Bulgaria, a country where you want to live. Life in Bulgaria reviews (interview)

Meet Artem Romanov (A). 7 years ago, Artem moved to Bulgaria with his family and he will share his story of moving.

C: What can you say about Bulgaria in a few words?
A: An underrated country. There are a lot of beautiful places here. The air, the best thing about the climate here is the air and very good attitude of people. We applied for residence permits in Spain, in Greece. My wife saw an advertisement that you can buy a studio apartment in Bansko for 7000 euros.

S: We are now in Bulgaria, in the town of Bansko. It lies at the foot of the famous Pirin Mountain. The combination of a ski resort and a cozy historical town makes the resort a popular place for active recreation and entertainment.

S: Where did you come from?

A: We came from Novosibirsk, from Siberia.

S: What did you do before you moved?

A: In Novosibirsk I worked as a programmer, my wife worked in a medical company.

S: Why did you decide to move?

A: We were thinking about moving. We started when we met. We started traveling, a lot. We mostly traveled to Europe. It was quite difficult to travel from Novosibirsk. Because you had to fly to Moscow, and from Moscow further. And sometimes the journey took us 27 hours. So we thought about moving somewhere closer, but we didn’t consider Moscow because the Moscow rhythm and the Moscow mentality didn’t suit us. We thought about St. Petersburg.

But then my wife saw an advert that you could buy a studio apartment in Bansko [in Bulgaria] for 7,000 euros. At that time, the exchange rate was such that you could just go and buy it. So she [the wife] came here in 2014, actually when the story with Crimea started, and we bought an apartment. But we didn’t buy a studio, since we had a small child, we bought a larger apartment. Well, with one bedroom, and literally a year later we applied for a residence permit in Spain, in Greece. We were refused both there and there. We came to our apartment in Bansko in the summer. Although we were told that there is nothing to do here in the summer. But we came here, it’s so beautiful, so sunny, warm, in general, wonderful. We liked it so much. And some guys we know here told us that we need to get a residence permit here. And we did. So that’s how we got there. First, we kind of made an investment in European real estate in Bulgaria, and then it worked out, so we moved here.

S: Why did you choose Bulgaria?

A: Because we were refused in other countries (ha-ha). In fact, Bulgaria has very easy entry, that is, we have been in other countries. When you travel, it is one story, we already traveled for the purpose of migration. That is, we did not live in tourist areas, ate, walked on playgrounds.

And there was one such story that made us a little nervous. Actually, because we were in Spain in Alicante at some playground. We were looking at another apartment, to buy, to move to. And it turned out that there were only Spaniards at this site. And this scared us a lot because we didn’t understand anything at all. They don’t really speak English, it’s clear that you’ll adapt in time, but we felt kind of uncomfortable. So we put this idea aside a little and concentrated on Bulgaria. So we had an apartment. We came just to relax and managed to get the documents done.

Which city in Bulgaria did the interviewee choose?

C: Which city in Bulgaria did you choose and why?

A: We chose Bansko exclusively. First. Because it’s mountains. That is, fresh air. Proximity to the sea. Everyone says that there is no sea here. In fact, the sea is two hours away and it’s Greek.

That is, you calmly get into the car, 2 hours and you are on the beach. We also chose Bansko because it is an international city. There are many Englishmen, Bulgarians, now French, Spanish, Italians, that is, it is a combination of people. One doctor in Spain told us this, who said that Palma de Mallorca is the best city. We asked. How is it different from others? Internationality, a mixture of cultures, gives a lot of holidays, meetings, events, that is, it gives this infrastructure. That is why we chose Bansko.

But in fact I have never been to any other city except Sofia. When we arrived, I came to Bansko. I liked this beauty.

We drove along the road, to different villages. You look at it, like, it doesn’t fit. Sofia is like the 90s in the Soviet Union. And here it’s beautiful, cool. At that time, we already had friends here, an apartment. So everything came together so easily. And we came to Bansko in 1915. Seven years, it turns out. In 2014, we came for the first time, bought an apartment. In 2015, we moved and stayed permanently. We also have an apartment in Sveti Vlas. We tried there one summer, like everyone does. We work here in the winter, and there in the summer. We tried that one year, realized that we are not here and we are not there. So we stopped. Just Bansko. We just go on vacation. And we are in Bansko all year round.

S: What can you see most often in Bansko? These are stones. There are a lot of them here. Roads, houses were built from them, and it just lies here on the streets for beauty.

About Bansko

S: Can you tell us about Bansko, its advantages and disadvantages?

A: But the advantages, as I said, are the internationality. You can drink the tap water. There are a lot of natural products. There is a Sunday market, where all the locals bring their goods, it is much cheaper. Everyone understands Russian in the shops. Those who come at first are adults. They understand Russian. Also, there are not so many tourists here, that is, winter, summer, there is not such an influx as on the coast. That is, it is very quiet, then they came. I will say this, when we came for the first time in the summer, it was boring here, well, really boring and it was a city of mothers with strollers. Because everyone was brought here for the summer and the mothers just walked. Good weather, everything is calm. Now the seasonality of Bansko is practically gone. There is no skiing in the summer, but there are thermal pools, there are hikes in the mountains, bicycles are very popular there, scooters, tennis courts are free. It turns out that the seasonality is gone and now we live in Bansko peacefully all year round.

By the way, about the minuses. The minus is that Bansko is a small closed village. And after a couple of years you already know most of the people. It has an effect. In a big city, no one knows you. But here everyone knows everyone about each other. It’s a minus. Thank God, Bill’s store has opened now.

No need to go anywhere. The situation with clothes has also improved. Stores are opening. That is, there used to be a problem with clothes. You had to go either to Blagoevgrad or Sofia. Now it is easier. At the same time, the coronavirus has become a great opportunity. Now you can buy online. They just bring the goods.

