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Published: July 17th 2012
Old Town entrance
This town is UNESCO protected as an ancient town.Saturday 14th July 2012
Nice easy morning, breakfast (for what it was worth) across the road at the cafe then back to pack and do a few last minute things. Judy has assignments in for marking and is trying to mark at least 6/day. This isn't easy as they take a minimum of 30 minutes each and she has over 100 to do.
We caught the local bus to the bus station next to the Grand Mall getting there with over an hour to spare before departure. We did wonder if we'd get away at all when we saw the bus come in, dirty, dented and not too smoothly. Obviously the inspectors were a little suspicious as two pulled up in a car next to it, checked the lights and indicators and spent some time with the driver going through the paperwork. The driver must have convinced them as we left right on time at 1130. The company name was Ferrari, this emblazoned on the side, but the bus didn't live up to its name being very slow and finding it difficult on some of the hills during the 2.5 hour trip.
Just before Nesebar, our destination, we
Old Town
A street showing stone base and upper storey built of wood. stopped at Sunny Beach, a strip of beach with multi-storey hotels of all classes fronting it. Not the sort of place we like to go to! Ten minutes further on we were dropped off at a Nessebar stop, we taking a litle time to get our bearings before realising we still had about 2 kms to go to Old Nessebar, where our hotel was. It was hot, we were a little tired,and for this reason we made the fundamental mistake of trusting a taxi driver. He back-tracked about 500m, this normally not upsetting but we later realised we were on an incorrect meter setting which was reading much too high. The journey cost us 15 times more than the bus would cost us tomorrow. No wonder the drivers don't look for fares, they make a day's wages with one sucker like us!
The Trinity Sea Residence is built in the traditional Bulgarian way with a stone 1st floor and wooden floors above that. We had a room on the 3rd floor, stairs the only way up, the air-conditioning in the room wasn't on, so by the time we lugged our luggage up, water leaking over the floor from the
Our hotel
Trinity Sea residence. fridge was almost the last straw. The male receptionist was good, he cleaned up the mess and was full of apologies. The airconditioner took for ever to make any difference, or so it seemed, we opening the windows to get cooler air in. This wasn't successful, they had it rigged up so that the aircon turned off when doors or windows were open!
A walk around to the seaward part of the point gave us some relief, a gentle breeze blowing in. So much for the quiet spot we had envisioned, the island is covered in hotels and cafes, the only spaces left appears to be where there are old ruins.
A late lunch/afternoon tea of pickled herring salad, followed by a plate of pork liver, accompanied by the 'obligatory' ale which was served, by what we are now used to, a grumpy woman. The “Happy” chain we've come across in Bulgaria really have a good formula: trim young ladies with a cheerful disposition, serving reasonably priced, tasty meals. Pity there's not one here.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in the room, Rags researching where we could go to when we leave here. The evening
Display of Lace
Around every corner we came across displays like this.
meal was eaten at a cafe overlooking Sunny Beach on the far side of the bay as we watched the sun slowly sink below the horizon. This improved Rags attitude to this place a little and we retired, in what was now, a cooler slightly more comfortable room.
Sunday 15th July 2012
A good sleep, a ham and egg breakfast and a cool morning augured well for the day. We did a short walk near the hotel before setting off along the narrow isthmus which connects us to the mainland. The heat was already setting in but as a vehicle drawn train runs along the coastal strip we decided to walk as far as we felt happy, catching the train back.
A circus was set up alongside the road we walked on and we watched a girl cooling a young tiger in a cage, with a hose. The tiger had enough yard to walk around in, but the only shade was in the shed set on a trailer. Surely a sheet over the yard would make it more comfortable? This helps make one understand why there are people against animals being used in circuses.
Relaxed!
These guys had the right idea on a hot day. We walked at least 4kms along the beach, coming to the Sunny Beach section with its hotels several deep lining the shore. We stopped for a rest at one of the cafes, enjoying a soft drink and just taking in the sights. A travel agency just up the road gave us the idea of perhaps doing a tour from here to Istanbul, would be one way to get there as we have heard that the buses leave late in the day and travel at night.
The local bus brought us back to the Old Town where we found the stop for the bus to Burgas and we were given the timetable by the driver. This gave us another option as we are sure to find a way to get to Turkey from here.
Lunch was at a cafe where the waiters actually smiled and seemed to be enjoying life! Salads for both of us were the order of the day, the desserts and ales we also had will have to be worked off when we get home!
After some research on the Net we made the decision to go to the next city nearer Istanbul, Burgas. We
Urns
These urns were near one of the ancient ruins booked our hotel through bookings.com, this has been our favourite site this trip. We'll look at an excursion as mentioned previously, otherwise we'll plan as we normally do. Both of us are getting a little weary of travel at the moment, it will be nice to be home again where we can put our feet up when we want, preparing our own meals, and sleeping with our own pillows!
Monday 16th July 2012
At breakfast this morning we met two British couples and swapped a few experiences. One couple have a house, inland from here and live there during the English winter months. Their knowledge of Australia seemed to consist of it being infested with deadly spiders and snakes as they wondered how we survived them! We put them right - quite safe with both of those but if you go to W.A. watch out for the white pointer sharks! Rags has always felt safe diving but either its his age or the fact that so far there have been 5 deaths in the past year, he would think twice before going out.
To actually have a swim in the Black Sea was our objective today,
The beach
Would you swim here? so we set off to the mainland part to swim near one of the resorts. No way! The water was murky, there was seaweed and algae near the shore, and you had to look for a space in the water there were so many people there. We returned via their Sea Garden, this being a strip of vegetation and childrens' playground.
Back in the old town we walked to the far end where we thought we had seen a beach. There was, except the beach consisted of shells which were sharp and hard to walk on. A quick dip followed the painful entry, the water being clouded by the algae we stirred up, the water warm. Not wanting to sit around in the hot sun we partially dressed and made our way up to the top of the cliff overlooking this beach and eventually back to the hotel . Judy has quite a few essays to mark so much of our day was spent there.
We did go out to lunch at a cafe nearby, salads being the order of the day, although Rags did succumb to a pint of Zagorko, the local ale. Lemon beer was not
Ruin
This is just an example of the many ruins amongst the buildings on the menu so Judy wisely passed on a fattening alternative. Neither of us had desserts for the same reason.
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Nesebar
Sounds and looks primitive to me !! Are you getting tired of looking at old buildings yet ? Will be glad to see you home again. Still cold here and very little rain. Strange how so many people think there's only snakes and spiders in Australia ! Plus a few Crocs and Sharks. Night night now.