Hannah Life in Bulgaria: Beyond the tourist clichés

What does Bulgaria look like through the eyes of someone who has chosen to make it their permanent home? That is the story Hannah Dwight tells through Hannah Life in Bulgaria, a Facebook page chronicling the everyday life of a foreign family in a Bulgarian village.

Hannah lives here with her husband Steve and their daughter Nyx. The family discovered Bulgaria while travelling and bought a home here in 2019. In 2023, they made the move permanent, settling in a village near Veliko Tarnovo. Before that, they lived in Wrexham, Wales, where Hannah is from, while Steve comes from New Zealand. He now works at the school in the nearby village of Rusalia and plays with the rock band Hinterlands.

A graphic designer by profession, Hannah now also creates content about her life in Bulgaria – from gardening and home-cooked food to local traditions and family life, sharing her experience of the country with an international audience.

The Bulgarian language has a special place in her stories. She documents everything from her first steps with the Cyrillic alphabet to the words and expressions that occasionally land her in unexpected – and amusing – situations.

In the process, Hannah Life in Bulgaria has become more than a diary of one foreign family’s life. It offers a view of Bulgaria from the outside, where things Bulgarians barely notice in their everyday lives can look surprisingly different through Hannah’s eyes.

Editor: Miglena Ivanova