In fact, we rest in the off-season, because in the season a lot of people come, a lot of work, meetings, communication. It turns out that we work in the season. When there is a season, all the local people are busy with some friends, relatives, acquaintances have arrived. Everyone is busy. We practically do not see each other. Here are the locals, when the tourists leave, we start meeting with the locals. We play board games, dance, make shashlik, go to the mountains together. Exactly with those who live there permanently. Here in the off-season we go to Greece, travel around Europe. In our own car. Let’s say you can get to the Czech Republic by car, go to Hungary. We did not go further by car. Only flying by plane. There are cheap air tickets, let’s say in the off-season they can be somewhere in Milan for 20 euros. Well, that is, you just sit down for the weekend, fly, relax. Well, basically work, home, kindergarten, school, like everyone else.

The story of Artem’s move

C: How did Bulgaria greet you?

A: I think it’s good. That is, again, because it’s easy to enter. That is, you enter calmly, calmly try to communicate. There were funny cases when you enter a store, you try to say something in Bulgarian. And a woman answers you in pure Russian: speaks Russian, I understand you. And it turns out that this is Baba Lyuba, she has her own store. That is, she has lived here for many, many years, but she is Russian, Russian-speaking.

I am naming all Russian speakers now because we have them: Russians, Ukrainians, Israelis, from Dubai, from everywhere, there are Spaniards. They just immigrated earlier, and now they are all moving to Bansko. It was good. At that time, there were very good prices for real estate, there was again an easy entry, that is, you came, bought and you kind of feel comfortable. Now, of course, because of the difference in this exchange rate, you don’t feel so comfortable anymore. But we no longer earn in rubles. So it’s okay for us.

Difficulties of immigration

C: What difficulties did you encounter when moving?

A: With many difficulties. A trivial thing that didn’t bother us at all. For example, in Russia, there is payment for a cell phone. Here it is different. At one point I realized that here I just need to learn again, that is, I, as an adult, need to learn how to pay for a phone, how to pay for utilities. Because in Russia it is all done differently. For a long time now, your salary has been coming to your card, money is automatically debited from the card. You don’t have to worry about it at all, at any time you can go to the site and pay for a phone for yourself, a friend, or someone else from the card.

Here we encountered the fact that we arrived on Sunday, we need to pay for the phone, and all the offices are closed. How to pay? No way. Local Bulgarians say on Monday, but I can’t on Monday. I’m leaving for Greece now, I need to put money on my phone. No way. I go to the website, on the website – no way. It used to be that you can’t just pay for the phone. They simply say there are some of these cards. You go there. And all the kiosks are closed, Sunday. And then I figured it out. It turns out there is an EasyPay cash desk. There is a corresponding application, I linked a bank card. Great. I even started linking the payment for utilities, including taxes for a car, for an apartment. Now everything has become good, but you need to adapt to this. Many people come and think, and now I will do the same. No, it won’t work! It is organized a little differently, maybe somewhere in the old way, roughly speaking, but you need to adapt.

With utilities, this is the biggest problem. Because again, because of the coronavirus, no one could come, they could not pay taxes. People call me and say, pay my taxes. Because I can’t do it online, I need to take a card or go get money and pay. You just need to learn. The difficulty is that you need to somehow adapt, for example, somehow pay for the electricity so that it is not turned off. So that there are no such debts. The management company. In Russia, there are no such problems with the management company. In Bansko, there is a problem with the management company. Their business is to collect a support fee. We have encountered this very much and there is such a problem now. We see this in people who are looking for apartments here. They try to leave complexes with a swimming pool, but with a support fee, for houses. That is, to go to houses where the support fee is lower. Because why pay when you can go to any pool.

Are houses cold in winter?

Another problem. Winter, cold in apartments. This was really, really difficult for us. People don’t believe that a bill for 200 euros a month for electricity can come. This is quite realistic. It all depends on the apartment, how well it’s insulated, what you heat it with. For example, I spend 200 euros for a large apartment, and for someone else it’s 200 euros for a studio apartment. That is, it’s just full of holes. You just have to insulate it. We’ve developed another line of business because of this – insulating apartments. Because people are really freezing, they don’t understand, I’m paying, but where does it go? Problem. It’s great in the summer, 9 months a year, 8. Great. You don’t have to turn anything on. And then the cold weather starts and these crazy bills start, but we’ve learned to cope with it.

Mistakes of immigrants

C: What should you not do in Bulgaria upon arrival?

A: You don’t need to try to behave the way you behaved in your own country. Let’s say, as for Russians, as for Israelis. Everything is just different here, you don’t need to rush, because Bulgarians don’t like that. That is, it works the other way around somewhere. If you insist that they do it faster, they might not do it at all. That’s why Bulgaria teaches us calm. That is, this calm. You can be driving in Bansko, and a car stops in front of you, opens the window and talks to someone, just stands on the road. You don’t honk at it. That is, Israelis honk right away, Russians are more or less, well, Muscovites, for example, also honk. No, we’re used to it. I can stop myself, say hello, how are you? to someone and drive on. No one will honk, you don’t need to behave the way you’re used to acting there.

You need to adapt to the locals. But here it just seems to me that they punish you right away. That is, if you start to escalate, as if to get nervous, they will immediately calm you down or get offended and do nothing. That is, it is necessary here.

C: How much money did you take with you to Bulgaria?

