Vita Park Hotel Albena

... Hospital

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...