Day 18

"This isn't a road, this is a fricken donkey path," S2 snarled at Carmen, as she told us to turn left onto Ulitsa Tri Mart.  NS and I laughed uproariously as we spotted the sign (in Cyrillic) declaring the bumpy path we were set to drive down as indeed, Ulitsa Tri Mart.

We'd gone off the main road for S2 to see some frescoes painted in caves (UNESCO identified).  Probably due to our cycling days, we avoid retracing our route if at all possible.  Thus, we were attempting to connect a series of very small roads (those kind not on the map) to get back to the main route.  This is where, usually, Carmen is a big help.  We have discovered, however, there are just as many roads Carmen doesn't know about,  brand new, oh-so-smooth, 4-lane expressways, that she tells you to make a U-turn on.  She provides us with countless laughs.  NS and I have toyed with the idea of changing her voice to a male voice for our drive home next week (as S2 won't be with us).  The debate is what we would name HIM.

Anyhow, she'd taken us on a road that I approved, in conjunction with the map (I can't let her be the sole navigator).  Neither of us had any way of knowing that the bridge was being re-built.  Hmmmm, this might have been what that sign back at the last junction was telling us.  S2 went to pull the car up to the edge of the road (just before the drop off) to start a T turn.  The three dozing construction workers popped out of nowhere yelling and screaming.  I could only imagine their thoughts 'crazy German tourist, just because they won the World Cup doesn't mean they can fly over bridges.'  They gestured up the 'path' in the direction we were traveling, yelling 'most, most' - bridge in Russian, Czech, and apparently, Bulgarian.  

Sure enough, Carmen announced she was recalculating, and we bumped and lumped our way up this incredibly narrow road, managed to make room for two vehicles going the opposite direction to pass, and at the next, uh, intersection, Carmen announced that we should take a left turn onto Ulitsa Tri Mart.  Even more hilarious, once we made the turn and S2 made his proclamation that we were on a donkey path, she told us to continue for 8.9 kms!

This was the stretch of road where I noted, all this corn and none of it is fit for human consumption.  Somehow, sweet corn has not made it from the New World to the Old World.  Those seeds must be restricted from being exported.  Every ear of corn we have eaten in Europe (and we've lived here 10 years now) has been disappointing.  I've seen the seed signs, declaring which rows of corn come from which kind of seed (just like in Nebraska and Iowa), but as far as I'm concerned, none of it is worth eating.  I've been disappointed too many times.  Peaches, however, are another story.

Other first impressions of Bulgaria: lovely rolling hills, I mean, really romantic rolling hills, lots of flowers, especially in the stretch of grass in front of the high fences at roadside, many fruit trees, and somehow, more Mediterranean, and mosques -  not big ones, small village-sized ones.

Bulgarian is in the Slavic family and uses the Cyrillic alphabet. Perhaps it is a concession to being an EU member, but the road signs are in Cyrillic and Roman letters.  So, when we stop at a T-junction, we aren't being asked to choose from 4 different destinations, there are only two choices, it just looks more complicated because of the similarities in letters that have completely different sounds.  

Our next stop was Madera to look at the national symbol of Bulgaria, a carving in a rock face of a horseman stabbing a dragon, his faithful dog by his side.  It was pretty impressive for being there since before the year 1000.  The body parts of everything looked in good proportion, well-muscled.  I would think dragons were a bit bigger, but having never seen one, who am I to assume?

On to Varna, the beach resort of the Black Sea.  It's probably the French Riviera to Eastern Europe.  During the Cold War, those of us in the U.S. could only see photos of it in National Geographic.  We knew it would be a much bigger scene than we were comfortable with, but decided to gawk anyhow.  How hard could it be?  Drive east until you reach the ocean and then go left or right! Multi-story malls, designer stores, people everywhere, lots of traffic, where is the beach?

We meet the Black Sea.

These people don't need no stinkin' Smart Car to take one of those narrow parking spots!

We continued south along the coast, heading to Nesebar, a pre-Roman fortified city, surely there would be less of a crowd there.  The 8-km Sunny Beach, prior to Nesebar would surely be THE place to be.  In the end, we discovered every square centimeter of the coast line appears to have apartments, hotels, shops, tourists, and beach umbrellas.

We had decided to take tomorrow, the 25th anniversary of that day we got the piece of paper in Japan that says we are married, and spend it at the Black Sea.  Thus, we set ourselves up to stay two nights in a hotel, with a balcony, a short walk from the beach.