Missile Launcher (Russian?)
Black Sea Coast
Email No 18 - Varna – Bulgaria.
From the hectic bus station I took a taxi to the Tourist Office in downtown Varna. They suggested a seemingly reasonable private accommodation in a hotel very close to the beach. Apparently breakfast is included. Well the next morning I found that the breakfast consisted of a prepackaged croissant and one cup of coffee?! My complain to the reception brought the fact that the tourist office knew about it and that “they” should have told me. Typical “blame someone else” response instead of trying to fix the problem. I would not even have mentioned it if my water heather had been still functional(a simple coil capable of boiling water in a cup).
So now, I am experimenting with Muesli in water, orange juice, or other liquid (beer?). This of course does not require cooking.
The day I arrived the weather was great, sunny and warm. Then the next two days it rains. Today we have another very warm and sunny day!!
I came here for one reason, to take a break from my somewhat hectic schedule, and to catch up with pictures naming and some computer work. So, I have walked on Varna’s Black Sea beach without any specific goals. Being somewhat in churched-out mood I even gave up the idea of taking a bus to a nearby city (full of churches!!).
I met a woman from Syria, she teaches English in a private school. She was having dinner with one of her students in a neat place simply called “Happy”. Imagine a sort of mild form of “Hooters”.
All the servers are good looking young woman with very short miniskirts. I go there because they have a great menu! As a matter of fact (you would not see this at “Hooters”), one of the woman server is very obviously in an advanced stage of pregnancy.
I also had a meal at one of the local McDonald. My first meal, and probably my last, at McDonald since I started my trip.
I could not get out of having to arrange my next move (to Bucarest).
I found that there are no direct transportation from Varna to Bucarest. I have to take a train to the border (Ruse) and then another train to Bucarest. There is an unavoidable waiting time of over three hours between the two trains. I looked at the possibility of going by bus to the border, and found that the waiting time would be about the same. The train station is 10 minutes away, so I am going by train.
I wanted to get some Romanian money before leaving. None of the three exchange offices I contacted had Romanian currency. I finally found a bank where one of the cashier happened to have some.
Another avoided potential embarrassment!
This is the interesting (and sometimes very frustrating) part of travelling like this. Nothing is to be taken for granted. The train to Ruse depart from the train station, this is what you would expect, however, since I am going to Bucarest, I have to buy a complete ticket (including the Varna – Ruse portion) in another office located somewhere else in Varna. I was given a street name and a street number.
The street is 10 minutes away from the hotel. I walked and found the street, I walked along it until a found house no 51 (Oh yes, I forgot to mentioned that in some streets there are no numbers on the houses). I walked a little further until I found house no 63, and realized I was going in the wrong direction since I am looking for no 12. I backtracked to the corner of the street, a restaurant, and found out the number was 35?? I am looking for no 12, and I am at what I would consider to be the first house in this street.
The restaurant people point to an adjacent street (60 degrees from where I stand). Yes, I found the International Ticket office at the bottom of this street.
Logically you would think that two streets that are at a sharp angle to each other would have different names.
Note: I just finished reading Michael Palin’s “Hemingway’s Chair” a hilarious story of a post-office worker obsessed with EH!
Next: Bucarest in Romania
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