On a flight in the Muslim world, the screens that show you flight progress and stats will also show you what direction the nearest mosque is as well as the direction of Mecca.
We thought this was some Turkish apple, it was certainly sour enough to be in the crab apple family.
Anise Liquor. Charlotte got hustled into buying a whole bottle rather than a glass ‘because it is cheaper and you get a free fruit plate’. We tried to drink the whole thing. Not happening.
We spent one night in Istanbul but had to leave at 4:00 am to take an hour taxi ride from the Asian side airport to the new airport on the European side. No showers for us today. We didn’t see this note hiding in the room.
Our taxi driver from the airport in Constanta, Romania had all these patches on the roof of his cab that he got from US servicemen that were stationed at a nearby base.
Driving through eastern Romania, these are two impressions that imprinted on our brains: Wind Turbines and Sunflowers. Hundreds of the former and millions of the latter.
Driving through the university area of Varna, Bulgaria. See how they spell McDonald’s here.
A kazillion Bulgarian sunflowers say Hi (or locally, Dzraveite!)
Our first food in Bulgaria. This is a traditional tomato based sauce. Lutenitsa. Tomato, peppers, eggplant and carrot. Sometimes called Bulgairan katsup. Spread it on some flat bread, pop it in an oven and you have Bulgarian Pizza!
The Nativity of the Theotokos Russian Orthodox Church in the center of Pomorie. They don’t believe in the immaculate conception here. In September they celebrate the regular human birth of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Our home for the next three months will be at the top left of this building. You can see the railing along the sun deck.
The large organic farmers market a couple hundred meters from our apartment. We will be seeing a lot of this place!
Our host, Rumi, and her Russian speaking husband, Vesco. They took us out for a feast at their favorite restaurant on our first day here in Bulgaria.
Happy to be in Bulgaria. We also were in Romania for the first time. Countries 71 and 72 for Charlotte. 51 and 52 for Luke.
Our first morning in Pomorie. (Don’t start pronouncing this wrong it will be hard to fix later – we know). The emphesis is on the second and third syllable. It’s 10:00am and the miles of beaches are already packed.
I did not see a single bikini in three months of watching the beach in Tangier, Morocco. The Black Sea beats that in a blink.
So this is where they get all those Yankees hats.
Pomorie sticks way out into the water. It’s almost an island. So to keep ships from smashing into us, there is this lighthouse out beyond the town. There is a fair amout of large ship traffic to Burges, a larger city in a bay just to the south of us.
There she is.
This picture it taken from our large sun deck. Right below us is a nice fruit stand. Want an orange? watermelon? Run out of tomato or onion? No problemo.
A nice place to hang out on the deck. Make that two nice places. The two person seats are great, but if you want to enjoy the stars, do the hammock.
We also have a balcony off the living room. That ground floor room you see covers some seating for the nearest restaurant. Haven’t tried it yet, but I see on the menu that it has all the wonderful Bulgarian dishes.
One of the views from our deck. This is a view to the west, away from the Black Sea with a small mountain range in the background.
From the deck, a view to the north where you can see some of the Black Sea. It’s less than a five minute walk to the water.
Our favorite running track. This wide flat smooth surface run along the sea goes for miles and miles. It’s on the south side of Pomorie. Those tall buildings are the new part of Pomorie. We’ve run right up to it, but haven’t explored it yet.
This shows the challenge of the very foreign alphabet used here. That there spells Pomorie. Trust me.
Not a lot of tide on the Black Sea here. Moss growing well.
The patterns in the brick roads in Pomarie, Bulgaria are sometimes quite interesting. Check out Charlotte’s video about the Grey Brick Road.
Sunset over Pomarie, Bulgaria
Somewhat odd free reading material at the sidewalk cafe where we sometimes stop after our morning run.
Luke bobbing along in the Black Sea.
Coca-Cola Hell. That’s right, Hell energy drink. Often with Bruce Willis promoting it. “Gives you power like Hell” they say. Like hell, I say.
A local winery has this small store right next to the farmers market. Those huge vats are full of vino and if you ask they will open the spigot and give you a taste.
This is the stall in the farmers market where we usually get our fruits and vegetables. The tomatoes here are the best we have ever had anywhere.
Unbelievable. This couple got up from where they were sitting and ran along with us for over a quarter mile! They are the Bulgarian equivalent of hippies. Maybe called gypsies here.
A friend we’ve made from our daily runs along the sea. She is from Germany. Note more red hair.
We were checking out a place called the American Restaurant with great views of the sea. A squall came in and forced us to indoor seating. But we got a nice rainbow out of it.
the American Restaurant. Now probably more welcoming than the actual country.
Here is another guy that gets up and starts jogging with us. We later became Facebook friends.
Jogging brings friends together. We look forward to seeing each other every morning out along the sea.
With our Bulgarian hippie friends and their small shop where they sell their seashell creations.
