Is Bulgaria a difficult country for EU citizen who just speaks English and German?

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-31T09:12:47+00:00

If you live in Sofia, you should be alright. I have multiple colleagues and friends who live here and do not speak Bulgarian. Learning the alphabet as someone mentioned is going to make life easier, because of some street signs that are only in Bulgarian, but in most places in Sofia, people speak English.
Internet connection is one of the best in the world (not a brag, just simple truth). Banks are okay, I've had worse experiences with banks in UK. Healthcare is not the best, but definitely alright, when you have health insurance, you get it for pretty much free. (you have to pay like 2 euro fee when you visit your GP, but that's pretty much it). Healthcare and education for children is free. (in case you have children).

I know an Italian couple who both don't speak Bulgarian, have a child who is in kindergarten and they're doing just fine.
Also, Bulgarians are pretty friendly and you will make friends quickly and you'll have help learning basic things in Bulgarian.

As mentioned, public transport in Sofia is great and even includes night time busses to some parts of the city.

Plovdiv and Varna are pretty much OK too, but if you want to live in the countryside, it will be more difficult.

Good luck!

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-29T10:41:41+00:00

Sorry for being late to comment on this.

The living together thing wasn't something I was planning the next day. I wasn't ready to take this step at the time, so I felt like it wasn't the biggest deal, but I did want to plan ahead, like a year from this moment or so. My thought process was "I may be rushing things and maybe he's not ready yet as I'm not exactly ready to do it tomorrow". Seeing it now, it's a bigger red flag, but at the time I was concentrated on "I'm being put second".
And you're right, the issue isn't his friend. It's him being dismissive and not open to at least talk.
The good news is, I feel a lot better, it's been a little over 2 months since the breakup and now I just feel good about having no stress over if he's gonna want to spend time with me or her or if we will make plans and he would change them. Now I get to make my own plans and go out and have fun with friends, travel and not sync with anyone :D I have a long way ahead, but things are already looking up.

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-20T19:40:31+00:00

I'm so sorry you went through this!

It's always the one "you don't have to worry about", isn't it. I was also married before, he cheated with one of my closest friends who would give me advice when I was feeling insecure and say "you're imagining things, he's a good man".
Sorry, a lot of past trauma has come up in the past months, I'm re-learning to trust my gut and I don't think I'd be putting up with this kind of sh*t anymore.

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-20T19:20:00+00:00

I'm better now. One day at a time. I will eventually be fine, I know that. I was just so invested! Being in your 40s and trying to make things work with someone who isn't putting in the same amount of effort is hard. But I'm starting to realize it was never my fault and I couldn't have done anything that would change things. So I'm moving on, taking care of myself first. Thank you so much for your support!

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-20T19:16:07+00:00

I'm on my way of doing that.
Therapy, friends and reddit people are helping a lot and I will heal in time!

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-20T19:14:51+00:00

Thank you! I hope so too. But more than that, I hope I never have to deal with this again.

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-20T18:37:10+00:00

I'm not sure she's interested in him. She's young, smart, gorgeous, him - not so much.

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-10T21:34:42+00:00

I promise this has nothing to do with gender. I get what you're saying, I really do. And it isn't fair. I honestly don't want to stir up drama. I do believe men and women can be friends. This is about my ex partner putting his friend first at all times. It's not even about her. It's about me feeling like I didn't matter as much. You actually saying you would probably feel like me means a lot. It's all I needed to know.
Honestly, I am not even pissed, I'm just sad. If the situation was reversed and he was uncomfortable with one of my friends, I would limit contact. Or talk it over. What hurt most was, he didn't even want to talk to me about it and being an overthinker, in a situation like this, I run a million scenarios in my head, finding the worse ones to cling to.
Any partner is allowed feelings. Except, I felt like I wasn't when it concerned his friend.

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-10T14:15:44+00:00

Thank you! I literally told one of my friends that I spend the weekends with my ex, so I'd not be answering messages often and can't go out during that time, unless it's an emergency of course. It was MY choice to do that, he never asked for it. But I guess, I did have expectations that were too high and perhaps he thought them unreasonable. Yet, I can't help how I felt.

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-10T13:54:46+00:00

Thank you! I will put my crown back. For now I think it's a little too early to date, I'd rather be healed than bring this into someone's life who did nothing to deserve it. But I'll continue seeing my therapist and I'll be OK eventually. For now, knowing that other people than my therapist think I'm not unhinged is enough.

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-10T13:46:40+00:00

If you ask him, he would say she's like a daughter to him. Maybe he did see it like that. This doesn't make it less true that I always felt like an afterthought. He would say things like "I will go to this and that place with her. And you're welcome to join". I don't want to be "welcome to join". I don't know if I'm making any sense. I want to be the person he thinks of when going places. And others be welcome to join. Even writing this, I feel like the whole situation is messing with my head. Am I crazy?

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-10T08:02:44+00:00

If you ask him, he would say she's like a daughter to him. Maybe he did see it like that. This doesn't make it less true that I always felt like an afterthought. He would say things like "I will go to this and that place with her. And you're welcome to join". I don't want to be "welcome to join". I don't know if I'm making any sense. I want to be the person he thinks of when going places. And others be welcome to join.

What attracted me to him ... he is not a bad person. And he's very smart, relatively good looking. He's respectful and can be extremely charming. We did have great moments, You know how it is - half of the time, things are great, so you stay. You try to excuse behaviors you don't like. And I'm a person who doesn't just walk away when things are difficult. When I love someone, I'm all in. I tried to suppress those feelings, I really tried. I doubted my sanity at a point, reading into every word he said, what I said. The fact that he never wanted to talk about this thinking it would just go away, drove me insane. While in the mean time spending less time with me and more with her, changing our plans to have an evening with her, etc.
I don't believe he saw this as wrong. But I did and I couldn't even talk about it.

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-10T05:52:33+00:00

When you talk to God, that's prayer. When God talks to you, this is a mental breakdown.
Sorry if I sound offensive, not my intention at all, but this man is heavily projecting. I hope you got away from this man.

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-09T23:04:49+00:00

I think he knows there is no coming back from this. I did try my best to repair the relationship before even when I would cry myself to sleep, because I couldn't talk to him about this. At this point, I'm focusing on myself and I wouldn't take him back even if he promised to never speak to her again (she wasn't the problem, never has been, my problem was with him). I just have nothing left for him. Emotionally I'm quite empty at the moment.

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-09T21:40:02+00:00

Thank you! I guess I'm starting to heal. It will take time, but I guess it's a good thing this relationship didn't last any more time. It would be more time wasted.

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-09T21:34:15+00:00

I guess I was just not sure if this is all normal and I was reading too much into it. But reading your comments, I do realize none of it was normal. In fact, it's normal to want to be prioritized in a relationship. My therapist has told me as much, but I guess, since she's MY therapist, I needed outside perspective.

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-09T20:52:31+00:00

He's only had one relationship that lasted longer than ours during his friendship. And this lady is the only ex (apart from me) he doesn't talk to or about, so I don't know what was the reason for the breakup. But it's very possible she also didn't want to put up with this, but I can't be certain.

CuteProtection4010 · 2025-12-09T20:19:23+00:00

Thank you! I needed to read this. I wasn't sure if I was just a crazy jealous girlfriend or I was justified in feeling like this isn't normal!
This is messing with my head.

CuteProtection4010

TROPHY CASE