Most of 2022 was amazing and we had some very memorable moments – like celebrating our 15th anniversary together in Cyprus, an epic press trip to the Bahamas , living and traveling around Slovakia for almost 3 months, and spending Christmas in Canada with our families.
However, the end of 2022 and into the first few months of 2023 were very rocky times and we found ourselves flailing. Luckily, the tumultuous start didn’t last, and we transitioned our year from questionable to awesome.
Happy Holidays everyone!
Each year has a feeling or theme, and for us, the word that comes to mind for 2023 is transition and transformation : of who we are, what we do, and the life we lead.
In this post, I’ll start with the craziness. Even though it was so messy at first, this was a fantastic year overall, and I’m excited to share our wins and failures with you in this post.
If you want to read our previous year’s roundups, have a look at 2021 , 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016 , 2015 , 2014 , 2013 , and 2012 .
Flailing into 2023
For much of 2022, we were working on the documents needed to obtain residency in Bulgaria (more about living in Bulgaria below).
It’s a very long story, but after months and months of gathering the (many) documents required to apply for residency, our lawyer called.
It was Friday evening and we were sitting on our couch in the house we rented in Bulgaria. He was calling to let us know that we had five days to go to the Bulgarian consulate in Canada and apply for the long-stay visa, otherwise one of our documents would expire.
We knew we had to go to Canada eventually, but we should’ve still had months before we needed to apply. How could this be happening?!
Since everything took so long to do (appointments, gathering documents, notarizing/apostelling, etc.), the validity of one of the initial documents we had procured from our home country of Canada was about to expire.
If that document expired, we wouldn’t be able to apply for the long-stay visa, and ultimately, residency in Bulgaria. All of our hard work would have been for nothing.
Of course, on the one day that we MUST make the flight, there were enormous lines at the Sofia airport
Our lawyer called us on November 13th and by November 15th we were on a plane from Bulgaria to Canada – the most direct and only reasonable flight option for a whole week. If something went wrong or we missed our connecting flight in Poland, we wouldn’t make it on time. There was a lot of pressure on that flight!
Luckily, we made it and on the morning of November 17th, we went to the Bulgarian consulate in Toronto with all of our paperwork to apply for our long-stay D-Visa.
We applied on the very last day it would have been possible. The Bulgarian consular general confirmed that to us with a funny smile as we handed him our documents.
Now all we had to do was wait and hope we’d be approved. The consulate said it would take around 5 weeks for the visa to be approved (or denied).
So jet lagged and frazzled at the Bulgarian Consulate in Toronto Canada to submit our papers…can’t believe we made it on time
Spending the Holidays in Canada
Since we were already in Canada (mind you, on the other side of the country from our families), we decided to spend Christmas and New Year’s with our parents, siblings, and relatives. Rather than waiting around in Toronto for 5 weeks for the paperwork to come back, this sounded like a much more enjoyable idea.
We checked out the Hockey Hall of Fame while in Toronto
It was the first time we’d spent Christmas at home since 2013.
It was cold, snowy, and oh-so festive! We went ice skating and tubing at the ski hill. We danced and mingled at three Christmas parties. Nick went hunting with his brother, we went for snowy hikes and bowling with family, and we laughed, ate, and drank too much.
Crisp, freezing cold, beautiful morning in Canada
We rang in the new year with my family and celebrated Nick’s grandma’s 80th birthday a week later with loved ones. It was a great visit back home and an excellent way to start 2023.
At the beginning of January, we heard back from the Bulgarian embassy and our visas were ready for pick-up in Toronto. We received our long-stay visa for Bulgaria! This was the first step to obtaining residency, with more to follow once we returned to Bulgaria.
Even though we were so relieved the stars aligned and everything was approved, we had something in the back of our minds…
We were in Toronto for Nick’s birthday. We visited the CN Tower for the first time
The Rocky Start to the Year
This is difficult to write, and we haven’t shared this publicly yet. But, at the end of 2022 and into March of 2023, we were considering selling Goats On The Road (I know, I can’t believe it either).
We had been feeling off and in a creative slump (which started during the pandemic), and with all of the new developments around AI, we were feeling deflated and as though we probably wouldn’t have a business for much longer.
We were being very “doom and gloom” and (as it turns out) overreacting about the whole thing. At the time, however, we thought we should exit our business and move on while we could.
We planned to sell just the website itself, without our social media accounts and Nick’s blogging courses. I wanted to keep the connection with our readers which would’ve been possible to do so through social media, and Nick wanted to continue teaching his students. Two aspects of our blog that we both adore.
Freezing in Canada and trying to make life-altering decisions
We had no idea what we would do for a job and income going forward, but for whatever reason, at the time it felt like the right thing to do.
Goats On The Road had been our life for 10 years. This was an incredibly hard decision to make and I was literally crying when we pressed the “submit” button on the selling platform.
Were we making the right decision?
We listed our website at a high price and we received a lot of interest. We ended up doing 5 serious calls with venture capitalist firms who were interested in purchasing our site and adding it to their portfolio.
Of those 5 calls, we received 3 official offers. Financially, they were excellent, life-changing offers. But, the terms of the agreements didn’t sit right with us and we declined all of them.
I found this old business card on my camera roll
