The Black Sea Coast

After our enjoyable time spent in Plovdiv, it was time to move on. So we jumped on the bus to Burgas, which is one of the main cities on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. We only stayed long enough to catch the best bus, though, to Nessebar.


Nessebar is one of the most famous towns on the Black Sea coast, probably the most well preserved old town on the Bulgarian coast - in fact it's even on the Unesco World Heritage list.










Unfortunately, it was a big disappointment to us. Rarely (if ever!) have I seen a place so ruined by mass tourism. There are very few houses in the town centre, which haven't been converted either into a hotel, a restaurant (complete with very insistent touts, multi-lingual menus and tacky names to rival the best the Costa del Sol can offer!) or tourist shops selling "local craftwork" (= touristy trinkets). It's a pity, because it is a very pretty place, with a nice waterfront, cobblestone streets and a nice harbour area. We had a nice dinner in the harbour area, though.



The next morning (after a very cheap night spent in an old lady's spare bedroom) we took the bus to the next stop on our trip, which was Varna. Varna is the main city on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, and a considerable improvement over Nessebar. Of course, it's still touristy (we're talking about the Bulgarian Black Sea coast here!), but I suppose it's big enough to feel "real". And there's plenty to see. There is a very impressive Orthodox cathedral, two sets of Roman baths (which are quite nice, but the presentation side could do with a major improvement - there is basically no explanations about any of the ruins so a lot of imagination is required...).


We also went to the beach (once we managed to find our way to the beach past the concrete jungle of bars and restaurants which nearly completely block all access to the beach), and I had a swim. In the evening, we had a "traditional Bulgarian meal" (which on the positive side meant nice food and a beautiful decor, but on the negative side very bad, or at least very indifferent, service).