Magnolia Hotels & Spa Golden Sands

... the city decided to replace
its antiquated 1950's municipal stadium with a new arena according to UEFA/FIFA specifications.[41] The new venue
will seat 30,000 (40,000 for concerts including standing room). Another
state-of ...

... s pace was causing my mind to dredge up all the images of dead animals I'd seen over the last 2,000 kms. The problem was that the pavement was on the other side of a high crash barrier and was also the home to pylons which were exactly in the middle of the metre-wide pavement meaning our bag-laden bikes wouldn't fit between the gaps. However after a kilometre of anguish I called a halt and we hauled our bikes over the crash barrier. It was highly inconvenient as every ten ...

... such lofty tourist status. We walked up to the horseman on a zigzag path and after a talk at the site and the taking of photos descended by steep stairs. Our lunch was at a nearby home in the village where we were greeted by a fellow playing the accordion and his co-musician on a Bulgarian version of the bagpipes with a pigskin bladder for the air reservoir.
The hosts had a loaf of bread from which we broke pieces at the door and a ...

I met Albena last Christmas, she is married to Rick Harper a Washington National Guard Soldier and contractor at Fort Lewis. They had had moved from Virgina, and Albena was not yet working and had not met many people.

She grew up in the beautiful coastal city of Varna Bulgaria, and all her family was still ...

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.

... Black Sea coast gathers on the beach on the night of June 30 to party all night and watch the sunrise on the July Morning. We joined in the festivities, but didn't wait for the sun. It was fun to be in a town where everyone was so excited about a somewhat random tradition.

So we won't be staying for 3 weeks, or 3 months, as some of our fellow travelers have, but it has been great here, and we feel refreshed and ready to take on Turkey for the last few weeks of our trip.

... ourselves good friends.

The Flag hostel got better as well, granted no amount of free vodka funneling in the morning or the free glass of beer in the evening really made it for us. Dave the owner meant well and did all his best to get people to mix together. A great hostel for the solo traveler as the whole hostel goes out as a group. We found this out on our first night when Dave ...

... to stay for a while and so rented our umbrella ($6A) and enjoyed a couple of hours swimming and relaxing by the Black Sea. The whole area is the Surfers Paradise of Bulgaria with massive high rise luxury resorts, carnival rides, allocated beach areas, parasailing and masses of cafe’s, bars and restaurants. Later we walked back to the hotel and had a swim in the pool before ordering a pizza to have on our balcony.

Due to the Cold War being over and the world seems to a much more settled place now, Russia has an over abundance of FSB officers with nothing to do. So, as not to have them wandering about the workplace with nothing to do, the Russian Government has rented out these ...

... restaurant on the beach and then made our way back to the car. Went for drive after that through Varna city centre, grabbed some lunch and went for a walk along the garden boulevarde that follows along the coastline. Even had one Bilgarian recognise me from working with the Stella Maris in Australia though I could not actually place him, I must have made some sort of impression on him so that he remembered me. Finally got some nice ...