Balcik, Bulgaria

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  Balcik, Bulgaria
Sunday, November 6, 2005

Our third day in Varna, we pressed North in an attempt to find a peaceful seaside cottage. Balcik sat about two hours up the coast, and was described in our guidebook as being "a real town," whatever that meant. The weather was sunny, but still cold. We were dropped off at the top of the hilly town and passed several places that were closed for the season. We found a hotel that did have a view of the sea... through the concrete frame of a building under construction. We made it to the sea, walked the boardwalk and a jetty. The water was filled with thin, transparent jelly fish. Many of the businesses were closed. Restaurants, if open, had very few items on the menu. Since leaving Sarajevo we had become more and more disappointed.
Finding the beach, a small deserted patch of sand with a large barge docked near by unloading freight, we were all thinking the same thing. It was time to cut our losses and head for Turkey.
That night we ate dinner at a restaurant by the hotel. We were the only patrons. The owner/chef was sitting in front of the fire drinking wine with a friend as we walked in. Among other things that he told us that night was, "you know, Bulgaria is capitol for hard rock, in the world."
"Oh yeah? What, like punk rock?"
"No, not punk rock, hard rock!" he replied air-guitaring a hard chord.
"This Summer was number one rock concert in the world," then he listed several bands including Deep Purple and Megadeath. "Many people have long hair and guitars here. Bulgaria really is number one for hard rock."
So there is was. We had reached the Black Sea, in a land where hard rock, gaudy boots and the mustache lived on in all their glory. We had reached the Jersey shore of Europe. The following day we caught the overnight bus to Istanbul.

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