Rebecca Stacey is 26 years old. She arrived in Bulgaria on December 12 2007, coming because her boyfriend, a New Zealander, had been offered a job with an Irish project management company working in Sofia. They had been living in London for just under two years at that point and were both eager to try something new. Rebecca says that the job offer sounded like the perfect opportunity. Here is her story:

My boyfriend, Hamish, started his job in September. However, I was due to go home for two months for two of my closest friends’ weddings. Hamish lived in Sofia for three months before I arrived, which made the move here for me a lot easier as he had already found an apartment in Lozenets and a lovely group of friends from the expat community.

I was born in Sydney but grew up in the Australian capital, Canberra. My family moved to Noosa, a beautiful town in Queensland, five years ago. I studied to be an aesthetician, and worked at a Gold Clarins Day Spa as a skin/beauty/massage therapist. Although I love Noosa (as it is a five-minute walk from the beach!), it will always be there and two years ago I decided it was time to travel overseas.

As I mentioned, I worked in London for almost two years at the Hurlingham Clinic, a prestigious plastic surgery and medical spa. It was a fantastic job, working with IPL (intense pulse light), doing pre- and post-operative treatments, micro-dermabrasion and many other treatments. I miss it very much and wish I could find something similar here. Hopefully I will find some work soon.

Although I am Australian, I do have dual citizenship, due to my grandfather being born in Ireland. I am very, very lucky to have my Irish passport because it enables me to travel around the European Union without any tribulations. And now that Bulgaria has joined the EU, I am able to work here with ease.

When I first arrived in Sofia I was stunned at the driving and the roads. Australia is such a new country in comparison and our roads are all tar and gravel, so the brick roads are very new to me.

The language is also very new to both of us and due to the quick move here from London, we were not able to get any lessons before moving. We are very keen to learn though and I think it’s the most decent and polite thing to do moving to any country! It’s quite embarrassing not being able to order a meal in Bulgarian, but hopefully this will change soon.

I have found that generally Bulgarians, like Australians, are very warm and open to strangers. They seem to be very hospitable and welcoming and from my night walks around the city, they also like to party. Not just at night clubs and bars, but it seems as though family and friends are very important to them and there always seems to be something to look forward to and something to celebrate.

I love the traditions that Bulgarians have, for example name days and the numerous festivals they have throughout the year such as Rose Day (in June), Saturday of Lazarus (the day before Palm Sunday), St George’s Day, Baba Marta and the way they celebrate Christmas and Easter and their traditional dancing.

Australians don’t really have many traditions. I guess, because we are such a multi-cultural country, many people celebrate their own traditions passed down from parents and ancestors from other countries. The two famous “traditional” days that come to mind would be Melbourne Cup Day (the first Tuesday in November) and ANZAC Day (April 25; ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps).

Australia Day, January 26, marks the landing of the first fleet of convicts in Botany Bay. I can’t say this for all Australians, but I think most would agree we don’t really use it as a day to “celebrate” the landing of convicts! Instead we usually engage in some kind of Australian past time, like a barbeque or festival, such as Big Day Out (a music festival that started in 1992 in Sydney; it tours Australia and New Zealand in January and February), or just going to the beach with friends and family.

Americans have their Independence Day, the French proudly celebrate Bastille Day, but Australians usually celebrate their amazing life style rather than the history behind it.

I do miss Australia, although it will always be there to go back to. There aren’t many Australians that can say that they have lived in Bulgaria and I’m very happy to be able to say I have. It is hard, though, missing out on big events back at home such as weddings, births, birthdays and hopefully not, funerals, and it is too expensive and far away to go home for just a week! But this is a one off opportunity for us and we have many other adventures to which to look forward such as visiting Turkey (at ANZAC Day), Greece and, of course, the amazing skiing in Bulgaria!