“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” - Miriam Beards
Departed America, November 11th 2007.

Countries Traveled in Order: Egypt—Five Months, Jordan—One Month, Syria—One Month, Lebanon—Two Months, Turkey—Two and a Half Months, Israel/Palestine—Three Months, Greece—Two Months.

Currently Nesting in Bulgaria, Entered April 15.

Why Traveling - The Story.

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” - Maya Angelou

July 13, 2009

Working on the House!

The last two days I have been working on the house in Belya Reka. Yesterday, Boris had the day off and we moved everything out of the winter house. The winter room with an attached shower room will be my main dwelling area. I will also have a nice outdoor patio area; I will be creating an yawning for shade.

The summer house is where I will store stuff, and possibly fix it up, we will see. The winter house with the kitchen and shower is the priority. The winter house has a sink and running water. I have decided to use the wood/coal burning hot water heater. There is no point about buying a new one. I will just fire up the wood burning boiler every evening for a shower and to wash dishes. Boris said that his grandmother was very proud about having the wood/coal burning boiler, so it just hit me like a light, create good energy and make the late great grandmother proud.

I have the room totally cleaned out, and can observe what needs to be updated. I need to do some plastering, patching some of the walls. I think I will tile the whole house—the living space (7 meters square), shower room (3 meters square, and entryway (2 meters square). Boris’ mom supplied many things for the house, a wood burning stove for the winter, an electric cooking stove and oven, a gas burning stove; I do prefer to cook on a gas stove. They also sent a good futon mattress and there is a lot of bedding there that needs to be cleaned. Laying tile will provide coolness in the summer and a lot less dust.

The villagers are really nice, the uncle stopped over and pulled out a few nails. The guy from the cafe stopped by to say hi and helped me move a few things. Also, the neighbor across the street stopped by and gave me a couple of apples. I really like the energy of the village so far, and it feels very relaxed. The big town, only 5 kilometers away, provides everything.

Right now I am driving back and fourth to sleep in Hisar, and I can say Hisar is a wonderful relaxed area. Once I am settled I will start posting pictures and more information about Bulgaria—stay tuned.

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July 10, 2009

House Sitting Completed.

I just arrived in Hisar, Boris' family town, his brother lives here, and the flat is where they grew up. Yesterday I drove up to the northern border to get a new three month visa, and then stayed one more night at the house sitting place. Today drove to Hisar across the highest mountain pass in Bulgaria; the car is running great.

Hisar is known for excellent natural spring water. Historically, a walled Roman settlement existed, which the ruins of the walls still stand, also an area where the Roman Emperor visited to rest. I do agree, Hisar is a relaxing area.

I will began getting the house ready where I will be living, which is only 75 kilometers from Hisar, I should have DSL hooked up soon at the house.

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July 5, 2009

We're Cruising in Bulgarira with ClearlyEnlight.Info

I bought a car from the couple I house sat for in May. We took care of the paper work on Friday, all I need to do is get it registered within two weeks. The car is a French made Peugeot that runs diesel getting excellent gas mileage, a great running car.

Plus I will be launching a web site offering my services building affordable Websites this fall. I have my first customer, and will start to build a website advertising two different holiday homes.

Looks like I will not have to head to Sofia, Boris deicide to move into a different flat in Sofia, so he move all my stuff, and stuff for the house, to his brothers which is about 75 kilometers from the house I will be living at this winter.

I just need to head to the border of Romania and get a new three month visa, first.

I have launched The Insight Guide at ClearlyEnlight.info, I understand that many readers may not be interested in the context of the subject, although if you could take a look at the design work that would be great, leave a comment if you like. The in-depth articles each have their own home page, if needed check out the Site Map to navigate.

I will update the Insightful Compositions once in a while and will be adding the rss reader feeds soon.

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June 26, 2009

Parrots in Bulgaria.

One week of house sitting completed with the Orange Wing Parrot and the large Bulgaria sheep dog. Another week an a half of house sitting and then I decided to visit Romania for a few days, then head back to Sofia and get another three month visa.

