Travel & trips
106. A cheeky trip to Sofia
Things we did in Sofia last weekend: 1. Soaked up the beautiful buildings and atmosphere. Sofia is at its best when the sun is shining, and I can happily wander for hours just taking it all in. 2. Ate lunch at Made in Home: peach and goat’s cheese salad for me,...
103. Thassos with the in-laws
Achingly smug holiday-related post alert … don’t say I didn’t warn you. We’ve just got back from a splendid 10 days on Thassos. 10 days! On holiday. In the sun. With no rain. If you’ve never been to Thassos, you should go. It’s a gorgeous place with pine-covered...
94. Yes, you should come on holiday to Bulgaria (no, not to Sunny Beach)
‘Oh, you live in Bulgaria?’ says a random stranger. You can guarantee the next thing they say is, ‘Anywhere near Sunny Beach?’ ‘Er, no.’ I’m allowed to slag off Sunny Beach because, unlike most Sun journalists, I’ve actually been there. When we were thinking of...
80. Love letter to Sofia
Sveta Nedelya Church, Sofia Moving to a Bulgarian village is like moving to the 1950s. In our village, they could easily film one of those TV programmes where people live like Victorian farmers or Tudor doctors or something: everyone knows everyone, chickens...
79. Time flies when you have a fungal infection
As it’s been so long since I last wrote, I shall attempt to summarise the last six months in 200 words. Ready? August 2014: Catastrophic rain and floods in Bulgaria. We go to the beach for five days. It rains. I get the shits. It rains some more. We come home....
72. Ode to the beach
I bloody love the beach, I do. I love the way the wind troubles my hair. (A too-short bob in summer is a bad choice, what I wouldn't give for a ponytail!) The constant watering of my left eye. Those little pimples I get after days of sweating under factor 50 sun...
62. Holidays, driving and Speedos
Being all European and stuff, we can actually drive to lovely holiday destinations now. So last week we trundled off in Uma the Puma for trip to Greece - one night in Thessaloniki and five nights on the lovely island of Thassos. I’ve been to quite a few Greek...
44. Spirit of Burgas Festival
In August we sampled our first Bulgarian music festival, Spirit of Burgas. It takes place in a beautiful part of Bulgaria - right on the Black Sea coast. As festival experiences go, it was high up there. It was pretty special partying on the beach in the height of...
43. The long way round
Uma the Puma loaded up with our possessions First, I have a confession to make. We broke down. In France! Well, sort of. We had a major overheating episode after driving off the ferry in Dunkirk. How embarrassing, just one kilometre from the ferry port! I...
42. A brief update on our adventures
Gosh, it’s been a while since I was last in touch. Sorry. Three weeks ago we drove from the UK out to Bulgaria with a car full of stuff, breezing through France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece and finally Bulgaria. We stopped along the way – one night in...
41. And we’re off…
Our car is not this small. But almost. In a few days we’re loading up our tiny car and driving to Bulgaria! We’ve packed some essentials to take with us: two boxes of kitchen gear; two suitcases of clothes; computer; bedding and towels; some books (Bulgarian...
15. Sightseeing in Sofia
A post about Sofia, the capital city, in case anyone fancies a visit. As the plane comes in to land at Sofia airport, the city looks ugly indeed – many a crumbly tower block. But, once you get passed the outskirts, the centre is rather pleasing. Small enough...