Varna, Bulgaria

Varna, Bulgaria

7/24

I just cleared immigration in Varna, Bulgaria! This is the only port so far where everyone on the ship had to clear immigration individually in the port rather than having country immigration officials coming aboard and clearing the whole ship together. Hopefully I’ll have a Bulgarian stamp on my passport after this.

Today I went on the SAS-organized trip of the highlights of Varna. I picked this trip because I had absolutely no idea what there was to do or see in Varna, so it seemed like a good place to start. It was: we went to the ruins of Roman baths, the Ethnographic Museum, the Archaeological Museum, and the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin.

On the way to the Roman baths, which were just a five to ten minute bus ride from the ship, I tried to get a feel for the city. This may sound silly, but the most prominent feature for me were all the trees. I have never been in a city where the trees stood out more than they did in Varna. This may have been due in part to the loud scratched and bangs the branches and leaves of certain trees made on the roof of the bus as we drove along the street. Many streets were “tree tunnels,” and not just because the streets were tiny; the trees were giant and beautiful, especially with the sunlight filtering through their leaves. I imagine they were al deciduous, so Varna must look much more bare in the winter. Hopefully they wrap some of the trees with lights then. The buildings were mainly around six stores, more or less in other places. The architecture was simple and functional but not unattractive (for the most part, although I did see a few bare cinderblock buildings with the corners crumbling away). Also, tourism is very developed in Varna, and there are several universities in the city, so the town had lots of students and lots of tourists, and the population almost doubles in summertime.

The baths were sunk below the level of the city, and excavations lasted from 1859 to 1944. They were located in the Greek district, the oldest part of Varna. They are definitely ruins, and a very different experience of visiting baths than the one I had in Pompeii, where the baths were almost perfectly preserved, right down to the wall paintings in several of the rooms. Here, the baths were stripped of all their marble adornment to show the brick, which was crumbling away at the corners. The roofs were gone in all the rooms except the furnace. Still, most walls outlining the 70m by 100m baths were still present, along with a number of brick arches. An exercise area was in the middle of the baths, and there were a total of six pools: three for men and three for women, one cool, one warm and one hot. The Greek district was originally established by the Greeks in the 6th century under the name Odessos (town on water). Also, there was a family of stray cats including three little baby kittens that were so cute…I wanted to pet them and carry them around with me through the baths, but I decided that having rabies would be a bad way to spend the rest of my trip.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the Ethnographic museum, but I really enjoyed it. It showed the daily life of Bulgarian people in the late 19th through the mid 20th centuries. It was mainly an agricultural society, and there were ploughs and other farming tools all set up how they would have been used. No olive trees are grown in Bulgaria, but they do have lots of vineyards, and several old winery apparatuses were on display. There were cases and cases of traditional clothing: dresses, aprons and head scarves for the women (white for single, red for married, and black for mourning) and tunics and pleated Turkish style pants for the men (the more pleats, the wealthier he was). There was a clear Turkish influence in the clothing in general. Weddings only took place in the winter because the other seasons were too busy, which means no cute strappy white heels under the dress. The bride wore a red veil and large rubber clogs to accommodate several pairs of warm woolen socks. Also, a special tradition in the area around Varna was the Camel Dance. Not exactly sure how this went (the model camel didn’t dance for us), but it was performed on New Year’s Eve to drive away bad spirits. One of my favorite exhibits was Survakne: a Christmas tradition where children decorate sticks (can’t remember why exactly…), but she said that it was a favorite tradition of many of the children in Bulgaria today. On the third level, the museum was decorated to show what a typical wealthy Bulgarian’s house would have looked like in the early 20th century. There were clear Turkish influences: low sofas in the living room and the style of decorative furnace in the center of the room. The ceiling was all ornately carved wood, and our tour guide described this as a very traditional Bulgarian thing. As you may be able to tell, this place set all my anthropologist senses tingling, and I really enjoyed it. It was a nice change of pace to the many other museums, churches and archaeological sites I have been to.

Next, we went to the Archaeological Museum. I knew from the preport that we would see Thracian (a horse-riding, warrior civilization with no written language but beautiful artwork, especially gold burial goods), Greek and Roman artifacts. I most definitely did not expect to see the oldest human-wrought gold treasure found in the world (according to our tour guide). But they were there: beautiful bracelets and other gold jewelry found in Bulgaria belonging to a civilization 1,000 years older than the ancient Egyptians. This collection has been shown all over the world, and was on the cover of National Geographic in the 90s. Still, it’s relatively unknown because nobody expects Bulgaria to be a treasure trove on ancient civilization, but location-wise, it makes sense. The first religious notions appeared in the stone/copper age, but some of those burial goods are submerged underwater due to a rise in the level of the Black Sea. Upon hearing this, I immediately thought of starting a career as an underwater archaeologist, moving to Varna (or Nessebar…read tomorrow’s blog) and spending my days scuba diving along the Black Sea coast.
We unfortunately could not take pictures inside the museum, but there were some pretty spectacular pieces, especially 12th century BC Thracian gold jewelry as finely wrought as modern jewelry and including a necklace that looked like it belonged in an H. Stern collection. My friend and I agreed we would totally wear it today.

