I’ll be honest, the reaction was a bit muted here in this house when I proposed a week in Bulgaria for a beach holiday. The kids looked blankly as they’d had never heard of Bulgaria before but then again, that’s the same as much of the world, at least the part without star football players at any rate. The husband had been there on holidays in communist times and responded, in a kind of dead fish handshake kind of way, that it was nice, neither convinced nor convincing. In fairness, his holidays growing up in East Germany sound great to me but with travel options limited to the communist eastern bloc, the sense of detention and restriction came to override the carefree beach elation, especially in his teenage years. Suffice it to say that he was OK with Bulgaria but I sensed, not bowled over with enthusiasm.
As for me, my logic was simple. It was a new European country that we’d never been to before. The hotel looked great, ridiculously big so there would be enough people to people-watch in the lull times. And if there was any unsavoury fighting over sun-loungers or bacon and eggs at the breakfast buffet, the place was big enough to avoid the rabble and move on. Pools, palm trees and a long sandy beach to run away from that rabble if necessary, perfect.
I also reasoned that Bulgaria had joined the EU at the same time as Romania back in 2007 and while I’ve encountered many Romanians here in Norway and in London, I’d never knowingly met anyone from Bulgaria. That must mean they all wanted to stay home, surely a sign of love and prosperity I decided. Time to get on with it and just book.
Washed clean after early morning rain
We had a brilliant week. It was a big resort, which meant there were organised activities for kids, a real bonus on days that were either too scorching or with biblical rain showers, of which we had a few. The Black Sea was amazing. I’m lucky enough to have been to the Maldives a few times and the Black Sea, all soft and warm, reminded me of the Indian Ocean. Getting into the water was a bit like having an all-immersive warm(ish) hug. The soothing effect of the water is surely helped by the fact that it’s not as salty as normal sea water, what with the Danube and a half dozen other major rivers pouring fresh water into it as they end their journeys.
It quickly emerged that English wasn’t a whole lot of use to us with a lot of the hotel staff and outside the resort because, in fairness this was the east. Russian is the lingua franca. Russians have been relaxing by the Black Sea for centuries and they are by far the biggest tourist group. Bulgarians, until relatively recently at any rate, had mandatory Russian at school for nine years and Bulgaria has only become a democracy with the fall of communism in Europe in the early nineties. They didn’t learn English at school and if they did, they probably didn’t expect to ever use it.
Sometimes I wondered about planning laws
For me, it was the first time I had been in an EU / European country that felt so, erm…Russian. Not just in language but in the big austere, ostentatious hotels with turrets and mirrors and the communist style apartment blocks. I enjoyed sitting on the beach with my book and listening to middle-aged Russians babbling on, the flurry of words and the peaks and troughs of telling stories to each other. Try as I might, I couldn’t understand a thing. Were they talking about Putin? Corruption maybe? Last night’s dinner? Who knows what I missed out on.
And while the Russians tended to go to the beach, the Scandinavians, British and Dutch were hanging out by the pool. As always, I get spiked blood pressure on seeing a sea of towels on sunbeds at 8am in the morning with not a tourist to be seen. We couldn’t blame the Germans this time, the malaise is now pan-European it seems. And while there is a rule that this great human behaviour is not allowed, the on-duty manager told me, there’s nothing they can do really (or want to do, more aptly). They are smart enough to have a contingency plan for grumpy guests like me; if loungers were still empty by 10am, we could take our pick and the lifeguard would move towels. Now we never tried this, possibly why we had a good week and got home safe and sound.
This unwillingness to reign in the tourists was a sense I got right through the week, people were still swimming in pools at 8pm or even later even though the lifeguards finished at 6pm. There was a large group of loud, drunk tourists in a restaurant one evening and honestly, they should have been told to shut it or get out. But they weren’t. Bulgaria is still cultivating EU tourism and it feels like they really don’t want to annoy the tourists. Greece is down the road with a very confident, high-return tourist trade. Bulgaria wants its own chunk of that and in fairness, deserves it.
Empty beach for an evening dip…perfect
Another major plus for Bulgaria, aside from sea, the good food (meat based, it has to be said) and exotic Eastern feel, is that the mosquitoes haven’t found it yet either. All those tourists and not a mosquito (which has to do with the lack of fresh water nearby I know, but still). From someone who always get’s bitten, this is a HUGE plus. We walked through some wetland one dusk trying to find a restaurant, led by the husband and a very confused Google Maps which apparently thought we wanted a mini-safari. I thought I’d be eaten alive, but I wasn’t, at all. I was celebrating for two days after that.
A lot of people have asked me would I recommend Bulgaria after our trip. I would. If it’s glamour you’re after, then no but if it’s good food, nice people and clean sandy beaches, then yes. And there was a 3,000-year-old ancient city of Nessebar* down the road from where we were which the UNESCO World Heritage status suggests is a must see. Our taxi driver wasn’t too impressed that we hadn’t managed to see it. Looks like we just have to go back.
Bulgaria is also missing that mania of other sun destinations like Greece or the south of Spain where you feel, when you arrive at the airport, that the rest of Europe is going to the same place as you. From start to finish, it’s calmer. We all gave it ten out of ten and such a consensus in this house is quite something.
# https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/217
