What happens in Bulgaria stays in Bulgaria, unless they (almost literally) shit on you. Then, you have no choice but to make sure as many people as possible learn about what happened.
Let's start with the beginning: we, Romanians, like to go to Bulgaria for vacation. I don't really understand why they have eluded us(since we also have shore on the Black Sea), but foreign investors have put shit lots of money to make Bulgaria a nice(and cheap!) place to visit! Now they say on the internet that the average salary of Romania is 300 euros(even though all the people I know, including teachers and other respectable professions would say that 300 euros is a rather dream salary.), so with that wage, you can only imagine why a nice all-inclusive vacation costing around 500 euros for two persons would be apealling. I was talking with one of the managers who has been to Bucharest, his girlfriend being Romanian. He told me he did a lot of shopping and also went to a lot of restaurant, since they are quite cheap. Now, you can only imagine that giving (at least!) 50 euros in a restaurant when you earn only 300 is anything but cheap!
So we got to Bulgaria on a day of Sunday. Now, before we start, I have to mention(since I declared myself to be truly honest) that we have been to Bulgaria two times before, both experiences being lovely ones. Because of : 1) being tired due to driving all night long; 2) drinking one and a half litre of coffee; 3)eating some sandwiches on the road; 4) the food I ate at the hotel; 5) some weird stomach disease that decided to manifest itself at that particular moment; 6) all or none of the previous reasons I got really sick. My stomach hurt extremely bad, I had cramps together with dizziness and I also felt like vomiting the shit out of me, even though I couldn't vomit anything at all. To tell you the truth, there are only two or three times I felt this bad in my whole life.
My mother has at least one disease from each letter of the alphabet, yet she doesn't go to the doctor, unless it is something of an emergency. So, I waited two days in agony until I decided to give up to Boyfriend's pressure and call the doctor. At the hotel's reception, they have posted "DOCTOR!!!". So, we called him, a doctor who spoke English with a deep slavic/russian accent, and ten minutes later a nurse and a driver who didn't even know how to say "hello" showed up. They took me to a medical facility, where another "je ne comprends pas anglais" nurse was waiting for me. It wasn't possible for us to understand what they were saying, or, if it matters, what the fuck they were doing to me! After touching me almost everywhere, after spending half an hour to decide whether the stains on my skin are really some weird stains or just childish me, not being able to tan right, they put me two perfusions(some regular vitamins and hidration stuff.) Good. I felt instantely better, since vital things were missing from my body. Nurses managed to say : "No disco, no drink, no sex" and off we went!
We came the next day to see a doctor who told me that I shouldn't drink Coke or Beer and I should just eat chicken with rice/potatoes. Not a single explanation, not anything at all, just this shitty advice and a bill of 500 euros!!! Oh, really?!?! We gave them 200 euros, telling them we would give them the rest next day.
We never had any intention to give the money. Not that we didn't have the money, but it just seemed ridiculous to give such a high amount of money for such low services. The next day they talked to Boyfriend on the phone, who told them we had no money whatsoever to pay the difference and they said Ok.
On Thursday I started to feel sick again, same simptons, so I was taking my afternoon nap, when I heard one short knock on the door. I took my phone to check the time(it was 16:30), knowing that either Mom or Boyfriend were supposed to wake me up at around 16. I got out of bed when I saw the nurse almost close to my bed!!! No one talked to her and the fucking piece of shit lied to the poor cleaning lady that it was a medical emergency inside so the cleaning lady opened the door to my room for her! There was no medical emergency, no one called her, she couldn't speak any English at all, so I am asking you: What the fuck was she doing in the middle of my room?!?
Mother was afraid that she came to harm me. Most likely she came to steal. I didn't get scared at the moment at all, I just called Boyfriend to come, but later on I couldn't sleep at all during nighttime. At every move I heard, If Boyfriend moved a little bit, I would just be so scared that someone somehow got into my room. I put a chair into the door, to slow them down if they want to come. And my stomach felt worse that before.