The Greeks took over Varna around the 6th century BC, at at that time the town was a bustling trading center as a major port on the Black Sea. So, the museum was also full of ancient Greek red and black type pottery, which was still impressive even though I had just been to Greece. There were also many giant anchors in covering most of the floor in one of the rooms, evidence that Varna’s hstory as a port goes back over two thousand years.

In another gallery were Orthodox Christian icons. There are paintings of Jesus, Mary or other saints and always done in a specifically prescribed manner. The purpose of these icons was not to be beautiful. Orthodox Christians believe that it is impossible to represent the divine beauty of those figures, so the icons do not even try. Rather, they are a way to focus your religious energy when sending a prayer. The figures were two-dimensional and had long noses, small mouths and large eyes, all supposedly signs of religious fervor. Also, they were made in a series of layering colors, tracing the outline and then filling in the clothing colors paint-by-numbers sytle, in some places scratching off paint to reveal the color below. Then the background gold (a feature common to almost every Orthodox icon I have seen so far, which is a lot) was applied, and finally the details such as lettering or facial features (which were minimal because the artists were not trying to make them realistic) were added. They vary in size from 2-3cm to 2m in height, and the oldest Bulgarian icon in the museum dates back to the 10th century BC. We had a great tour guide today, and throughout the day I could feel a surprisingly strong send of Bulgarian pride and identity.

Some of you may be wondering how I’ve remembered all these details. When go on tours or just whenever some detail comes up I’m worried I might forget but want to include in my blog, I write it as a note in my phone. So, as we could not take pictures (another way I remember what I did that day so I can write my blog) in the museum, I had my phone out to take notes much of the time. This wasn’t much of a problem until we entered the icon room, where there were very strict about not taking pictures. A woman who was supervising/guarding the icon gallery saw me holding my phone and came over and started yelling at me in Bulgarian. I tried to explain to her that I was taking notes, not taking pictures, but she continued to yell at me in Bulgarian, louder and in increasing anger, until I put my phone away. So if you ever want to take notes on your phone in the icon section of the Archaeological Museum in Varna, don’t.

On a side note, the museum was in the building that used to be the girl’s high school and was a very attractive building with a large courtyard shaded with vines and set up for some kind of function to occur. Also, the entire museum was studded with potted plants. Bulgarians must really like their greenery.

Our next stop was the Christian Orthodox Cathedral of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, conveniently located right in the center of Varna and near the train station, not that I plan on taking a train anywhere. It was fairly large and well-preserved, with the same brick patterning and domed exterior. Inside we were not allowed to take pictures (or more precisely we had to pay to take pictures, and it wasn’t that fantastic). The entire interior was painted with icons, and floor was slabs of recycled stone and marble, and the doors, altar, and chairs along the wall (only for special guests as you stand in Christian Orthodox serves) were made of ornately carved dark wood. Our tour guide told us that in Varna, there was one Catholic church, one mosque, and three protestant churches in addition to the (I think) eleven Orthodox churches/cathedrals, and that the largest minorities in Bulgaria were the Turks and the gypsies.

After our official tour was over, we had about an hour of free time to walk around the main square of Varna. The tourist information center was there, so we stopped in to see what was going on. The Summer Music Festival is happening every day we are here, with most performances happening in the Roman Theater, so that explained why there was a stage full of percussion instruments in the middle of the Roman baths we saw earlier in the tour. Also, there is a Folklore Festival starting one of the last days we are here, so hopefully we can make those.

We then walked through a number of shops with Bulgaria trinkets. Someone asked where I was from and when I told him California, he looked so surprised that I felt we must have been the first American tourists here…ever. I doubt that it true, but I haven’t seen any other Americans here other than the SASers, which is actually kind of nice and makes me feel much farther from home than I did in any of the other countries I visited. Also, it’s harder to find people who speak more than basic English here, and many people I’ve talked to don’t speak English at all. I only had euros with me, so I stopped by a money exchange station in the center to change them for leva, the Bulgarian currency. You get about two leva for every euro, and in general prices here are cheaper than in Greece. I don’t remember if I mentioned this is my blog, but the currency in Croatia was kuna, and you get about 5 kuna for every US dollar and about 7 kuna for every euro.

