Am I naive?

Good Mickey, I m finding it difficult at times being here by myself but I know that my husband will join me as soon as he's able.

Meanwhile village life takes a little getting used to , after living in a UK town but I'll get there.

    Going through all the chinwag here gets me proper bamboozled.
How comes all this palaver seems to miss me? Wheres the mafia? Wheres the corruption?

Heres me been nipping in and out for years and done three houses. The entire village is cracking on no frets. Muggins here does not have a care in the world. Gypsies and all sorts have been nothing but kind to me.

I live in a country with less bother than back in the UK. Straight up expats I never felt happier.
   

    -@mickeyhart

Maybe not naive - but perhaps a little complacent. It's there - indeed it's everywhere in BG - but the mafia isn't really interested in small fry like us, so we're unlikely to encounter it on a personal basis.  There's plenty of petty crime etc but, judging from the UK/US newspapers, it's rather less than in allegedly more "advanced" countries.  Nonetheless, you need to keep your wits about you insofar as if it happens you probably won't see it coming: your "best mates" in the village may be just what they seem - or you may be the unsuspecting turkey being fed up in anticipation of taking centre stage at Xmas Dinner...

A great friend of mine is just finishing turning the barn-workshop at his village house into a fortress, having been burgled one time too many - he knows who's doing it but can't prove it and so far I've managed to dissuade him from resorting to "more robust" measures that would undoubtedly backfire badly.

@JimJ That sort of thing could happen anywhere. I just cant wrap my head around why everyones getting their knickers in a twist over Bulgaria. Britain has got to be a million times more dodgy what with knife crime and drugs and what not. Dont even get me started on the States. To be honest the thought of bumping into some of these paranoid expats making their way out here gives me more jitters than any of the locals in my village.

The newspapers really exaggerate crime a lot. Where I live in the USA  is nice and peaceful. America is a big country- therefore more crime  exists than in other countries.  The lockdowns unleashed seriously crime here in certain areas.

Per my experience crime is very very low in Bulgaria.

@mickeyhart. From the news I hear and read from the UK, both from alternative media and friends (I don't read or listen to mainstream media) the UK is plain horrible!

Even if you took Numbeo dot com crime index as accurate, Bulgaria has way less crime.  Here in Varna I feel safe, day and night;  I've never seen any violence, unrest, or criminal activities - long may it live - I've been here over 3 years now.   That's not to say crime doesn't exist, it does.  We were warned about pickpockets and bag grabbers on certain bus routes within the city - that said, i haven't encountered that problem either.  May be I should go hunting for trouble, to prove it even exists lol...   The worst I see is loud teenagers in the streets after school and some graffiti.

By contrast, I lived in Balham, South West London, an area that was supposed to be upmarket. Covid killed the upmarket bit, when streams of undesirables started frequenting the area from neighboring Streatham.  December 2018, there was a stabbing literally outside my front door (multiple occupancy house, lived in a bedsit).

I felt so unsafe in my last years in Balham. I'd worked in Sainsbury's, until I suffered a work accident in November 2018 and seen crime in the store sky rocket - some of it violent.  I too had abuse hurled at me on a number of occasions.

It got to the point, in April 2020, that i decided i needed to wear a stab proof ballistic jacket, whenever I left it my home.

I'm sure some areas of Bulgaria have some crime, but where I live, I've never felt safer.