Bulgaria June 2006
I left that beach bar in Croatia at 4am on Saturday the 24th. After catching a bus to the other side of the island, a ferry to Split, 6 hours there before heading to the airport I arrive in Budapest at 3pm with a 15 hour layover until at 6am I catch a flight to Bourgas in Bugaria (NOT Romania). I get my bag, go through customs and out the gate........and no Louis. I walk around the airport, cant see him anywhere. Foolishly I didnt get a phone number for him, only have his email address. Fortunately there is an internet terminal in the arrivals area. log on, there are no emails saying he cant make it, so I send him one asking if he is still coming. I also SMS Di in Australia for his number. Its midnight there and nderstandably shes asleep and I dont get the number til the next morning. I spend the night watching football and fall asleep on a lounge in the checkin area about midnight. At 3am the first flight checkin begins and at 4 I get up and check in for my flight. I check my email again and there is an apologetic email from Louis saying he got the dates wrong and will DEFINITELY be there when I come back to Budapest on July 2.
Arrive at Bourgas airport at 9am on the 25th, catch local bus into town 40 minutes away and on arrival realise it is pretty much a grimy port town and not somewhere I want to stay. I read about Varna, a small beach resort town north and get on the first bus there, arriving 2 hours later. At the train station there is an accommodation service that finds me an apartment 30 minutes from town and 10 minutes from the beach. I start to walk towards the apartment, look at the map and relaise they meant 30 minutes by bus, not walking. I catch a bus, walk 10 minutes to where I think the apartment block is, and cannot find it. I am in the middle of a complex of 48 apartment blocks, each one with 4 entrances and 12 apartments. I walk around for an hour and am almost in tears. I have been travelling for 36 hours, got 3 hours sleep on an airport lounge, walked an hour altogther to get here with 27kg in luggage, its 35 degrees and I cant take the thought of having to go back to the accommodation agency to find out where this apartment is. I sit on the steps in front of an entry to one of the blocks and 3 grandmotherly types, like the one in Vis, approach me, ask whats wrong (theyd ont speak english but Bulgarian and Polish has a common slavic base and we can understand each other), they take the keys and the slip of paper with the address and disappear. 20 minutes later they reappear with big grins, take my hand and lead me to the apartmnet block, which was hidden between 2 others. I had bought a box of Ferrero Rocher in the duty free in Croatia and gave it to them in gratitude. After 36 hours since I left Vis and about 5 hours sleep I shower, lie down and fall asleep to the soccer.
I wake at 11.30 the next morning, catching up on the last 2 days sleep. I do my washing and hang it on the balcony, find a place to make calls to Jett and Beck and go into town to watch Italy and Australia play to get into the quarter finals. Im sure you all know about the dive the Italian took to get the penalty in the last minute so I wont go on about it. I walk through town, filled with all the tourist needs of a beach resort town and along the ocean which is lined with bars, restaurants, amusement parks and nightclubs. Just as with the buildings and apartment blocks, everything here has a run down feel. The apartments are ont he ocean filled with tourists but look like the housing commision in Redfern. As if nothing has been done since the Communist regime to maintain things, just letting the whole city crumble, but with neon lights and g string bikinis so that at least it feels good while it washes away into the ocean. The supermarket int he complex I am staying in has a great deli section selling cooked foods from Europe, Eastern Europe, the Meditteranean and Asia. For example, over the days I am there I buy both chicken and pork snitzels fried in egg rather than breadcrumbs, BBQ chicken, cheese and spinch balls, spicy potato cakes with peas and carrots (the real stuff, not the frozen ones), cucumber stuffed with cheese and chives, capsicum stufed with mince and grilled cheese, baclava, donuts and chocolate cake. That night, eating chicken in my room while watching soccer and reading the guidebook I realise that whilst I thought I had 10 days in Bugaria I only have 7 and will not have time to do all the things I wanted to. I decidet o let go of Sofia, the capital, as I prefer small towns, and Plovdiv, another developed city. I choose to go to Velniko Tarnova and Koprivshvitsa, 2 small towns that are meant to have retained their original character. The next day, the 28th, I get up early, pack and go to the bus stop to get the bus to the bus station to get the bus to Velniko Tarnovo. The first bus that comes along is going to the bus station. Good. Get to the bus station, ask about the bus to Velniko Tarnovo. Its leaving in 5 minutes. Also good. 2 good movies, which is rare in intercity bus travel, The bus shows 3 hours later, arrive at Velniko Tarnovo, and standing there is a man offering the duplex above his house to rent for a good price. Very good. I start to unpack, and realise that I left my passport int he drawer next to my be din the apartment in Varna. I dont have th number to the accommodation agent that got me the room, but I do have the number frm the guide book to the shop next door. I call them, they give me the number to the agency and I organise to go back to Varna the next day. Since I then wont have time to go out again before I have to leave Bulgaria I ask for the same apartment for another 2 nights and they say OK.