The first time a non-EU resident applies for the long term visa for Bulgaria, they want the person to head out of the country and attain the visa at an Embassy. I don't have the paper work with me to get the long term visa in Romania, although I thought of taking a small holiday in October. So I will start getting the house ready for the winter and get settled during August and September and then visit Macedonia and maybe another country and get the long term visa while I an visiting.

I really enjoy being around a parrot again, it has been a long time. While I lived in Ohio I did some Parrot rescue and did some breeding. I will most likely get a Parrot, I did find a breeder in Greece. I will wait to see if I find the right type of property to buy before buying a Parrot.

I must say it is really different not blogging on my own computer. Once I get back to Sofia I will be loading up a couple of new websites and revealing my plan how to bring in some income. Many English people are forced to go back to England after living Bulgaria for awhile because it is very difficult to make any money. However the variety of things I will be pursuing I think will work out just fine.

I most likely will not be able to post any pictures until I get back to Sofia.

By the way, I woke up early this morning with Michael Jackson vividly on my mind and was shocked to notice on the Internet that he died.

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June 20, 2009

Arrived to House-Sit.

I arrived at the house to care for the parrot and the dog. We coulden't find the password for the wireless Interent for my computer, but I can the home owners computer for the Internet.

I should be posting soon.

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June 7, 2009

The Village Nest—Bulgaria.


Yesterday, a friend of Boris’ drove us out to view the house which is 175 kilometers from Sofia. We first stopped in Plovdiv to meet Boris’ lawyer friend. I will be heading to Plovdiv tomorrow by train to complete the paper work for the company. Then I will open a bank account with an Italian owned bank, they do have a branch in Parvomay; however the house is 5 kilometers from Parvomay. The house resides in a small little village with three cafes, and some food stores; everything is one block away from the house. If your driving though on the way to Turkey, don't blink you might miss the village. After getting the bank account I will apply for the long term visa.

The situation of the house will work, although some work is needed. Boris’ grandmother primary lived in the house, his father lived there for a time. Nobody has lived in the house for 10 years. The main house has four rooms, which one room was used as a dry kitchen. I will utilize the front room as a summer room that has two big windows looking into the yard.

The separate building with the running water is where they spent the winters; it is one room with a sink; it did have a wood stove, and the shower is in a separate room. The plan is to remove everything and paint the kitchen room; I will buy a slender cast iron wood stove and place it in the proper location in the room. The house has many rugs that will be good for the flooring. Boris has a bunch of tile for the shower room and I will buy a small boiler (hot water heater). There are many beds, blankets, and tables, so I will choose the best bed and design a desk/dining table that will fit properly. The winter dwelling is the most important, which I will have to buy wood, the entire winter should cost about 400 lev. During the summer time I will create outside sitting and a partial outside kitchen. I will store my clothes in the summer room, which there is a large wardrobe closet. I might buy an old style washer or just wash my clothes by hand.

The yard area is very private, and I think it will work out just fine, accept only one important aspect—the house lacks a toilet. The remedy to that is not that difficult now-a-days. Cabela's has remarkable merchandise, I have been buying clothes and other items from Cabelas for over twenty years. The Thetford Porta Potti would be ideal, but the weight for my ultra reliable mail forwarding service would be costly. However, The Nature Bio-Toliet should suffice the situation, plus it is lightweight to ship. Here is the link to all the portable toilet alternatives Cabela's offers.

After house sitting the parrot, Boris and I will began the clean up. I think it will be quite cozy; however the villagers will be a head rush. I will most likely be the gossip of the village for awhile—that is one benefit of not speaking the language.

Boris’ second cousin and great uncle (the father’s bother) lives down the street in the village. The cousin speaks good English and she is inquiring about DLS for the house and how to turn on the water; Boris left a wireless router in the house, and the electric does work. The DSL is only 20 lev a month, if I buy a car the insurance is only 300 lev a year. I guess cable TV is only 13 lev a month, but I will not have a TV.

