Well this is the third time I am going to Bulgaria, I am looking on it as a chance to do the tourist thing and tell the builders my plan and get them to work. I am flying by Lufthansa this time again from Heathrow mainly for price and flight times, so I had better not mention the war, I am the only member of my family to visit Germany who has not tried to blow it up. I have booked the National Express bus from Luton Airport and that leaves at 4.40am!

I have just come off a 12hr shift at 8pm so it’s off home for a quick sleep, shower and get ready. The bus arrives on time and takes me to Heathrow, only three people on the bus, I don’t know how the greens think this is good for the environment we could all have fitted in an estate car. The bus arrives 20 minuets early, so plenty of time to make my way to the check in desk. Walking into the building you then come up against barriers on the floor about a foot high, I had problems getting my case through but a person in a wheelchair or a weak person with a case would have no chance.

I get to the desk and I could understand very little of what he said, he did take interest in Liverpool being in my passport, turns out he is a Liverpool supporter from Algeria. He tells me my case is 6kg over, to which I reply but I am bringing nothing back, even as I said it I thourt what a stupid thing to say, but he did not hit me with excess charge so all is well. From getting off my bus to being sat in departures was 20 minutes

The flight is called over the tannoy on time 7.40am boarding, as I make my way to the gate I hear the 6.00am Alitalia being called so no improvement with them! Get on the aircraft all leather seats, I even pick up a free newspaper on the way. Flight takes off on time I settle down and start reading the paper I get to the middle of the paper and it seems a German guy had just died whom had wrote a book about how unfair it was of the Brits to bomb Germany in the last war! The flight goes very well, I even get a nice cheese butty and a twix! We land about 20 minutes early in Düsseldorf but I have to get a transfer flight to Sofia, and I am thinking of my last flight with Alitalia. I get off the plane and am looking for the transfer signs, but can’t find any, so I ask the girl on the desk where to I go for transfer? She pointed to my gate which was just yards away, that’s good, but I don’t see a smoking area, she tells me to go past the passport desk and the cafe is on the left.

Everything is going well so I make my way back to the gate, in the lounge was a large group of French with a little dog running around, I take a seat and noticed the floor tiles had been poorly laid, all the gaps were different! I started looking out of the large windows overlooking the airport it looked very nice and they had filled in all the bomb craters to a high standard.

The flight is delayed a few minutes, the bus comes to collect us from the terminal I get on the second one, so on the plane I get and make my way to my seat, I find my overhead locker full, as I try and stuff my bag into my locker this French woman did get a little concerned, but that’s easy solved just don’t fill up my space! I put my bag into a locker a few down from mine then head back to my seat, to find a young French lad sat in it, I tell Mummy Muppet he is in my seat so out he goes, so here I am with a family that has problems with numbers and I did not realise the turmoil they would cause on board! I start off being sat with Mrs Muppet, then little Miss Muppet, then Daddy Muppet! He seems to settle down but on the other side they are playing musical chairs for about another 10 minutes, it then occurs to me that if we have to do an emergency evacuation I will be following the Muppet family not a nice thought!  As we take off and climbing one of the Muppet family decides he needs his coat, so he jumps up opens the locker and gets his coat, I have not seen such a look of horror on the face of a flight attendant before. At this point tiredness kicks in and I nod off.

We arrive at Sofia's new airport which is nice but needs some shops. The French swarm to passport control as I get there they are in some sort of line, I just go to the empty booth next to the two they are at. After getting past all the scum taxi drivers that like to rip people off, I look out for an OK cab, this is a firm you should use, I find a little old man stood next to his OK firm cab. My case goes in the back and we are off and I do mean off, out of all the OK cabs I get Stirling Moss's granddad. If he could speak English I would have asked for a second seat belt, but strange as it might sound I did feel safe

I take the bus to Vidin with a driver with attitude, but I must say my fellow passengers gave back as good as they got. I get to Vidin about 20.00hrs

Hotel Vidin

Advert for the hotel

After a quick wash at the hotel I pop down to the restaurant I use by the river, they seem pleased to see me, and they do a good meal at a good price

On the Saturday I get up late, now my hire car was to be delivered to the hotel this morning, and I have not had a call from reception that it was here, it crosses my mind that without the car I am stuffed for visiting the house. Not to worry as I came down I was handed the keys, but off to the market as I need tiles.