A: All. But in fact, probably like most people, we arrived with some money, which we simply had at that time. Real estate in Novosibirsk was rented out. Then it was sold and we moved the money here. And here we bought a bigger apartment. That is, when we realized that we were really here. Two years passed there, we found an apartment that we needed, a bigger one, and we bought it. But here, probably, the bigger question is. How much to spend, how much money do you need in general. I accidentally saw on YouTube, an uncle who was on the Bulgarian coast in the early 2000s and he says. Everyone says that Bulgaria is a cheap country, so he says, look at a very simple example. You have 1000 dollars. You come to Bulgaria with a thousand dollars. You live, relax, but you cannot officially get a job. And you spend this thousand dollars and that’s it. So he says, take a thousand dollars and go to an expensive country, for example, to Germany. Get a job there, although I don’t know how to get a job there. Here he says get a job, get a salary. And you have 1000 dollars left in your pocket. So which country is expensive or poor? Where you have 1000 dollars in your pocket or where you are unemployed, forced to sweep, clean and everything else, to put it bluntly.

Bulgarian

S: How were things with the Bulgarian language before the move?

A: I didn’t know any Bulgarian. We moved here, I started watching. Baba Lyuba from the store, she suggested, watch children’s cartoons. My son and I started watching just Bulgarian cartoons. As I remember now, it was “SpongeBob SquarePants” if in Russian, and there was “SpongeBob SquarePants”. I learned all three words from the name alone. And then it went on. In fact, I forced myself to go to some meetings of Bulgarian guys, acquaintances. I just sat and listened, at first I didn’t understand anything. The most important thing is to force yourself to listen to some radio, simple banal cartoons, uncomplicated news. Because even now I can’t understand all the news. Force yourself. We took literally a couple of Bulgarian lessons. Well, not really, somehow it helped. Then this whole group fell apart and I just, like through real estate, slowly began to communicate with Bulgarians. And I sort of understand everything, I say everything. The only thing is, right now I don’t speak correctly enough with tenses, with cases. Roughly speaking, it’s still lame. Now I need, in theory, to take a teacher who will correct my base, will correct it.

When I arrived, I knew that, for example, in Spain, there is such a thing. You go to the community or to the city hall, roughly speaking. And there are courses for those who have immigrated. So I went. I found the education department, I say, are there such courses? No. I say, make them. There are no courses.

I also want to say something about Bansko. There is a different language here, a dialect here, we speak the Macedonian dialect. That is, it is rougher, clumsy, so that when a Sofian comes, we hear them right away. They have a melodious Bulgarian language. Especially if it is some lawyer. Beauty, just a sight to behold. But at the same time, Macedonians come, we understand them, we answer them, and they understand us. Well, and we understand each other, Bulgarians too.

S: How are things with the Bulgarian language now?

A: We understand everything, says the child, goes to school, I ask the child to correct me when I say something. Somewhere it is he who tells me: dad, it should be like this, I answer: okay, I understand. We have a Russian language textbook for my child, so that he doesn’t forget Russian either. Because he speaks Russian, but of course he doesn’t practice writing. So he teaches me Bulgarian, that is, we have such an exchange.

How much money do you need for a comfortable life in Bulgaria

C: How much money do you need to live comfortably?

A: From a thousand to one and a half thousand euros, it will be quite comfortable for a family of three. If for one person, of course, less, significantly. Yes, but here again it depends on what. Let’s say if you have a car, because every month the car needs to be filled with gas, repaired, something else, from the amount of utilities that you pay. There is a support fee. For some, the support fee reaches up to in large complexes. Let’s say we chose an apartment where our support fee budget immediately changes. Someone goes to eat in restaurants, someone goes to eat in local establishments. Well, we will not call them canteens, but such affordable establishments.
If three of us go to a tavern to eat there, you can eat there. But if you go to a local establishment and have a good meal and even drink something there on…

We already know where such establishments are. That’s why we don’t go to taverns there. Only there with friends, with
clients, on holidays. Otherwise, we don’t eat there at all. There are also shops, there is a multicooker. Put it in, come home, dinner is ready.

Work and business in Bulgaria

C: Is it possible to find a job or open your own business?

A: You can find both. You can open your own business. In general, Bulgaria is very good for opening a business, since the profit, unlike all others. That is, it is done quite easily and simply. What kind of business is already a question. Another thing, finding a job, a very interesting thing. That is, it depends on what principle [basis] you are here. Now, for example, it is easy for Ukrainians to find a job and they are easily hired. They are already working here too.

It’s great that you can just go to work, we couldn’t work until we got permanent residence. That is, only when we get permanent residence. This is after 5 years. You need to hold out for these five years, roughly speaking, or open your own business, or if the family consists of two people, one, for example, is a sales representative, that is, he works for some company, from Russia, it doesn’t matter. The second person came to him for reunification. According to Bulgarian law, this person who came for reunification is unemployed, so he can get the right to work. This right, in my opinion, cost a year to officially get a job. But in Bansko, let’s say, salaries, if we are talking about tourism, are not high. That is, this is not a narrow specialization, it’s some kind of well, I once worked at the reception. That is, I communicated with people, because I have three languages, I could contact everyone, with the staff and with the clients. You can find, but it will not be highly paid. And there is not much work here. Because basically all the locals have been working everywhere for years. If a new hotel opens, yes, they hire staff. But basically the staff is the same from year to year. In Sofia, of course, there are more opportunities, so to speak.

S: What do you do in Bulgaria?

