Ahtopol, Black Sea Beach

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South of Burgas on the Black Sea Coast at the last bus stop is the village of Ahtopol, population 1,300. Sounded nice in the guide books and was recommended by a Bulgarian bookmaker in Dupnitsa.

The bus stopped at around 6.30pm, after a journey past Sozopol and beach after beach. We unloaded our ample backpacks and were imediatly approached by a small boy, we couldn't understand what he was offering but his grandma was better with the sign language, off to look at a private rom. Clean, close to the center, hot water, and only 20 lv (10 Euro) it seemed good to me. Sara wanted to see Hotel Neptune, but too late we were booked in.

Next stop beach, unload the swimming gear, unstrap the beach mats we had unwisely carried from Budapest, available for less here, down the main street to the beach. The beach was 20m long, 3m wide. Something was wrong, the little harbour was beautiful, with fishing boats, a small pier, but no beach. Sara was so upset that she said, "if we don't find a beach we will go ask for our money back and find somewhere with one." She was serious...

Two hours of wandering along the cliffs and backm and no beach, but the town had filled with thousands of happy, tanned holiday makers, mostly Bulgarian. I offered the explanation, the tide is obviously high, tomorrow we will see long stretches of sandy coast were today we'd only seen rocks. Oh well, nice try - then last resort - postcards! There it was, miles of sandy umbrela lined beachm pulsing with thousands of slowly burning, scantily clad humanity, just what we'd been expecting. Ahtopol is where the Bulgarians go to the beach, we even met a Bulgarian guy we'd met a week ago 2,500m up in the Rila mountains. Most people stay in small sheds (bungalows) just behind the beach... 1km away in the other direction (west) to which we'd explored (east).

We found the beach next morning, around 2km long 20m wide, with thousands of people vying for space under the patrolled umbrellas. In the evenings we walked south-east along the rocks, went to the tiny cinema, went to the fairground and enjoyed the bumper cars and mini-rollercoaster. Though I walked most of the village and much of the bungalow sites, I never found the Hotel Neptune or even saw a sign for it.

Back to Burgas, the minibuses are a little oversubscribed, we met three Hungarian backpackers who'd had to sit by as two buses left, over the course of two hours before finally getting space on the same bus as us. We'd obviously been lucky getting a minibus there in the first place.

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Photos

Ahtopol Beach
We found it!

Comments

[ismael alberto zarate]

ahtopol divino
AHTOPOL ES LA CIUDADA QUE MAS ME GUSTO. SOY ARGENTINO HINCHA DE MARADONA. SALUDOS