I do have a lot to accomplish this next year; I am processing a strategy how to bring in some income through the internet. I will keep an eye out to buy a house.

By the way ClearlyPersonal.com has a page rank of 3, and I loaded the Welcome page of ClearlyEnlight’s Insight Guide at ClearlyEnlight.info, also, ClearlyEnlight.com is getting a makeover. I bought the bundle of Rage Software that aids in optimizing websites.

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June 3, 2009

An Extended Stay—Bulgaria!


Some major developments have taken place here in Bulgaria, I will be nesting for a least a year, possibly longer. Boris and his mother offered me to live at his fathers house that has been vacant for the last five years in a town 50 kilometers east of Plovdiv. We are going to see the house before I leave for the next house sitting situation.

The house has a large garden, a kitchen with a wood stove, and well water. They are happy someone will be living in the house; it is healthy for the home, plus I will take care it, I just have to buy wood for the winter or get a permit to chop down a tree. I might have to pay the electric, too. I might have Internet from the Belgian neighbor, if not I will buy the Mobile USB Internet from Globul, or get some DLS piped into the house. The wireless mobile is the way to go, I can go anyplace, just about, in Bulgaria and log onto the Internet. I did buy a cell phone from Globul.

Boris' long time lawyer friend is setting up the limited company that is essential to receive the long term visa. I will be opening up a bank account, however it will be a Euro account; right now the interest rate for a six month CD is a big whooping 8.50%.

I might buy a car, Boris has some contacts, and he is translating everything, and is always available for translation. Around next February, I think I will buy a new 15 inch Macbook Pro, I will wait until the new operating system—Snow Leopard—launches, and see if they upgrade the 15 inch with the fixed 8 hour battery. I will give Boris my white MacBook that I bought in Jordan, it is the least I can do, he is a great friend and very helpful.

It is meant for me to nest, and possibly live here in Bulgaria for a while. I am keeping my eye out to buy a house. I could pick one up for $5000, however, I will live at Boris’ father’s house for the next entire year. One option is if I would buy a house, I could work on it during the summer and live at the father’s house during the winter. I will be arriving at the house mid-July, after I house sit.

So what will this mean for the travel blog? I will keep blogging for all you loyal readers, I always have something to write about, and everyone will get a great dose of life in Bulgaria. Nevertheless, I will most likely, visit the Balkans, and other places of the area. I will visit Krakow, Poland at some point in time.

My company, Clearly Professional, has come out of hibernation in Bulgaria.

I will take the challenge and learn Bulgarian to the best of my ability, “inshala” on top of that comment.

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May 25, 2009

Alternative Heath Care and Kittens.


The one eyed cat that I feed is a mother of two cute little kittens in the above picture.

A subject I have meant to write about is in regards to the alternative health care industry, referring to massage, and any type of modality that works with the body, including energy work; however, I am not referring to Acupuncture within this ariticle. I refrain from seeking out massage or any other modality because the struggle to find someone who will remain within their scope of practice. A person that has been trained for massage, reflexology, or any other modality is only trained within that scope of modality. They are not trained to work with a person within the structure of the emotional reality of an individual. Studying over 600 hours of massage, trigger point release, and deep tissue, I am fully aware the potential problem of the practitioner by deluding themselves that they are a healer or therapist, which is derived from a low self-esteem.

The mother cat lounging on the safe side of the fence, her right eye is blind.

The terminology of any type of modality should be “practitioner” and not “therapist”, a major mistake of the alternative health care system. Once a practitioner of Massage, Chiropractor, Reiki, Reflexology, Rolfing, NET, EFT, or any other modality, perceives himself or herself as a “healer”, that person is severely deluded and most likely can be damaging to the inner self of the client. The powers of the darkness are subtle, cunning, and deceiving. The darkness strives to create a scenario that a person will believe related to a person’s past. The darkness dwells in the past that the ego quality of playing the victim attaches upon the person.