I spend the day exploring the town, interestig castle and houses by the river. The next morning I catch a bus back to Varna, go to the apartment I was in, drop my bag and go to the beach. I come back from the beach, go to my room…….and my bag is gone, and someone elses bag is there and there is a note from the agency asking me to come to their offices. Its evening, Im tired and really not in the mood for having to travel 30 minutes into the city, but theyve got my stuff. Iget to the agency and they apologise and say they forgott he had a booking for that apartment and will put me in another one. Fine I say , buti t has to have one thing – a TV so I can watch the soccer. No problem they say. They call the landlady to let her know Im coming. Check that it has a TV, I say. No problem they say. Its a 20 minute walk. I get there. Climb 5 floors of stairs. Get shown to the room. You guessed it. No TV. I am understandanby furious. Get the landlady to call the agency and give them a piece of my mind. Come back to the agency, well fix you up. M coming back and Im going to fix you up. I walk down the 5 floors and the 20 minutes to the agency, furious. Weve got you another place, weve called and made sure it has a TV but……its more expensive. How much more? I ask. 25% more, they say. First you book me into a room you already had booked, then you take all my stuff and bring it here and make me come here, then you send me 20 minutes and 5 flights of stairs to a place I asked you 4 tmes if it has a TV and 4 times you assured me It does and then you tell me to come and and youll take care of me and you offer me a place 25% more expensive and you expect me to accept it? Yes they say. I called them every name I could think of in any language I thought they would understand and demanded my money back which they threw at me as if I had done it to them. You dont have Vietnamese blood do you I yelled (see the Vietnam blog to understand) as I went next door to another agency who fixed me with a room, with a TV for the same price on which I greatly enjoy watching that nights soccer quarter finals.
The n ight before my flight I head back to the grimy port town of Bourgas so I can get to the airport early the next morning. I wake at 5.30 and it is pissing down. I had my clothes for the flught picked out but they would get soaked. I pack them back int he bag, get out my board shorts, singlet and thongs
And walk in the pouring rain to the bus station, getting crazy looks from the taxi drivers who I wave away and the cars stalled int he huge puddles int he middle of the road. Some are so deep I lose a thong in one and have to put my pack down and wade back into get it. Im loving it. Reminds Me of walking int he flooded gutters during a storm as a kid. Arrive at airport at 7, go to bathroom, towel myself down, get my travel clothes out and get changed, spent my last Lev buying breakfast and hop the flight to Budapest and, hopefully, Louis at the airport.
I left that beach bar in Croatia at 4am on Saturday the 24th. After catching a bus to the other side of the island, a ferry to Split, 6 hours there before heading to the airport I arrive in Budapest at 3pm with a 15 hour layover until at 6am I catch a flight to Bourgas in Bugaria (NOT Romania). I get my bag, go through customs and out the gate........and no Louis. I walk around the airport, cant see him anywhere. Foolishly I didnt get a phone number for him, only have his email address. Fortunately there is an internet terminal in the arrivals area. log on, there are no emails saying he cant make it, so I send him one asking if he is still coming. I also SMS Di in Australia for his number. Its midnight there and nderstandably shes asleep and I dont get the number til the next morning. I spend the night watching football and fall asleep on a lounge in the checkin area about midnight. At 3am the first flight checkin begins and at 4 I get up and check in for my flight. I check my email again and there is an apologetic email from Louis saying he got the dates wrong and will DEFINITELY be there when I come back to Budapest on July 2.
