’s Eve. And as I mentioned, once we’re in and settled, I will do a house tour there. I think my house tour of this house is my most popular video. So people, I guess, like seeing those. so I can make another one of the new house that we’re in so that you can get a sense of what our space looks like there and how much we’re paying to live in that space. I also plan to make a video about renting in Bulgaria because I picked up some tips along the way that you might find helpful. So that’s the story of how we came to the decision to move to Banskow. Jeremy is totally on board. He’s not happy about the moving thing, but we did hire professional movers. All we’ve chosen to do is box up stuff. We can do that. But we live on the second floor now. First floor in Banskow, second floor here. And I don’t want either one of us to be carrying heavy things down the stairs. So, this move should be a little bit less arduous for him. Not only does he not have to move anything, I’m not going to let him move anything. So, this will make that move a little bit easier. It’s always chaotic. The cats are always like strung out for a few days whenever we move. But, well, I’ll make that adjustment and I’m sure we’ll do just fine. and Jeremy’s it’s just like Breenriidge comment has turned into more of a compliment than a complaint. So if you’re curious about how all this is going to pan out and what our moving expenses will be and what it’s like for us to get settled in Vanso, please hit the subscribe, hit the bell so that you’ll be alerted when I post a new video. I do try to post once a week. That may get a little shaky when we’re moving, but I’ll aim for that. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in Plugd B for the next few videos. We’re still here for the next six weeks or so.
25 Comments
As you say, an exploratory trip to a country may not be usefull. When you visit for a few weeks, you arent involved in day to day " permanent" functions like setting up a home, visas, banking
This is why exploratory trips are important and not just staying a few weeks. As you know, you won’t find a perfect place.
A good woman never takes the initiative. She just plants the seed in a man's head and waits for it to bear fruit. And when that happens, all she has to do is say, "Honey, that's a great idea!" 😉It will be a great adventure.
OMG, Bansko is my hometown. It is a beautiful and peaceful town, I hope that you will enjoy it <3
Riding a bike in Bansko, especially in those winding mountain roads sounds like a death wish to me, sorry for being honest about it. There is very little visibility for the car drivers on the curves of the roads (and there are a lot of them there) and one is just asking for trouble biking in the mountains.
I discovered your channel very recently and love your videos, have been trying to binge-watch all of them!
I was born in Bulgaria and spent my teenage years there, before moving to Toronto, Canada 35 years ago. I still live in Toronto and travel to Bulgaria, mainly Sofia, each and every year. I do love the hustle and bustle of the big city 🙂
It is fascinating for me to compare your detailed, well-described impressions of Bulgaria with my own knowledge/observations (I am still fluent in Bulgarian and having grown up there am very familiar with its peculiarities).
Congratulations on your move to Bansko, great choice!!
Looking forward to the videos of your further adventures!
In the not so distant past, for retired real estate investors, one big turn of, for Bansko and many other small towns somewhat constricted by ridges is the poluted air by wood burning stoves in the winter. Hopefully that is changing.
Bansko comes alive only for the winter. Everyone packs up for the summer, doctors included. Good luck.
Thanks for sharing your experience in BG… may I suggest posting (embedding in the video) some of your husbands photos… with his consent of course 😃
plovdiv is great, but summers there are hard to bare
Best of luck with the chalga and fat necks in Bansko !
Sofia is safe, but other cities in Bulgaria are safer. In some areas of Sofia there are now migrants from conflict zones.
As someone who grew up in Sofia I genuinely have no idea how y'all can enjoy walking around in Sofia. It seems you're rather new to Bulgaria, but Sofia now is nothing when compared to Sofia from 5 years ago. The air was so much cleaner, the traffic was far less, there were small shops everywhere, people were not so stressed. I'm actively looking for a way out of Sofia, despite growing up here, all my relatives being here and it being the capital of my country.
From a small developed country in the 1980s, producing nuclear energy for all the Balkans, computers for all of Eastern Europe, metal industry and many other sectors, Bulgaria became a retirement point for elderly westerners. Nothing against these people, but this country must turn back to its deserved level. With the arrival of the rotten American democracy, our educational system has lost more than half of the schools, and overall the literacy level, from one of the highest in Europe, fell almost to the bottom, with only Italians and Albanians behind us.
Why don't you choose to move to one of the coastal small towns or villages. I recently did some research and found fully furnished 1 or 2 beds apartments to let, for between €250 -400 per month in Nessabar and surrounding areas. Studio apartments for just under €200 p/m. Don't mean to be judgemental or persuasive. Now that is out of season, rentals could be lower.
Kind regards, Rose
The big problem with Veliko Tarnovo is walkability — no pedestrian zone (most other Bulgarian cities have great ones) and you're always walking up or down a hill.
I spent the summer of '23 in Bansko. The heat wave lasted for much of July and I bailed to Blagoevgrad (well worth a 1-hour bus ride) and Sofia for the air conditioning. Can't recommend it for singles. There's no nightlife, except during ski season, and foraging around the town for healthy groceries can be challenging. Taxis are quite expensive for the Balkans — I was told they're owned by Russian mafia. But it does have what you're expecting, and you might like it.
It always amazes me how different the preferences of Bulgarians vs expats are. There is no sane Bulgarian who would ever even think of being in a place like Bansko for more than a week 🙂
Good Luck with your move. I think from listening to what you are saying it is the right decision. I think it is much better suited to your needs. Will be interesting to hear how it goes.
Sounds great! But what about healthcare options in a small city in Bulgaria…?
good. see you later…much. dont let the door hit your jew ass on the way out!
Move out our Bulgaria, none will miss you here.
Veliko Tarnovo mentioned! 🙌 Love that you guys are staying in Bulgaria, but moving to a place that fits you better. Hope the move goes as smoothly as possible and you guys love it! Tbh, even people born here (or in any country for that matter) have to "find their place" and "click" with a place. I was born in Star Zagora, chose Veliko Tarnovo upon turning 18 and stayed there until my wife tricked me into moving to her hometown of Varna. I absolutely hated it here… until I got used to it and now I love it. 😂 Love following your journey. The videos are super entertaining and truly hope you're helping other expats make the choice easier with them.
I'd also like to add – and you can tell me if it's true or not – but I feel like moving in Bulgaria should be a bit easier than in a country like the US or even Ecuador. Bulgaria is NOT BIG to say the least. The distances are much smaller. Depending on the distances between towns/cities you can even move on a whim sometimes. Hopefully that's true for you guys too and it is easier.
It is time for you to start a spiritual journey, dear lady. One famous English writer had said that all we need in life is a homely home, simple pleasures, one or two friends worth the name, a cat, a dog and something to eat and drink… I don’t think that you will be happy even in Switzerland! Bulgaria is a beautiful country, though poor, but if you embrace the positives Bulgaria offers, you will be at peace with yourself.
There is no major hospital or medical center there…
How about cold and icy weather there too?
Love Bansko and spent a month there in January 2023. Am planning on spending a summer there in the next couple of years. Enjoy your time there.