The light remains in the moment and projects into the future, but without allowing fantasy, or expectations to dominate the perception of projection.

For some odd reason, petting her butt motivates her to eat the cat food, she does love home cooking.

Any practitioner of alternative or traditional health care that attempts to delve into a person’s past, and traps them into a stage of self-pity and playing the victim, and the practitioner uses their low self-esteem that creates a damaging effect: That person is under the influence of the darkness. The darkness uses ego-driven qualities of feeling special and playing the victim by combining self-pity and disagreeable instances from childhood to fasten, and attach onto the congested emotional baggage of the individual. Henceforth, the strategy of the darkness is to trap the individual into a non-progressive cube of negative self-pity, loathing the past produces, animosity, and bitterness—the individual becomes positioned dogmatically into believing what the ego is dictating. The darkness thrives within the spectrum of this catch twenty-two.

A common site around the house, the cat is nice an relaxed on the other side of the fence.

The reality is that everyone experienced, on some degree, disagreeable occurrences in the past. Everyone of humanity needs some sort of nurturing on some level within an area of life—each person is different, each person has different circumstances. The majority of humanity suffers from a lack of inner intimacy, even though they may be married and have children. The practitioner of a low self-esteem will not only draw out normal deficiencies, but also pursue negativity upon the client that creates a false sense of higher esteem upon the practitioner that is founded upon the egocentric hopelessness that results from separateness of the inner self. Consequently, the transferred energy from the practitioner to the client is damaging to the client’s inner self.

So a person might be asking, if a person experienced disagreeable circumstances in the past that is causing problems within their current life, what is the remedy?

Any type of abusive or disagreeable emotional occurrences from the past created congested emotional baggage within the individual’s emotional reality. Emotional congestion causes passive, lethargic brain activity that produces an absent mindedness that creates a sense of lost and insecurity within the core of the individual; consequently, troubleshooting in regards to decision-making within the moment is handicapped. The only remedy is to release the congested emotional baggage; one method is through weeping, however, the darkness has brainwashed cultures in to believing that it is weak to cry. Understanding the context of a former disagreeable circumstance is not always necessary. However, the context of a past occurrence can produce awareness that may be positive for the individual.

There are several methods that are available that can remove layers of old congested emotional baggage, however, it is crucial that the practitioner is healthy without any negative agenda toward the client.

If you sense the practitioner is involved within an addictive lifestyle, prone to jealousy, or envy, and dwells separate from their inner self that fabricates a low-self esteem, avoid this type of person.

However, there are many good-hearted practitioners of alternative, and traditional health care. Knowing the person or visiting someone through a referral of a friend is the best choice. Randomly choosing can be risky. I personally avoid seeking massage work because it is difficult to find someone who will strictly focus on the scope of bodywork.

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May 23, 2009

Insects, Flying Creatures, and Culture.


Meet Robbie the puppy doggie. Beautiful if you ask me. He is sitting tall and contemplating why the cats in the neighborhood refuse to play with him.

The couple of the house will be back around the 27/28th, so I will be here for a few more days, which is OK, I did allow a window of flexibility, I am in no hurry.

Staying here in the country side about 15 kilometers from Tryavna, I have observed the largest variety of insects, and flying creatures, along with the most incredible bird songs throughout the day and, interesting enough, during the nighttime. The presence of most creepy crawling creatures and flying insect critters I do enjoy, even the wasps and bumble bees; however, the size of the hornets in this area resemble from the Jurassic era, I have never seen such large hornets. It is best to have a tennis racket in the house just in case, I choose to keep my distance from the hornets.

I have no idea what this interesting flying insect is, however, check out his radar.

Traveling a post Soviet country, I cannot help from remembering back in 1989 when the Berlin wall fell and the Soviet bloc slowly dissolved. The perceptions that generated from preconceived ideas in America were of fear and danger. I remember the common thought was traveling Poland or The Ukraine that you will be mugged and robbed because the Mafia controls the infrastructure. Possibly, some danger existed, however danger of theft or bodily harm also exists in the large cities of America and can happen in anywhere of the world.