Start of the market area

As you walk up to the market area you pass a few bars then you are into the market, I had a good look around and as I was looking I passed an old lady’s stall selling a host of metal items like shovels and axe's. She called me over and proudly held up a big bit of metal with two hooks on each end, now I am thinking what the hell I use that for. Turns out you put an animal on each end and cut its throat, well I think that’s what she telling me I could do with it. Oh well thanks for the offer but bugger that! I still don’t find any tiles I like, but do buy a set of pans for £12 and a big clay pot for £3. I did mess up with the pan set as I was taking them off the shelves I picked one up that had a long handle by mistake

I headed back to the hotel dumped my stuff in reception and headed to my room for the car keys and my case full of items for the house as its only about 1pm and I need to do a few measurements and decide what I want doing to the house, before I meet Mr Builder on Monday. As I drove out of town I made a wrong turn and took a long detour, but on the way I did see a furniture shop that looked very interesting, and needed further investigation on Sunday so my detour was not wasted

I get to the house and before I could get out of my car Mr Aqua is stood next to me, he was very pleased that his money tree was back in the village. I open my boot and Mr Aqua grabs my heavy case and carries it to the 2nd floor, I carry my other bits I had got in the market. As I pass the garden I notice its all green, only thing was Mr Aqua had burnt it all in January! If I had not seen it with my own eyes I would not have believed that he had done it

So we are in my bedroom unpacking my stuff, he then tells me he don’t have any cigs, so I give him a packet. He likes to stand next to me a see everything that I have to put in my wardrobe. I then go around the house getting the last feel of things and a few measurements before my meeting with Mr Builder on Monday and of course Mr Aqua in tow. On the way around the house he invites me for coffee at his house, and he don’t stop going on about it! I am thinking look I came over for the house and if I was so desperate for a coffee I would go to Costa Coffee! Anyway we finish off the ground floor, I don’t know why but I popped my head into the bathroom, and water was all over the floor about 2in in depth, I asked him what the hell is this, he explains that Mr Builder was washing his hands and the drain is blocked. He then gives me a little demo, the water pours out of the sink where the waste pipe should be, and was on my last visit! Ok will bring it up with Mr Builder as I am not very happy about the situation. I also take a walk to the top of the garden, and what a long walk it was! I also had a look at the repair Mr Builder did in January, to be honest it was a fair job only thing I did not like was it was bumpy, if he had smoothed it out it would have been excellent

We head back to his house for coffee. On the way he shows me his rabbit who has just had a litter, as he shows me I hear a grunt from his barn, I ask what the hell is that and he opens the door and a pig runs out! In the house we go and I am then met with his TV playing a video of him! After a few moments of looking interested  I start telling him what I will do to the house, the garage wall, one opposite the bathroom and the one to the old kitchen will come down, this will give me an living room area of about 35ft x 26ft, to this he responded grandee, grandee. Well I suppose it is large. The old garage door will then be fitted into the barn and the other side of the barn will be a BBQ area. He then tells me no work about, so I offer to give him some, of scrapping the wallpaper off the middle floor, we agree it’s a four day job for one person, as they are four large rooms. I put on the table 80 Lev about £30, which was good as he now knows I know the going rate. He now gets his scrappers and I think it’s his wife head for the house and start scrapping the walls. After a few moments he decides its now a good time to take me for a coke in the village bar, so he leaves his wife to carry on with the job! Try getting away with that one in the UK!

On Sunday was to be my tourist day, I pop around Vidin and take a few photos. Then its down to the river as they have boat resterants, the only one open was a fish one and it had the smell of a fish market. Not to worry as I am not that keen on fish.

The Danube with Rumania on the other side

I need tiles but not too worried as when I see Mr Builder on Monday he may be able to point me in the right direction, and I will have most of the afternoon to go looking. I head to the market and buy 8 smaller clay pots, an oblong one that I will use for a butter dish and 8 coffee mugs. I had been a little confused about being told what a poor area Bulgaria was, as most people wore D&G, Diesel and a whole host of brand names! But when you look in the markets you will find t-shirts for 10 Lev and the likes of D&G leather belts for 4 Lev it then becomes apparent they are fakes, but they are good quality fakes, so a few t-shirts make there way into my bag.

