Not an ordinary holiday, day one The Reveal

Today is the day Sally has been waiting for.
She has been very excited the last few days and now she will finally get to see the property we have bought.
We have the usual excellent service we have come to expect from EasyJet and arrive into Sofia on time.

The passport checks were comprehensive, not just the usual glance.
After a short wait for our toolboxes to come off the carousel we head through the nothing to declare channel and meet our car hire rep.
I had ordered a 2007 Renault saloon for the 3 week trip but instead we have a rather new Hyundai i30 6 speed Diesel and what a nice motor it is.
Unfortunately the weather has not been as good to us as we hoped.
We couldn't get to the car park in Sofia that I knew because of a new tram system that is being installed and the traffic is quite heavy at the moment with it being the Easter Holidays over here.
Instead we head out of Sofia and on towards Lovech.

I had planned in my mind to pick up some decent folding ladders and cleaning materials so a small diversion to Praktis Sofia and mission complete, now we just need some food.
We have virtually had non stop heavy rain and the clouded hills and mountains of the Balkan range resembles a typical grey day in the lake district.
We have been up since 2am and had a couple of coffees and a sandwich but not much else so I stop at a popular village truck stop its large and traditional with bright red woven tablecloths and varnished woodwork, three young waitresses are busy serving food and coffee
This is a place I have visited before with Manyol and his boss.
We both have a small beer and a bowl of traditional soup along with bread from the embers, Shopska salad and strong black coffee. (all in £6)
We are only 20mins from our village and Sally is getting a little more excited.
We arrive into our village, a low mist is covering the hills but the rain is finally stopping.
I open the front door and let Sally in, she looks a little gobsmacked.
She can't believe just how much there is left to remove in the house and can't yet see past all the belongings left behind.
This is typical for a village house though, it's as though they just walk out the door one day and that's that.
Anyway we go out into the garden and there is more space than she expected and although the garden needs cutting back all of the trees bar one have been dug up and removed as planned.
We look through the barn and again Sally can't believe how much junk is in there, but the top floor has been cleared as required.
We spend a good hour or so at the property and once Sally goes into the top floor of the house she smiles and you can see a plan come together in her head.
The house is actually big enough to get 2 bedrooms one upstairs and one downstairs that is what she wanted and when we go out onto the balcony she smiles once more and now all is good.
She did have me a little worried at first, but that was then and this is now.  I had already cleared out the top of the house so it's just a blank canvas and within two minutes she is suggesting what walls to take down, happy days.

A view of the old barn from gate.

Sally is now in full flow, kitchen here bedroom there etc etc...

I'm just relieved that she likes it, after all we did visit nearly every village in the central Balkan range before deciding on this one.

Time to go to the hotel, it won't be a late night tonight.