Most of the answers to everything that you think you want to ask us, are either already on this website somewhere or maybe they’re really questions that you would enjoy finding out the answer to, when you’re actually here. But, meanwhile, here are some the very frequently asked questions:
• Are there shops in the village? – yes – there are 3 shops selling all the basics that you need, for building stuff, clothes etc, you’ll need to go to Popovo or further afield.
• I want to use/build alternative technology Great. Loads of opportunities to do all sorts of things like that, although if you are coming from UK or other wind swept country’s don’t expect a lot of wind. It is breezy and big gusts before a storm. Otherwise there isn’t really wind. Strange as that may seem to people from north western Europe, believe me….there is no wind. But we have sunshine all year round – even when its -30, the skies are blue and the sun is shining.
• How can I earn a living if I come to live in Voditsa? – This is quite hard to answer?? It depends on your skills, experience, language skills, etc etc. There aren’t many actual jobs unless you speak great Bulgarian but there are endless business opportunities, as there are anywhere, which again depend on your skills and experience and of
course, your level of ingenuity. There are all sorts of markets for all sorts of businesses but you really need to be here to be able to see and recognise that market. If you’re an EU citizen, you have the right to live and work and set up a business here – the rest is up to you.
• What’s the climate/weather like? Wonderfully, gloriously, challengingly extreme – from -35 to + 45. Scorching sunshine in August to a meter and half of snow in January. Blue skies, sunshine, minimal wind, rain that falls straight down, fantastic thunderstorms – it’s a fast, short growing season – you need to be on the ball to keep up. But everybody who lives here has been surviving very well for generations -winter means hibernation – you just stay in and enjoy it. And….we have millions and millions of glorious trees – living with the land here is living with their cycle and learning the order that they all move through the year- wonderful blossom, masses of fruit, glorious autumn colours, mountains of leaves, evocative silhouettes on the hill tops..and then we start again.
• What’s the cost of living? – it depends on how you want to live. Whether you have loads of electrical devices, a pool, etc and if you grow your own food…but my typical electricity bill is about 45lev a month and water is about 20lev a month. A half litre of draught beer is 1lev and a loaf of bread is under 1 lev. A 50k sack of freshly milled flour is 45lev.
• Is there a school in the village? – yes, primary and secondary schools for education up to 16 and a kindergarten.
• Why are the houses so cheap? – because it’s Eastern Europe – an average teacher’s salary is €300 a month 
and depopulation is a fact of development – people are leaving the villages to live in cities and other EU countries. Of course all of the properties need some kind of renovation – even if its just a bathroom but that doesn’t mean that they are falling down.
• How can I/we join your project? – We don’t have a ‘project’. We live in Voditsa, think it’s a brilliant place to live and really want to encourage people to come in the village but its not about joining an intentional community. People who come here because they want a different and better quality of life, often find that working together is a good way forward – that’s the community bit, plus working with your neighbours. However, there is plenty of space and loads of interesting, empty property if you want to develop an intentional community.
• I want a big farm outside of a village. Land and farming doesn’t work like that here. People live in villages – there are no houses between villages and no ‘farms’. Each house in the village has land – usually around 2000sq meters, which is quite enough for small scale subsistence/self sufficient growing. However, if you choose to keep animals, then you might want to consider renting/buying a field out of the town, as the villagers do – not to graze the animals but to grow corn and wheat to feed them and for flour. Please note that animals do not generally stand around grazing in a field of lush green grass here. They go out with a shepherd every day and eat in the common pastures. You can’t leave sheep etc out in a field overnight because they’ll get eaten by wolves, jackals or whatever. If you want to do serious farming, come here and find out what happens – people here know how to grow food and animals in this climate – watch, learn and add to it…but this is not the UK – the climate, weather, land and yearly growing cycle are not in any way, similar.
• Are there bears? – no, not in this area.
• Can I drink the water? – yes – Voditsa means ‘water town’ – we have a number of mineral springs plus the water out of the tap is fine. many people who come even agree than the tap water is nicer tasting than some bottled water.
• Is there internet? – yes –Bulgaria is one of the most connected places in Europe.
• What made you come here? check out our background info
• Is there anywhere to stay in the village so that we can find things out for ourselves and look at property?
–yes – contact us.
• Can you send me some photos of Bulgaria? – there lots of photos on this website and you could also search google images.
• Can I bring my dog/cat/car/caravan etc ? – yes – we brought my two cats and a dog from the UK, If you want lots of information about other people’s experiences, try joining one of the ex-pat forums on Facebook – whatever you’re thinking about, someone has probably done it before and will be happy to share their experience.
• Can I come and volunteer with you? –maybe…We take volunteers most of the year – the only criteria to be a volunteer is a willingness to work and loads and loads of common sense! But it also depends on when you are available.
• I eat mostly ‘British food’ – will i be able to buy it there? – There are chain European supermarkets in the bigger towns that sell British foods. In Popovo there are a few places selling very good pizza. Once here though you will see the abundance of in season vegetables the best of natural ingredients so assuming that you mean ‘cooked’ British food, you can do anything you like with the meat and vegetables on the market here. Tea bags are a different story altogether – its on the list of things that I ask people to bring for me – Yorkshire tea works best as the water is very hard.
There will always been more questions and really the best way to answer them is to come and have a look for yourself. If you are really considering a move here – you need to see first hand how life really works. Often the feeling and the energy that you have about a place are important when choosing somewhere to live – the rest is just stuff to deal with when you move into your new place and begin your life in this lovely village.