I was pretty thirsty, so I stopped by a stand and bought a peach juice box with my new leva. The juice was delicious, but I thought something must be wrong with the straw because the liquid was coming out unevenly. When I looked at it, I saw that nothing was wrong: the straw was designed differently. Instead of being an open tube, the tube was sealed at the end and there were four little holes on the sides for juice to go through. I don’t know if this is a Bulgarian thing or if just the company of the juice I bought does it, but I got pretty excited about it. Also, McDonald’s is advertized all over the place in Varna, including a giant billboard in the center advertizing a “shrimp lemon burger.” Don’t think those would go over too well in the US.

Also, today one of my friends went on an SAS trip to a small Bulgarian village. She said it was incredible: everyone in the village came out to see them and basically threw a festival for them. They had tons of homemade traditional Bulgarian food, saw traditional Bulgarian folk dancing, and most of all she was struck by how kind, welcoming and giving the people in the village were. Apparently this group was the first tourist group to ever visit their village, and they kept giving them food and telling them to come back to their village. She also got to stop and take pictures in one of the many sunflower fields in Bulgaria. I was pretty jealous upon hearing all this, but I did enjoy my highlights of Varna tour so it was ok.

Tonight we heard a little of the music festival, which tonight featured the Youth Percussion Pool performing a percussion extravaganza. Then, we hung out on a beach (which is a convenient fifteen minute walk from our ship) with about fifty other SASers and then invaded one of the many clubs along the beach called Extravaganza. It was pretty cool: large rounded ceilings that reminded me a little of being inside a train station, and good music to dance to. It was a Sunday, though and not very busy, so we made it an early night.


7/25

Today I went on the SAS-organized trip to Nessebar, a town about two hours south of Varna along the coast. On the trip so far, this town was the most surprising for me. It is definitely one of the cutest and prettiest towns I have ever been to, and I was not expecting that from Bulgaria.

On the way there, we passed field after field of sunflowers, field of wheat and barely, cows, sheep, goats, horses, and storks, which are a good omen to Bulgarians: it is very good luck to have one build a nest on your house. We also passed hills of grape vines, and our tour guide told us that mainly red wine is made in Bulgaria, and that Bulgarians normally drink red wine. She also told us that there were about 400 Bulgarian folk songs about red wine and only one about white wine, the lyrics of which go something like “white one, white one, why aren’t you red?” Yet another reason for me to like Bulgaria. We passed over the river Canchia, which was quite muddy and supported tons of trees to either side. In general, the Bulgarian countryside we drove through was hilly and either covered in trees or farmed. We drove through the foothills of the Balkan mountains, which come right down to the coast, on the way to Nessebar, and despite the narrow sharply winding road I enjoyed the drive because it was so pretty. We stopped for a short break about half way there, and I had a baguette sandwich and a peach yogurt drink, which was quite tasty.

Our guide told us that before Nessebar and the surrounding area of Sunny Beach became the tourist destination (mainly for Europeans) it was now, it was famous for the acacia honey (which was the favorite of British Queen Victoria) and their rose oil, the pure form of which is expensive because it takes three tons of rose petals to make one kilogram of rose oil. Back in the Greek/Roman times, this area was much fought over because of the many salt lakes nearby and the value of salt at the time.

Out of the winding road and back down by the coast, just about twenty minutes from Nessebar, we arrived in Sunny Beach. It was completely full of huge hotel after huge hotel, casinos and nightclubs with the occasional supermarket, restaurant, café or souvenir shop thrown in. It is extremely popular with vacationers from Russia, Poland, and Germany as well as wealthy Bulgarians, and our guide described it as a very fun but noisy spot which would not be good for a quiet, restful beach vacation. Our guide told us there were 400,000 beds in Sunny Beach…and with the number of hotels we passed by, I believe it.

The line between Sunny Beach and new Nessebar was not very clear, but when we crossed our guide announced the change and I noticed a slight decline in huge hotels. Right at the border, there was a little stadium where she said performers such as Sting and 50 Cent had performed at in the past. I couldn’t help but wonder what 50 Cent was doing in Bulgaria…but he was there.

Old Nessebar, the original part of the city, was built on a frying pan shaped little peninsula and surrounded on three sides by water with only one little road connecting it to the mainland. It was so picturesque: most of the buildings there were built in the 19th or 20th century in the classic style with a stone first floor and wooden second floor, and the building codes today require that any new construction be carried out in the same fashion. First we went to the archaeological museum (another one!) which had more beautiful gold jewelry and other artifacts from the Thracians, vases and statues from the Greeks and Romans, and Christian Orthodox icons, notably one made of little tiles of mother-of-pearl (and possibly the only one I’ve seen that I actually liked). After the museum, we toured the main cathedral, the Cathedral of St. Steven, and then toured I think five other churches in Nessebar, which were much the same, except for one on a cliff overlooking the ocean that was abandoned during construction due to a bad omen. Now it looks something like a ruin and houses stray dogs. While we were here, we saw a red ribbon pinned to a tree. Our guide pointed it out and said that, although the timing was off, it was part of a tradition in Bulgaria to give presents of red and white ribbons at the end of winter, which are worn as bracelets until you see the first flowering tree of the beginning of spring and you tie or pin it to the tree.

