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Saturday, 15 January 2011

Bulgaria



For information just ask here, or e mail through the link to my property website in the heading.

Varna,Bulgaria



For more information just ask here or e mail me via the link in the heading to my property website.

BULGARIAN CITIES

Golf Club Ibar Golf Course 10th September 2009



This is the Ibar golf course, not far from Sofia, the video is over a year old but things have not changed.This was a Jack Niklaus designed course, but they have run out of money and work has come to a halt.It has been reported that the houses will have to be demolished as they are illegal.As I have warned before this just illustrates the herd instinct of Bulgarian entrepreneurs who thought that golf was a licence to print money, unfortunately its also a licence to lose it big time !.

Blog Update

Really pleased this morning, to find that we have crept up to 19th place on the internet if you search on one engine under 'bulgaria blog' and 12th on another engine.This is rewarding the hard work that has been put in in the past few months and also you the loyal readers who keep coming back.If you like this blog then please click on the adverts to help cover our costs.

Uncle Bulgaria

Friday, 14 January 2011

Likes and Dislikes about Bulgaria

Thought I would start a discussion about what people like and dislike about Bulgaria.Perhaps what your favourite places are ?, your favourite restaurant ?,activity ?, or conversely what you cannot stand ?.Has anyone had any bad dealings holiday or business wise ? here.Why dont you share them with the 3000 readers of this blog ?.
If anybody has any questions please feel free to post them here.

Tuesday, 11 January 2011

Contrast

I have just been reading Balkan Holidays Summer and Winter Bargains bulletin, confusingly published on the same day !.Bizarre pricing: 3 star ski holiday near Pamporovo in January 190 GBP, 3 star in the old hotel Druzhba in Albena 306 GBP in May.Albena is over priced and ageing.If anybody requires Hotel accommodation in the summer let me know via info@gobg.co.uk.

Thursday, 6 January 2011

House renovation Bulgaria-Very Special Offer !

Hello Readers,

Well it's January so have to put on some sale offers.This one is for renovation..here goes: For a circa 80m2 house to re-wire, re-plaster walls,floor tiles, including screeding and cement, ceilings (either wood slatting or plaster) our sale offer is 10300 leva.New bathroom including all tiling and sanitary goods 3500 leva.Renew 6 doors and frames 2000 leva, New windows (circa 7) 2500leva,New Roof 18000 leva.Total 36300 Leva or 18615 Euros or 15515 GBP.
CHEAP AS CHIPS !.Go to my website which is linked to the heading or just post a question here.This offer applies in the Dobrich and Varna counties, Shumen and other counties can be catered for also upon request.

Tuesday, 4 January 2011

Cheap Property Bulgaria

As regular readers will be aware, I operate this blogsite as an interesting hobby for me and to inform the english speaking world about Bulgaria from my UK expat perspective.
So far it has been a fascinating year or so and I am really glad I embarked upon it.However the business that I do must get the occasional mention.Please have a look at my website www.gobg.co.uk which is linked in the title heading.There are many property offers there, plus we have building and maintenance pages.If you cannot see what interests you there please e mail me and we will cater for your demands.

Wikileaks latest

WIKILEAKS CITES EC: WE TRIED EVERYTHING BUT BULGARIA DOESN'T WANT REFORMS

"How do you make them reform when they don't want to?", fresh diplomatic cables of the US embassy in Sofia, revealed on WikiLeaks, cite a source from the European Commission team for monitoring Bulgaria as saying.
The cables are dated June 26, 2009 and have been signed by the then US ambassador to Sofia Nancy McEldowney. The document รข€“ one of the last that she prepared before she was recalled in Washington, should have been kept classified by the end of the decade, but its content was published by the El Pais newspaper and the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks at the end of last year.
"XXXXX told us that the Commission feels they have "tried everything" to make the Bulgarians reform their judicial system, but concluded "how do you make them reform when they do not want to?" , reads the cable.
According to the unnamed source the Bulgarian government's defensive arrogance -- and lack of political will -- is intensifying enlargement fatigue in Brussels.
He underscored that EC pressure via the monitoring reports and withholding EU funds are the only ways to produce results.
The cable describes judicial reform in Bulgaria as a combination of "fatigue and frustration".
"XXXXXXXXXXXX said the entire team believes the Bulgarians only address issues in the Commission's report to get a "good report," not to create a better judicial system."
The source called the appointment/nomination procedure for the top judicial officials "non-transparent" because the vote on the nominees is secret and does not take into full account disciplinary actions against the nominees.