Throughout Bulgaria you will see these laminated posters on trees and doors to honor and remember relatives who have died. I understand if you have trouble reading it. Nearly everything here uses the Cryllic alphabet.
Charlotte gave this drink a try. A bit sweet for her. The price is in Bulgarian lev. Converting it to dollars makes it about $3.50.
While we were visiting Burgas, about twenty kilometers to the south, these two film crews were covering the crime of the day and interviewed us. Donald, I don’t think you would like what Charlotte said about you. Anyway, someone had ripped open the bottom of one of those coin operated binoculars on a pole and got away with maybe $20. Next thing you know they’ll be covering Wall Street ripping us off for hundreds of billions.
We’ve been asked if they have veggie burgas in Burgas, Bulgaria. And the answer is yes they do.
The Bulgarian flag flying over the small marina in Pomorie, Bulgaria.
Happy Birthday, dear Charlotte. Happy Birthday to you. Looking good at 3/4ths of a century. This chocolate cake is a favorite here. It has a bit of a chocolate crust on the outside but soft chocolate on the inside and it is served warm with ice cream.
This guy has all kinds of honey collected in different parts of Bulgaria.
We got three kinds of Bulgarian honey and some strawberry jam from a local producer. One comes from the high mountains. One is from Chestnut blossoms. One is from Bulgarian fields.
The view from our top-of-the-building patio hammock. When we stand up we can see the Black Sea to the North and the East. We are about two blocks away.
This is called a Country Salad at Koziyat Rog – the top rated restaurant in Pomorie. Eggplant, Tomato, Cucumber, Red Onion, Walnuts, Red Bell Pepper, Garlic and Goat Cheese.
A Spinach and Quinoa Salad. This is from an awesome chain of Bulgarian restaurants called Happy. This one was in Burgas. I think they have at least 6 in the capital, Sofia. Great food and every few months they feature dishes from a different culinary tradition.
Early in the morning folks line up at this little shop to get one product, Mekitsa. It’s a fry bread made from yogurt and flour. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on it and wow.
Making Mekitsa
Yes, we’ll have them with powdered sugar.
Mekitsa. All made fresh and hot to order.
Yup. That’s them.
These are salt drying ponds. Pomorie, centuries ago, provided salt for a large area from the Ukraine to Istanbul. Now it’s just a small operation mostly for tourists to experience. Yes, those are piles of salt.
The famous healing mud of Pomorie. People come from all around to cover themselves in mud. It is said that the mud helps with many ailments including arthritis.
More mudders drying out.
Mammoth bones. We were at least 10,000 years too late to see one of these alive, but at the Pomorie History Museum you can actually one of their big bones.
More big Mammoth bones.
We had our AirBnB hosts over for dinner a while back and they wanted to bring a dessert. We told them anything with chocolate was a safe bet. It took us over a week to put this huge chocolate cake away.
They are selling a few winter squashes at this house.
Bulgaria is a place where a woman like Charlotte can really spread her wings.
We took a bus trip up the coast to an ancient city named Nessebar. This is where there was once an amphitheater and it is still in use today.
There are at least a dozen churches in the old part of Nessebar and this is one of them. They were all build around the 1400’s.
Another old Nessebar church.
Some of these old Nessebar churches are in better shape than others – as you will soon see.
The traditional structures in this part of Bulgaria use to be the bottom floor made of stone and this is where their animals took shelter. Above it was a floor made of wood where the family lived.
Not so much left of this old church.
A doorway into an old simple church that is now a museum of sorts because the artwork on the inner walls of the church has been pretty well preserved.
This is some of that preserved inside wall artwork.
More of the artwork on the inner walls. How old do you think that door is?
Do you feel transported back to the 15th century yet?
Back in Pomorie. This is an elementary school Turns out it was taken the day before school starts. On the first day of school virtually all of the children bring flowers for their teachers.
Just outside of Pomorie, surrounded by vineyards sits this mound that is maybe about 2,000 years old. They don’t have a clue what it is used for.
This is the hallway leading into the mound or crypt or tomb. They think it was built by people known as Thracians.
At the inside center of the Thracian Tomb is a hollow tower that morphs out into the ceiling like a giant mushroom.
This guy was selling squash from his house. Squash everywhere – even in a big cart on the street.
Some white and brown swans on the Black Sea. The white one with no neck is reaching down to feast on seaweed.
My favorite salad. Quinua and Spinach Salad at Happys in Burgas. The Happy chain of restaurants are excellent. There are maybe a dozen of them in Bulgaria.
Unique hotel roof on this hotel we pass by every day.
A very informative note posted inside our apartment building. We had to get some help reading it. It basically says please keep the halls and staircase clean.
Rumi and Vesco, our AirBnB hosts took us on a day trip to the town of Sozopol south of Burgas. Her father lived here. There is a very old part of town that we walked around in the light rain.
In Sozopol. