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Bulgarian Slivatree 

Bulgaria, what a country!!

Having abandoned the UK two years ago I have lived and worked within the Bulgarian community throughout this time. The Bulgaria found to be very different from many accounts read from other expatriates that have come here.

The real Bulgaria has been found from within coming from a British expatriate who tells how it actually is. 

Thursday, 4 October 2007      The Village Hairdresser - Beware!   

In Skalitsa we have a hairdresser and if anything is to go by she is not a good advert as she has a mustache herself. Her name is Donka an elderly Skalitsa woman has been running the business for 38 years and never had a complaint until recently.  Her surgery, sorry saloon, has not been decorated for 38 years along with the same chair. It is my opinion that she was the vehicle from where punk hairstyles were founded  When ever I get the chance I go there but only because she is my friend and being seen in the village. I doesn't matter as many others have the same style but don't complain so I don't complain. The cost was 1.50 leva for a short back and sides with little bonuses in as some sides are shorter than others.  The other service she offered men was a shave. Now I have never been shaved before by another person, apart from having my appendix out! This was a first for me and for a fee of 50 stotinki it is actually cheaper than buying a razor blade. Why doesn't everyone go there for a shave then? Well I was to find out.  A nervy man sat there with the old lady bearing a cut throat razor and that's just what I feared. The trouble is I wear glasses and am shortsighted so looking in the mirror facing me which is also 38 years old, I can't see what is going on without the spectacles. It really wasn't something I was familair as she proceeded with the shave.  Funny I mentioned surgery by accident earlier because it was a general anesthetic that was needed before thew process began. but I this was all new I thought this is how it was having a shave with a cut throat razor.  When she had finished home made rakia was slapped on my face (ouch!) and I was asked to wait in the chair while we talked. Then a damp cloth was wiped and I was free to go after paying.  On myt way back along the Sklaitsa streets as usual it took a lifetime to get there meeting friends and neighbours en route stopping to talk. The strange thing is they normally ask me where I have been and what I am doing but today they knew where I'd been this time so just asked me where I was going. I wasn't quite sure how they knew until I finally got home.  Looking in the mirror there was a blood stained face staring back at me it looked like I had been treated and subjected to the torcher of a thousand cuts but all in the same area. Well for 50 stotinki was at a cut price and that's exactly what I got. No wonder everyone knew where I had been.  Don't just ask me my brother went there a few weeks later with sideburns Elvis style on one side and the original Black Adder style on the other. His face also looked like it had been through a mincer, you could have made black-pudding with the amount of blood that was seeping out! The only difference between his episode and mine was that he complained!  I still go there for a punk haircut but never for a shave even though she considers herself a cut above (and below) the rest.  A final thought came around that hairdressers used to be the wounded soldiers butcher of war but surely that was more than 38 years ago.

Posted by Martin Miller-Yianni  

at  13:48    0 comments                

Wednesday, 3 October 2007 
    Ugly Bulgarian Baby -Not!   

InSkalitsa  one of my lovely neighbours recently had a baby - I had not seen the new Bulgarian addition to theSkalitsa  village for a month or so and found it quite strange in fact quite worrying. 

It was a boy and called Alexander, that's all the information that can out from the family. On asking around why the baby was being hidden from public it was tradition that families with new arrivals were not to get visits from friends and families for up to a couple months from birth as this was deemed as bad luck. This explained a lot.  Then on a lovely summer day I saw the pram being pushed down the road past my house and asGalia  my Bulgarian partner and I were also on the road walking the other way we paused to finally get a glimpse of the child. Now my Bulgarian isn't excellent by any account but I heardGalia  say in Bulgarian that the baby wasn't very pretty added to which she said that the left eye was bigger than the right one! I was absolutely certain that this is what she said. Also, uncharacteristically, we only spent about a minute with Alex and Maria his mother, usually a conversation would last anything up to an hour especially after not seeing them for so long!  When we walked away I questionedGalia  who said that it wasn't good to spent time looking at the baby it was a bad thing to do in Bulgaria. I then asked why she insulted the baby by saying it was ugly and other nasty things about his eyes. She said this was a custom in Bulgaria where you say bad things about the baby as it brings good luck - I was quite amazed and also amused with this.  The following weekend we met up again with baby Alex and mother Maria, I had the strange custom of telling the mother in Bulgarian that her son had ears like Prince Charles and a mouth like a horse! She thanked me very much as she walked off in another brief encounter!

Posted by Martin Miller-Yianni  

at  09:21    0 comments                

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The Good Life - No, The Great Life!    The food grows faster than the pace of life. 

     

Blog Archive    
  â–¼   2007 
            (50 )   â–¼   October 
            (4 )   The Village Hairdresser - Beware!    Ugly Bulgarian Baby -Not!    Freshly Ground Coffee in Bulgaria    Bulgarian Birthday Party  

â–º   September 
            (19 )   In Bulgaria? You'll do this soon!    Cobblestoned Yambol    New Bulgarian Cowboys    Bulgarian Police - How it is here    Bad Brits in Bulgaria    Well Behaved Bulgarian Bees    Bulgarian Bikes and Roma Riders    Bulgarian Toundzha Fishing    Bulgarian Toundzha Fish    Bulgarian Schools - Fashion Houses?    An Early Introduction to Bulgarian Shkembe Chorba    Rare Bulgarian Football Fanatics?    An Ill Wind That Blows In Bulgaria    Bulgarian Weekend Holiday at Bulgarian Prices    A Sorry Dog Tale in Bulgaria    Alternative Medicine in Bulgaria    Bulging Bulgarian Buses    Bulgarian Trees    Bulgarian Crime - The Attraction  

â–º   August 
            (27 )   Weather in Bulgaria    Skalitsa Healing Stones - More Evidence!    Indoor Cricket in Bulgaria    The Bulgarian Door    Supermarket Slavery and Bulgarian Lemmings    Bulgarian Land Management    Bulgarian Weather Talk    Yambol Fashion - A Funny Side    Mice in Bulgaria - Revisited    Skalitsa Maestros    Skalitsa Village -The Facts    BREonline    Skalitsa Banitsa Recipe - Now World Recognition    Bulgarian Ways - Make don't Buy    Yambol? - Why?    Skalitsa Man from Eden to Heaven    Bloody Starlings! (Bloody Sturnus vulgaris!)    Sirni Zagovezni in Bulgaria    Healing Stones - Skalitsa - Bulgaria    Frozen pipes in Bulgaria    Mice! - In Bulgaria    Marta the Rabbit    The Quest for Real Estate Ethics In Bulgaria    Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit    Yambol Orphanage Campaign    Living off the Bulgarian Land    Christmas Eve in a Bulgarian Village  

     

Useful Links  
  Very Interesting    Cathie's Blog 'Bulgarianrox'    Skalitsa Farmhouse for Rent    Bulgaria - BREonline  

     

     

     

     

     

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