#161 - Subscribers
I had quite a shock when I checked my mailing list yesterday. Since March of this year, I have somehow gone from 47 subscribers to 147. Wow!
Well, a huge thank you to all the people who joined. I hope you find my output entertaining and/or helpful.
I have been in Bulgaria now for about 2 ½ weeks. It seems like much longer, but really a very short period of time. I recovered from my jet lag traveling from the Philippines and then moved into a new apartment in Varna with my Danish roommate.
Settling into a new apartment is something that I have done so many times that I have lost count. This was a fairly painless process. Thanks in part to Jakob, my roommate, who worked tirelessly to get everything fixed, and the fact that there is an IKEA store here, which really provided one-stop shopping.
Living in the middle of Primorski Park is truly as beautiful as I thought it would be. It is truly wonderful to be able to step out the front door and in 10 meters, be on the path through the park to be able to take a walk. The only problems with the apartment really, are that from time to time there is a nearby restaurant which does weddings, and the noise from the bands can be quite invasive at least up till 11 PM. The only other problem is the Internet. Because of where this apartment is located, inside a public park, it is apparently impossible to get fiber or indeed cable of any sort installed to the building. So, we are stuck with a wireless router which uses a cellular Sim card to provide data services. It is okay about 80% of the time. And when it gets really bad, we switch to the data service on our phones, which is actually usually much better. Well. If that is all we have to complain about, life is really not so bad.
As a side note, a local resident informed us that the residential apartment buildings which are inside the park, should not really be here. Surprise, surprise, apparently developers bribed officials in order to be able to get building permits for inside the park. I had no idea about this when we rented the unit, but to tell the truth I doubt that it would’ve changed my mind.
I’m very impressed with IKEA and IKEA products. I have not really use them so much in the past. But now, if I ever got an unfurnished apartment, I could go to IKEA and shop and be done in a matter of hours. The products are high quality, with great instructions, and really easy to put together. Of course, (😊), Jakob did all of the assembly. But I could see it was relatively easy to do.
But they do love their house keys here in Bulgaria. 😊
1. 2 keys front door
2. 1 key front garden gate
3. 1 key back garden gate
4. Remote control for main gate + rollup door for garage
5. 1 key for door into parking garage
6. 1 key for storage unit in basement
Not to mention 2 or 3 keys that we couldn’t find locks for.
Now after being in country about three weeks, my back is about 80% recovered, and I will be leaving for Columbia next week. On the road again. But, I am actually looking forward to it. I will be traveling lighter than usual as I will have been able to leave a portion of my goods here at the apartment. I will be traveling heavier when I come back from Argentina because I have a full bag of stuff that I left behind when I fled the country in March 2020 when Covid happened. My good friend Max kept it for me, and I will be bringing that back with me. It seems to contain, from photos that Max sent me, mainly winter stuff. And I will end up leaving all of the winter stuff here in Bulgaria.
At least one thing I can think of that might be good about winter here. I don’t have to worry about wedding bands and musical interference during the winter months. 😊
My Bulgarian has been progressing. Difficult, to be sure, but I have been progressing. Between getting some basic phrases down, and then being able to use Google translate for the rest, it has been fairly survivable here. Not to mention, by the way, that in many of the stores, you can ask if somebody speaks English and very often there is. But I will still continue my efforts. Продължавам да уча български, но върви бавно.
The documents for the application of my passport with St. Kitts are finally done. There were just two documents that I needed to get modified while I was here in Bulgaria. And, thanks to both the agency helping me plus having bribed the bank and my lawyer with a basket of food goodies from S & R, I was able to get the revised documents that I needed. It took about 10 days as opposed to the two days it would have taken me if I had been physically present, but at least it is done. My understanding from the agency is that the local office of the agency in St. Kitts has reviewed everything and said that it should be okay. So, I am really hoping that in approximately 6 to 10 weeks, I should get a approval from the St. Kitts CIU (Citizenship Investment Unit) to proceed. Next step will be to wire them the funds for the passport. At the risk of repeating myself, if I can get the St. Kitts and the Argentina passport by not later than January of next year, I would be ecstatic. And, if St. Kitts gives the approval in the next 6 to 10 weeks, I would imagine that I will have the St. Kitts passports not later than October. And that would be a huge weight off my mind and, I hope, provide some immediate relief on the banking front.
So, all is going well with me, and I hope all is going well with you, my readers. I cannot express how utterly surprised I was to see my readership increase so rapidly. I don’t know what caused it but I’m happy that it has increased, and I welcome hearing from my new readers to find out if there is anything in particular about which they would like me to write.