Helios Park Golden Sands

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... able to exchange Euro for Leva (Bulgarian currency) with an man called Mick. He lived in Moscow, holidayed in Bulgaria but worked all over the world. As an agricultural lecturer he was able to explain over coffee and cognac the oceans of mind-numbingly-boring, biological dessert which I had been peddling through for the last few days. He was also able to explain how these massive ex-soviet farms had been divided up equally amongst the comrades who had worked on them, some ...

We woke up to find ourselves moored at the quay in Varna with a long breakwater wall on which people could walk, a Captain Cook office and fish restaurant in a harbour-side building, and quite a few small vessels tied up nearby.
Our first stop was at the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin where there was commerce going on both inside and outside the very ornately decorated building with high walls and domes painted in predominantly ...

... She tries to visit once a year and I begged her to let me tag along. She was gracious enough to conceed and we had a wonderful time.

Her husband Rick was very jealous that he could not get away from work to join us, the beaches were wonderful the weather mild, and the prices cheap. We were in heaven.

A very nice place and quiet resort, is ideal target for family with kids, food and drinks very cheap and the people are friendly. About the security reasons I saw all the time the officers from Security companies -armed- and Police patrols on the street, here you need just to choose the proper location and enjoy the time.

Oh Varna.

Life passes in a haze of beachy days and beach bar-y nights, and really there is not much else. After a week on the farm in Palamatsa, it's so nice to be here on the beach, relaxing with the hundreds of Brits, Aussies, Bulgarians, and even some Americans that find their way to Varna 'for a few days.' This is funny because so many people we met said, 'we came for 3 days and have been here for 3 months.' Woah guys, it's nice, but there are other nice places too ...

... strong of a word, the door was opened by someone. Into the common room we finally found ourselves, "Hi". No answer from the locals. Well great this seems like a really great place. In writing you may not be able to tell that this was sarcasm. Both toilet/showers were busy so even though we both needed to go to the bathroom we had to wait to use the filthy things. Finally Dave the owner showed up ...

11th June

Nessebar to Golden Sands (near Varna) Bulgaria

Sunny 30 degrees

We left lovely Nessebar and drove north to the seaside resort of Golden Sands, near Varna. We knew it was going to be difficult to find the hotel as we only had vague directions and no GPS map for the area. We thought we were in the right area and asked our first local for directions who told us that there had been a landslide ...

... to various locations and countries that need an extra bit of security. Here in the foto one can be seen working at the Botanical Gardens in Balckik, Bulgaria. \his job is to stop the squirrels from pinching all the nuts off the oak trees. He looks very happy about it.

... and chocolate before being driven past the gypsy camp (failed to get a foto here) Went for dinner with Damyan's sister and her family at a traditional Bulgarian stlye restaurant. Damyan's sister's husband works as a Chief Engineer onboard a vessel that is due to arrive in Melbourne around December. The evening was nice and warm (for me) so We decided to walk back to the flat as we had eaten so much and drunk some Bulgarian vodka.