After the guided tour, we had a few hours of free time to roam around the city. It was all cobblestone streets and adorable little shops and street vendors selling a wide array of Bulgarian and not Bulgarian gifts and souvenirs. Clothes, pottery, jewelry, spices, honey, and so much more lined the streets, so we had a fun time walking along in the shade of the many leafy trees looking at all the stuff. We had lunch at a delicious restaurant on a cliff overlooking and beach and ocean below. I had a giant plate of mussels in a white wine butter sauce with thyme and lemon, which I demolished and thoroughly enjoyed. With a bit of cajoling, I even got the girl next to me, who had eaten her first piece of seafood (a shrimp) in Barcelona to try one of the mussels.  We walked down to the beach to dip our feet into the Black Sea and enjoy the picturesque little houses and boats near the water. Luckily, it is much cooler here than it was in Greece, so spending the day outside was very pleasant. I will have pictures of Nessebar up on facebook as soon as I get the chance, and make sure to check them out.

We left around 4pm and got back to the ship about 6, giving me enough time to blog a bit, shower and change before meeting up with everyone to swap stories about our second day in Bulgaria.

For dinner, a met up with a group of friends and ate at a restaurant in a pirate ship replica right on the beach. We were outside and with a gorgeous view of the crashing waves of the Black Sea. We were all pretty hungry, so we got a lot of food. We had appetizers: mozzarella and garlic bread, “morrows” which were basically rolled slices of sautéed zucchini with a mint sauce and served with a feta and tomatoes, and French fries with cheese on top (I have named these Bulgarian nachos because they are also offered pretty much everywhere you go). For dinner, I had what probably should have been called the carnivore platter, but what said “cannibal platter” in English under the Bulgarian title.  It was three different meat dishes: a pork lion, a kabob with chicken and beef, a kabob with lamb, and a “meatball” which was more like a patty of beef, pork and lamb with a little cheese and spices. I also had a side of spinach cooked with ricotta cheese, and everything with delicious. For dessert, I had pana cotta ice cream with brownies. I’m not exactly sure what pana cotta ice cream meant, but it was super rich and custardy so I’m assuming it was something like French vanilla with a berry puree layered throughout and two dark chocolate brownies with chunks of walnuts. We all waddled back to our ship, which was only about a ten minute walk away, and I collapsed into a happy food coma for the night. 


7/26 

Today I went to a sunflower field about half an hour taxi ride outside Varna. I wasn’t really planning on doing thing, but at lunch one of my friends mentioned that she had found a sunflower field a short walk outside Varna. She remembered when we had walked about to the freeway entrance in Varna that it was actually a short taxi ride outside the city, and there were six of us so we hailed two taxis. The first taxi driver spoke some English but didn’t know what sunflower meant, but the second taxi driver did and told us him where to go. They had to stop on the road several times on the way there to talk about which turn to take, but we got there eventually and they were helpful despite our limited communication ability.

So we got to our field of sunflowers, and the pictures we got were totally worth the saga of getting there even though my feet and lower legs were covered with little scratches from thorny plants growing everywhere between the sunflowers.

We were originally planning on renting a small sailboat off the beach about a half an hour down from the ship, but by the time we finished with the sunflower fields, it was a little late to do that. Luckily, we ran into a group of SASers at the bus stop who were headed to Aquapolis, the ancient Greek themed water park. Every time I say that name I laugh. It ended up being really fun, pretty similar to Wild Rivers, a water park in Irvine that I went to a lot when I was younger. Except that the lazy river and another pool in Aquapolis had a pool bar and all the other snack areas served alcohol and were much cheaper than water parks in the US.

When we got back to the ship, I was pretty tired so I took a nap before going out for my last night in Bulgaria. Tomorrow I have my cooking class, and I am so excited for it. I will post a mini blog on that probably once I get to Turkey since it ends right when we need to be back on the ship, so I won’t have time to go back to the internet café I’m at now.

Also, just as a side note, people in Varna keep coming to the port and staring at our ship and taking pictures like they’ve never seen anything like it before, so I’m guessing they don’t get a lot of cruise ship traffic.

As always, you can email me at vescholtes@semesteratsea.net

Love from Varna,
Ginny