Hugo Tebbens is from Aalsmeer, the “city of plants and flowers”, as he describes it. There, he was an accountant, specialised in strategic management. After marrying a Bulgarian woman, they decided to live here. That was three years ago.

“The challenge is to make the new country your own country,” Tebbens says. “The culture is old and very interesting to experience and to understand. It was not so easy as a foreigner to obtain permanent permission to live and stay in the country, even if you have your own business.”

He now manages a company based in Kazanluk called Tracian Buxus OOD, which specialises in wholesale flowers and plants.

Legal vexations aside, he finds the underlying values of Bulgaria to be similar to those of his home country: “All people want to have a nice life and the best for their family and children,” he tells The Sofia Echo. “The main difference is that in Bulgaria, they expect that someone else will ensure that they have a nice life, etc. They forget that this is mostly up to them.”

People here are, he says, “open if you know each other” but they are careful not to disturb each other, keeping a little bit at a distance.

Referring to the lore that surrounds daily life – a lore often referred to by outsiders as some sort of folk superstitions – Tebbens says: “The differences are that Bulgarians believe much more that things in life do not happen without a reason; they are more connected to nature and have many rituals that come from the ancient times. And they like to live now and not later, and express this in drinking, dancing and singing together, like in ancient times. It makes you feel very united with one another. The interesting thing is that there is also a part in their culture that can be very self-centred.”

Tebbens describes himself as a discoverer, describing how he likes to see new things, cultures, people and so on. He likes to start up new things and to realise this with a team. He can be “a little bit impatient and pushy” if the goals are clear.

“Justice and fairness are very important to me,” he says. “Very important is to have a base, a home, from where I can see, feel and discover the world. With my wife I have this base, and I have also learnt many things from and through her.”

This base that he has in Bulgaria also extends to his not feeling the Netherlands to be his homeland. “For me my home is where I feel home,” Tebbens says. “So holidays, friend and family are not a problem, because I see them in Bulgaria, or in their country, and the distances nowadays are only hours.”

As such, he has studied and is still studying the Bulgarian language, saying that it “is important to know the language pretty well, because this is also the way to really understand the culture and the people”.

Similar to what his attitude is about living here, he says that he would expect a Bulgarian immigrating to the Netherlands to feel at home there, and to be a part of it – though this does not mean that criticising one’s new country should be taboo. By being an outsider, it is sometimes easier to see where and how things could be improved. And bringing one’s native culture to one’s new home can add to the richness.

Tebbens, thus, says: “I wish that I could find a way to make all Bulgarians understand and take action – it is up to us to make Bulgaria a great country and realise all the possibilities that are here”.