I’m Elly and it’s been more than 10 years since my mother Kathy and I first came to Bulgaria in search of the beginning of a new life. We looked at a number of different properties but we fell in love with this house immediately and so began the story of St. James’ Park, Voditsa. Named after the home of Newcastle United, the football team of our hometown in the UK. Five years ago I left the recession hit world of the UK and my job as a Civil Engineer to finally come to live in my house in Voditsa and have a change of lifestyle – and it has certainly been that! I am now living here enjoying village life and everything it brings More
Hi I’m Kathy and I’ve been living in Voditsa off and on since 2006. Although I’ll always be a Geordie and Newcastle is where I grew up, I consider this lovely village to be my home now. Sometimes people ask me if I’ve retired (cos I’m old) but I dont think I have anything to retire from because I consider my occupation in life to be A Traveller.
I’ve lived in a number of different countries and passed through a lot more and right now I’m really happy to be back in Voditsa getting stuck into our latest project for the next couple of years. more
A note from November 2017.
We’ve had a few changes in the last year, as usual. In Spring 2017, Kathy came back from 3 years exploring China and places on that side of the planet and moved into The Purple House (which isn’t purple yet). This is a wonderful property in the centre of the village where we hope to put some of our great ideas into practice. More of that later. The other big change this year is that Elly and Dancho got married and have now gone off to explore Newcastle. But our lovely life here will continue as normal, whatever that is. The cats are still here and Dusty and Kathy’s just got a few more bits of land to care for. Our life evolves wonderfully.
This was written by Kathy a few years ago but we thought you’d be interested to know the beginnings of our story and to see how we ended up here. A brief bit of background – my daughter Elly graduated as an Engineer in 2005. She really didn’t fancy the prospect of being trapped in the mortgage abyss that happens in the UK so with her first job she bought this property in Bulgaria. It had happened through a chance conversation that a friend of mine told me her sister had bought a house in Bulgaria for £5,000. That was very interesting and it set us thinking. more
Have a look around St. James Park.
Do we live with the animals or do they live with us? I don’t know but it’s fun!
It’s also great to watch the dynamic between all the different animals – how they do or don’t, get on with each other. But we have learned that the adult cats are always at the top of the pile – they rule! more