Norfolk Holiday.... Send Someone A Postcard

What happened to sending people a postcard when your on holiday? Texts and mobiles have probably played their part in their demise. I remember my Mum queuing to use the phone on holiday camps when I was a child, oh how things change..






I think its a great thing though, its nice to have one pop through your door and know someone was thinking of you and put the effort into writing one.
Im surprised someone hasn't come up with the idea to make a machine you can plug your digital camera in and make your own whilst your away.

Next time you go away send someone a postcard and tell them what you've been up to, such as..........

Hang on, Wake up Eva my blog isn't that boring!!!!!

Going on a seal trip and taking some nice pics....

 Eva and most people on the boat liked to think they were waving at us to say hello. I think they may have been wanting to wave us off and saying "haven't you lot got anything better to do than watch us lying on a beach". Apparently they stay laying there for three days at a time, it costs me £3.95 to have a swim in town, make the most of you lazy big slugs.

Come on Eva,..... you don't have to play dead to get out of reading this

Going on a Steam Train and seeing old railway stations... Choooo Choooo!!!
Something I've done many times and we talk about in a post all of its own.

Making new friends.........................

Muddle the Dog

Staying at a Bed & Breakfast fit for a king, which was owned by a man who was born in
the same hospital as me.............

If you know me lets swap addresses so we can send holiday postcards!!

 By the way Eva actually loves my blog.

Tip From Bulgarian Girlfriend No.1, How to open a tight Jam Jar

"Arrrrgghhhhh !!! I cant open this Jam Jar, I'm too old to ask my Dad to do it. I'm going to look like a wimp if I can't open it in front of my girlfriend" 

If you want to look tough when your not, tap the sides of the lid against a working top when she isn't looking.

Then try again...."Yesssss!!! the lid comes off  I'm a hero!"!

Serpentine Economics

I liked Eva's idea of doing a little bit of row boating so we decided to go to Hyde Park

 and have a go on the Serpentine Lake. Hyde park is a real nice place to go in the summer, people on bikes deckchairs, ice creams and children playing. But look out for the UKIP swans this one nearly had my fingers off, they could be training them like the Americans did with dolphins to take out the Russians.

If your over 6ft and decide to do a bit of boating in Hyde Park take a row boat and not a pedal one. My body went through more strain and exertion doing 10 feet than Steve Redgrave through his entire Olympic Five medal run including the training in between.

There was an interesting pricing structure for the boats at Hyde Park:

Half Hour : £10.00 per person

One Hour : £12.00 per person

Its just £2 to double your time and remember this is per person not per boat, plus four people could go in one boat for one hour for £48, but at the same time four people could separately take four boats. Money wise who does this benefit and how? Perhaps this is all devised by some economics genius. The government should get down there perhaps within this somewhere is the answer to the world recession.

Probably the first Bulgarian Lady to eat a egg mayonnaise sandwich on the Serpentine.

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Bulgarian Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

On our return to England we brought with us Eva's mum Zoya and niece Ina, but don't worry UKIP voters it was only for a week and half holiday. They both got a standing ovation when they touched down on English soil, but then all Bulgarians do. When any aeroplane lands and there are Bulgarians on board they break out into applause and quite right to, surviving being shot across the earth in a tin tube and not tumbling to the ground in flames is always something to celebrate.

This is me and Ina outside bowling where at her first time bowling she thrashed all of us

Eva's Mum is a great gardener and artist, she went straight to work on my garden giving tips and ripping plants out that were either dead or apparently weeds. This is a wall painting she did for Eva whilst staying here.....

The three of them looked like they caused trouble in London whilst I was at work.......

Natural History Museum

London Eye

Night out with Nelly

My favourite part of their stay was when we visited Frinton beach and walked to Walton Pier and back. I never realised how sunny it was and managed to burn my feet hear rather than when walking on hot coals back in Bulgaria.

Im really sorry to disappoint you UKIP voters but they didn't try to claim any benefits, nothing for you to report to the Daily Mail.

Their going back home was the end of our Busy fast and excellent two and a half weeks

Once the Musical....Wait don't run away if you don't like musicals

Straying a bit from the 2 and a half weeks story, but will come back to it......

http://www.oncemusical.co.uk/           

My friend Phil recently won tickets to a musical which reminded me of the trip me and Eva (Bulgarian Girlfriend) had to the Phoenix Theatre in London to see Once the Musical. It was back in March but thought I must share it with people to help it get the credit it deserves.

Eva is a fan of musicals and suggested we go to one, all the big shows like Mamma Mia were looked at when finding tickets then she stumbled upon a new musical called Once. It was the story of a girl who travelled from Eastern Europe to Ireland and inspired a man to pursue his music talent. I thought that's got a bit of a connection to us so it was the cool find, and what a great choice it turned out to be.

As soon as you entered the theatre with the seats still filling up the cast were already on stage singing and playing their own instruments. They were performing traditional Irish songs on guitars, drums, mandolins and stomping the floor in a pub setting. It was a warm up for the show and there was obvious enjoyment coming out of them for the music. It wasn't about lights, firework, dancing it was about real songs, rather than dialogue being sung.

The show that followed had excellent original songs, again not singing dialogue and was set against a well done story. It was based on a film I haven't seen and will leave alone in case it ruins my perception of the stage show. There was a twist in the end that I wont spoil.

You could even have a drink on stage in the bar at half time, definitely recommend!!!

Eva's Website, something to be proud of........

http://www.evacares.co.uk/

Eva recently created this excellent website to promote her business.................

