Well, we have met a ton of people (most of which are from the UK, so they sound brilliant) who have told us that Varna, Bulgaria is a place we have to see, especially since Turkey was so close to Eastern Europe. So with 2 or 3 days left in Turkey, we decided to pull the trigger and make reservations for Varna. That meant, fly from Antalya to Istanbul, then take a 10 hour night bus to Varna, no biggie.
So we pack up our bags and leave our PHENOMENAL resort on the Turkish Riviera and head to the airport. Once we arrive at the airport, we notice headlines for "demonstration ends with bloodiest police clash on record." Then we notice all the footage is in Taksim square, literally a block from where we stayed just a week earlier in Istanbul. Hmmmm, well we knew we werent going to Taksim, so we figured it wouldn't be an issue, but good to be aware of what's happening. We arrive in Istanbul a couple hours later, hop on the metro to the bus station, where we will wait the 3 hours until our bus leaves. Let me say that for 2 weeks, we have had an amazing time in Turkey. The people were friendly, everyone was so willing to help, and we just felt safe every where we went. Now, at the central bus station... after a riot, people didn't seem to have that same air of friendliness. After getting the Marvin Bernard stank-eye from everyone at the bus station for an hour, we found a small cafe we could duck into until our bus left. All good right? Well, the only problem is, the only thing being shown on TV was the footage of the riots, over and over and over. We were able to see the other patrons of the cafe slowly get angrier and angrier and angrier as the news report when on (from what were told, the crowd was fighting for more civil liberties... ugh, so needy). Well, with about 30 mins until departure, we decide "screw it, we'll wait it out on the bus". We hop on and we notice that about 20 other passengers had the same idea (including a guy that grew up in Syria who was showing us pictures of himself in the midst of the riot, laughing and smiling). Obviously, we made it out of there in one piece, and all in all we had an amazing time in Turkey. We'll be back someday, but we'll let the dust settle first.
Now the bus we were on was actually pretty nice. Each seat had a TV, reclined more than airplane seats do, and the staff passed out snacks/drinks every couple hours. Only issue was, there was no bathroom. We knew this going in, and the bus company owns a bunch of really nice truck stops on the way, so it really wasn't a big deal. This wasn't the fanciest way to travel, but it was definitely fine... until 7 hours in when the first kid started to puke. As everyone knows, when one kid pukes on a bus, you're playing beat the clock to get it cleaned up before the rest of the kids start throwing up. We lost that game. Every kid on this bus started puking in unison. A bathroom would have been a good idea at that point. So the bus attendant started handing out barf bags to everyone in the back, just in case, but he skipped Kelsey and I. The only way I was able to communicate that we might need one was to put my hands in front of my mouth and pretend to puke a few times. We won't let a language barrier stop us!
Around 5am, we eventually made it to Varna. Let me tell you, Bulgaria may not be first world, but it is a beautiful country. Varna is on the Black Sea, which gives it a definite advantage on the beauty factor. The city is interesting because it's been around since 1600, and has gone through an array of different cultural periods (late mid-evil, part of the Ottoman Empire, part of the Soviet Union, and now trying to make it into the modern age). It has a mix of cobble stone streets and centuries old churches, a lot of stereotypical Eastern European architecture, soviet block buildings, and brand new construction that looks like it could be any where in the states. They have a city park known as the Sea Garden that runs about 5 km along the beach. There is a boardwalk with dozens of restaurants and bars along the beach as well. The people are so friendly, and everyone who is about 40 or younger tends to speak very good english (and very eager to after 4 $0.50 beers). We stayed in an apartment that was 200 yards away from the water (with a balcony) and still in the city center.
The food in Bulgaria is amazing. Let me just say that bacon wrapped chicken skewers seems to be a staple. They also have the best produce we've seen all trip (sorry Australia, you guys need to step it up), so the salads are BOMB. Plus yo u can get all this food while sitting on a pier over the Black Sea sipping $2 cocktails, while the sunset turns the Black Sea pink (no joke). Most of our days were spent walking around the city promenade and sitting at a place called My Cafe, and our evenings were spent on the waterfront. The people we were renting the apartment from invited us to go salsa dancing and have drinks on our last night. We had an early bus to Bucharest the next day and decided we would be back in the apartment by 11 to start packing. Well 2 am came faster than we thought, but we had a blast with our hosts. So much so, that we booked the apartment for the month of July and we'll be back after we meet Patti and Kayla!
That's it for now. Kels will update everyone about Italy ASAP.
Note: we took this week to just enjoy our experience our time in Bulgaria (which means we failed at taking photos). But we'll be there for a whole month in July and will send lots of pics that week!
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