Name:Marc Koster
From: Den Bosch, The Netherlands
Age: 39

"My advice to anyone thinking about moving to live in Bulgaria is don't do it just because it's cheaper here and the weather's nice," said Marc Koster. "You need to be very independent and you can't let difficulties get you down. Most people don't want to help you, they see you as a foreigner - a bag of money - and they want to grab that money and drop you afterwards. But if you know what you want, there is a way. Bulgaria is a very nice country."

Marc speaks from experience. After several skiing trips and a summer stint at the Black Sea, he decided to quit his job in The Netherlands, sell his possessions, and move to Sofia to marry his Bulgarian girlfriend. "The job I had in Holland wasn't so nice - it was time to step back and take a break, which made the choice easier."

That was 10 months ago and he now has a baby daughter, has bought a maisonette in the city, and is getting to grips with Bulgarian. Friends and family at home were divided in their opinions about the wisdom of his choice - his father asked him several times if he was sure it was the right thing to do - but his marriage made the move more convincing and most of his friends were very happy for him.

"That's what I miss most," said Marc. "The social life I had in Holland was great. Here people think they have so many friends, but it seems to me that most of the relationships are quite superficial. If you ask for something from someone in Holland, you know they don't expect something in return, whereas here they do."

Despite this negative observation, Marc said that he has received a lot of support from his in-laws, even though they don't have a common language. His father-in-law works at a stadium and often invites Marc, who is a big sports fan, to watch different sporting events. "They've been really understanding," he said. "We can't say much to each other, but that doesn't really matter."

He rarely gets the chance to speak in his native language as the expat community here is relatively small, but said that he is determined to teach Korina, his daughter, Dutch. "Actually she's the only person I talk to in Dutch these days," said Marc. "I haven't had much response from 000her yet, but I expect she'll learn."

The main difficulties he has come up against here are the infamously cumbersome bureaucracy, which he first encountered when attempting to arrange the paperwork for his marriage, and the day to day worry of being cheated, either by the police that constantly stop his car, or by those involved in business. He described buying a house in Sofia as "a real war". He and his wife had to view over 40 properties before they finally found a place offered at a reasonable price by fairly scrupulous estate agents. "Most of the agents were awful," he said. "We had to check everything twice and even though we succeeded in the end, we still suspect that we were cheated here and there."

A Bulgarian lawyer once told him that Bulgarians believe they are very good at cheating. It's a remark that he hasn't forgotten, and has made him very cautious, though he admitted that unless you know Bulgarian it's something that's ultimately difficult to avoid. "Even in the hospitals you're supposed to pay something extra," he said, "but I don't because I'm too stubborn - although I give them the impression that I will."

Having bought the house, Marc feels more comfortable here with his own base and enjoys the relaxed atmosphere of Sofia. It's also relaxed in Holland, he agreed, but there the economy is 24 hours, and the country is too crowded. "If you need to drive 30 kilometres to work in Holland, it'll take you an hour," he said. "It's totally different here, the country is wide and open."