Bulgarian line dancing and hot coals

We woke up in Sunny Beach to begin our last full day , which is a bit like the Southend of Bulgaria. It was nice to feel at home for a few hours on a late night stroll watching some fine English ambassadors getting drunk and swearing. Bulgarian people don't let this spread across your country keep them contained there like monkeys in a zoo.

I found out Bulgarians insult people by saying "you drive like an Albanian" well Albanian roads must constantly be like Mad Max. I saw some interesting driving on our three hour journey back to Stara Zagora, with some overtakes where people missed each other by the width of a hair. We stopped for a break and I took a nice photo of the awesome Bulgarian landscape, the yellow in the background is a massive sunflower field.....

The last afternoon was like being in a game show like "Challenge Anneka" only renamed to "Challenge Eva". Minus the helicopter we were flying about the town completing tasks including visiting the doctors, trying to find a missing ID card, getting documents translated and trying to recreate a picture of Eva posing when she was 17.  Just a shame we got the wrong tree, will have to try again.

This made us slightly late for an evening spent with Eva's friends at a traditional Bulgarian restaurant in the hills. This is where we got to walk across some hot coals, in our shoes unlike the bare foot crazy old lady.

The night was finished off joining in with what I can only describe as Bulgarian Line dancing. Everyone holding hands, four steps right, four steps left, little jump and a kick. Eva's friends said I was good and got the hang of it quick, I wasn't the best so these comments summed up their great Bulgarian social spirit.

I was super tired the next day when we rushed to the airport with Eva's Mum and Niece so we could bring them back for a little holiday....................

The Black Sea and Nessebar

My third day visiting Eva's home country was a three hour drive to the coast of The Black Sea with her sister, her boyfriend, niece and nephew. No one knows why its called The Black Sea but it could be because to the Greeks it was to the north which on the compass is black.

Packed Car

On the way there we drove past millions of beautiful sunflowers being grown on farms and elegant storks were flying across the road,. up into the mountains we went and lovely young ladies waving at us driving past. Whys that? are they just being nice? Why are they in the lay-bys all the way out here? Gypsy prostitutes apparently.


First stop was a secluded beach where we did some kite flying, which is one of my favourite things to do. This kite was one we brought for Zarko as a present.

I haven't swam for 16 years but decided to join in swimming in The Black Sea not a bad place to start again, and I want to carry on now I am back in England. I cant imagine Riverside Ice and Leisure matching the setting though. If you type Daniel Craig in swimming trunks it seems to keep confusing my picture below with scenes from James Bond, sorry Daniel.

In the evening we went to a town call Nessebar which was an old port with interesting buildings and lots of tourist shop, where we took some nice pics.....

Stara Zagora : That's not a Cheeseburger !

The aim of my first full day in Bulgaria was to explore Stara Zagora which is Eva's home town 

and to meet her family.

The view from Molly's flat.

It started with a breakfast food called banitsa which is like a really thick croissant with cheese in it, and when I say thick I mean like the earth's crust thick. It was nice but I didn't like the two drinks it came with which seemed to be a liquified weetabix and salty milk. I know I the only other country's I've been to are France and Birmingham but I think I can safely say Bulgaria are somewhere near the bottom of the breakfast drink league table.

I wanted to get out there after breakfast and experience the country so I did what any tourist would do and went for a haircut. Eva wanted to go to her "local" salon so that's what we did. Best haircut ever with the barber telling me exactly where his English counterparts were going wrong. The answer to my hair shooting off in different directions all my life was in Eastern Europe!!

This is also where Eva's sister Stella, her boyfriend Peter, niece Ina and nephew Zarko who were all smiley and happy people. Look at Peter he is massive would of made a great WWE wrestler.....Ladies and Gentleman making his way to the ring and weighing in at 400lb ts Peter the destructoooor !! He was a big friendy giant though not a baddie. Bulgarians are real social animals, chatting in the park and playing chess like in the movies If they didn't talk so much and being as big as Peter they could have at some point in history taken over the world.

Peter and Stella

They took me for a lunch and I asked for a cheeseburger, accept what I got wasn't a cheeseburger... there was no burger in it. Cheese but no meat, instead chips. I thought "burger was the meat part of a ham or cheese burger???

For those who might of come here looking to learn about Bulgarian town life and not debate what a burger is here's some pics of a church and stuff...........I met Evas mum and friends, more to come about them in the story of my trip to Bulgaria amongst other subjects.


Stara Zagora High Street:




Church:




Communist Block:



S4TZEV9T2D8V

Busy, fast and excellent two and a half weeks.........

Ive just had the busiest, fastest and most excellent two and a half weeks with my Bulgarian girlfriend Eva. 

This is Eva and I in an Asda Supermarket in England at the end of our holiday, were doing her shopping before she goes back to her job as a live-in carer.

This is where the two and a half weeks began, on my first aeroplane trip destination ... Bulgaria!!!

I was scared before getting on the plane, how can you not be knowing sometimes when a plane crashes it can glide for 10 minutes before hitting the ground and exploding!!!!! Luckily it didn't crash but did go right  and left up and down alot before we landed in Plodiv, where I got hit in the forehead by a giant flying beetle.

We got picked up by Eva's friend Molly and taken to her flat where we were to stay for four days. I've been to France so on the way to Molly's flat my eyes were mesmerised by how different everything was.. upside down letters, communist cars and buildings. Awesome, and felt so far from home. I kept wondering if my passport was in my suitcase in the boot of the car, what if I got lost? what if I lost my passport? I would be stuck and I dont know how to read anymore!!!!!

This is the Stara Zagora the town I woke up to and is from where I will continue the story on my next post.

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