Pretty stupid !

BULGARIA LAUNCHES SMOKING BAN CHECKS

Even though a smoking ban in public places came into force in Bulgaria at the end of December, official checks were launched January 3 amid reports that the restrictions are being widely ignored.
The delay in official checks was meant to give an opportunity to owners of restaurants, coffee shops and bars to take advantage of the 2-week grace period and provide the necessary walls, tight-closing doors and good ventilation equipment.
The requirements will affect all smoking spaces inside commercial and administrative buildings, railroad stations and airports as well.
Owners of coffee shops and restaurants with less than 50 square meters have the right to decide whether smoking would be allowed. In case smoking is allowed, individuals under the age of 18 would not be admitted as they are banned from smoking in all indoors spaces.
In larger establishments, at least 50% of the space must be dedicated to non-smokers.
In night clubs, smoking will be allowed at all times regardless of how large they are.
Open-space coffee shops and restaurants inside shopping malls are becoming non-smoking facilities.
Owners face fines for inadequate ventilation and lack of sings designating the non-smoking sections and the smoking ban for those under 18.
Fines for owners range from BGN 500 to BGN 10,000. Individuals, who violate the ban, would also face fines, but only if they agree to provide their ID card.
Similar measures were imposed as part of a partial smoking ban in 2005 but have been widely ignored.
Bulgaria ranks second after Greece in the EU in terms of number of regular smokers as a percentage of the population, according to a Eurobarometer survey.

Sunday, 2 January 2011

Death at El Barr, Rogachevo, on New Years Eve

El Barr is a lovely family run bar/restaurant establishment near Albena, and it is with great sadness that I have to report that a guest there was found dead in bed on New Years Day.He had stayed overnight after the hogmanay party and tragically could not be revived.Not a great new year start for the community here.

True Story

Some acquaintances of mine went to a spa in a hotel in Golden Sands, over the holiday period.After the spa they decided to go in the pool.One of them noticed a man below the surface and just thought he was swimming under water.Sadly no. When they pulled him up but he was already blue.It turned out to be a 38 year old Bulgarian man.The staff simply put the body on a lounger and covered him up still in a public area.
Eventually the police came and started moaning that the body should have been left in the pool.Obvious question being how did they know he was dead till they got him out of the pool...only in Bulgaria !.

Monday, 27 December 2010

Friday, 24 December 2010

Seasons Greetings

A Merry Christmas to all my readers and contributors .We have just passed 4000 page views !.

Thursday, 23 December 2010

Breaking News Skype Collapses !


Skype is experiencing a massive worldwide outage today.

This is according to Skype:
Earlier today, we noticed that the number of people online on Skype was falling, which wasn’t typical or expected, so we began to investigate. Skype isn’t a network like a conventional phone or IM network – instead, it relies on millions of individual connections between computers and phones to keep things up and running. Some of these computers are what we call ‘supernodes’ – they act a bit like phone directories for Skype. If you want to talk to someone, and your Skype app can’t find them immediately (for example, because they’re connecting from a different location or from a different device) your computer or phone will first try to find a supernode to figure out how to reach them.
Under normal circumstances, there are a large number of supernodes available. Unfortunately, today, many of them were taken offline by a problem affecting some versions of Skype. As Skype relies on being able to maintain contact with supernodes, it may appear offline for some of you.
What are we doing to help? Our engineers are creating new ‘mega-supernodes’ as fast as they can, which should gradually return things to normal. This may take a few hours, and we sincerely apologise for the disruption to your conversations. Some features, like group video calling, may take longer to return to normal.
Stay tuned to @skype on Twitter for the latest updates on the situation – and many thanks for your continued patience in the meantime.

Bill Gates joke

For  all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the  way computers have enhanced our lives (!?!), read on....
At a  recent computer expo (COMDEX),Bill Gates reportedly compared  the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, 

'If GM had kept up with technology like the computer  industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000  miles to the gallon.'

In  response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press  release stating:

If  GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be  driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just  love this part ):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your  car would crash.........
  Twice  a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the  road, you would have to buy a new car.
 