Arrive at Bourgas airport at 9am on the 25th, catch local bus into town 40 minutes away and on arrival realise it is pretty much a grimy port town and not somewhere I want to stay. I read about Varna, a small beach resort town north and get on the first bus there, arriving 2 hours later. At the train station there is an accommodation service that finds me an apartment 30 minutes from town and 10 minutes from the beach. I start to walk towards the apartment, look at the map and relaise they meant 30 minutes by bus, not walking. I catch a bus, walk 10 minutes to where I think the apartment block is, and cannot find it. I am in the middle of a complex of 48 apartment blocks, each one with 4 entrances and 12 apartments. I walk around for an hour and am almost in tears. I have been travelling for 36 hours, got 3 hours sleep on an airport lounge, walked an hour altogther to get here with 27kg in luggage, its 35 degrees and I cant take the thought of having to go back to the accommodation agency to find out where this apartment is. I sit on the steps in front of an entry to one of the blocks and 3 grandmotherly types, like the one in Vis, approach me, ask whats wrong (theyd ont speak english but Bulgarian and Polish has a common slavic base and we can understand each other), they take the keys and the slip of paper with the address and disappear. 20 minutes later they reappear with big grins, take my hand and lead me to the apartmnet block, which was hidden between 2 others. I had bought a box of Ferrero Rocher in the duty free in Croatia and gave it to them in gratitude. After 36 hours since I left Vis and about 5 hours sleep I shower, lie down and fall asleep to the soccer.
I wake at 11.30 the next morning, catching up on the last 2 days sleep. I do my washing and hang it on the balcony, find a place to make calls to Jett and Beck and go into town to watch Italy and Australia play to get into the quarter finals. Im sure you all know about the dive the Italian took to get the penalty in the last minute so I wont go on about it. I walk through town, filled with all the tourist needs of a beach resort town and along the ocean which is lined with bars, restaurants, amusement parks and nightclubs. Just as with the buildings and apartment blocks, everything here has a run down feel. The apartments are ont he ocean filled with tourists but look like the housing commision in Redfern. As if nothing has been done since the Communist regime to maintain things, just letting the whole city crumble, but with neon lights and g string bikinis so that at least it feels good while it washes away into the ocean. The supermarket int he complex I am staying in has a great deli section selling cooked foods from Europe, Eastern Europe, the Meditteranean and Asia. For example, over the days I am there I buy both chicken and pork snitzels fried in egg rather than breadcrumbs, BBQ chicken, cheese and spinch balls, spicy potato cakes with peas and carrots (the real stuff, not the frozen ones), cucumber stuffed with cheese and chives, capsicum stufed with mince and grilled cheese, baclava, donuts and chocolate cake. That night, eating chicken in my room while watching soccer and reading the guidebook I realise that whilst I thought I had 10 days in Bugaria I only have 7 and will not have time to do all the things I wanted to. I decidet o let go of Sofia, the capital, as I prefer small towns, and Plovdiv, another developed city. I choose to go to Velniko Tarnova and Koprivshvitsa, 2 small towns that are meant to have retained their original character. The next day, the 28th, I get up early, pack and go to the bus stop to get the bus to the bus station to get the bus to Velniko Tarnovo. The first bus that comes along is going to the bus station. Good. Get to the bus station, ask about the bus to Velniko Tarnovo. Its leaving in 5 minutes. Also good. 2 good movies, which is rare in intercity bus travel, The bus shows 3 hours later, arrive at Velniko Tarnovo, and standing there is a man offering the duplex above his house to rent for a good price. Very good. I start to unpack, and realise that I left my passport int he drawer next to my be din the apartment in Varna. I dont have th number to the accommodation agent that got me the room, but I do have the number frm the guide book to the shop next door. I call them, they give me the number to the agency and I organise to go back to Varna the next day. Since I then wont have time to go out again before I have to leave Bulgaria I ask for the same apartment for another 2 nights and they say OK.
I spend the day exploring the town, interestig castle and houses by the river. The next morning I catch a bus back to Varna, go to the apartment I was in, drop my bag and go to the beach. I come back from the beach, go to my room…….and my bag is gone, and someone elses bag is there and there is a note from the agency asking me to come to their offices. Its evening, Im tired and really not in the mood for having to travel 30 minutes into the city, but theyve got my stuff. Iget to the agency and they apologise and say they forgott he had a booking for that apartment and will put me in another one. Fine I say , buti t has to have one thing – a TV so I can watch the soccer. No problem they say. They call the landlady to let her know Im coming. Check that it has a TV, I say. No problem they say. Its a 20 minute walk. I get there. Climb 5 floors of stairs. Get shown to the room. You guessed it. No TV. I am understandanby furious. Get the landlady to call the agency and give them a piece of my mind. Come back to the agency, well fix you up. M coming back and Im going to fix you up. I walk down the 5 floors and the 20 minutes to the agency, furious. Weve got you another place, weve called and made sure it has a TV but……its more expensive. How much more? I ask. 25% more, they say. First you book me into a room you already had booked, then you take all my stuff and bring it here and make me come here, then you send me 20 minutes and 5 flights of stairs to a place I asked you 4 tmes if it has a TV and 4 times you assured me It does and then you tell me to come and and youll take care of me and you offer me a place 25% more expensive and you expect me to accept it? Yes they say. I called them every name I could think of in any language I thought they would understand and demanded my money back which they threw at me as if I had done it to them. You dont have Vietnamese blood do you I yelled (see the Vietnam blog to understand) as I went next door to another agency who fixed me with a room, with a TV for the same price on which I greatly enjoy watching that nights soccer quarter finals.
