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About Bulgarians, earnings, plans
Karel’s letters written during travellingHeydo, just read your email on my phone and answering before get online. Moved away from Justin's with Paul. Long story but it was not a pleasant enough condition for us. So we moved to this chick named Galia and are here for over a week, but starting to think that the conditions here might not be interesting either (both of us). She seems to think that I am willing to work four hours a day for a bowl of salad from her garden and some soup or food. Will hopefully talk to her about it today. Otherwise I have provided my spices and rice and stuff from my truck, cheese and other food, made shelves and other work, but maximum an hour a day. I enjoy participating because it is a nice change from the computer, but I wont contribute more than that. I am almost looking forward to leaving this village. I like to joke and call them interbreeding morons here. There is this one guy near Justin who would just stare at you while you walk buy, hunched over, and I cannot begin to describe his expression. There are other retards here too. Then there are some who do not say hi when I say hi and look at me with practical disgust. There are nice people though. Then my only English speaking contact here over the winter is rather selfish. I texted/email him about 6 times over the winter that I need some people contact and if I can come over some time, but he never responded. He did help me in ways when I needed it, and perhaps he just not like responding to that. He did once mention that I can come over anytime I like, but that is not my nature. Anyway, started an interesting project to build a treehouse here at Galia's and will see how she responds when we talk, otherwise I think the next stop is Smolyan and Paul wants to join me. Decided to try an upgrade to my bank account here to one I can control online. Requires a digital signature from Allianz and will see if I can arrange that in Plovdiv tomorrow. Otherwise the bank in Plovdiv (nearby big city) said it was not possible to get such an online account as a foreigner, so I go to Smolyan again, as they told me it was possible and my contact there confirmed it. Tomorrow in Plovdiv a few of us also plan to go gocart racing, so I am rather looking forward to that. After Smolyan would like to spend some time with my friend Archie and maybe help him on his house, but the key problem is he says he does not have a mobile signal there. I will try my new mobile signal booster, as it seems to help sometimes, but if I cannot check my internet regularly I will not stay there. He offered me 300 Euro for one week to help him plaster, which is pretty good, but I do not like not being able to respond quickly to my customers. Perhaps I could put an autoresponse on my email, since he said he could drive me to the village every day, but we shall see. Primarily he wanted it now but I really do not feel like relocating so quickly, or even to bus it out there. Then after him it would be to the coast. Thinking of trying the north this time. There is this special place which was suggested to me which is in nature and a bit remote where people camp out in the forest like Varvara, where I was last year. I found Varvara a bit too wild for my liking. It was nice that Gypsies would play live music in the streets every night and always some party, but I would prefer something more relaxed. Not to mention that I was a bit famous and ended up having to give one lev (50 Euro cents) to five poor people every day. Just didn't have the heart to say no. Bulgarians are expert scroungers it seems. There is even one very poor family here who I ended up borrowing 24 lev and then they disappeared and no one responds to my smses. Rather sad actually. Whatever cash they manage to get I know they spend on enough cigarettes to pay me back. Several Bulgarians already were treating me like family, then borrowed money and disappeared. Anyway, not large amounts. The place up north along the coast is a bit south of Varna. Another reason I don't want to go back to Varvara is because someone stole my trumpet. It had "made in Czechoslovakia" engraved on it and was good quality (5,000 Kc), so overall I have a bit of a sour feeling against Varvara, and anyway I like to always explore new areas. Really looking forward to Asia and Paul and Justin want to travel with me, but Paul would rather not ever again deal with Justin. Don't know if it is something with this village but everyone is a bit weird in one way or another. Will be nice to be in Smolyan again where everyone is fresh and nice like a baby. May hang out there for about a week and will be nice to jog through the mountains again. Think it is my nicest jogging trail ever. Now I'm back in the truck parked outside of Galia's and it sure is nice to be back in my special space, working off my solar panels and listening to the birds chirp outside. Never really felt so cozy in that room in Justin's. When I drove from Justin's to Galia's I suggested to Paul that we go on a little road trip, so we booted offroad and ended up in a winery overlooking the valley. The drive up to Smolyan is perhaps the nicest section of road I have ever driven and both of us are looking forward to roadtripping again. Paul used to own a gocart place, I think as a hobby perhaps, so evidently we both like these road trip stuff. But the cool thing about staying here at Galia's is, even though she is a little bit off and perhaps naïve in her thinking, she is trying to become self-sufficient and survives mostly from her garden. Otherwise she teaches us things that we can pick and eat from nature. Been a good month financially and managed to make a thousand bucks in two days, but one customer cancelled a job because they were not happy with the quality. Too bad cause I would have made another 500 Euro and perhaps hit close to 2000 Euro for the month. Anyway, at least I am making my minimum 800 every month and my income seems to be rising. Recently paid my Smolyan guy to fill in about 300 application forms to translation agencies I recently sent an email to, so hopefully something will come out of that. Want to build up a reserve and pay my debts. Asia should be a little more expensive than Bulgaria. Looking forward to learn how to cook with lemon grass and all their fancy stuff there. And to have constant sun and beach. Looking forward to finding some paradise and have several friends who have toured the area many times and have suggested remote islands. That would be so cool, but need to stay near the coast somewhere. Not only because of the beach but also because I recently learned there are tons of mosquitoes inland, which I really rather avoid. In about a month the weather is supposed to hit humid 40C and mosquitoes here, so will be sure to be gone by then. Well, that's all I can think of for an update. Have a good one! * * * Island Hopping in the Philippines * * *
Published - August 2013
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