I then think it’s a good idea to find that furniture shop that I found on my detour yesterday! It can’t be far as I turned left just after the market and left again, so if I head left from the market I should hit the road it’s on. Off I go with bags in hand in search of the shop, I pass a lot of bleak looking apartments and get some odd looks from the locals. I seemed to be walking for miles, bear in mind its 23C, I am carrying two bags full of clay pots and my feet hurt, at this moment one is not very happy with the World. I find a nice little cafe and have a well earned rest, the cafe had lots of cabs sat outside, now jumping into one of them is very tempting but I don’t know the name of the shop, and I sure as hell aint going back to the hotel after all the effort!

I start off on my walk again, and on the way find a wood merchant which will be handy, as after looking at dinning tables in most shops I find them to be small. I am thinking of building my own as I would like a table 7ft x 3ft in pine with 8 chairs, don’t ask me why that size as I will be on my own!

After a while I stumble onto the shop its called Mypa and of course are closed, but I had a good look in the window and they seem to have a good collection of things. Now time to head back to the hotel as I am worn out, I cross the road to wait for a cab going into town and wait and wait. A cab then pulls up with what I think is another customer sat in the car, but I dont care I just need to get back to the hotel. It still seemed a long way even in the cab back to the hotel, but he only asked for 2 Lev so I gave him 4 and he was very happy

Mypa I wonder if they do the sofa in blue?

I did say on my last trip I would take a photo of the Champions bar, and I had planned a visit there tonight. I leave town on foot but take a wrong turning, I don’t think I am having a good day, but in the end I make my way to the bar. I cannot take a photo of it as all the trees now all have leaves on and you can’t see the place.

After my last efforts of trying to get a beef burger, this time I was fully prepared with a BG phrase book. I sat at my table looking at the menu, I noticed a person stood over me and as I looked up she gave a shriek that said oh no not you again and burst out laughing, well it’s nice to be remembered I suppose. Anyway in my best BG I asked for bif'tek the response was no we don’t do it, well bugger me I aint getting another Mc Donalds! She recommends svinsko which is pork it’s done like a pancake with a filling. I am now in the unknown! I say yes I will have one with chips, I just hope it don’t have garlic in as I hate the stuff! She arrives with the meal it looks a lot bigger on the plate than the menu. Ok I decide to investigate good point no smell of garlic! Inside it has ham, cheese, mushrooms and some green stuff I later found out was pickles. I found the whole thing very bland but it filled a hole

It’s now Monday so it’s off to see the peeps at the agents and of course Mr Builder. Mr Builder is called to the office and in the meantime I start chatting with the gang, Nick tells me he has another person to do the heating and he will be here for 3.30 ok but that’s going to cut down my time for tile hunting. Mr Builder comes in the office with his partner and I ask him about the water in the bathroom and he told me it’s was like that when they did the side of the house. OK that leaves one person in the frame Mr Aqua, but why?

I had noticed little things going missing, things I don’t need or want but going missing none the less. Things like an old desk and blue plastic container out of the garage, but why remove the drain pipe from the sink? This was confirmed later that night in the internet cafe of things missing, if you remove the drain pipe from the sink you can fill a big blue plastic container! Mr Aqua is stealing my water! I am now thinking of building a patio with him under it!

I am now going to have to watch him all the way, once the new doors are on he will not have the house keys, I was going to have electric in the BBQ area, I will now have to make sure I can turn it off from inside the house, or he may think its a good thing to nick my electric. He may also think it’s a good thing to move his family into the house and watch his vids on my widescreen with surround sound if I am not there!

I tell the builders what I need doing and how I expect it to be done to the house via Kristina,  Mr Builder tells me his name, its Bobbie the builder! I did ask what Mr Aqua's name was but he did not know. Then we go out to the house for measuring up. On the way we hit a detour because they are mending the road, the road we had to go on was a nightmare it had more holes than road. It was not long before we hear the thud, thud of a flat tyre. We did thankfully have a spare!

