Sozopol: On the Black Sea

Sozopol

Sozopol is one of the resort towns on the Black Sea.  At best, it's a 4 hour bus/train ride to Burgas, and then a 45 minute ride to sozopol.

At best.

I am not sleeping well on this trip.  Last night was one of the worst.  I turned off social media early.  Didn't do it.  I listened to my not super exciting "7 lessons on physics" on audiobook.   Nope.  I downloaded a meditation app.  Nope.  Finally fell asleep at 4, alarm set to 8.

I no longer trust online information about Bulgarian transport, so I message my airbnb host.  He tells me that instead of the 9am train I wanted to take, there's a 9am bus and it will be better.  I ask if leaving at 8:30 is ok.  Sure, no problem.  He'll get his dad to call a cab for me.  

Well, a little lost in the translation, I suppose, and dad calls the cab when I'm all packed up to leave.  Cab arrives at 8:40. No problem. Gets to bus station 8:50.  I go to buy a ticket, no 9:00 bus.  Only 3:30.  I don't know if there never was a 9am bus or if it was just full.  I'll never know.

Well, I'm really tired.  But the train station is in sight across the way!  I've got 5 minutes.  I'm running for it.

My friend lauren and I did the same exact thing trying to get from Slovenia to Milan.  No bus.  Train leaves in 3 minutes.  We're running.  We barely made it.  This was only a handful of months ago, and I can't believe I have to do it again.

I run there.... well, more like power walking.  I don't run.  I don't look for an underpass to cross this boulevard.  I'm from New York, I'm sure this won't kill me.  It doesn't.  I get to the train station.  I just run to a platform that has a train on it.  There's a conductor and she speaks perfect english. 

"Oh, you just missed it.   Next one is at 1pm."

Fuck.

So this basically kills a beach day, which I really needed at this point.   Do I go back to the Airbnb and ask to take a nap?  Equipped with the website the Airbnb host gave me (is it even reliable?!?) and google maps (which I don't even trust anymore) I figure out that I have three choices: wait for the next bus or train in this cruddy station, take a 1 hour bus ride to stare zagora, and check out the town before connecting to Burgas a couple of hours later, or take a 2.5 hour bus to Sliven, known for, well, almost nothing according to the guidebook, and take a connection there.  I choose the third option and hope for the best, only because it will allow me to sleep the longest.  Worst case scenario?  I lose a night hotel in sozopol and I stay in this little town for the night, I figure.

I set my alarm for 2 hours and 15 minutes, but forget to click "start." I oversleep a bit and temporarily panic. The bus arrives 15 minutes late so I'm still ok, and now rested at least.

I get to sliven and there is zero English anywhere, from signs or people.  This isn't a complaint. Just a challenge. I say to the woman at what I think is a ticket counter "Burgas?" And she says 2:30.  She writes it down. I smile and say "da" and give her the thumbs up sign.  She doesn't seem to understand I want that ticket.  The interchange repeated.  She points to the lady next to her.  The lady next to her sells me the ticket.  I give her 10 lev.  She shakes her head and writes down "12."  Ok, I give her 20.  She smiles.

It's a minibus to Burgas, and takes 2 hours, but it arrives a half hour early. OK!  Things are looking up! Burgas is the main transfer point to all of the Black Sea beaches!  This will be easy!

No.  Not at all.  The bus station is empty, and 2 women who barely understand me tell me to take bus 12, but it isn't until the second lady to realize that bus 12 is at another bus station.  She points to what I think is across the street.  I walk across the street.  No sign of anything.  I walk past an auto repair place with three young mechanics and a young woman outside.  Great.  They have no idea, and one just says "taxi? And they all laugh.  It turned out that this was the only dude with any sense.  The central bus terminal Is called autogara zug and it's in the TOWN CENTER.  what the HELL was this woman pointing at?  North?  So I could orient myself like a compass?  Well, 4 more people and 45 minutes later, 45 FUCKING MINUTES LATER, I'm done.  It's time for a taxi.  The autogara is a 7 minute drive away.  Man, this is not easy at all today.  And I don't even see any taxis!  Until a guy at the far end of the station yells "taxi?"