3.  Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason.  You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of  the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the  windows before you could continue. For some reason you would  simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a  manoeuvre such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down  and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to  reinstall the engine.
 
5.  Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was  reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but  would run on only five percent of the roads.

6 The  oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would  all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal  Operation' warning light.
 
I  love the next one!!!
 
7.  The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.        

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car  would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you  simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and  grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
 
9.  Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to  learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls  would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10.  You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine  off
 
PS - I'd like  to add that when all else fails, you could call 'customer  service' in some foreign country and be instructed in some  foreign language how to fix your car  yourself!!!!

Wednesday, 22 December 2010

Property tax laws change

Bulgaria's Notary Chamber has proposed the introduction of a final power of attorney in a bid to reduce property fraud.
"This is how the elderly and the sick, including alcohol and drug addicts, will be able to entitle only their closest people to manage their property," Dimitar Tanev, Chairman of the Notary Chamber said.
Data of the prosecutor's office shows that a total of 90% of the people who fall victims to the so-called real estate mafia are elderly or psychologically unstable.
New rules that envisage that all property transactions in Bulgaria must be carried out via bank transfer were approved at second reading by the parliament at the end of September as part of amendments to the Notary Act.
Whilst the change to buying and selling was first mentioned a year ago as part of a bigger plan to reduce corruption in the property sector, they have not come to fruition.
There is hope that the new rules will help to reduce property fraud and money laundering, as well as ensuring that all fees and taxes owing to the state are paid.
The legislative changes will require that both the vendor and the buyer specify their bank accounts for conducting a property deal. Alternatively, they could use the account of their notary public.
These legislative changes are seen as the first step to an all-out regulation of payment in purchase deals through a special law to be called Deposit Account Act.
There is also hope that the new laws may inspire more confidence from overseas property buyers.
But, there are risks to this new system, as sellers and buyers may want to avoid the new fee charged by the bank for servicing the transactions.
Thus, they may agree a lower price for the official transaction and then do a cash deal privately. This is common in France where the new system planned for Bulgaria is already in use.

Tuesday, 21 December 2010

Wikileaks,Bulgaria, and a very dodgy power plant

One of Britain's biggest energy suppliers, which wants to build half a dozen nuclear reactors in the UK, helped develop one in Bulgaria which was "dogged by ongoing serious safety concerns", according to leaked US diplomatic cables.
The German firm RWE, which owns npower and supplies electricity and gas to 6.7 million UK customers, bought a 49% stake in the project in December 2008 and quit as a strategic partner in October 2009. RWE said its decision to pull out of the troubled €7bn reactor project was due to the fact that "the project's financing could not be finalised within the agreed period". It said "safety issues were not a factor".
But its involvement in such an apparently shoddy project, which the cables claimed "reeked of side deals" even before RWE bought the 49% stake, could hurt its reputation over safety and cast doubt on its judgment in selecting who to work with on reactor projects.
In December 2007, environmental groups including Greenpeace condemned the European commission's approval of the project. Approval came despite the former Bulgarian nuclear regulator publicly calling for it to be blocked on safety grounds the month before.
RWE said: "RWE adheres to very strict safety standards and criteria. For each project RWE is involved in, safety has the highest priority. The reason for RWE to withdraw from the Belene project was that – because of the international economic and financial crisis – financing of the project could not be clarified in due time. RWE has advised our Bulgarian partners to the difficulties of financing already at an early stage."
The release of the cables comes amid growing safety concerns over an impending global "nuclear renaissance" with more than 1,000 reactors expected to be built by 2030, according to the World Nuclear Association. Countries which could turn to nuclear power for the first time include Albania, Bangladesh, Kenya, Venezuela and Syria.
In August 2008, RWE's CEO, Jรผrgen Grossmann, responded to questions about reports of its possible involvement in the over-budget and behind-schedule project: "It is remarkable, isn't it, that the possible involvement of RWE in the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Belene, Bulgaria, based on state-of-the-art technology is being described as irresponsible."
The cables claim that despite its due diligence, RWE's confidence had turned to "buyer's remorse" within weeks. In the cable, the US ambassador cited local contacts as saying there was a rush to start construction so that the project would keep RWE on board. RWE had reportedly said that it would not provide funding until it sees the "first concrete poured", signalling the start of construction. Belene project experts privately expressed "serious concerns" that if safety practices continued to be ignored "it could pose a huge risk". RWE's partner, the state-owned Bulgarian electricity company, NEC, which held 51% of the project, declined to comment on any of the allegations.
RWE was said to be "in the dark" on most on-site and technical issues. This was despite a previous cable claiming that the company in February had demanded to review all Belene-related agreements.
The same February 2009 cable reported "RWE worries about the project's lack of transparency and the need to work with Atomstroyexport [the Russian lead contractor]. RWE wants to enforce European business practices". RWE was reported around that time to be in talks with a number of European energy groups, including Belgium's Electrabel, to offload half its stake but did not find any buyers. "RWE realises that working with Russian and Bulgarian companies in the energy sector is a 'poisonous combination' for European investment" the cable added.
The cable also reports: "When Bulgarians talk about the Belene nuclear power plant, they increasingly do so in hushed tones. Issues of delays, financing woes, non-transparent horse-trading and side deals, Russian influence … and the interests of well-connected politicians and energy oligarchs inevitably come up."
RWE's statement continued: "RWE's participation in projects guarantees a high degree of ethical business behaviour and openness to concerns of all stakeholders. We ensure that each project is in line with European standards with regard to transparency and information to the public. It is therefore common practice within all our projects that RWE's or a similar code of conduct will be applied. The same has been true for the Belene project for which a code of compliance was developed and should have been implemented; we would have thereby introduced dedicated instruments against corruption.
"We have raised these issues with NEC and the Bulgarian government and they confirmed that this was a shared mutual understanding. RWE has signed a joint venture agreement with NEC in December 2008 after intense pre-assessment of the project. Under the joint venture agreement the companies involved agreed to jointly continue the project development work, and further advance the project.
"The potential joint construction and operation of the new power plant would not have gone ahead until all relevant safety-related, legal, economic and organisational aspects had been settled during this phase."