We get to the house and no Mr Aqua! The guys get to work whilst I look around, there in his garden is a blue container like the one missing from my garage! I enter the middle floor to be met with a pile of wallpaper in one corner of the old living room, I am not happy. Ok the guys are now ready to get back

Bobbie the builder on the left and his partner

Still no sign of Mr Aqua but we get in the car for the drive back. We are just driving out of Dimovo when we get the thud of another tyre gone! Well lots of words were going through my mind but none that I can write here. We get out to look at the wheel, next thing I know Mr Aqua is stood next to me taking over the situation; I have never seen so much commotion in changing a wheel before! Mr Aqua had been in a taxi with his family shopping, he takes the off and the other flat in the boot then we are off to find a repair station

We find a repair station but one tyre cannot be repaired total cost was 5 Lev and the taxi driver wanted 10 robbing §çéùµé. But at least we can now get back to Vidin and I can see the heating guy. We get back to the office and I explain to about the car, but he seemed unconcerned.  I have the meeting with the heating guy and Nick says take him the house and let him measure up, oh shit I got no spare wheel I now have no chance of getting my tiles sorted and I am very pissed off about the whole day. We arrive outside the house to be greeted by Mr Aqua, I show the guy where I want the rads and hot water pipes and of course Mr Aqua in tow and he did get in the way of Mr Heating at one point, and was told to get out of the way in no uncertain terms. Mr Heating then had a look around the house with Mr Aqua stuck to him, at least it gave me a chance to be on my own for the first time. As I look around the house I notice little bits of wallpaper on the walls! After a short while they both turn up and Mr Heating heads for the car, as I tell Mr Aqua to get rid of the wall paper pilled up in the corner. He asks what he should do with it so I told him to take it outside and burn it, I then point out the walls still have paper on, so he jumps on a chair and starts scraping. I have no doubt that once I left the house he stopped, but god help him if it is still there next time I visit! 

So we get back to Vidin about six and I still have no tiles, I leave the car at the hotel and rush to the shops in the hope of finding some tiles, but all to no avail I did pick up a light for the kitchen!

I get up early next morning to check out my bus as this is not booked yet, I need one about 11am, but the best time I can get is 10! So that gives me one hour from when the agents open to getting on the bus! I get to the office about 8.30 Stefan was the first to arrive and he sent me off to Praktis, I did not find any tiles but did find some nice pine floor. I did want to buy a bit but the staff were playing we are going to ignore you, and I could not wait any longer so made my way back to the office for a quick coffee and to take a photo for my site. Stefan was at the bank, so I took a photo of Nick & Kristina

Nick & Kristina

I got on the bus without problems and started the trip back to Sofia. Time goes very quickly as the views are wonderful and always something new to see or so it seems. I did spot a Mig fighter outside a building and it did not seem far from Vidin so I may pop and ask if I can buy it, as it would look good in my garden!

I get to Sofia in plenty of time, I have a few cigs outside the bus station then head to the market opposite for a look around, then back to the station to get to the airport. When in Sofia you should always get an OK cab as they have a good name. I spotted my cab and jumped in my first mistake because as we got to the airport he wanted 30 Lev, now the fare should be about 8 and I normally give 10 as a tip! As I looked on the dash he had no ID that is something all OK cabs have, I got out and walked to a OK cab in front of us but he told me it was not a OK cab, looking at the cab it was a CK cab but the gap of the C was very small so looked like OK. Well I lost it! I gave him hell even the police on the other side of the road walked the other way and they had guns! After a tide of the best English words I could think of to sum this low life up, he put his price down to 20, still over the top but ok, I was still giving him hell mind but I suppose he was pleased that his cab and him were still in one piece! As I turned I think a German said your words are very correct but what are you going to do about the guy getting into the cab! As I turn this guy is putting his bags into the boot, I march over grab his bags out of the boot and tell him not to use the cab. I did not even know if he spoke English and he must have thought what a nut, but I did not care! Turns out he could understand and thought also it was an OK cab. The cab driver just stood there with his mouth open and then made a very quick exit away from this English nutter. I just hope one of them cabs ask me to use them next time I am over! If you ever go over make sure you use an OK cab with an ID on the dash or you might find a nutter taking your bags out of the boot

It was the first time I had been to terminal 2, it had only opened in January but not many shops about, I rushed to get into the building past security to get to a smoking area, only one problem with this terminal it don’t have one, and of course once past security I could not go back! The thing about the terminal is that it had no place to eat not even a Mc Donald’s, most were just bars with crisps and nuts, but if you really want to push the boat out you need to go the bottom end of the each bay and you can get a toasty, they have hidden them well!