The n ight before my flight I head back to the grimy port town of Bourgas so I can get to the airport early the next morning. I wake at 5.30 and it is pissing down. I had my clothes for the flught picked out but they would get soaked. I pack them back int he bag, get out my board shorts, singlet and thongs
And walk in the pouring rain to the bus station, getting crazy looks from the taxi drivers who I wave away and the cars stalled int he huge puddles int he middle of the road. Some are so deep I lose a thong in one and have to put my pack down and wade back into get it. Im loving it. Reminds Me of walking int he flooded gutters during a storm as a kid. Arrive at airport at 7, go to bathroom, towel myself down, get my travel clothes out and get changed, spent my last Lev buying breakfast and hop the flight to Budapest and, hopefully, Louis at the airport.
I left that beach bar in Croatia at 4am on Saturday the 24th. After catching a bus to the other side of the island, a ferry to Split, 6 hours there before heading to the airport I arrive in Budapest at 3pm with a 15 hour layover until at 6am I catch a flight to Bourgas in Bugaria (NOT Romania). I get my bag, go through customs and out the gate........and no Louis. I walk around the airport, cant see him anywhere. Foolishly I didnt get a phone number for him, only have his email address. Fortunately there is an internet terminal in the arrivals area. log on, there are no emails saying he cant make it, so I send him one asking if he is still coming. I also SMS Di in Australia for his number. Its midnight there and nderstandably shes asleep and I dont get the number til the next morning. I spend the night watching football and fall asleep on a lounge in the checkin area about midnight. At 3am the first flight checkin begins and at 4 I get up and check in for my flight. I check my email again and there is an apologetic email from Louis saying he got the dates wrong and will DEFINITELY be there when I come back to Budapest on July 2.
Arrive at Bourgas airport at 9am on the 25th, catch local bus into town 40 minutes away and on arrival realise it is pretty much a grimy port town and not somewhere I want to stay. I read about Varna, a small beach resort town north and get on the first bus there, arriving 2 hours later. At the train station there is an accommodation service that finds me an apartment 30 minutes from town and 10 minutes from the beach. I start to walk towards the apartment, look at the map and relaise they meant 30 minutes by bus, not walking. I catch a bus, walk 10 minutes to where I think the apartment block is, and cannot find it. I am in the middle of a complex of 48 apartment blocks, each one with 4 entrances and 12 apartments. I walk around for an hour and am almost in tears. I have been travelling for 36 hours, got 3 hours sleep on an airport lounge, walked an hour altogther to get here with 27kg in luggage, its 35 degrees and I cant take the thought of having to go back to the accommodation agency to find out where this apartment is. I sit on the steps in front of an entry to one of the blocks and 3 grandmotherly types, like the one in Vis, approach me, ask whats wrong (theyd ont speak english but Bulgarian and Polish has a common slavic base and we can understand each other), they take the keys and the slip of paper with the address and disappear. 20 minutes later they reappear with big grins, take my hand and lead me to the apartmnet block, which was hidden between 2 others. I had bought a box of Ferrero Rocher in the duty free in Croatia and gave it to them in gratitude. After 36 hours since I left Vis and about 5 hours sleep I shower, lie down and fall asleep to the soccer.
