The Black Sea Coast

We crossed the border into Bulgaria and headed to The Black Sea coast.

Tolls

If you are going to be driving in Bulgaria you will need to pay for their tolls. If you have a car or your van is 3.5 tonne or less you can buy a vignette on line for around 27 Bulgarian LEV (roughly £12 or €14 at time) and this will cover all journeys. If like us you are over 3.5 tonne then you have to download an app called Tollpass and enter each journey and pay before setting off. It can be tricky but it gets a bit easier as you get used to it.

It was quite a long drive to the Black Sea from the border, we headed for the town of Bourgas.

There was a park up right by the sea. It was just a car park. We arrived quite late and there was space and it was free.

In the morning it started to fill up quite early. It was the weekend and it was very hot. Everyone was heading to the beach.

We decided to leave and head south then work our way back up the coast.

We headed to a park up south of Sozopol. It was a wild beach park up, quite off the beat and track. When we arrived there was another van parked up, they didn’t seem that friendly. There was also a cafe, Dee went and spoke to the owner who didn’t seem to know if it was ok to stay or whose land it was. On this basis Dee didn’t feel that comfortable staying so we decided to move on to Sozopol.

We’d passed through Sozopol years ago when we’d been to Bulgaria. We hired a car and I think we stopped briefly. I couldn’t really remember that much about it except that it was near the Turkish border.

When we got there it was a very small town and the car park we were going to was full, the attendant waved us on. There wasn’t any other park up’s so we had to bypass Sozopol, although it did look like a nice vibrant little town to visit.

We found a nice little lay-by by this lovely little beach. Sadly though it wasn’t a good place to swim. There was lots of debris and it was very shallow.

Bourgas

The following day we decided to head back to Bourgas and meet our friends Steve and Elisa Jones again who were crossing the Turkish border that day. We arrived before them. It was very busy there but we managed to find a space. I went and sat on the beach which was very crowded, but at least I could get in the sea.

Shortly after our friends arrived we were able to move closer to the sea as people started to leave. It was really nice to see then again. We decided to stay here for 2 nights and then move on to Nessebar with view to celebrating my birthday there on 30th June.

The following day there was rain forecast later in the day. In the morning it was quite overcast. Dee and I decided to head off on our bikes to find a laundry. It was about a 30km round trip.

As you have probably guessed half way there the rain came and it was really heavy. We attempted to take shelter at the side of the road, there were quite a lot of trees and Dee even found somewhere to stand under looking like he was wearing a witches outfit!

We didn’t actually manage to find the laundry we were looking for, it was on an industrial estate and turned out to be a commercial laundry! We attempted to find another one that didn’t seem to exist and eventually we got directed to one that was a bit further on . We had to leave our laundry with them and ended up having to pay double to get it back the next day! On the positive side at least we’d had an adventure instead of sitting inside the van watching the rain fall!

It had cleared up for our cycle ride back.

We even managed to get a couple of photos once we were safely back.

Here is a photo of the beach that evening with a great sky.

The following day it was hot again. The Jones’s headed off ahead of us as we had to pick our laundry up. It wasn’t going to be ready until the afternoon.

Nessebar

Steve and Elisa decided that we wouldn’t drink until my birthday in 3 days time.

Whilst we were on our way they were sending us photo’s from a beach bar! They’d gone for a walk on the beach and stopped for “Just 1 beer!”. Of course it is never “Just 1 beer!” And we had some catching up to do when we got there. It was definitely a ‘holiday vibes’ kind of place.

Filling up with water from a natural spring

The bar had a really nice friendly feeling to it and definitely a holiday beach bar vibe!

After a few drinks we all decided that we would go out for some food as no one felt like cooking.

We had a nice meal at a place on the beach and then we stopped for another drink on the way back and got chatting to someone who was on holiday with his son. When we were walking back Steve dared me to jump in a hotel pool. I said I would if he did! And yes we both did, as you can see! It was a good evening.

The following day started with Dee getting his head shaved. It was very hot and we set up a little camp as you can see even though it did get a bit overcast. Dee even went into the sea as you can see in the last photo below.

The next day we had a wander into Nessebar Old Town to find a restaurant for my birthday dinner the following day.

We had a good look around and we did book something.

On the morning of my birthday I did of course have to go for a swim. Steve came with, here we are after the swim

The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the sun.

We dressed up in our best clothes and went out around 5pm. We went for drinks first and then onto the restaurant. As you can see we had a great table with the best view.

The food and the company was great, it was a real treat and a fabulous birthday.

Varna

The following day it was time to move a bit further up the coast to Varna. Dee and I had visited Varna about 15 years earlier. At the time Bulgaria was becoming a top holiday destination and we were considering buying property there.

I couldn’t remember much about Varna except that it seemed to have everything, a beautiful beach , a park and a very vibrant town centre with shops, bars and cafes. At the time we believed it would become a top destination for weekend breaks .

Once we were there we did remember certain things and we also felt that it had improved and grown, sadly I still don’t think it has become a top weekend break destination yet but the potential is definitely there.

It is Bulgaria’s 3rd largest city, it has many cultural attractions including museums, art galleries, an opera house and an impressive cathedral as well as the beach, the park and a vibrant night life.

We found a nice park up by the beach. It was about a 40 minute walk from Varna town centre so we spent the rest of the day relaxing and headed off into to town to do our exploring the next day.