The perception of Bulgaria, Romania, and Russia, from what I remember, was portrayed as supreme on the danger list. Today, I experience Bulgaria as an ultra pleasant country, predominantly, easy going compared to the countries I have traveled. A measure of negativity exists in every country and culture and, indeed, there is a measure of negativity imbedded in the culture here in Bulgaria. Within the former Ottoman countries I have visited, there exists a unique breed of negativity because of five hundred years of oppressive subjection—each country is downtrodden with a different degree of negativity verses positive. Comparing Upper Egypt to Greece is a fine example, as former Ottoman countries. Bulgaria is slowly changing, though, bracing against, but simultaneously, welcoming the western onslaught of imperialism.

In addition to the subject of perception, oddly enough, the stereotype mentality of the west consists that the women in the eastern countries are abused, and strongly desire to meet a westerner. I have experienced this to be untrue. Indeed, there are dating sites that can provide a wife for someone in the west, I knew a couple of men in Santa Cruz that married Ukrainian women, although both marriages ended up in divorce after a time; however the girls did receive their green card. Of course, there are different forms of abuse within every culture around the world. The attached stereotype image in regards to cultures, counties, cities, and personal reputation is a twisted perception or reality.

The neighborly sheep and their guardian.

The majorities of women that I have met here in Bulgaria are in relationships and show no interest in moving to the west; compared to Greece, the girls are more unapproachable, though friendly, but the language barrier does play a role. From my experience from the countries I have traveled, from a male perspective, I experienced the Greek girls to be the most friendly, open, and talkative. Indeed, the Egyptian girls are most bold, in addition to the Arabs to be the most traditional, which can generate an attraction in itself. From meeting other travelers from around the world, I found the Polish, and Slovakian women to be the most approachable, friendly, and charming. This is not an absolute generality; this is my own personal experience.

The town of Tryavna in the picture below.

Currently, I am contemplating of returning and nesting here in Bulgaria for awhile, I was offered a third house sitting situation in the autumn, although I will be traveling Romania and Serbia starting in mid July.

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May 9, 2009

A Set Plan—Bulgaria.

Currently, the house-sitting is working out excellent. The puppy dog and I have cultivated a friendly relationship; I find interesting the psychology depths of the puppy dog The doggie is getting a workout each day that provides doggie naps throughout the day.

My cooking talent has changed for the better. A combination of the wood fire stove and ceramic baking pots has changed everything. This week I cooked some tomato based bean/sausge soup/stew. A pot of tomato/lental soup/stew with chili sauce. In addition to cooking another pot of bean, kebab veggie soup. Also, I am specializing in cooking fried rice; I love sesame oil. I am cooking from scratch, I might refer to a recipe as a foundation, however I am not cooking from any recipes, I find it way better to cook from scratch.

I am getting a lot of offline work done, and have created much more design work. I came up with the idea of two new websites in addition to Clearly Professional; however, I am focused on getting ClearlyEnlight’s Insight Guide finished first, which the web address will be Clearlyenlight.info.

A new development occurred, one of the English ladies that visits at the coffee shop on Mondays mentioned she has a friend that is looking for someone to house and pet-sit two outside dogs, and one orange wing amazon parrot. When I was involved with parrot rescue in Ohio ten years ago, I took care of an orange wing for sometime.

Last Thursday, the homeowner picked me up in town and drove me to show the house, pets and the grounds. The house is among a small village ten minutes from the town of Dryanovo, which is about 20 kilometers from Tryavna. It is a very nice comfortable house; I will be house-sitting starting June 17 up to July 12, from there I will be heading to Romania.

