Yes quite sad to read. My experience of spending most of this year there has to some extent backed up that pessimistic picture. My take is that the old elites (privileged, well connected layers) under the degenerated communist system, or at least some of them, have merely adapted to the new capitali...

Thanks all for the replies, and really sorry it took me so long to get back on here. With my wife's contract she didn't want to end it early, just to stop at the end of the 12 months, but they need her to give a month's notice (again not unlike the UK) - the difference is that they require this in w...

I wondered if anyone could offer any advice on a problem my wife is currently having ending a mobile contract with Vivacom. We spent most of this year in Bulgaria with the expectation/hope of staying until the end of the year, but came back to the UK in August. In the January my wife (who is Bulgari...

As long as the TV you want to use it on in Bulgaria has a HDMI port, then you should be able to use it in same way as in UK, though there may be possible differences in WiFi connection, broadband speed etc. If you want to stream from a subscription service like Netflix or Amazon Prime then check wit...

Thanks truckyboy, I've already bought the winter tyres (I wanted the peace of mind for the drive across Europe in Dec/Jan - for the sake of the different rules in the various countries I'll drive through, as well of course for the better road handling in winter conditions). They aren't the studded o...

Thanks millerman - yes I'm getting insurance that covers the full year throughout Europe. I'm getting a set of winter tyres before I make the journey in December, but as I'll be staying for the year I'm wondering whether it's worth sending over my summer tyres (which are fairly new) to Bulgaria alon...

Thanks truckyboy, and sorry for the late reply. That's useful to know - it now looks like I'll be getting year-round uk-based (Europe-wide unlimited) insurance so hoping I won't have to register it there (technically you have 6 months before it needs registering locally but there seems to be some do...

Thanks bigbulg. I will still be officially resident in the UK - employed, paying taxes etc. in UK and flying back sometimes to do the bits of my work that need me to be in UK, but the plan is for the car to stay in Bulgaria for maybe 11 months.

The company is Stuart Collins.

Hope you don't mind me chipping in with a question related to the 2nd point about bringing a car from the UK (which hopefully will also be helpful to westwich)... If you bring a car from the UK to Bulgaria and stay for more than 6 months, is it absolutely necessary to change it to Bulgarian registra...

Thanks bigbulg, the link works fine for me - thanks for the info. I spoke with my insurer and though they acknowledged the change in Serbia's status they still won't cover it. I've contacted the specialist insurance company that 'owain' suggests above (Stuart Collins) so will see what they come back...