A: We help people find apartments, a good apartment. We came to this by chance
because we just came ourselves, figured it out, chose an apartment for ourselves. Then we started contacting. Just some friends, acquaintances. And they helped us buy, sell. And that’s how this business was born. Just because we helped people. We weren’t busy with anything and then later we opened our own company. We already have an office and are working. We work as a real estate agency, but recently we have changed our format of work a little. If before
we worked as just an agency. That is, we have options, where. They come, we choose from them. Now there are very few options, now everything is being cleared out. The coronavirus just swept away all the real estate here. That’s why the price went up. Now we work like this. We take a person if he wants to buy and we search the entire database, that is, all the agencies. We cooperate with all the agencies. We search all the agencies. That is, if you come to one place. Then they will show you only those options. To another, only those. So as not to do this and not run around. So we just go and go, that is, roughly speaking, we have gone through all the options and looked at them and made a choice for you. Let’s say it’s enough to look at the photos and we understand where she is looking, some kind of complex, let’s say this is not necessary for them, and this is not necessary. But this is necessary and our people are very
happy. Because they save a lot of time. That is, someone does not want, let’s say, says no, guys, I don’t want to. I will look myself. We say for God’s sake, go ahead. Three days pass, he comes and says: Guys, I looked at the options. I didn’t find any. We say yes, roughly speaking, we looked, chose, showed him. And he made his choice at ten. Here in Bansko, no one does this, so it’s a little difficult for us. It is in this format that we work because yes, we charge some money for this, because in agencies you usually don’t pay anything. You came and bought. We charge separately because we are not choosing our own apartments. That is, there is a little problem with this, it takes some time for people to get used to it.

Also, as a consequence, we were born from this – repairs, insulation of these apartments. Because everyone comes, so at least, it is necessary to paint, refresh some furniture. People simply do not even know where to order furniture, except for IKEA. Well, IKEA is understandable. But for some reason we do not like IKEA here in Bulgaria, that is, the price is high, the quality is not very good. There are other stores that, like with the same price, but much more interesting options. That is, more beautiful, namely European manufacturers, stores. Regarding building materials, in fact, there are enough of them in Bansko. Plus, in general, for us, there was a discovery in Bulgaria – transport companies. How they work here. For example, I even simply order chandeliers for myself. I do not need to go to Sofia to buy them. I clicked on the site and the next day I have them here. And there I paid for this delivery for a car to go there, I would have spent more. It’s just that these transport companies Speedy and Econt really help, really really. It’s really cool to translate documents there, for example, to the coast somewhere. This is a huge plus in Bulgaria, I don’t know about other countries. Here it’s really super. I really like it.

S: What is your monthly income approximately now?

A: The thing is that if earlier when I worked, there was such a stable income. And I understood how much now. There is no such thing here, there is no such stability. Because sometimes there is a month when nothing, you seem to work, you seem to show, you seem to have paid all the taxes, there is an accountant, but you have not received anything. And the next month there may be one or two transactions. And this is how it is covered, so there is some complexity here. Well, it is enough for us to live and slowly save something.

Utility expenses

C: Prices for utilities, electricity, water?

A: As for the prices for utilities. Yes, in the summer it’s great here in Bansko. In the summer we don’t need air conditioning, it’s not that hot because it’s cool at night, so in the summer it’s 50-60 leva. This literally affects the utilities. Cellular communications are very expensive here, for our family and office we spend 100 leva per month for the Internet and phones. So three phones and two Internets for the house cost 100 leva. Water is cheap here, something like 15 leva per month. Plus there are thermal springs here, so in fact you wash at home very rarely. You always go to some bathhouse. In the winter the situation changes because the heating is turned on, that is, the air conditioning is turned on, the heated floors. It depends on the temperature outside, so it can be 100 euros. My most expensive bill this year was 220 euros, when it was minus 18-20 outside, such a Siberian frost. The local heating certainly couldn’t cope. That’s why the bill was high.
S: How much do you spend on food per month?

A: I would say that 100 leva a week is spent on food. Well, if you go, roughly speaking, to Billa and buy groceries for about 100 leva, that’s for a week. Plus the child’s school costs 20 leva, probably 150 – 170 leva a week, because you go somewhere, have lunch somewhere, and don’t have time to come home. That comes out to about 700 leva a month.

About housing

C: What are the rental prices in Bansko?

A: A studio is about 150-200 euros a month. I’m talking about long-term rent, when they rent for six months or more. With one bedroom from 200-300 euros a month. Depends on the apartment itself. With two bedrooms, it’s probably from 350-400 and up to 1000 euros. Some large two-story apartments can cost 800 euros a month, the ones that are awesome with renovation. That’s the situation with real estate now. With rent, specifically, we have about 10 apartments that people bought apartments from us. We rent them out to them specifically for the whole year. Well, that is, for long-term rent. Out of 10 apartments, two are free. This didn’t happen before. Now Ukraine has arrived, Russia has arrived, Israel has arrived. Everything is just rented out. And it’s rented out for such a long time. I know that the British also rent out, but their rates are significantly higher than the Israelis, the Russians rent out. I have groups there that I watch there. Friends who rent out, that is, the price is 100 euros higher for all this, their prices are more expensive. And a three-room apartment? From 400 euros and up. Of course, there is, let’s say, one apartment with two bedrooms now. The fourth floor without an elevator and it is so small with sloping ceilings. It is 300 euros a month, in my opinion, everything is additional: water, electricity separately.

C: How much does a square meter cost?

A: Good question. After some price increase, I stopped counting the price per square meter. Because it varies, I don’t know. You can find it for 400 euros, or you can find it for 800. It’s just fluctuating these days. It all really depends on the renovation. That is, probably the first apartment that we sold at the average price was a two-room apartment, that is, with one bedroom. The average price was, say, 35-40 thousand, we sold it for 55, because the person invested very well in the renovation, that is, designer, cool. It went for 55, we were like, okay. And now it turns out that in the neighboring house they sold an apartment for 75 with one bedroom. A nice apartment, a nice terrace with parking. It’s clear that parking alone costs 10,000, that is, well, consider the apartment went for 65 thousand, that is, prices went up, are crawling and haven’t stopped yet.

