Advertisement
What a nightmare bus trip, we didn't even imagine it was going to be that awful. We caught the bus from Ohrid at 7pm after a day of hanging around the town in cafes and restaurants with our backpacks. The bus was really empty so J and I thought that our luck was in and had a seat each to ourselves and could spread out and try and get some sleep. It was one of the bumpiest and windy roads yet and the driver put the heating on so we felt like we were boiling in our own skin. We arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria's capital at 3.30am after not a wink of sleep. The bus station was deserted and all of the waiting rooms were locked, we just wanted to get the first bus out of there to Veliko Tarnovo and this wasn't until 7.30am. We set up camp on a couple of benches with one of us sleeping and the other looking after our stuff. Luckily a security guard must have seen us and unlocked one of the waiting rooms, so moved into there and tried to get some sleep lying on the cold floor, but within an hour buses
from Greece and Turkey arrived so not much luck on the sleeping front. We gave up and decided to get some coffee and something to eat. We both passed out on the bus to Veliko which was good as we needed the sleep but when we arrived in Veliko we didn't know we were there and when we asked the bus driver they just looked at us and laughed. Everything is written in Cyrillic which didn't help, luckily another traveler confirmed it was our destination. We headed in the direction of the information centre to find accommodation for the night but bumped into a lady with a room. She was nice but insisted in talking to us in German even though we said we were English and couldn't speak German and kept calling me Annie. The room was a bit weird and basic but it was fine for a night. Veliko Tarnovo is supposed to be one of the most visited places in Bulgaria but when we arrived we couldn't see the appeal. We showered and dragged our weary bodies off to find lunch. We found a cafe that served over 54 salads plus pizza, ten of which were diet
ones and other Bulgarian dishes. J and I each ordered a small salad and it was the biggest and best salads we have ever eaten. They were so cheap as well, I could have stayed in Veliko a week just to try all the different salads. It was quite a hot afternoon we decided to walk along the river to the fortress which is situated high on the edge of the gorge. We were knackered and being tight decided not to pay to go in to the fortress. Instead we walked back through the town and went to get a drink. J spotted strongbow in the beer fridge, I thought my luck was in and was over to moon not to have to drink beer. We went to sit in the park and drink our cold beverages only to find that it wasn't really a park but a scruffy bit of grass under some trees and that my beloved cider went out of date in July 2009, I should have known that it was too good to be true. We really didn't do much else we were so tired we went for a nap but that made us feel ten
times worse, especially when we woke to go and get dinner.
We caught the bus to Varna on the black sea coast the next morning. Not thinking anything of it we arrived in Varna on a Sunday and hadn't booked any accommodation as we thought that there was bound to be people waiting to offer us rooms. We couldn't be more mistaken, all the tourist offices were closed at the bus station and no room touts to be seen. We caught a taxi to the centre and headed to the tourist information centre which was also closed. We stood in bewilderment for a while and decided to maybe try a hostel in the lonely planet. We managed to find the hostel but it had only gone and moved premises due to a fire and you had to call them to get details of where they had moved to. We abandoned that idea and reconsidered the exchange rate and decided that a hotel for about 55 BGN a night was pretty cheap so we went to the Hotel Antik and were pleasantly surprised as it was really nice. The room had a balcony and the hotel was in a quiet street
but still close to the beach and shops. We skipped lunch and headed to the beach, unfortunately the sun had disappeared by the time we got there though. The beach was still busy so we chilled out for a while and watched all the locals. At first I wasn't that impressed with Varna, but it started to grew on me. The beach isn't too pretty and has the port one end and lots of umbrellas without any cover on them which was very strange to see, just ugly skeleton metal umbrellas. That evening after dinner at the 'Happy' chain we went for a walk and we discovered more of Varna. The shops led to a boulevard of coffee shops and ice cream stalls down to another section of beach. They have tried t convert a really long old run down seaside complex into bars, clubs and restaurants but a lot of it still stands empty and very run down As you walk further north along the coast you come to restaurant after restaurant on the seafront. We decided the next day that we would eat at one that looked cheap and full to the brim with Bulgarians, eating fish and
the traditional massive salads. Our second day was spent wandering the shops and then an afternoon on the beach. The sun came out long enough for us to have a dip in the black sea which was really warm but it didn't look too inviting as it was a bit dirty with lots of seaweed. The sky wasn't looking too good in the late afternoon with big ominous storm clouds in the distance so J and I decided to head back to our hotel. We were so lucky we timed it just right as Varna was engulfed in the biggest and craziest storm we had ever experienced. There was so much rain, hail, thunder and fork lightening. It went on for ages and got closer and closer. Suddenly all the birds started flying from the sea past us and a huge wind, sand and dust storm erupted. J and I were watching it on our balcony, the thunder was so loud and close car alarms were going off all around us. We moved back into our room and this was a good job as a huge lightening bolt came over head and made us jump back from the window and
the tv made an awful noise and stopped working. We sat the storm out and when it had finally died down we ventured out for the biggest fish feast at our busy restaurant on the beach.