Fuck yes I'll get in that taxi.  And when he shows me a fare card and says in minimal English "straight to sozopol!" And it's about $30, YES  I WILL DO THAT, NOT EVEN A SECOND THOUGHT.

So. In summary. A taxi to the bus station.  2 hour wait for bus.  2.75 hour bus ride. 1.5 hour wait for bus 2. 1.5 hour bus ride.  45 minutes of fuckery trying to figure shit out.  45 minute taxi to hotel. 

I arrive about 5:30, about 3.5 hours later than expected, at three times the cost.  But I'm rested, proud of my fortitude, and much like finding the elusive parking spot at 4pm in the city, im suddenly so elated to have arrived that I forgot about all the time it took to get there.

I had booked a 3-night stay at one place in sozopol, and at the last minute I decided I wanted a 4th night, so I arrived at villa Diana on the other side of town.  It's a beautiful 3-story home with a small pool.  I'm on the third floor of this walk up and this spare but clean and bright room has a large comfortable bed, air conditioning, and a small private terrace.  It overlooks nothing but other private terraces, but I'm a really simple girl and just being able to sit outside but still be in your place is a great luxury to me.  I'm a 5-minute walk to one of the two town beaches.

The only thing I've eaten today was some left over khachpuri I packed in my bag "just in case," so I was pretty hungry.  Seafood is the draw here, so I order some mussels I see some guy eating next to me, and because that doesn't seem like enough (it's listed as an appetizer), I round out the meal with kofte, which is like a seasoned meat sausage formed by hand and grilled, and something called a "neurotic meatball."  I don't know what's neurotic about it, but I figured it's more than appropriate for me.  The menu is in English and she speaks perfect English and after the day I've had, I'm grateful for both.  My first glass of Bulgarian white wine, she fills to the brim.  I'm grateful for that as well.

This mussel plate is HUGE, and I look down and realized that I ordered a huge platter of mussels, and essentially a sausage AND a hamburger. Nothing came with bread, so I'll call this healthy.  Everything was delicious, including the neurotic meat ball which seems to mean that it was spicy, nothing more.  The bill is 13.10 lev, I give her 20, she gives me 5 in change.  More self-tipping.  Great.

It's a great little beach town, very family and old-people oriented.  I think all the young party people are at "sunny beach" about an hour away and that's perfect for me.  I didn't like 20-something eurotrash when I was 20-something.  There's stores everywhere, selling beach wear and toys, like any other beach town.  But instead of a boardwalk that has all the restaurants, there's a pedestrian street parallel to the beach that is packed with restaurants, fresh juice places, take-away fish joints, ice cream stands (discovered a new favorite: violet flavored ice cream), crepe stands, bars, and for some reason, "fish spas."

5 lev (about $3) for 15 minutes, and in predictable Eastern European fashion, the fish tanks are glowing with neon lights.  If you've never had a fish spa, it's amazing. There's this special breed of fish, an inch long, which like to feed on dead human flesh.  So they swarm at your feet and suck away at your dead skin.  It doesn't hurt in the least.  They vibrate more than anything.  It's fun!  This is the closest to communing with nature as I get, if you don't count talking to the feral street cats.

The girl working the fish spa, Antonia, speaks pretty good English and is 18.  She's so cute and of course wants to know why I'm in Bulgaria.  She's excited to share with me that she doesn't like or want kids either.  Then she proceeds to tell me what other country's people she doesn't like.  Germans, Russians (they know English and won't talk to us in English, only in Russian!  Because, you know, they're RUSSIAN, and sticks her nose in the air to indicate that Russians have airs. )  but the ENGLISH. "All they want to do is come here and all the time!"  It's good to know that there are places in the world where Americans aren't the worst.  Usually I hear Germans and the English.  And Australians, but I guess either they haven't discovered Bulgaria yet or Antonia can't tell the Australians and English apart.  I can't blame her.

