Having settled in in Sofia, it was time to go exploring. Bulgaria is not all that large (almost exactly the same size and shape as Pennsylvania), but within that small area lies a lot of varying terrain. Sofia is essentially located where Pittsburgh is in Pennsylvania, except that it's at the meeting place of two mountain ranges, rather than three rivers.
Burgas, by contrast, lies on the Black Sea, on the other side of the country, in exactly the same place as Easton does on the Delaware River (The Pennsylvania metaphors end here). In between the two run the Стара Планина (Stara Planina, meaning Old Mountains) range and the Thracian plane. To get there, you essentially have two options: The bus or the train. We did both.
Waking up not-horrendously early on Wednesday morning, I got my things together and headed to Greg's apartment, which, I discovered, is not a long walk from my own (more on getting around in Sofia in my next post). After collecting Fred, we caught what we thought was a legitimate taxi to the bus station. Upon dropping us off, the driver handed us a ticket with a mysterious 7 лев charge on it, and we knew we had been--illegally--cheated. We handed him 3 leva, the actual charge for a ride of that length, and as we were walking away, he ran up behind me and gave me a swift kick in the butt before he stormed off, cursing. Welcome to Europe.
Following this, we went and bought our tickets to Burgas. Travel within Bulgaria, compared with travel within the US, is extremely cheap, and our tickets to the other side of the country ended up costing about $18 US a piece. After a bit of waiting around, we boarded and left, and 6 hours and 3 horrifically bad American movies (Though the sound was off, I managed to scan through the Bulgarian subtitles and figured out that the movies were She's out of my League, Made of Honor, and what I think was There's Something About Mary, none of which I've ever seen and, having now partially seen them, never intend to) later, we arrived in Burgas, where Momchil met us and led us to his family's house. We had an incredibly pleasant dinner, after which I headed off to Amy's apartment, where she had agreed to let me sleep on the couch for the duration of my stay (Amy is another of the Fulbrighters teaching English here, and was assigned to the beautiful seaside town).
Waking up on Thursday morning, I was treated to this rather nice view from the balcony:
 |
| Residential Burgas with the (not-so) Black Sea in the background |
After taking care of some business, Amy and I headed to the beach. I can't say it was a radically different experience from the beaches in the states, but it had a Mediterranean feel to it, right down to the topless bathers and alcohol consumption on the beach white sand and warm water. It was a really pleasant afternoon, and we headed back to meet Alex, another Fulbrighter who was in from Shumen.
 |
| Nice place. |
After getting some dinner and resting up, we headed back out for the nightlife in Burgas, mostly centered on the beach. We hit a couple of the beachside clubs and then headed back to Amy's apartment, exhausted.
The next day, Fred, Greg, and I went to Nesebur, about 45 minutes up the coast. Nesebur is one of the most interesting towns on the Black Sea; it was founded by the ancient Thracians and has passed through the hands of the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, and Turks over the course of the last 3000 years. The town is notable for the amount of ancient ruins still extant. To get there, we took a bus from Burgas up the coast and got off where we thought was appropriate. We had lunch at a little cafe and then went into the old section of the city. Behold:
 |
| The coast |
 |
| More of the coast |
 |
| City across the sound |
 |
| Greek (!) ruins |
After perusing the ruins for a bit, we toured the museum, whence I derive all my facts here. The sheer volume of historical artifacts that have been uncovered in this town was astounding. Nesebur, because of its strategic location (the leading city on a peninsula in the middle of the largest port on the Black Sea) has been an important city for thousands of years, and the museum houses coins from three different civilizations, pottery, statues, and perhaps most beautifully, Byzantine ikons, some as many as 500 years old. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures, but suffice it to say it was a lot to take in.
When we emerged, we decided to have a look at the more mundane parts of Nesebur. We got ice cream, window-shopped a bit, stopped by the Pop and Rock Festival that was going on there, and went down to the beach. We also saw some of the old Byzantine churches there, which struck me as quite small. After an afternoon of all this, though, it was time to head back to Burgas, where I had dinner with Momchil's family again (Fred and Greg, along with Kathy, another of the Fulbright Senior Scholars, went out to a Thai restaurant). Too tired to do anything more, I called it a night, and the next day was on the train back to Sofia.
The train ride back was fairly uneventful, and actually quite pleasant, in and of itself. It cost me even less than the bus ride did (about $13 US), and it was kind of nice not being confined to a cramped bus seat for 6 hours. The train ride did take a little longer (almost 7 hours), but I got some studying done, took some nice pictures of the countryside, and maintained one of the most awkward conversations of my life (because of the still-shameful nature of my Bulgarian) for an hour and a half. I will say, though, that it was a mind- and ear-stretcher, and probably good for me.
Greg and Fred stayed behind for an extra day, so I traveled alone, but I was ready to get back. So Burgas weekend came and went, and it was mostly fun. Next post: Life in Sofia.
No comments:
Post a Comment