About medicine in Bulgaria

S: Have you had any experience with medicine in Bansko? If so, what were your impressions?

A: Of course I have. We just had some virus, not a virus. That’s what happens during the season. Medicine here. This is the situation when it’s the season, when there are a lot of people, a lot of tourists, viruses mutate, everything gets mixed up. That’s why local doctors prescribe antibiotics indiscriminately. Because the doctor doesn’t know English, Israeli, Russian, Ukrainian diseases. They just prescribe antibiotics and that’s it. In Bansko we only have a small clinic. With a laboratory, that is, to do some basic tests and several doctors. Another private clinic opens for the season near the ski lift. There is a hospital in Razlog. That is, if something like that already happens, then it’s in the city of Razlog, there is an ultrasound. That’s not here. If it’s even more serious, then Blagoevgrad and Sofia. Everyone who lives there has insurance. That’s why it’s an insurance case, they call, an ambulance arrives there, or they come themselves, or the doctor arrives. And we had such cases when a child had a fever, they called a doctor there under the insurance. An uncle came, a local doctor came, prescribed everything and left. Then in three days you have to come to him. We all came. In Bansko, all this is calm. In Bulgaria, they are very calm about all this. Moreover, we are in a tourist area. So they are calm about tourists. And when you say that you have been living here for five years, they say – oh, what a great guy, wonderful. Very good human attitude. That is, good human attitude. I was a little shocked by such attitude. On the coast, apparently, because of the very large number of tourists, people simply cannot have such an attitude. That is, all this is already digested there by a thousand people in a week. But here there are not such a number, so it is calmer here. Here, many issues, for example, placing a child in a kindergarten, are resolved for a chocolate bar. Just come and say hello and everything is fine. If, of course, there are places there. By the way, a third kindergarten has opened in Bansko. They say that there are few young people here, but two schools are full, the third kindergarten and they are all full, that means there are parents somewhere. They just work somewhere, do something somewhere and there are a lot of foreigners, young people here and this does not lead to a drop in the off-season. Because, for example, we play volleyball there, we play football, to be honest, there are some non-Russian-speaking people there, they are either Bulgarians, or Austrians, Italians, French, well, in general, who is not there. The English, of course. In general, Bansko was built by the English. Yes, everything in Bansko was built with English money. As for real estate, excluding the Old Town, everything was built in three years with English money. There are most of them.

S: What can you tell us about the schools in Bansko? Can a foreigner study here?

A: A foreigner can study, but in Bulgarian for free, we don’t have private schools. Here we only have, as I call it, one and a half municipal schools. Because one school is only primary, that is, it is fully-fledged and foreigners study there. In our class there are two Russian speakers, one gypsy, two Englishmen, a brother and sister, all the rest are Bulgarians, and this is the case in almost all classes. Because that is their policy. They take foreigners and try to spread them out as much as possible so that they don’t cluster together. So that they can pick up the language, because when we had a Russian-speaking boy come. Naturally, it is easier for him with a Russian-speaking one. Because ours has already integrated since kindergarten. He communicates with everyone calmly and has also helped that one, and this one also communicates calmly. It is easier for the children, of course. And the advantage of such a situation is that you can’t not talk to them, you can’t not understand, we have driven them into such a situation. The English study there, all the children study in Bulgarian. The teachers have very good attitudes towards foreigners. They understand perfectly well that it is difficult and therefore they are more loyal to them. Although there is no need for ours.

Climate in Bansko

S: Did the climate suit you?

A: Excellent climate. When I saw on the Internet that the number of sunny days is the same as in Siberia. The sun is everything. That is, having lived for three months in Moscow in this cloudy weather, I realized that in Siberia it was like this. In the summer there is sunshine, in the winter there is also sunshine, that is, frost, like frost, sunshine, a wonderful day for us, this is about us. I went to work in the morning until -25, but at the same time the Sun, the snow crunches, you go. It is the same here. Only there is less snow here and it is warmer, there are no such [extreme] subzero temperatures. In winter, we have good weather there during the day +5, the sun came out and warmed it up. That is why in Bansko the snow melts, but on the mountain it remains, it is colder there.

As for the climate, you also need to understand that it is 1000 meters above sea level, not everyone understands this. It seems like you arrived, it seems good, but then, as they say, a frying pan hits your head. One day, simply, and for two days you just drop out, that is, this adaptation takes place, the air is thin, there is less oxygen. And the body needs some time to adapt, and if, for example, there are some people who often go to Sofia. Somewhere there to Plovdiv, Sofia, and for them this altitude changes back and forth. That is, if, for example, I go for three days in a row like this, I will feel bad. Because, well, just these changes [in pressure]. Plus you go through a pass again, this is how the body reacts. That is, when we go to the sea, the speed changes a little. That is, here in the mountains, those who have high pressure feel bad, they are a little knocked out. They start to slow down. Those who have low pressure, on the contrary, speed up here. Yes, we go to the sea, completely the opposite, that is, those who had low blood pressure, it dropped even lower and they become so wadded up. Here, for example, Katya, yes, she is still wadded up, she is so slow. And I, on the contrary, begin to speed up. That is, it would be better for me there, but we live here, the body has adapted and calmly ski, everything is fine. The air, the best thing about the climate here is the air. The air is frosty in winter, and in summer the big advantage is that it is hot during the day +30, 33, 35. That is, you sunbathe by the pool, you have summer in full swing, and at night +20. At night it is cold in shorts, you go outside really cold, that is why
it is cool in our houses. Because the building does not have time to warm up. If it touches the sea, it can be +26 at night. That is why I really like the climate of Bansko, there is little rain, no mud. Cool.

S: How are things with food? Have you found everything you need? Did you find buckwheat in Bansko?