I pay her my 5 lev.  Do I tip her?  I don't really have any change, and the fish did all the work, right?  I don't fucking know.  Ever.

I fall asleep at 10:30 after a grapefruit shandy on my little patio.  I sleep through the night for the first time on this trip.

I wake up to get a coffee, and a pumpkin filled banitsa that I spotted the day before.  I know that coffee is most often sold at bodegas, but every block in this town has a Nescafé or Lavazza automat.  I would never order coffee from a machine at home, but here everyone is buying from the machines!  I guess it makes sense, since you when you go to the bodega it's the same damn machine.  I don't have any change so I go to the bodega.  

I butcher the phrase "cafe s'milako" which means "coffee with milk.  This guy is laughing at me.  Lots of tourists in this town.  He keeps talking, and I'm pretty sure he's saying "you have no idea what I'm saying, do you?" So I shake my head.  He says "English, Deutsch?" And I say "American." He shakes his head and laughs.  That's everyone's response to me.  Laughter.  Like, girl, how the fuck did you wind up here?!?  I'm sure it doesn't cost 1 lev, but that's what he charges me, and i really understand now that it's not that people are tipping themselves, they just don't give change.  Grocery stores, yes, bakeries, yes.  But restaurants and random other places? They're going to round up to whatever is convenient for them.

I excitedly tell the lady at the hotel that I was very happy to be there and I was sorry it was only one day.  Next time, I stay with her the whole time.  She is very happy to hear that, as she lets me pet her orange Persian cat with a shaved lion cut.  He makes the strangest little noise as I pet him, somewhere between a bird squawk and a dog bark.  She likes me, too. I guess, as she says "Cindy! I have a present for you!" And presents me with a magnet from Bulgaria.  

There are two beaches in this part of town, and I'm near the southern one.  It's a blue flag beach, which means it's rated for cleanliness, but I'm disappointed that it's not crystal clear like my snobby ass has come to expect.  There's a lot of people and the water is very rough and I stupidly bought everything I have of value with me to this beach, so I don't go in.  Maybe tomorrow.

She calls me a taxi to get to my next hotel called Villa sozopol.  It's in the old town of sozopol, and I usually tried to steer clear of old towns, but I don't think I knew that before I booked it.  All I knew is that it had  air conditioning, a pool, and was close to a beach.  The "other" beach.  

I didn't take money out, because I was waiting to figure out if the new hotel wanted me to pay in cash or not.  I'm nearing the end of my Bulgarian journey, and I didn't want to be stuck with a fuck ton of Bulgarian money or have to make another trip to the ATM.  Part of this is my cheapness, part is due to my devotion to mathematics: I'm always trying to optimize.  I want to end up with zero.

This is stupid.  

The trip to the new place, even though on the other end of town, takes me slowly though windy, cobblestone, one way streets, and when we get there, it costs 10 lev.  I only have 6.  I'm convinced I'm getting ripped off, and I just KNEW this would happen.  Moron.  I ask to pay in euro.  He was into that.  But in my embarrassment, I couldn't find my euro.  I ask the hotel proprietor TO BORROW 10 LEV.  I am so embarrassed.  He says sure, and when I tell him the situation, he says "10 lev?!?" And rolls his eyes.  I pay him back swiftly.  He doesn't seem to mind.

He shows me to my room.   All I give a shit about on this trip is CLEAN and AIR CONDITIONING and cheap enough so that a months worth of travel won't have me working summer school next year.  Well, that's exactly what I got.  I'm in the maids quarters, I think.  Or a monastery.  Two twin beds, separated by about a foot's width.  I started to do sit-ups on this trip, figuring i really have no excuse at this point.  I'm alone and I have fuckall to do.  Well, there isn't enough space between the beds to even to that.  Great excuse to be lazy.  There's a tall wardrobe with a small flat screen on the top of it.  It's comically high, and at a weird angle to watch.  My room is directly above the attached restaurant, and next to a plumbing line, and everyone someone flushes, I hear water whooshing past.  Do I care?  No.  It's clean, and air conditioned (which I don't even seem to need in the nighttime) and I only need to be in this room to sleep.  It's $22 A NIGHT with a full to-order breakfast included and has an infinity pool that overlooks the sea on a cliff.  

