Bulgaria by Choice

by Tim Buisseret

Tim Buisseret has had a few encounters with Bulgaria – as a child, student and an adult. In 2000, together with his Bulgarian wife Mira, he permanently moved to Sofia. Today, 14 years later, if asked what Bulgaria is for him, he simply answers: “home”.

Tim is now Head of the Commercial Section at the British Embassy Sofia and one of our colleagues. Before that he held senior positions with a few Bulgarian and international companies; he was also CEO of Mobikom.

This #100UKBG story is about the reasons leading and keeping you in Bulgaria for years and years; the belief that you are there by choice not by mistake and the feeling that you fit and belong, and you are there to stay.

“We love the nature and the culture and, despite Bulgarians’ trademark pessimism, the minor frustrations and the awful politicians, there is a sense of change and progress, mostly for the good.” – Tim Buisseret

My first encounter with Bulgaria came through postage stamps. That’s right, I was a boy philatelist. Colourful folk costumes and heroic factory workers. Народна Република Бьлгария. What strange letters! Luckily I had a little booklet to help me transliterate into Latin characters, although I was little the wiser.

My second encounter with Bulgaria (apart, perhaps, from a few bottles of good value wine) came in October 1991 while I was a student at Manchester University. My Bulgarian colleague Maria invited me to her birthday party, where I became aware of a regal presence in the corner – dark flashing eyes and haughty gaze. I introduced myself to my future wife Mira, and learnt that she had only been in the UK for a few weeks – innocent and helpless, easy game. Or was it the other way around?

As luck would have it, the Biserov Sisters, Bulgarian folk singers, were performing at the legendary Band on the Wall music venue the following week. Would Mira like to introduce me to her native folk music? She would, and Maria came along as well. The singing was like nothing I had heard before. I managed to drop Maria off first afterwards so all was not lost.

One thing led to another and I was invited back to Sofia for New Year. My first impression of Sofia after leaving the airport was how dark everything was. All I could see were the little round headlights of the Ladas picking their way through piles of snow. But Mira’s apartment was warm and comfortable and there was plenty of food. Preconceptions of people queuing in the snow for bread proved false, at least at that time and place.

After living in Manchester and London during the 1990s, with annual summer visits to Bulgaria, I had a chance to move here with work in year 2000 – new millennium, new start! It was something we had discussed and wanted to try if the right opportunity came up. Of course, I had an inside track with a Bulgarian wife and frequent visits which had allowed me to develop reasonable Bulgarian.

Still, it wasn’t easy for the first couple of years. We were totally renovating Mira’s family villa as a home, living on a building site, frustrated with the authorities and the duplicitous maestori. Eventually I learnt to be more patient and to adopt an almost Zen-like attitude to bureaucracy. But work was a revelation – after working as a drone for several years in a large corporate office, I felt a great sense of freedom and opportunity. I could get things done! Quickly! And my Bulgarian colleagues were smart, well- motivated, adaptable and very keen to learn – qualities which have never failed to impress me ever since.

So Bulgaria is our home now and I can’t see us leaving anytime soon. We love the nature and the culture and, despite Bulgarians’ trademark pessimism, the minor frustrations and the awful politicians, there is a sense of change and progress, mostly for the good.