After I leave this current house-sitting situation I will couch-surf with Boris’ brother for a while in the town called Hisarya, and then head back to Sofia and stay with Boris for two or three weeks before I head to the new house-sitting situation. I will visit Veliko Tarnovo and most likely Plovdiv before I house sit in June. I will avoid the Black Sea because of being touristy and everyone talks negatively concerning the area because of the tourism. Personally, the tourist industry, and how the ego relates to travel, which the majority are not even aware, makes myself ill.

At this point in my travels, the two countries I highly recommend to visit are Syria and Bulgaria.

I started to take some pictures of the area, I should have some posted soon.

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April 30, 2009

Respite in Bulgaria.

I am having some excellent respite time house/pet sitting.

Here in Bulgaria many aspects are noticeable from the former Soviet era. There are still many old Soviet cars on the streets, along with old buildings, and statues still stand. Bulgaria having an influence from the Russians and Ottomans comprises of an interesting mix with excellent sausage of Eastern Europe and Kebab from the influence of Turkey.

Around Tryavna many old peasant looking people exist who lived their lives during the old regime. The old couple laking out of the woods with a cart of fire wood they just collected, an old man bent over at the waist walking with a cane is a common site. Several old people in Turkey, Greece, and here in Bulgaria I have noticed are bent over at the waste, I cannot help from wondering how did their body become so bent over? There are those who raise sheep and cows that live in the villages dotting the country side of the Central Balkan National Park. The small village I am dwelling is the type of old village you will view in a movie. Old, run down type of cottage houses where the older generation still lives from the old Soviet era; the younger generation moved on to find education and work in the bigger cities.

As I recall, all the travelers I met who visited Bulgaria mostly stayed two or three days, basically, they visit Sofia and moved on. Indeed, there is not much for the tourist in Bulgaria except for the beaches of the Black Sea, and skiing in the mountains in the winter. Although, why travel as a tourist? Possibly the avoidance of boredom? The lack of having an interest of depth in life? Certainly, the shallow person will want to move fast, after all, what else is there to see? I have found it fascinating to observe this aspect of travel. It is common to view certain aspects among travelers: the person what to be recognized by others, or to become famous, or they are trying to profit from traveling and the tourist industry—or all three. This is not an absolute generality.

A house-situation is available in Italy for two months starting September 15, I am tempted, however I will not jump the gun, I will stick to my 2009 travel route.

I find that traveling from place to place and blogging regular about the history and tourist sites is energetically draining, and I view it superficial. It is pleasant to see that most people would like the context of this blog based on the reality of life and personal blogging. I have much more of an interest with blending my writing with subjects of the reality of life, personal, and spiritual blogging, with a blend of history of the area and country. There are many websites with information of tourist sites a person can browse. However, some tourist sites will deserve an individual post. While in Greece, including Turkey, blogging everyday about each site produced a depleted system.

In addition, I will not be converting my travel blog into a website. Many bloggers do prefer setting up a website style interface for their blog; nevertheless, this travel blog will remain a writing blog with few changes on the side bar from time to time.

I have asked the opinion of many people about posting the above route that I have accomplished in traveling on the front page. One person, through commenting on another blog mentioned that it is “ego driven”, although the subject at hand was numbering how many countries a person has traveled, which I view the subject of numbers as shallow.

The mere reason why I post the above accomplished route traveled is for the navigation of the reader. I have visited many travel blogs that it took a several hours just to figure out where they have traveled and how long they stayed in each country. Feel free to leave a comment concerning your opinion of the above subject.

The process I am using to produce, edit, and post pictures is working well. The program “Flickery” works great and has produced simplicity posting pictures to Flickr. A desktop program for Mac called “Tweetie” was released, which I prefer to Tweetdeck when posting and reading on Tweeter. Having a good simplified routine for pictures, micro-blogging, and regular blogging benefits the day to day process for travel blogging.

Interesting enough, my other website, ClearlyPersonal.com has a page rank of 2. This occurred without even trying to get a page rank, besides using iWeb to build the website, which is not SEO friendly. However, trashing the built in navigation bar, creating links from text, powering each page with meta tags, and creating two different types of site maps might have contributed to getting a page rank considering I am only posting once a month, and have very few links on the site.