I wake at 11.30 the next morning, catching up on the last 2 days sleep. I do my washing and hang it on the balcony, find a place to make calls to Jett and Beck and go into town to watch Italy and Australia play to get into the quarter finals. Im sure you all know about the dive the Italian took to get the penalty in the last minute so I wont go on about it. I walk through town, filled with all the tourist needs of a beach resort town and along the ocean which is lined with bars, restaurants, amusement parks and nightclubs. Just as with the buildings and apartment blocks, everything here has a run down feel. The apartments are ont he ocean filled with tourists but look like the housing commision in Redfern. As if nothing has been done since the Communist regime to maintain things, just letting the whole city crumble, but with neon lights and g string bikinis so that at least it feels good while it washes away into the ocean. The supermarket int he complex I am staying in has a great deli section selling cooked foods from Europe, Eastern Europe, the Meditteranean and Asia. For example, over the days I am there I buy both chicken and pork snitzels fried in egg rather than breadcrumbs, BBQ chicken, cheese and spinch balls, spicy potato cakes with peas and carrots (the real stuff, not the frozen ones), cucumber stuffed with cheese and chives, capsicum stufed with mince and grilled cheese, baclava, donuts and chocolate cake. That night, eating chicken in my room while watching soccer and reading the guidebook I realise that whilst I thought I had 10 days in Bugaria I only have 7 and will not have time to do all the things I wanted to. I decidet o let go of Sofia, the capital, as I prefer small towns, and Plovdiv, another developed city. I choose to go to Velniko Tarnova and Koprivshvitsa, 2 small towns that are meant to have retained their original character. The next day, the 28th, I get up early, pack and go to the bus stop to get the bus to the bus station to get the bus to Velniko Tarnovo. The first bus that comes along is going to the bus station. Good. Get to the bus station, ask about the bus to Velniko Tarnovo. Its leaving in 5 minutes. Also good. 2 good movies, which is rare in intercity bus travel, The bus shows 3 hours later, arrive at Velniko Tarnovo, and standing there is a man offering the duplex above his house to rent for a good price. Very good. I start to unpack, and realise that I left my passport int he drawer next to my be din the apartment in Varna. I dont have th number to the accommodation agent that got me the room, but I do have the number frm the guide book to the shop next door. I call them, they give me the number to the agency and I organise to go back to Varna the next day. Since I then wont have time to go out again before I have to leave Bulgaria I ask for the same apartment for another 2 nights and they say OK.
I spend the day exploring the town, interestig castle and houses by the river. The next morning I catch a bus back to Varna, go to the apartment I was in, drop my bag and go to the beach. I come back from the beach, go to my room…….and my bag is gone, and someone elses bag is there and there is a note from the agency asking me to come to their offices. Its evening, Im tired and really not in the mood for having to travel 30 minutes into the city, but theyve got my stuff. Iget to the agency and they apologise and say they forgott he had a booking for that apartment and will put me in another one. Fine I say , buti t has to have one thing – a TV so I can watch the soccer. No problem they say. They call the landlady to let her know Im coming. Check that it has a TV, I say. No problem they say. Its a 20 minute walk. I get there. Climb 5 floors of stairs. Get shown to the room. You guessed it. No TV. I am understandanby furious. Get the landlady to call the agency and give them a piece of my mind. Come back to the agency, well fix you up. M coming back and Im going to fix you up. I walk down the 5 floors and the 20 minutes to the agency, furious. Weve got you another place, weve called and made sure it has a TV but……its more expensive. How much more? I ask. 25% more, they say. First you book me into a room you already had booked, then you take all my stuff and bring it here and make me come here, then you send me 20 minutes and 5 flights of stairs to a place I asked you 4 tmes if it has a TV and 4 times you assured me It does and then you tell me to come and and youll take care of me and you offer me a place 25% more expensive and you expect me to accept it? Yes they say. I called them every name I could think of in any language I thought they would understand and demanded my money back which they threw at me as if I had done it to them. You dont have Vietnamese blood do you I yelled (see the Vietnam blog to understand) as I went next door to another agency who fixed me with a room, with a TV for the same price on which I greatly enjoy watching that nights soccer quarter finals.
The n ight before my flight I head back to the grimy port town of Bourgas so I can get to the airport early the next morning. I wake at 5.30 and it is pissing down. I had my clothes for the flught picked out but they would get soaked. I pack them back int he bag, get out my board shorts, singlet and thongs
And walk in the pouring rain to the bus station, getting crazy looks from the taxi drivers who I wave away and the cars stalled int he huge puddles int he middle of the road. Some are so deep I lose a thong in one and have to put my pack down and wade back into get it. Im loving it. Reminds Me of walking int he flooded gutters during a storm as a kid. Arrive at airport at 7, go to bathroom, towel myself down, get my travel clothes out and get changed, spent my last Lev buying breakfast and hop the flight to Budapest and, hopefully, Louis at the airport.
posted by flamethrower77 at 7:10 AM
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