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Published: June 17th 2009
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Doing Our Bit
Cleaning out a pit of despair (don't ask what was in there) to help Dan get the hostel off the ground. Sweeping Across Eastern Europe
I really do hate rushing through places, but unfortunately that is what I had to do after leaving Budapest. My last day in Hungary was pretty much a blur: I took a train out to a small town in the countryside that is supposed to remain true to the traditional Hungarian way of life, and, to my delight it did actually seem very authentic apart from the plethora of naff stores lining the streets (akin to most tourist towns across the globe). After a couple of hours wandering up and down the cobbled lanes in the sunshine, and after what I must admit was a pretty oversized meal even for me, I then took the train back to Budapest, the subway to my friend’s house, picked up my stuff, took the subway to my friend’s work to drop off their key, then took the subway to the bus station and finally managed to catch my bus to Bulgaria as a completely worn out and sweaty mess. I have to say that I can think of a number of more comfortable ways to prepare for a 15 hour bus ride.
The bus ride was mostly uneventful
Ben Takes Things Seriously
Alright, alright, give him a break, this was after quite a few beers. as I was sped across three borders under the cover of darkness and I awoke early in the morning in Sofia. Sometimes when I arrive in a city I get the feeling that I am really going to like the place, and most often it turns out to be true (most likely because I approach the place with the right mindset). That morning I looked out on Sofia, with it’s cute snow-capped mountain rising behind the church steeples, and I really wished that I could stay and explore it for at least a few days. However, I had to get to Varna to see two very good friends of mine so I turned around, faced the bus station, and got myself a ticket across the country to the Black Sea.
My good friend Dan, who I met a long time ago in a fantastic hostel in Beijing, has started his very own hostel on the northern outskirts of Varna, a quiet and slow-paced city on the Black Sea coast. I’ve always toyed with the idea of running a hostel, as I’m sure many others before me have done. Having stayed in a lot of them recently, and knowing which
Is This the Tropics
No, just Varna, but it sure does look warm and sunny on Dan's porch. ones of them were good and which were downright forgettable (but for some reason aren’t) leads me to think that, well, that I could do it better. However, I’ve come to realise that it’s not so much about the place; it’s far more about the people you are there with.
The hostel in Beijing where I met Dan was positively the best hostel I’ve seen in all of my travels (and yes, I have stayed in hostels listed in Lonely Planet’s Top 10 hostels, which, although good, didn’t hold a candle on Leo’s), but that is most likely simply because of the friends I met there. Had I not been dragged out of the place I very might well still be in Beijing right now.
So there I was, in Varna’s bus station, trying to figure out local dialing codes on a payphone covered in nothing by Cyrillic (damn me for not picking that up when I had the chance). What was Dan’s hostel going to be like? What was Dan going to be like? I was looking forward to catching up with him, and to make things even better, Ben (another good mate that I met, guess
My Mates
Mitch (Dan's friend and helper at the hostel), Ben and Dan getting close and thoughtful about a VERY important game of Risk. where, in the hostel in Beijing) was supposed to have arrived the day before me! This was going to be one big reunion complete with Risk and Bei-jenga.
X-Hostel
On a small hill outside of the city, amidst a collection of summer homes looking down towards the calm blue sea, I found Dan’s hostel. I’d never been to an inland sea before, so the concept that this vast blue emptiness stretching beyond the horizon was no, in fact, the ocean, really didn’t make much sense to me. Nevertheless, there it was, right there in front of me looking oh so inviting. I tried to remember the last time I’d been to the beach on a sunny day; it had been quite some time.
It was great to see my two mates again, together in the same place and with nothing to do but hang out, eat, drink, swim and have a good time. We quickly settled into things with a home cooked meal (Dan was doing the cooking for the hostel at the time as it was still before the tourist season kicked off), some local beers and a board game of dramatic proportions.
For
the next few days we did absolutely nothing tourist whatsoever. I read of a number of interesting places in the city and around the beaches, but they were hardly able to drag us away from the good life at the hostel. I hate to say it, but sometimes it’s enough to just hang out with mates and go to the beach.
To mix things up a bit, we did manage to head out every now and then, usually to the local clubs (strange mix of East and West there, certainly a good laugh), restaurants (strangely, we found a lot of really good Italian food), and beaches. Thanks to Dan and his local hookups we managed to do some things that you probably wouldn’t ever think of or even hear about which was certainly a welcome change to the usual traveling pattern. Who would of thought that I’d discover a hidden talent for go-karting on the run-down circuits of Bulgaria?
I had a really good time in Varna, but there aren’t very many stories to write about my time there. It was just like hanging out with mates back home, but in a really awesome setting. If you find
Your Friendly Host
Dan looking silly. yourself in the area, look up my mate Dan, he’ll look after you and go out of his way to show you a good time. It’s certainly a step in the right direction from the ritzy but run-down hotels in the area.
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