Brits Buy Homes in Bulgaria, “Land of Slatko the Beret”
“Bulgaria. I’ve been twice now and confess I can never quite understand who runs the place, nor why so many Brits trust it as a retirement home,” writes Tom Walker in The Spectator.
In a scalding article on Bulgaria, the author describes his impressions during his trip to Bulgaria.
“There follows a whole swath of Bulgarian gangsterdom that does as it pleases, although not without risk: 60 have perished in the last four years. Current survivors of the SIC versus VIS scrap include men known as the Pussy Cat, the Monkey, Birdy, Slatko the Beret, the Billy Goat from Plovdiv, the Small Olive (I think the big one is a gonner) and the Beak. Most make their money from the heroin- and people-smuggling trades, and the judicial system is too weak to rein any of them in.”
“All the hacks knew British retirees living in villages somewhere - in the mountains, near the vineyards, around Sunny Beach - paying peanuts for the servitude of locals happy to augment their own humble Bulgarian state handouts. Most journalists, it seemed, wanted to get into the property business: it was easy money, and certainly better than having the Small Olive ringing your office asking if he could have a word about your funeral.”