A: At first it was a big problem to buy buckwheat, black tea. We found this neighboring store Baba Lyuba. I need to say hi to her, she is probably sitting there now. We lived nearby and met her, she had buckwheat and black tea, that is, not in T-Market, not in Lidl, and the Billa store did not exist then. Now almost every store has buckwheat, they do not have such leaf teas. If someone from Russia comes here, we just ask them to bring a pack of black tea. And this year I went to Turkey for the first time, to Istanbul, I had never been there before. So I brought back two kilograms of tea from there, specifically Turkish, and it was a real salvation, let’s say.

C: What are your favorite grocery stores?

A: There really isn’t much choice here. My favorite would probably be some Kaufland, but it’s not here. We had only one store in the first few years, Lidl [located in Razlog]. And there simply wasn’t another. There was no T-Market, no Billa, and all the other stores up here are tourist stores, they’re expensive. And Baba Lyuba doesn’t have such a big selection of products. That’s why there was only Baba Lyuba and Lidl really helped out. I call Lidl a city-forming store because they have groceries, chemicals, and clothes. And seasonal ones, that is, and even tools, that is, they have a lawn mower. When you come and buy something, they do it very clearly and competently. They have clothes. We even bought sunglasses there. And then T-Market appeared right across the street. These are purely Bulgarian products, made in Bulgaria, and a slightly different selection, cheaper. But there isn’t such a beauty, or something, a choice. I don’t know. That is, if you want to buy something there, roughly speaking, the same thing. But in T-Market it will be cheaper, simpler. I remember we started in Lidl with 64 leva, I remember that, the first trip to Lidl was for 64 leva, now it is no less than 100 leva, unfortunately everything has become more expensive and continues to become more expensive. Well, probably Lidl, this is here from local stores, this is the coolest store. Another advantage of Lidl, there are not only Austrian, German products. In Lidl there is a French week, an Italian week, an American week and you can just change your diet. Not eat the same thing all the time. Just yesterday, a friend told me that in Lidl, extremely rarely, but now they brought in sunflower oil, but from corn. I have never seen this anywhere and never, be sure to go get it, good. That is, Lidl helps out here. I also like Lidl, I have a certain list of products that I take. I go to someone’s store specifically to see what they buy and it turns out that in the same store you can buy, roughly speaking, bread, milk, eggs. And others can buy anchovies, there is Brie cheese, and you understand that it is the same store, but only here you can eat all this. And that is why it is the most beloved.

Safety in Bulgaria

S: How about security?

A: Thank God, the security is good. Thank God, the security is good. I don’t know if I can say this or not, but there is no crime here. In Bansko. I probably think that there is no crime here, just like on the coast. Because these are tourist areas and the state is primarily concerned about security. So that tourists come, because it’s all taxes, it’s money. Therefore, they try to maintain a good level of this security. Plus, there is usually a night guard in each building, a watchman. I don’t know what this is connected with, it’s always been like that. When we arrived, someone told us about gypsies. Who climbed in and stole. It’s not customary to install iron doors here. Of course, we installed them right away because it’s warmer, quieter and safer. But in principle, on average, now in each entrance in Bansko there are two apartments permanently occupied. In theory, all the apartments here are vacant, in general, you can do whatever you want, but they don’t do this. And another important factor was that in the first year when we arrived here there was a problem with gypsies. You sit, drink coffee there in the center, and these gypsies walk around, beg, children, ladies, well, in general it was unpleasant, uncomfortable. And at one point, I don’t know who did it, either the local mayor or at the city or Sofia level, it stopped. The gypsies were assimilated, they were introduced into society, they were allowed to go to kindergartens, to school, and they were allowed to work. I see them all immediately dispersed into these complexes and are engaged in supporting them. Somewhere they paint, somewhere women clean these apartments, clean after tourists. We have several such groups of gypsies who clean Bansko. That is, you can even see them, just a few women walking there and that’s why Bansko is clean. They are paid money for this, they don’t beg, they eat peacefully, repair their houses, apartments. We have a real gypsy district where they live, of course it’s not very beautiful, but at least we stopped seeing them so often on the street. At school they study quietly, like any foreigners. I am very happy about this, that is, that is how it was done. Maybe there was crime before, because they just needed to eat, they did not do it for nothing. That is probably why security guards appeared. But now the security guards perform such a function, I don’t know. The dog just barks. Well, there was crime here. Some things happen. They steal some car here in Bansko. I say, well, details. What kind of car? An expensive car. I say this is not the case in Bansko, they were watching the car and it just happened that way, it was stolen in Bansko and it could have been stolen in Sofia. They were just watching the car. It was not just someone who took it, some guys stole it. No, but that is probably all the crime that has happened in recent years.

Legalization of moving to Bulgaria

S: Tell me, under what conditions can I move to Bulgaria? Residence permit, permanent residence.

A: Regarding temporary residence permit, permanent residence permit. Upon arrival in Bulgaria, you first need to obtain a residence permit, that is, a temporary residence permit. It is obtained in different areas, that is, you need some reason. There is one reason, for example, if you are a pensioner. This is the easiest and simplest. The second reason, in my opinion, exists only in Bulgaria. This is a Trade Representative of a foreign company, that is, if you have a company, say, somewhere not in Bulgaria, but in any country of any other country. You can open a legal entity here, which is called a Trade Representative Office and register up to three people there. And thus, as it were, work on behalf of this company here. But the whole trick of the Trade Representative Office is that it does not have the right to conduct commercial activities. If you want to open a business, then you will simply need to open a Bulgarian legal entity and work with it, as we did further. There is also a business reason. But there is a requirement to open a company and employ 10 Bulgarians. Pay them salaries, taxes, and thus receive a residence permit as a business owner. We have also seen that there are such areas as something like an individual entrepreneur, something like that’s what they’re called. We haven’t encountered this yet, no one has received anything on them yet, we don’t know for sure. But you can dig in this direction, that is, there is something called self-employed. What’s the trick? You get it for the first time on a D visa, you come here, you get a card for a year, and you will renew this card for a year five times, you renew it five times, you live for five years. It turns out like for a year, then you change it to a permanent residence permit for 5 years. That is, when you renew, you need to pay certain fees. So, every year when you renew, the representative, I think, pays 500 leva, when they reunite, they pay 150 leva. This is a pure state fee. Besides this, you need to pay for the card, you need to pay for insurance, get housing, show money in the bank in Bulgarian.

