One Holiday in Borovets That Changed Everything

by Simon Feek

Simon Feek first visited Bulgaria in 1997; he came on a winter holiday with his girlfriend at the time. A few years later when looking for a good place to invest in real-estate, Bulgaria was the first destination to come to his mind. The rest is history (which by the way also includes the set up of his own company in Sofia – Thunder Box).

In 1997, after a year travelling around Europe (and missing BG completely) I returned to Blighty to take my place reading Political Studies at Liverpool University. I was not interested in university or a career in politics but the beer was cheaper in Liverpool than most other parts of the UK.

To further demonstrate my complete lack of interest in further education, I duly received my Student Loan (at the time about £1,300) which I immediately spent on a 100cc motor cycle and a snowboarding trip for my girlfriend and I at the time, to a funny little country offering the cheapest lift passes in Europe; Bulgaria.

Liverpool being Liverpool, the motorcycle was stolen the week after I bought it but I still had the tickets for my trip over New Year later that year so a few months on, we boarded a Monarch flight from Manchester to Sofia ready to hit the slopes.

As soon as the aircraft was airborne, the cabin crew turned on the TVs to on the plane to show a map of Europe and our progress across it. “Where are we going” I asked my other half as the nose of the super-sized plan on the TV screens pointed to South East Europe.

Upon landing at Sofia, I realised I was in a totally different environment to any I had been in before. The writing on the signs “looked Russian” and I noticed I couldn’t find a single ATM as we were herded onto the transfer busses for a funny little place called Borovets.

Upon arrival at Hotel Ela in Borovets, we changed a couple of hundred pounds into (the then protected) Bulgarian Leva. £200 at the time required 2 x 30 litre back packs to carry the wads or worthless currency.

The next day and my first run down from the top peak in Borovets (Mussala) put me in good spirits despite the lack of snow at the base. And I quickly discovered the “local solution” to the problem as I approached the base station around a corner… at speed… and promptly found myself sprawled across the bonnet of a yellow Lada taxi which was doing it’s best to get some traction on the 35 degree icy slope.

The driver jumped out and without asking took our skis and boards, popped them in his boot and asked for the equivalent of 20p to drive us back around to the lifts. Dimitar (the driver), we discovered, was actually the headmaster of the local high school in Samokov and this was his “holiday job”. He became a fantastic guide for us over the duration of our holiday!

The rest of the week past with many positive incidents (many of which I should not write here) including a deal we did with a restaurant owner that enabled us to eat and drink free for the week in his venue in return for the jeans I was wearing on my first night out!

I returned to the UK feeling I had had a glimpse of “The Wild East” and had had some what of an adventure.

My parents were dismayed when I dropped out of university the following semester but in hind-sight, my student loan was better spent on my first trip to Bulgaria than any book I could have ever bought. I got the “BG Bug” and several years later, when my Managing Director asked me where we should focus our real-estate investment operations next, the answer was quite simple…“I once went to this funny little place called Bulgaria… I think we ought to go and check it out again” I offered. “And the beer was incredibly cheap”, as if to boost the argument. Two days later I was back in Bulgaria and that was eleven years ago.

And the rest is history!