We decided that we should head up the coast for a better beach retreat and decided on Albena. The lonely planet said it was a high end resort but the lady in the info centre said you could find cheaper accommodation so we thought that we would give it a try. It was supposed to be more natural and not as built up and tacky as the likes of sunny beach and golden sands. We caught the mini bus up the coast not aware that the bus just drops you at the side of the road/entrance to Albena. J and I struggled with our bags in the heat in the direction that we thought was right and ended up in what looked like the centre. It was just a street of little shops, restaurants,bars and hotel complexes. Most of the hotels seemed to be big chain all inclusive resorts, after a while of wandering we decided to go into a hotel and ask where
Street Art, Varna, Bulgaria
Varna wasn't the prettiest place but the street art caught our eye. to go. She pointed us in the direction of the one big ugly tower block style hotel that we had walked past quite a while back, as they didn't only offer all inclusive. The inside of the hotel looked plusher than the outside. We couldn't believe it when the receptionist said it would be 46 BGN a night for the room and breakfast, that's 20 quid a night, 10 pounds each. The room was pretty 80's with dodgy curtains and black furniture but you couldn't complain when you had a sea view and all you can eat buffet breakfast for that price. I wont bore you all with day to day of what we did because truthfully we just relaxed and enjoyed not having to pack our bags and move on for four nights.
The beach at Albena was much nicer and the sea was cleaner and more inviting than Varna. There was row after row of chairs and umbrellas, it would be pretty horrible in summer when it is packed but there were so few people it was great. The street behind the beach between the hotels had the usual touristy crappy stalls selling useless stuff you only buy
as you are on holiday. We hunted around for the cheapest beers as the price varied so much. Our two favourite restaurants were the cheapest, selling pints for under a pound. We ate several times at the Mexican restaurant as we got free nachos and salsa to start and there soup was awesome. We went for dinner there one night and they had a Mariachi band from Mexico to work and play at the restaurant over the summer. They were amazing but it was the only night we didn't take our cameras with us. Our other favourite restaurant was on the beach where we also got our free sun loungers and umbrellas courtesy of the hotel. We ate some really good traditional food and little white bait type fish called scads. One of the days the weather was wet so J got to watch the Australia verses Denmark footie match and Australia won, which was a bonus, i drank cocktails what the life hey!! We got a good amount of sun, especially on the last day when we spent the whole day on the beach.
We were sad to leave as we had got used to lazing around and enjoying
our holiday within our holiday!! We caught the mini bus back to Varna and then a bus to Ruse. We arrived in Ruse with an hour to spare before we caught our next bus. Luckily I checked with the information counter as we discovered the bus we were expecting to take to Bucharest was actually a black family wagon parked out the front of the bus station. The driver was very weird with shoulder length dyed black hair that he kept playing with. He spent most of the trip eying up the girl in the front passenger seat and drove most of the way on the wrong side of the road and over took truck after truck on a long bridge. Pretty scary but we arrived in one piece.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.231s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 28; dbt: 0.1229s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
anonymous
non-member comment
Jason....that is definitely some beard fury you have got going on there !!