Wednesday, April 11
In Sofia, Plovdiv and Nessebar we took the Free Tour. It was fun and informative and a great way to get oriented in a new city. For reasons unknown and unfathomable we didn’t seek out the Free Burgas Tour until today. We met the tour guide near the city center at 2:00 pm. The group was going to be rather small – just the two of us. The guide was a young man and he was accompanied by a young woman. We suspected that she was training to be a guide.
As soon as we started walking we knew this tour was going to be different from the other ones. The tour guide was very friendly but less confident than previous guides and had a sheaf of notes that he kept referring to. He mentioned the large monument near the city center. He called it, “Alyosha”. This is the same name as the large monument at the top of one of the hills in Plovdiv. It’s a general tribute to all of the fallen Soviet soldiers who died on Bulgarian soil during World War II.
The tour wended its way down the main pedestrian walkway. The guide asked us a lot of questions about our experiences in Bulgaria and about some of the things that we liked best. We’d been here for over a week so we already knew many of the things that he mentioned. He did have a few fun facts: The largest church in Burgas, St Kiril and St Metodiy, used to have beautiful stained glass windows but they were all damaged during the construction of the parking garages directly under the church. They will not be replaced. Incidentally St Kiril and St Metodiy were brothers who, in the 9th century, invented the Cyrillic alphabet that is used in several countries including Bulgaria. In Bulgarian the name of the alphabet is pronounced starting with a “K” sound like the name of one of the brothers.
The guide also told us of a tunnel connecting the hotel in the center of town with a building that used to be the headquarters of the Soviet leaders in Burgas. They wanted it in case they needed to escape quickly and/or to get to the hotel unnoticed. The tunnel is still there and now connects the hotel to a Kindergarten school. He says it is no longer used.
Many Bulgarians, including our guide and his assistant, are surprised when we tell them that we love the pedestrian walkways in the cities. They think most of the USA has them in every city. They are also surprised that their big new indoor shopping malls are like the ones we have in the States. We refrained from telling them that America invented the shopping mall. 😀
After the tour concluded we had a nice conversation. It turns out that the guide was a high school senior who is very interested in entrepreneurial endeavors. The Burgas Free Tour is his first attempt at a new business and, as it turns out, we were his first customers. His “assistant” turned out to be his girlfriend, who helped him with some translation difficulties. They were adorable. He is currently studying for his entrance exams and hopes to go to the American University near Burgas in the Fall. The American University of Bulgaria is the first American style English language liberal arts college in Eastern Europe. It’s a private, not for profit cooperative between the Bulgarian government and the University of Maine.
The tour lasted a brief 45 minutes. We got coffee and groceries before heading back home for dinner.
Distance walked: 5.8 miles
Thursday, April 12
The weather turned foggy and cold so we decided not to venture out. Since hitting Bulgaria our diet has consisted mainly of pork and chicken. Beef is rarely on the menu in restaurants and hard to find in the grocery stores. The cafe near our apartment advertises hamburgers, and since we’ve been dying for some beef, we thought today would be a good day to take a chance. We ordered two bacon cheeseburgers and a dessert that looked very interesting.
The burgers were huge. They came on a grilled bun with one beef patty, cheese, Canadian style bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion and a sweet bar-b-que sauce. They were exactly what we needed and they were delicious. The dessert turned out to be a very dense bread pudding flavored with vanilla and covered in powdered sugar. Yum! It was a lot of food and it was very satisfying.
Distance walked: 0.29 miles
Friday, April 13
The weather was still rather overcast so we decided to make a day of getting coffee and going to the grocery store. On our way back we found a cafe that we had eaten at in Sofia called Nedelya, which means Sunday in Bulgarian. They have a meringue cake that’s hard to resist – and we didn’t! We ordered a slice to take home. It was better than we remembered it.
Perhaps finding Nedelya was our bad luck for Friday the 13th. Our waistlines are doomed!
Distance walked: 3.2 miles
Saturday, April 14
Today we took the bus to a neighboring city to the south called Sozopol (so-ZO-pol). It’s another seaside resort town with a history that is virtually identical to Nessebar, with one interesting difference: Sozopol resisted the Roman Empire in 73 BC and, as punishment, the city was utterly destroyed. Many other cities like Nessebar welcomed the Romans and were spared. Consequently the ruins in Sozopol date mostly from the Byzantine period.
(Looking at the Modern City of Sozopol)
Like Nessebar the Old Town of Sozopol is a small peninsula jutting into the Black Sea. We walked the old cobblestone streets and enjoyed the picturesque homes and water views. Many of the shops and restaurants were closed until the start of the summer season.
(Remnants of the Old City Fortress)
Scattered around the Old City are a large number of small chapels.
(The Church of St Constantine and St Helena)
We were fortunate to find a lovely restaurant along the harbor and had a fantastic meal consisting of fish soup (with an interesting lemony broth), greek salad and fried Black Sea mussels.
(Fish Soup and Fried Black Sea Mussels)
Back in Burgas we stopped at Nedelya and treated ourselves to cake and coffee. It’s a good thing we’re leaving in a couple of days.
Distance walked: 7.8 miles
Sunday, April 15
The day was partly sunny so we decided to take a long walk north along the beach. It was chilly but the sun came out and the temperature became very pleasant. We had lunch at one of our favorite sea side restaurants and ordered way too much food: fish soup, calamari, tsatsa and a small loaf of bread. After lunch we walked south along the beach in order to work off some of our meal.
Distance walked: 6.5 miles