A morning at the beach to see the sights..........Nesebar

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As those famous lines from the movie Forest Gump go,'life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get'.This was going to be true about our visit to the beach across the road from our apartment complex.More about that shortly.

With no great urgency to be up and about we enjoyed a little longer in bed than usual reading the kindle and listening to Newstalk ZB to stay up to date with what was happening back home in NZ(some things never change no matter where we are in the world!)

We had bought what looked like bacon and packaging had appeared to read bacon in the local written word,from the Penny Market yesterday.It had been amongst all those other types of salamis,hams,etc etc that are stacked up in the chiller.It is funny how at home we always know what bacon is but never know what the other stuff is despite it being written,generally,in English and we never buy it because we don't know what it is and might taste like.And here we are in Bulgaria wanting bacon to go with the eggs.

By the time we got around to being ready for breakfast it was after 9am and the sun on our balcony was at an angle that there was no shade afforded to us sitting there.And even though it was still a way to go to the middle of the day the temperature must have been in the mid 20's without any shade.

We managed cereal and yogurt in the sun on the balcony but had to retreat inside for the bacon and eggs as it was too hot to be sitting there to enjoy the taste.The eggs were as tasty as ever but the verdict is still out on just what the bacon actually was.It had the colour of cooked bacon but there was something missing in the texture and the aroma.Never mind,we pretended it was bacon or not and enjoyed it all the same.

Our neighbours next door are a Russian family of a woman and two kids.We are unsure if there is a father with them or not.We did try and make conversation with them but they didn't appear to understand our English greeting so we decided to let our attempt at being too friendly lie leaving it to them to make conversation if they wanted to.Not that we saw a lot of them as the kids seemed to be in the pool a lot.

The manager of the complex told us yesterday when we arrived that the Russians make a good percentage of the tourists coming to the Black Sea coast either flying in on the charter flights or driving which must be a mission as we calculate it is over 1500km to Moscow and that is just one way!The others are Romanians with a small number of Brits and the rest being Bulgarians.

After getting a huge load of washing done(three quarters of our summer suitcase had been ready to wash)and hanging it on the horse in the sun we headed off for the beach a short walk away to check out the location and the Black Sea,which we had seen briefly yesterday as we arrived.

Walking through the apartment complexes on the other side of the main road we got to the beach and was pleasantly surprised to find there were sand dunes with a timber boardwalk on which you could walk down to the beach itself on so protecting the dunes and the plant life.Given that much of Europe doesn't seem to care too much about the environment this was indeed a revelation to us to see the Bulgarians taking care in this manner and we give them top marks for doing so.

Ahead of us on the beach there were a couple of bars ready for the days trade and as far as the eye could see the inevitable sun umbrellas and deck chairs laid out in perfect rows from mid beach down to the waters edge.However,unlike Lido di Jesolo in Italy where we had first seen this phenomina the arrangements here weren't in various colours for the different hotels and it looked like one concession holder had this part of the beach to themselves to collect a fee for the days rental.

As we came up over a rise onto the beach itself I spied out of the corner of my eye a rather large couple sunning themselves.The male did not have anything covering his bottom half and his privates parts hung for all to see while his wife just lay by.I said to Gretchen not to look left...............but too late!We quickly marched on through the umbrellas and deckchairs and down to the waters edge flabbergasted at what we had seen in an area where so many other people including young families were walking by.

We got used to the water temperature after a few minutes as we walked along the edge of the sea taking in the sights of people in all shapes and sizes getting their share of the warm Bulgarian sun.We decided that if you came from one of the boring,tall,non descript apartment blocks in Moscow or some other Russian city and had just come out of a long cold winter,why the hell should you care if a bikini or budgie smugglers are the right swim suits for your shape and size!

After a kilometre or so we came to where a small stream was emptying out into the sea and although it was shallow enough to cross we decided that from the sights we saw ahead that we had had enough for the day of the bodies on the beach.Ahead,the beach had clearly been given over to nudist bathing and again it didn't look too tasteful.Not that we are prudes but we were surprised that where there were young and teenage children this seemed all a bit too public.

On the way back we passed a surf living saving tower with an interesting picture of two pairs of feet and some text.Now it is time for another competition amongst our readers and as usual we throw down the challenge to translate the Bulgarian text to English and let us know what the sign says.You will need to enlarge the photo to see what the text says.

We quickly hurried past the large couple we had seen on the way onto the beach as we left to go back to the apartment for a late lunch and some further relaxation on the balcony.

In the late afternoon we headed out for another walk to stretch the legs,this time along the main road and stopped by a bar as we had earlier seen cocktails offered at a ridiculous cheap price.We ordered a Pina Colada and a Blue Lagoon but before they arrived the waitress bought us a couple of complimentary,what she said were Bulgarian liquers, but tasted like a Greek ouzo.As it turned out they packed more punch that the cocktails,perhaps the price of the cocktails said it all.Not that it mattered as we sat in the late afternoon sun people watching trying to guess the nationalities of those passing by.

Back at the apartment we enjoyed a cold beer or three from the 2 litre bottle we had bought in Plovdiv for the equivalent of €1 and then prepared a late dinner.Tomorrow we will avoid the beach and head for the old town of Nesebar and take in some history instead of sun bathed bodies!!

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