It’s interesting to me that so many of my favourite bloggers are in eastern Europe. Romania is no surprise as I know the country well and speak the language. Latvia is more of a surprise as before coming upon the blog by chance I knew little of the country. The same can be said of Slovenia, though I had visited before when it was part of Yugoslavia. The blogger in Poland is no surprise; he’s a ‘tyke’, not so grumpy but the only male in this small band. So what do they have in common?
I’m finding it difficult to answer that question but I’m going to explore a few of them ‘out loud’ here and see if the answer comes.
Latvia
I can’t mention all the Romanian ones, which as I said are no surprise, so I’ll begin in Latvia. Ilze is a Latvian mum who lives in ‘the forest’ (common in a way with tyke Eddy in Poland) with her three delightful little daughters and husband. She just blogs every day about what she and/or the family has been up to – cooking simple meals, DIY, celebrating a Latvian holiday, going to the circus, just going for a walk, craft work at which she seems to excel (DIY too!). Ilze, formerly an IT manager, is a bit of an entrepreneur, currently making handmade greetings cards for companies. I feel privileged to be allowed to drop in on this loving family each day through her blog and I always feel a little better for having done so.
Poland
I first encountered ‘Eddy’ in the early days of him building a strawbale house in the wilds of eastern Poland, having moved there with his Polish wife Gosia. At the time I had done an ‘away day’ (team building day) with a noted UK strawbale building expert and was considering doing the same in Romania so the combination of tyke and straw was irresistible. Since then the family has grown by one (the human family that is) with another on the way. Now I’m tied as I use the natural soaps produced by Gosia for everything – washing, showering, shampooing and shaving. All the costly sprays and lotions have been thrown out and my wife says my skin feels wonderful. Easy to travel light and a big advantage when flying – no liquids. If you want to try the soaps go to:
Romania
I have been in love with Romania, its people, its culture and its food, from not long after I went there in 1993 so, as I said, it’s not surprising that a few Romanian bloggers get into my list.
A fairly recent one with whom I feel a special affinity is Iulia, an English teacher in Bucharest. It’s not because she is an English teacher as I was for much of my time in Romania, it’s about the poetry and prose she writes – in English – on her blog and, leading from that the relationship which has developed through corresponding with her (and indirectly with her husband) off the blog.
Unlike Iulia, Monica – also living in Bucharest – blogs in both English and Romanian – I ignore the first unless I’m ‘stuck’ as it’s good practice for my Romanian. What she does have in common with Iulia is being an entrepreneur although she’s only 18 years old, younger than that when I first began to follow her. It was that entrepreneurial spirit in someone so young which first attracted me to her blog, then the haiku she writes, a form of which I’m enamoured and try to write, her love of her father and her blogging of his poetry (often about love) and finally her book about being an adolescent, which is truly astounding.
There are one or two others but this post would get too long. Maybe I’ll do a post in the future about other Romanian bloggers who post in English or both English and Romanian.
Slovenia
Kristina in Slovenia is rather different to the others but she is an English teacher and a writer with one book of a trilogy published and the second in progress (when she can put down the one she is currently reading – a true bookworm, which I have rather grown out of). What attracted me to her blog? Probably that she is a strong advocate for women, which I hope I have been for most of my adult life (in fact it was initially one reason for setting up my grumpytyke blog).
Pioneers
What have all the above in common? The only thing I can identify is that they are all, in their own way, pioneers. And, despite never having met them (a couple of near misses with Eddy) I regard them as friends. That will have to do.
December 26, 2017 at 9:41 am
We absolutely love your blog and find nearly all of your post’s to be exactly what I’m looking for. Would you offer guest writers to write content for you personally? I wouldn’t mind publishing a post or elaborating on a lot of the subjects you write related to here. Again, awesome blog!
December 2, 2017 at 9:59 am
What a great resource, having been to romania briefly these are all places I’m really interested in visiting and learning more about so thanks for sharing!
December 1, 2017 at 8:06 pm
Wow! Many thanks for your beautiful words, R. You’re a beautiful soul and a great man.
Mo-hugs from my beautiful Romania ❤
November 29, 2017 at 2:20 pm
So sweet! Thank you!! I didn’t know Eddy has strawbale house!!! Janis love the idea and wanted to build one in Latvia… but not anymore, as you know!
November 29, 2017 at 2:03 pm
As always, you are beyond kind. Thank you for including me in your list!
November 29, 2017 at 6:24 am
Thank you very much, dear Roger! 🙂
November 28, 2017 at 5:59 pm
Thank you R, a nice collection of blogs to follow, especially since we are in the list 🙂
November 29, 2017 at 2:14 pm
Strawbale house!!??? We dreamed of making our strawbale house in Latvia! I’ve checked your blog before but somehow missed “strawbale thing”. Can you link me to the (any) post about that!? Thank you!
November 29, 2017 at 6:15 pm
Hi Ilze, the best one would be at the top of the page https://winkos.wordpress.com/before-the-blog/ We know of about 12 straw bale houses in our area of Poland from 35m2 to almost 300m2. A great community of builders. http://osbn.pl/projekty has a great collection of houses in Poland and links beyond.
November 30, 2017 at 11:48 am
Thank you for sharing! Poland is way bigger then Latvia, but as far as I know we have only few (4-6) straw-bale houses in Latvia. It’s new to us and our weather is problem… as far as I know.
November 30, 2017 at 12:08 pm
The weather? How does it differ from Poland or even the UK?
November 30, 2017 at 12:15 pm
Colder and wet. There was house whose wall come off… you can see here: http://salmumaja.lv/2012/salmu-sienas-remonts/
November 30, 2017 at 12:23 pm
Good building design would have prevented that, but sorry to see that they had problems. Exposed plaster is always a problem, best to have a good overhang of roof (like we have) or additional protection to the prevailing wind, wood siding. Thickness of clay and or lime renders. Lost to consider, but don’t let that put you off.
November 30, 2017 at 12:28 pm
I know. My brother said the said, that roof that goes more over will fix that. We are still looking for “ground” and then we decide what to do 🙂 If we will find property in a good place (I love the view around your hose) then we will renovate that… not building a new one.We will see!
November 30, 2017 at 12:30 pm
Also to get good building design (and push it through bureaucratic in Latvia) you need a good architect with experience in strawbale house.