Retirement - as a New Beginning in Bulgaria

[Atanasova]

How about turning your retirement in a new beginning ? Going to a different country, facing a different culture ? Hospitable people, wonderful nature and low prices ... Bulgaria gets more and more attractive for retired people from all over the world ! We can assist you in finding the cosiest dreamed-one property. The other is up to our charming nature and friendly people ! Contact me at www.morada.hit.bg for more infromation about our agency and BG properties.

 

[fire5soon]

Perhaps you should have posted this in the "Get Rich Quick With No Brains" section of the board...

 

[TheFIREman]

Its actually quite a cheap place to live, but that's about it....

 

[Telly]

I wonder, would the Bulgarian Secret Police seminars  be an extra cost item?

They were the ones that quietly shot the guy on a London street corner with the poison pellet, using an umbrella gun.  The guy never felt the pinprick of the implanting pellet, and died within a week. And all my umbrella does is catch rain drops, and turn inside-out in high winds.

 

[unclemick]

Rumor has that a lot of former Bulgarian police have opened B&B type inns to supplement their meager pensions.

 

[TheFIREman]

Stay at the Ric Inn...

 

[Atanasov]

Don't listen to Atanasova. She is trying to sell real estate in Bulgaria. The country sucks big time. Bulgaria owns US $10 Bilion , too much debt, no healthcare ( it is just horible ), mafia is shooting everyday in the big cities and goverment doesn't care about the people. Every year thousands young people leave the country trying to find better place to leave. People, please go to some other country don't go to Bulgaria, don't spend even a penny there.

 

[V V]

Atanasov

hey, when was the last you were in Bulgaria, idiot?
Can point on the map where's Bulgaria?
"mafia is shooting everyday in the big cities " - hahahaha...drug dealers shoot EVERYDAY in USA too......

 

[unclemick]

And the big ex-pat areas in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary are:

Rentals?

 

[LEX]

I couldn't help but laugh at the spam re: Bulgaria.  

I like the people there, they are truly decent.  I have traveled throughout eastern europe and Russia and speak decent "survival slavic' (not Bulgarian, but close enough to ask for Vada, nyet? Pashalta Piba...).  

Bulgaria is a very scenic place, and worthy of a tour.  There are very nice places where one could attempt to buy a villa.  But the legal and political risk to buying real estate are very real.  The real question is why buy when you can rent cheaply, and have your landlord deal with the local problems, (mafia or governmental officials) as he is most likely connected to or related to them or the villa would have been stolen from him long ago.  One thug with a used AK 47 can ruin your day.  As in Russia, there is little legal protection from local, regional and country based criminals who claim to be acting under the color of government.  I can buy a dacha in Novgorod near St. Petersberg for ten grand US, but a single government official with a mind to extortion will take it away.  Same in most of the former SU with a few exceptions such as Hungary or Poland.

I would enjoy the prices and the people of eastern Europe but I would never invest in real estate there.  Just rent....and save yourself from being a target for the private and governmental thieves.

Ches Slevya! (Good Luck)

By the way, if you want to listen to my favorite slavic song, take a listen at this link:

http://www.arkady.org.uk/DDT_Links.html

 

[haha]

Same in most of the former SU with a few exceptions such as Hungary or Poland.

I bet these Hungarians and Poles would be thrilled to learn that they are part of the former SU.

Can't speak of Hungary, but as far as I know there has never been a lot of love between Poland and their eastern neighbor- or their western neighbor either! And with good reason.

Mikey

 

[LEX]

OK, so Poland and Hungary were countries in occupation by the USSR and unwilling hostages to the Warsaw pact.  The post was my best good faith effort to keep some ER out of Nebraska from hopping a plane and getting conned in a real estate scam, not a Post doc thesis.  Perhaps you might want to learn a bit about these countries and travel there for yourself. Poland, hungary and Russia are connected crossroads with the other, from the century old relationships between the Hapsbergs and the Romanovs to the days of the ostrogoths and the visgoths joining the Hun and crossing the Danube to take Austria/Italy in the fourth century...But I will not waste my time kicking a skunk, as no one wins and it always stinks. Just don't buy real property in the wild wild east unless you want to throw your money away.