I am feeling much better concerning my cough, although I can say that western medicine causes an obscure type of energy with ones spirit. If a person experiences themselves with a lack of ambition, motivation, and lack of interest in life—if your taking any western medication—you may want to reconsider the circumstances. The shroud that is cast from the digestion of western medicine produces a depressive state of energy. Indeed, when an individual requires an ingestion of medicine, the medicine can produce positive results as a cure. However, an ongoing intake of western medicine for who could contend with the difficulties of life will benefit by avoiding the consumption of western medicine, such as antibiotics, antidepressants, sleeping pills, anti-anxiety type of pills. I will avoid the digestion of western medicine unless it is absolutely necessary, although this episode I wanted to avoid any type of Bronchitics and that nasty cough did reside.

Today I just received a reflexology session from one of the English women that I met on Monday at the coffee shop.

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April 27, 2009

House-Sitting in Bulgaria.

I am at the house/pet-sitting situation, which I arrived on Wednesday, and the owners left on Friday. This area is a beautiful area of Bulgaria and very easy going with small villages dotted around the Central Balkan National Park. The house is about 15 kilometers from the town of Tryavna, I will be heading to Tryavna each Monday because it is the market day of the week, and most likely on Thursday to resupply with food and check the Internet. The couple left me the old work car to drive into town. On Mondays all the English people meet for coffee, which I will be joining everyone.

A few people have e-mailed me concerning how I am able to find house-sitting situations. When I was in Israel on the farm, the raw food guy from America and I were talking about different types of resources for the long term traveler. Two minds can troubleshoot into ideas that one mind may not think of—the Goggle searching began. I found a few sites on house-sitting, one site in particular called housecarers.com, the site costs $45.00 to join for thirteen months. I decided to join and searched for any available houses in the countries I will be visiting and there was not a single household looking for a sitter. I, of course, choose patience to see what is meant to be, and what might take place. Most available house-sitting situations are in the English speaking countries.

The extremely positive aspect to housecarers.com is that within my profile I can add three or four countries I will be visiting, including cities, regions, towns, and villages. Once a homeowner submits an ad, the system e-mails the members who has that particular country in their profile, then the potential sitter can send an e-mail to the homeowner. Within the profile the member can upload pictures, and create a detailed profile with the link to a website or blog. This is how the current house/pet-sitting occurred. In addition, I might house sit for their friends who I visit with on Mondays. This is also how I found the house in Romania where I might stay for awhile in August, although that house has no plumbing. During this time I did have another homeowner e-mail through the system of housecarers.com here in Bulgaria, although my plans were already cemented. Once I settle on a plan I will not change the plan, In addition to housecarers.com, there also exists a site called caretakers.com. There are a few other sites on the Internet in connection to pet-sitting, house-sitting, caretaker situations.

House/pet sitting is ideal for the traveler, especially for the long term traveler who prefers to travel slow. Bulgaria is a wonderful country; friendly people, many resources for the traveler with a combination of couch-surfing, organic farming, and house-sitting. The people are easy going and friendly.

The puppy dog is very friendly and enjoys playing tug-of-war, and fetch and catch the ball. The house is a charming little cottage with an efficient stove that creates central heating for the house. This situation has provided me with quality solitude and comforting silence. Throughout this time I will be working on my body through self-massage; my muscles need to thank the makers of the tennis ball. I will resume my yoga routine along with push-ups as I was doing in Beirut. I find it difficult to maintain this routine on the road. My whole diet and routine in life is changing compared to when I left, I must maintain this routine once I move from place to place. It will be a struggle, but it is essential at this point in life.

In addition I will work on my website, and cook some nutritious food. I caught a nasty cough from being around too much second hand smoke in Sofia, and a head cold occurred. This time I am taking the antibiotics, hopefully it will fight this cough.

Today is Monday, I am feeling much better compared to last Saturday when I started the antibiotics.

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