I need to pause to defend my cheapness for a moment.  Traveling is the thing I love to do more than anything.  But I ain't rich.  And my parents taught me very early on the value of a dollar.  I am so thankful for that, because it has allowed me to make smart life choices.  I would have never bought An apartment without my dad's frugal thinking and advice.  I'm a schoolteacher with a Manhattan apartment.  How does that even get to happen?  And I'm blessed with a lot of vacation time.  If I want to travel three, four times a year, this is how it has to be.  And I'm so happy that I can travel simply, and be happy with the choices I've made.  One of the saddest things in life to me is people who are desperate to live beyond their means.  To incessantly dream of having things they'll never have.  I'm not this person.  I'm proud of this.  This way of traveling, this way of living, although I'm certain most people see me as "cheap" (which I am often self-conscious about) allows me to do what I want to do without worry that I'll be working until I die.  I want to retire as soon as I can, but I also don't want to put off LIVING.  This makes me the either the best travel companion in the world or the worst, depending on your purview.  Or it means I travel alone, which I don't love all the time, but sometimes I do.  I'm a control freak, and the tradeoff of not being able to share this with someone is that I get to be in charge.  Luckily, I don't really give a shit what anyone thinks of my choices.  Come along with me for the ride, or don't.  I like this, and if your idea of a good time is a private yacht on the Mediterranean with oysters and caviar, I applaud you.  I'd probably do the same if I had only 2 weeks of vacation a year.  (Ok let's be honest, I probably wouldn't.). It's Disney I just don't understand.  Man, my colleagues LOVE Disney.  I didn't even like it when I was on spring break in college.  But that's a whole other conversation.

I'm here for 3 more nights, and I am stupefied by this place.  I've got a guidebook, but it covers Romania and Bulgaria, and the more territory a guidebook covers, the less is said about each part.  There's three pages about sozopol, and none of it seems to capture it's magic or give me a hint as to how to enjoy it.  The internet is of little help, either.  And usually, when you show up at a hotel, they give you a map with an overview of what you should do and where you should go.  No one has so far.  I could ask, as everyone speaks English here.  But I'm taken by the fact that no one here IMPOSES on you to do anything.  ANYTHING.  I've never been anywhere like it.  What a breath of fresh air.

Almost no one is hawking to buy anything or come to their restaurant.  

I have not been sexually harassed by anyone in the whole country, and I'm currently wearing a dress that borders on "shirt."  I keep getting message from friends worried that I'm alone.  I've almost never felt safer.

I was in a jewelry store for an hour and the lady did not pressure me to buy a thing. I said "I'll be back later." She said "ok, I'll be here all day!"

I have been sitting at this restaurant slowly drinking wine and watching the sunset for 2 hours before I ordered dinner.  I ordered a main and a side dish, and the waiter says to me, "the rabbit is served on a bed of mashed potatoes.  I don't think you need the side dish."  I mean, who does that?!?

What a gem this country is.  

It takes me two days to find out there is a stone-walled cliff side promenade that you can walk along, that takes through dozens of Restaurants.  Literally, THROUGH restaurants.  And no one pressures you to enter.  It's spectacular, and there are multiple stairwells that you can descend to the rocky part of the sea.  

I'm on the cliff right now at a restaurant called Urania.  It's one of the more expensive restaurants in town.  Because even for cheap-asses like me, there's only so much of the thing you can eat all week long.  For all I have read about Bulgarian service being bad, my waiter is adorable and charming and attentive without being overbearing. He delights when I tell him that my rabbit dish (personal rule: if there is rabbit, get the rabbit) with mashed potatoes, cranberrry, and some rosemary-like herb I cant place reminds me of American  thanksgiving.  More likely, he doesn't understand me.  

No matter.  I love it here.