Well, in general, we consult people on this issue. A lot of communication. We consult, help, talk about how, where, how, what. I even recorded some kind of course. I have a course, so to speak, instructions on how to get it. I simply took my experience, what we ourselves received, what we renewed every year, acquaintances, friends, clients. I put it all together and simply posted it. How could such a course be given to people who just want to take it step by step and simply do it. It’s not that difficult, you just need where to go, what to take, just such banal things.

Pros and cons of living in Bulgaria

C: What are the main pros and cons of living in Bulgaria?

A: But the main advantage I see is health. That is, a healthy lifestyle here. Fresh air, natural products, inexpensive. That is, in terms of the cost of food compared to other European countries. What I see as negative is that development is a little slow here, because the community is small and development needs to be fueled from somewhere outside. Although we have an art gallery here, like a theater of some kind. But I still sometimes want to go to Sofia or Plovdiv to a theater. That is, to see people here, you accustom yourself, get used to a small number of people. Then, for example, sometimes it works out, for example, I go to Sofia, to IKEA there. I’m driving and I realize that, oh, traffic jams, cars, but here there are no traffic jams, no cars. You get used to it. Everything here is like in the countryside, so you leave for a big city and you understand that you somehow slowed down somewhere. And if you haven’t traveled for a year during the coronavirus, you generally have these eyes. You just don’t know something, but you quickly adapt, of course to this. We used to live in such big cities, but basically everyone from big cities came here to Bansko. To relax, fresh air, food, and again cheap real estate, that you can move here. People really like to come here for retirement and as one Israeli said, and you have a very good free exercise machine in Bansko. I say what exercise machine? The mountain, it’s free. That is, in the summer you go for a walk, in the winter you go for a walk on cross-country skis, you don’t pay anything, you go for a walk on cross-country skis. Alpine skis, yes, you already have to pay, and on cross-country skis, please walk, walk in the snow, breathe the air. And this is the main problem in all cities now, there is no air, it is clean here. As they say, you can eat it with a spoon. You go out on the balcony in the morning with coffee and you just need to eat this air, do yoga. The main direction here is health.

Thank God, we have found something here that we can earn money with, do, it is interesting to us, it brings us profit and opportunity, we live here. We like it very much and we see that we are developing here. At least a little, but we are slowly growing in the real estate sector. At first we did it ourselves, then we opened a company. Now we have an office, then we want to build a house for ourselves there. That’s how to settle in, that is, go even further and we see that people like it and they want to come here more and more. That is why prices have gone up here. Because people come here, and Bansko is not developing so quickly in the direction of not growing how many people come here and buy all this. Well, the only disadvantage is that this development is somehow lacking. Well, in my opinion, a little here, I don’t know how, probably the difference from Sofia and Plovdiv, the rhythm here is lower, that is, the rhythm of life is much lower. Of course, Moscow and St. Petersburg cannot be compared at all. At first, I made such a mistake. I compared Bansko with Novosibirsk, but Novosibirsk has two and a half million people. And Bansko has 10 thousand residents. You can’t compare them, that is, they are completely different things. If I compared Bansko with the same city, which is also in our Kemerovo region, the ski resort of Sheregesh, that here there are 10 thousand and there 10 thousand. And Bansko, you know, is 10 times better, because it is international.

Here is another advantage, that you do not lose your English because you constantly communicate with someone somewhere in English. You go to a bar in the evening, there are Englishmen. That is, somewhere somehow you go to a football match, you go there, there are Englishmen everywhere and you start to easily speak English, because they are all foreigners too, they are all shy, you are shy. But in a bar over a glass of beer this shyness goes away and you easily get acquainted. And the next day you see this person just walking down the street and you already say hello, as if he is your good friend. That’s how it all comes together here and it turns out to be a very friendly team, in fact, from different nations, such a pie, let’s call it Bansky pie.

S: What can you say about Bulgaria in a few words?

A: An underrated country! I would say a little underrated. Everyone knows Bulgaria as the sea, Sunny Beach, Golden Sands and that’s it. Well, because people used to fly there and that’s it. In
reality, here. I have a child, he goes to school, he says, dad, and you know that 70% of Bulgaria is mountains, actually. I say, I know, because we live in the mountains ourselves. I see these mountains. In reality, there are no deserts here, no plains, as many people think, there are a lot of beautiful places here and they are historical, but they are not presented in any way. In order to go somewhere, to see something, you need to read somewhere, study. There are no big guidebooks, there are basic things there, Rila Monastery, Vanga, roughly speaking, and the Cave, everything. In reality, that is, when guys start traveling. I am a motorcyclist. People start traveling and say, listen, have you been there. Have you been there. I didn’t even know, and because the whole problem is in Bansko in Bulgaria, there is not enough information. It is filling up now, here through the Internet, all this is very good. We opened a Facebook group specifically to share information, initially it was that I found out that a good tire shop is behind my house. Look, to share information,
because there is very little of it, it simply does not exist, the locals live, they know, and when you arrive, you don’t know.