 

[Mr._johngalt]

Ah the Visagoths, Vandals and Huns............
those were the days

JG

 

[LEX]

Feel free to wear a horn adorned helmet and dance to this catchy tune:

http://www.arkady.org.uk/DDT_Links.html

 

[haha]

The post was<snip> not a Post doc thesis.

Ay, clear enough!

Mikey

 

[Brat]

My Mother and I went to Hungary (Elderhostel) shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall. I was surprised to learn that the largest ethnic group are Finns who traveled south by land centuries ago.

 

[LEX]

And a fairly large Gypsy (they call themselves Roma) population.  Great Cafe food and music.  The Finns seemed to travel a lot.  I suppose they were the original snow birds.  They moved into the Volga valley and many so called Russians, Hungarians, Romanians and Bulgarians are really as ethnically mixed up as we Americans.  Well worth traveling into to Hungary just to drink beer in Budapest.  These guys know a little bit about making good beer.

For those of you that are adventurous, but not as insane as I and my spouse when it comes to getting on the wrong trains, busses, ect., getting lost, and having a great time anyway, this is a good link for a tour or further information:

http://tours.ricksteves.com/catalog/index.cfm?fuseaction=product&theParentID=139&id=689

 

[unclemick]

Rick Steves is o.k.

Finns on the other hand - well the bulk of my ancestors coming to America in the late 1800's/turn of the century - Maine, Mass, Canada, Upper Michigan - yuck!

Took the American born to wake up and discover WARM - Ca, Florida, La.

At least no one in my family - to my knowledge immigrated direct to Minnesota.

No difference between the -son's or -nen's: they went from cold to cold. Thank God I was born American and got to hear Jimmy Buffett.

Warm is good.

 

[LEX]

Finland is well worth visiting.  There are occaisonally good travel deals into Helsinki, and you easily can take a train into Saint Petersberg Russia and see the Hermitage, and travel the line southeast into Moscow. Its a neat train trip, and you can get an overnight berth on the leg from St. Petersberg to Moscow. There is a an autonomous region along the border of Finland and Russia, just to the east, called Karelia, that is populated primarily by ethnic Finns that have lived in what is currently Russia, but depending on the century was also Finland, for over a millenia.  The Russians and Finns east of the baltic have been staging regional battles back and forth for so many centuries and living in each others region for so long that the ethnicity is often called Russo-Finnish in some texts.  The Finns were originally the fierce invaders from the north, had a few Viking pals mixed into the gang, liked to travel on the Volga, then they stayed to enjoy the vodka and were able to catch a few of the slower but nontheless wild Russian women.  Amazing history.  The Russians love the banya, which is a wet suana, and this most likely comes from the Finnish invaders.  The Finns adopted the Russian predelection for vodka.  

Heres a link for on the region where Finns live in Russia, or the Russians in Finland, depending on who you ask:

http://www.onego.ru/english.html

 

[Brat]

When husband traveled in Finland he said you can tell the ethnicity of the neighborhood by which language is first on the signs. They commonly spoke Finnish, Russian, Svensk, Norsk, and English. Where they distinguish themselves is in the design professions.

 

[unclemick]

Hmmm

My Finn Grandmother on my Mother's side skipped Norsk - but she could swear in Swede, Russian, English and also carry on simple conversations.
also Canadian -heh, heh.

When we were in Finland - doing the tourist thing(1985) - English got you almost everywhere.

Interestingly - genetic research is rewriting migration patterns or at least generating new theories. The old model was based on languages.

Urban Finns seemed to get out to see the world as much as the Brits. We visited a 'very distant' relative of my father's side(Swedish speaking Finns) - house in the burbs(just like modern America  only maybe smaller) - he ticked off all the places in the world he'd been while working(a lot) and the daughter's first job on graduating in engineering(senior) would be for a British company in some yet to be specified country.

We felt absolutely provincial in comparason.

 

[indymom]

Yes, but consider the size of those countries. Maybe you could consider going from, say Virginia to Oregon as an equivalent.