Taking off for Zurich with view on Sofia

Flooded landscape on the way from Varna to Sofia

Dear friends

After holidays, we usually spend our time at home, catching up with everyday life and work. Our tour through Bulgaria has unfortunately ended. Luckily, we made it back so Sofia safely. Bulgaria was afflicted by some major floods - people drowned, villages are under water, bridges torn apart... The train tracks to Sofia had been interrupted and we had to change to buses.

Today, we strolled around Sofia, bought some Rekia and Tcherga Wine and enjoyed our last coffee in a café close to our former 'garden' with its adjacent hostel. The rain must have driven the people off the streets...

That's all about Bulgaria for now, folks, and anybody who just liked our notes a little bit should go there and discover it for her- or himself. And if somebody is looking for us back home - in the evenings, we usually spend our time in the marvellous garden behind our house (if and when the work is done), sipping a drink and having a look at the nearby mountains as the sun sets. Seriously: Drop by and join us for a drink!

Mesum, Florian

The goddess 'Nike', here in form of golden jewellery, slightly larger than a thumb, 4000 years old. Her wings served as model for the logo of the well-known brand with the same name.
Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin in Varna

Dear friends

Unexpectedly, we met our host couple last night downtown, where we usually spend our time in Varna at night. We drank a couple of beers in a wild west theme bar (at the coast) and then headed into a rnb club where one of the most famous Bulgarian hiphopper was present who calls himself something like 'slap in the face' (german: Ohrfeige). Our hosts know him from school. After some pool games (since Mesum got the title of 'Master of Sozopol', Florian needed a revenge) and some more beer resp. vodka our hosts left. We followed a couple of hours and beers later...

Today, we visited the Archeological Museum of Varna which boasts some 6000 years old relicts. Nicely displayed as they are, you get an impression of what juwellery and everday tools looked like 4600 - 4200 BC. The site where these items were found is older then the oldest sites found in Mesopotamia and Egypt. (Does anyone know that?) Anyway, it seems that the area around the Black Sea has always been a fertile ground.

How fertile it could further get in Varna, we can't explore anymore. As mentioned earlier, we catch the train tonight to Sofia. See you there for the last of our Bulgaria notes...

Mesum and Florian

Our hosts and us.
Kids playing in front of our apartment building
Typical apartment building
Changing the gear...

Dear friends

The nice thing about our Bulgaria holidays is that we usually don't spend our time on extensively long transportation (like we did in Asia, see the entries below for details). But bus and train rides frequently proof to be useful. On our trip from Burgas to Varna, there were two guys heading for Varna to hear 'Guru' (Gangstar & Jazzmataz) who is obviously touring on the Balkan. The decision was taken quickly: Soon after arriving, we bought a ticket at the Momo Club, located right at the town beach of Varna and obviously one of those venues to be seen... In the evening, probably half of the Bulgarian hip hop scene appeared and freaked out during Guru's and his partner's performance.

Today, we checked out beach life in Varna which is pretty much the same as it is in Sozopol. There is one difference: there are boards for windsurfing for rent. We took our chance and while Mesum successfully went seafaring, Florian at least got the sail out of the water - for a couple of seconds.

We are staying in one of these suburbs consisting of those 'plattenbauten' which seem to be so typical for the former communist countries. A young couple (of about our age) is renting out one of their rooms to get a few more leva income. As you might know, Bulgaria's economy is not excatly thriving; is is actually the opposite and this kind of income is bitterly needed. We acutally expected just a room and not real hosts. But excellent hosts is what we got: They invited us to some superb sopska salad and home made Bulgarian brandy, Rakia, which was an good starter for the 'gangstar' night. And today, Gali showed us downtown Varna and joined us for a coup of coffee.

The train to Sofia on saturday night is booked. The last comfortable night in Bulgaria is ahead of us (is there a bias concering the comfort of Bulgarian trains? - let's find out) and the day after we'll spend again with laying on the beach and maybe having a look a the archeological museum. It has an excellent reputation and features exposits which are 6000 years old. Meanwhile, we focus on more contemporary artefacts.

Mesum, Florian

Upside down in Sozopol - Mesum
Upside down in Sozopol - Florian

Dear friends

How exciting can relaxing be? Usually, we would spend our time with studying hard for an intelligible answer, but as we are in Sozopol, we just look around and say: Very exciting! (You might have noticed that these blog entries get shorter and shorter while we are relaxing more and more - since entries are not that hard to write and it would be easier to do so, let's call this the 'Black Sea Coast Paradoxon'...)

We decided to leave for the Varna tomorrow, also called the 'Ibiza or Mallorca of the Black Sea'. Join us tomorrow or the day after to know whether this is a compliment or not...

Best regards,
Mesum and Florian

What is Florian looking at? Beachlife in Sozopol
The legendary Sozopol-Series - the winner...
... and holder of the second rank

Dear friends

What do we usually spend our time with at the Bulgarian Coast? Sun, fun and nothing to do!

See you soon,
Mesum, Florian

(PS: There were of course a couple of things we did. For instance, celebrate 1st of August (Swiss 'Independance' Day) with the right amount of food and beer. Or, eg help a lost ten year old German kid at night in a bustling town find his way back to the hotel and his parents. Others things we continuously do: playing pool, sunbathing, swimming in the black sea, breathing fresh air, eating fresh fish, drinking refreshing beer, sleeping comfortably, thinking about where to travel next (maybe Varna), drinking coffee, taking a picture here and there, wearing sunglasses,...)

Sun set over the old town peninsula of Sozopol
Seagull enjoying the sun set (ornithologists are welcome to correct...)
Old town of Sozopol
Sozopol town beach

Again, dear friends,

happy greetings from Bulgaria. After having been to a real Bulgarian disco in Gabrovo on saturday night (where we could imagine ourselves spending our time usually), we caught our bus for Burgas on Sunday morning. Having arrived there, we decided to move on straight to Sozopol. Our private room, on offer by a charming elderly couple, is located in the middle of the old town which is a collection of old wodden houses and narrow cobblestone alleys (first settlements date back to 4000 BC; our room luckily does not). The two beaches in town are packed with all kinds of folks craving for sun and a refreshing bath in the black sea. We still need a bit to get used to the smell of the occasional bunch of alges driven into the bays. Sozopol is visited mostly by Bulgarian tourists. And Bulgarians, as we found out, are taking serious care that the whole body gets a good sunbath. As we take this seriously too, we need to take a good rest now and let you know more later :-)

Mesum and Florian

Downtown Gabrovo at night
Our dinner waiting for us...
Dinner with view on Gabrovo
The lights of Gabrovo...
Nasdravie! (No 5/10) (Nasdravie=cheers)
Nasdravie! (No 9/10)
Florian, Natalie & Mesum at the Gabrovo bus station
Storks and their nest
Church in the old town of Tryavna
Car
Bridge downtown Tryavna
Tryavna was famous for its woodcarvers. This house features two famous carved ceilings.
Typical old town building in Tryavna
Chapel of the monastery above Etara.
Inside the chapel
Looking around inside
Walking around the chapel
Courtyard of the monastery

Hello again dear friends

We found out that we usually would spend our time in our own hotel located right downtown in Gabrovo. There are several empty buildings which look a bit run down but the broken window glasses glistering in the sun are reflecting an artistic and slightly melancholi... c! We don't know how, but this text got cut off. Well, maybe in the middle of the right word... Unfortunately, we can't reconstruct what we've written and leave it up to the pictures to tell how it was like.