About the mentality of Bulgarians

S: What can you say about Bulgarians, about their mentality, is there a difference?

A: I think it certainly is different. We have a small village here. A few stories. How I
bought firewood the first year. A friend asked another friend. And they brought me firewood. He helped unload this truck. We unload and some of the logs were big, they needed to be chopped. I think, we’ll chop them now, that is, we’re already tired from carrying all this. I’ll
take the last of my strength and chop all this up. To which the Bulgarian says to me. Why? We’re tired. You’d better chop three logs every day in the evening, it won’t take much
time. And you’ll do it all in a week. That is, my mentality was, yes, now it’s time to do everything quickly and close the issue. He doesn’t have it, do it little by little and that’s it. I’m judging by the mentality here. That is, I’m here all the time, I see here, I see the guys from Sofia coming. They’re much faster, I think their mentality is faster too. I don’t know if this can be attributed to
mentality, but they shake their heads differently. And there is another movement that we don’t have and at first it really pissed us off. Then we got used to it, adapted. We realized that you can’t watch. You have to listen. Because for Bulgarians, yes is yes, and no is no. With their heads, they can do whatever they want. But the third stage of understanding came when we were flying from here to Spain. Naturally, the entire plane was made up of Bulgarians and I realized, I felt sorry for them, because wherever they fly, they will shake their heads differently than they do. That is, he has been used to it since childhood, but in any part of the world
they will shake their heads differently. It’s just a big problem for them. I think we basically guess where it came from. It was when the Turks came, so in order to confuse them, they changed this. Just like the Greeks changed yes and no. That is, for the Greeks, no is yes. This unhurriedness may be typical here, some kind of procrastination. Maybe it is connected here in principle, it is difficult for me to judge. On the coast everything is different in general, well, we did not live there, but we still go on vacation, it is a little different there. Probably in Sofia it is different too. Lately we
have really liked Plovdiv because Plovdiv is not as fast as Sofia. I compare Plovdiv with St. Petersburg because it is also large, but not as large. It is not the capital and it is beautiful. There are pedestrian paths, cafes, a lot of old buildings, in general it is the Old Town there. There is a lot of seafood there, the most interesting thing is that there is no sea there. But there is a lot of
seafood.

It turns out that two families from Bansko moved to Plovdiv, they are very happy. Although it is hot in the summer, but they have lived there for more than one year and they are very happy. There is exactly what is missing in Bansko, this culture, it is precisely the culture that is missing. I asked them about the mentality. They say that it is not very different from ours here. That is, it is not Sofia, as they also say, some other mentality. Like they encountered something there, some problems.
But in fact, in Russia they encountered the same problems, that is, I will say that there is nothing wrong with them there, no. The same people, ordinary Europeans in Bansko. It seems to me that they are even friendlier
people. Because the community is small. For example, we go there, dance salsa and women go there. Older women are local, what’s the difference? There is no difference. We dance, we already know the language, how to do it, and our teacher speaks Bulgarian, of course.
It turns out to be a very friendly company, no conflicts have been noticed. That is, I kind of
like the mentality, in the sense that it is somehow calm, laid-back. Let’s say we compare it with Moscow, where everything is fast-fast, come on, come on and everyone is a little on edge. Then here it is the complete opposite, more calm, measured and friendly. That is, I guess that’s how I compared it.

S: Can you give advice to those who have decided to move to Bulgaria?

A: You will have to become students of everything for a while. This was my main pain point, so to speak. And I would advise everyone not to try to do it the way you did it. You need to adapt a little, find out how things are here and what they are here. But they can’t always tell you this. Very often you need to do it yourself. That is, figure it out yourself. You need to go to the bank,
go there, dig around on the Internet and find a solution to this issue for yourself. And don’t rush. Bulgaria teaches us to be calm. Therefore, you don’t need to push and do something quickly. You need to slow down a little, so to speak. I have an acquaintance here. He has
a business in Sofia. And I tell him, Sergey, you are pushing it too much, you need to slow down here, so to speak. And he replies, I have solved this problem for myself, I have two businesses, that is, he switches to another one, while this one is slowing down a little. So he has solved this issue.
It has a place to be. But I see Sofians, who are, for example, hotel owners, some managers, coming here. They are very fast. Sofia does not allow you to stop, that is, we are here in such a calm, so to speak. This is a little bit of a plus and a minus
at the same time. Do not rush and become a student for the first few months, figure it out, absorb new things, including the language. Try to speak the language, even with mistakes, but really try to speak. Because I think everyone will like it if you try to
speak some banal phrases, words. If they do not understand, memorize the phrase: “Sorry, I am just now learning Bulgarian” and they will immediately start speaking Russian and English with you. Bulgarians actually know English very well, especially the youth. Much better than us, I do not know what it is connected with. Maybe they had a better school program there. Maybe there is just a lot of communication in English. But if I talk to someone, say, young people, they switch, they understand that we don’t understand Bulgarian a little, they immediately switch to English in a flash and speak it brilliantly. We have English people here, they have a slightly different language. Sometimes we don’t understand them, but they know about it, it’s not just us who don’t understand, they don’t understand at all because they speak in some kind of turns of phrase. They know this and they communicate with us in simple English, in simple phrases. This is also cool, it can also be attributed to the local mentality, that even the local English people, they try to speak loyally, to understand. What’s with the mentality? It’s much easier for us Russian speakers, because at least we have the same letters. It’s very difficult for the English to write because they don’t understand at all what’s going on. Sometimes I even help them fill something out somewhere. There’s just a
married couple and I help them fill out a document in Bulgarian. They stop me
in English, and I help him fill it out.

Please write about your impressions in the comments and your questions.