We went to the reception, we talked to the manager of the hotel, we called the cops, but of course all the blame was put on the house keeper, who was so silly to believe the nurse. The cops talked to the nurse(In Bulgarian, of course!) and they let her leave, without even asking for any ID!
The next day we tried going to the police to make a written complaint about the nurse, but no one spoke English whatsoever. We talked to the embassy, who promised they would send a translator, but eventually it turned out it was our agency's duty to provide a translator for us. Some girl from the agency came to the hotel and when we told her our story, she insisted on two fact : Why we didn't have health insurance and how come we didn't know that a private medical clinic is expensive? Everytime I answered to them that : WTF if I have to give you some money, you just go to the police, you don't fucking enter in my room when I sleep, because that's something like tresspassing and how the fuck am I supposed to close my eyes again when people just enter in my room whenever they please? Later on, when other people came, they insisted on this shit so much that I literally snapped out. They also said that the wheather was getting bad, and that's why we want to leave. They said they saw the recording tapes and the cleaning lady just opened the door for the nurse, the nurse never sat a single foot in my room without my permission. They were literally saying to my face that the nurse was never in my room, they were basically calling me retard in my face! No one understood: not the agency, not the hotel! They eventually gave us a paper who stated :" The leave is voluntary". That's when I snapped out : How the fuck can you tell me to sign this bullshit?!?! I was sleeping in this hotel, for 7 days I am supposed to be relaxed here, not to stress about people coming uninvited in my room, and a person, who might as well just not be a nurse, just dressed as one, goes in front of the reception, no one asks her anything at all, hey, you nurse, is there any medical emergency, in what room you are going, because we know nothing about this! She lies to the house keeper and goes into my room and you tell me that it is a voluntary decision for me to leave the hotel now, that I can whether leave or keep on having a good time here? You're telling me that you guarantee that no one will ever come uninvited into my room? You're telling me to sign faster the document because you don't have to be here, you have better things to do? Wtf, do you think it gives a lot of pleasure to speak with morons like you? I slept one night here and I was afraid as fuck that someone from Bulgarian mob might come in to kill me, I was shitting my pants out of fear and you dare to ask me why I didn't pay the doctor!!! Since when not paying for a service ends up in people coming into your room with the clear intention of stealing or, even worse, trying to harm you???" I left shaking really badly, calling them morons in my language.
Now there are other things to mention. That morning when we got out of the room, there was this gipsy man who was just standing in front of our door and when we left, he called someone on the phone and followed us closely. I would just call myself paranoic, unless Boyfriend didn't think the same I did. Unless my Mother wouldn't have told me that a couple of hours later she was also followed by a "gypsy man".
If we weren't followed, like we would like to believe, we became all paranoic. Paralyzed with fear, fear that was justified, since I woke up with the nurse standing almost next to me and no one wanted to take the responsability! In the end, it was us who wanted to leave by our own choice the hotel, in the end the nurse was not even in the room!!! Now, what I would like to say, expecially to the Romanian people, is that indeed Bulgaria is good for a nice cheap vacation, but if you get into troubles, be sure no one will ever help you!!! If you get sick, just drive 100 km and get treated in Romania! If somehow you get into trouble with some Bulgarian people, just get the fuck out of Bulgaria ASAP, because the police will never help you, even though you are right! Be in Bulgaria, have a good time, relax, chill, get some tan, but try to be as quiet as possible! The minut you start making some noise, it's high time for you to be kilometers away!
PS : Sorry for the spelling mistakes! You are more than welcome to share this post, if you think I was having a horror experience!
Georgiana, you insist on the room invasion aspect but completely ignore what caused it - you not paying your bill. There is no doubt those people should not have entered your hotel room like that, but there is also no doubt you were wrong to decide that "it just seemed ridiculous to give such a high amount of money for such low services". It seems the whole thing could have been avoided if you had behaved like good customers. The insurance issue is irrelevant. Nobody is obligated to take your insurance - it is your duty to ask if the clinic accepts it or not.
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