Britons living in Bulgaria. Guide to Bulgaria, Sofia and Varna

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The number of Britons living in Bulgaria - which still has some of the cheapest property prices in Europe - has doubled in the past year alone, ...

And cost of living is a third of what its in the UK so we can live very well, eating out whenever we like and taking taxis without thinking about it. And it's not just the growing buy-to-let market or cheap holiday homes on the Black Sea that are the attraction - many are selling up over here and choosing to live and work over there. And, while property may be cheap in Eastern Europe, if you do decide to come back to Britain, getting back on the property ladder may be tougher than you think. But the Bulgarians speak very good English and are generous, warm people. Holiday rep Samantha, 39, and farming technical advisor Terry, 51, have never been happier. Hungarian is ranked the hardest language in the world to learn after Japanese or Chinese but we can now finally understand and speak enough to get by! I first moved here to be with Terry who was here for his work, but we've really grown to love Hungary - and now we both plan to stay here indefinitely. In fact we only have one English friend here. Jain says: 'WE are very unusual in that most ex-pats live on the coast or in the countryside, but we wanted to be in the capital. Language barriers and cultural differences can create hurdles. Sam says: 'IN the UK we lived in a company house that came with Terry's job. Terry and I can go out for a three-course meal with a litre of red wine for only pounds 10. Terry has been working in Hungary for four years and I have been here for two so we knew it was our chance to get somewhere. The Hungarian hospitality is legendary and everyone is so friendly and welcoming. The location is ideal for Terry's work and a couple of our friends from the UK have bought a house in the same village. They paid just pounds 19,000 for the house, outbuildings and land and spent pounds 15,000 doing it up. We can never have afforded to buy there - certainly nothing like the home we have here which is really huge with lots of land! We fell in love with the farmhouse straight away and have now completely transformed it - the old cowshed is our bedroom! We paid a lot more than you will Ifor roperty else-I here in Bulgaria, but have a very spacious apartment right in the eart of Sofia. We started work on the house last September and had a team of builders who we helped every evening and weekend.