Splendid Varna

... the side of the road. By the time we were entering Varna, evening was drawing its darkening curtains around us, Thorsten's left peddle had disintegrated and Elisa's central bearing was creaking disturbingly. We bought a new peddle from a bike shop, some food for dinner from a stall and had a very nice chat with a man who must have been at least ninety. Some spark in his eyes inspired me to want to live that long, we were next to the fruit and veg stall and he kept saying he ...

... station. It was voted best town to live in Bulgaria twice.<br><br>Varna has a maritime sea garden which hosts many attractions including a dolphinarium, open air theatre and ballet centre. It is a major university town with 5 higher centres including a Naval Academy<br><br>The last king of Bulgaria, King Simeon, in 2001 became PM after spending 50 years in exile in Spain. He is no longer in power.<br><br>Real Estate has really boomed in ...

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.<br><br>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.<br>

... know) we moved onto the wedding part of the proceedings where Bronwyn was dragged up to be the bridesmaid (we think) but of course could not understand a single thing they were asking her to do!<br><br>After this rather memorable event we took a short 'traditional' horse and cart ride to a lady's house where we were fed lunch and drank some rather bad 'local' raki and wine. Apparently the governemnt handed back traditional rights to villages ...

Oh Varna. <br><br>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 ...

... ourselves good friends. <br><br>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&#8217;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.

... my dismay, especially before a 6.5 hour bus ride...Then this woman, not a modern, thin European woman, but an old "Russian beauty" type decided to ask me to scooch in to sit together, even though there were plenty of double seats open. Now, I would have asked to crawl over her, but she was the last one on board and I did not want to find out if the bus driver was the type to yell at the children moving about in the back. Fortunately for me, the first stop came early and the man in ...

... quick tour of Sophia before cramming into the last three seats in out train car. People looked at us somewhat inquiringly, but turned their heads pretty quickly. By the end of the eight hour trip many people had entered and left our car. One of the last was a talkative English speaking woman, Nika. After we told her that we were going to Varna to see the sea, she said "why now?" Another man asked her to translate the same question later on the ride. She said that no one ...