Early this morning I head off to a house at the top of the village, local Scottish woman has bought two facing houses to do them up and rent them out, offered to donate two of the beds with mattresses plus 3 other mattresses and blankets to the dog shelter I volunteer for so I'm just checking if they'll fit in the car once disassembled. The house I'm in is bleak, loads of land and loads of potential but it reminds me of my grandparent's house in Ireland 35 years ago, I wouldn't want to live there in its present state. But as an investment, she paid less than £5k for it and with some basic improvements, a facelift and some work transforming the garden, it wiil be a cracker of a house.
Popped to the shop on my way home, passed a group of kids, as usual big smiles on their faces as they greet you Добър ден (good day). The kids here seem to be permanently happy, very respectful of adults and incredibly carefree. The 'don't talk to strangers' thing doesn't exist here, as a male coming here from the UK that takes some getting used to until you get past that strange social stigma that you've become accustomed to in the UK.
Popped to my local shop this evening, two old boys in front of me at the till, 2 carrots, one lettuce and a carrier bag full of beer bottles each. They're in fine spirits, they leave and the bloke behind the counter and myself spontaneously laugh at the two old blokes, their mood is contagious.
I leave the shop, the two old blokes have bumped in to two more old blokes, greetings, handshakes, loud laughs and the bags of beers that were meant for home are now on one of the tables outside, they don't really need an excuse

As I walk past they greet me with big smiles and 'Добър вечер!' (good evening). I carry on home, big smile on my face.
I truly love this country and its people. Even when they're moaning, they're happy.

They don't care if their housese aren't up to western European standards, they spend 9 months of the year in their gardens - a house is just a pile of assembled bricks with a roof to keep them warm and dry between January and early March, and pretty much everyone owns one (or two, or three). They don't have modern cars, they don't have conservatories, they don't have the latest smartphones or games consoles, they don't have care homes to dump the elderly, because family is everything here. It's the poorest country in the EU, and there's no getting away from the fact that poverty is rife here, yet still the smiles I see every day tell me that western Europe, with all its riches, is far poorer. My only regret is that I didn't move here sooner.