The villa –Bulgarians’ first choice recreation
During the close Socialist past, it was considered a big success in the social status of Bulgarians to have a home, a car and a villa in the mountain or near the seashore. This is the reason why a lot of people strived for providing their family with a cozy home, comfortable transport and a scenic place for rest during the holidays. Areas such as Yarema near Sofia, Svetlina and Otdih near Plovdiv, Trakata near Varna and others in the whole country grew in response to those most heartfelt ambitions. And those who decided to run away from the everyday hustle and bustle in more secluded areas built their villas in small sheltered villages untouched by civilization. Each person who obtained such a special place jokingly named a “ranch” or a “vineyard”, used the weekend to go there and cultivate some tomatoes or strawberries, to take care of the fruiters and raspberries, while the family plays around. Nowadays some of these areas grew into luxurious city quarters with massive buildings, latest trend in the architecture rounded with tall walls. Others, located far away from the city, stayed calm and quite in the middle of the natural landscape and are now part of it with neat houses decorated with greenery and beautiful flowers.
The tradition to rest at a villa continues to attract the ordinary citizens who take on less work by running away into nature. They do that through mowing the grass or weeding the rockery, through refreshing the walls. There is a lot of work at the villa – it’s only important to have time, because there will be always something to do or finish off. And of course, there should be some time left to take a walk in the forest to pick mushrooms and forest fruits for jam, otherwise the rest will be incomplete. The villa is the most comfortable place for preparing winter supplies and all kinds of culinary conceits for the winter. The preservation with fire is free of charge, there are a lot of fruits and vegetables from the garden or the nearby village.
When the family’s wallet gets quite thin, the villa is the perfect place for a holiday with minimum funds. There aren’t any restaurants around to spend the family budget on, there aren’t children amusement parks that are like vacuum-cleaners for pensions or savings. That’s why the villa is the right place during economical crisis. People can even move in permanently, because not only does it take minimum expenses, but also the taxes are smaller compared to those in the city.
The villa has since long been a permanent home for people with free professions and a place for inspiration, as well. And those who are still glued to their workplaces dream of the remote way of work, which is already a necessity worldwide. Finally, contemporary employers have understood that what is important is not the amount of time one spends at work, but the amount of work done. Let’s hope that soon this will be put into practice here. That’s why having a villa is the best investment nowadays. It’s a perfect combination of the useful with the pleasant.
Text and photo: bnr.bg
(02.10.2012)