Uncles Comment: I particularly 'liked' the following phrase: 

"RWE realises that working with Russian and Bulgarian companies in the energy sector is a 'poisonous combination' for European investment"

Smoking bans start to come in

Restrictions on smoking in public areas, which were introduced through amendments to the Health Act, will take effect at the beginning of 2011. By that time, restaurants and other establishments will have to have glass walls installed segregating the smoking from non-smoking areas, Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported on December 20.

The decision comes several months after the Cabinet suspended a complete ban on smoking in public areas, which had been planned to come into effect in the middle of 2010.

Smoking areas inside restaurants and cafes, commercial and administrative buildings, railroad stations and airports, should be equipped with walls, tight-closing doors and ventilation systems. The Health Ministry said that starting from January 1 2011, inspectors will be monitoring the implementation of the ruling, escorted by police officers.

Clients caught smoking in non-smoking areas will be fined up to 300 leva, while owners of clubs and restaurants will be fined from 1500 to 10 000 leva, the report said.

The decision on whether to adopt the smoking ban in cafes and restaurants, which have areas of up to 50 sq m, will be up to owners – but they can be either all-smoking or a smoking free zone, the report said. If smoking is allowed, people younger than 18 will not be allowed into the establishment.

Larger establishments will be required to designate separate smoking areas of less than 50 per cent of the total space.

The Bulgarian Government withdrew Act 56 from the Healthcare Act in the summer of 2010, pertaining to the complete restriction of smoking in all public places, pubs and restaurants, replacing it with "a more relaxed regime", the announcement said.

Accordingly, on November 3 2010, the Cabinet approved the ordinance, which will regulate how to manage, separate or segregate respective establishments in the future, in order for these to provide the necessary comfort to non-smokers. 
Uncles Comment: If you are a health nut who likes going to pubs (probably not) then this is ok, but smoking is absolutely part and parcel of why Bulgarians go to bars and restaurants.People will even smoke during a meal.The fines are pretty big and I have heard that many places are closing down because it is impractical or too expensive to undertake the modifications.
One bar in my village gets alot of kids from the local secondary school coming in, the bar is less than 50ft so he either goes smoke free and loses the adult smokers, or smoking and loses the kids. Absolutely crazy, so he is shutting.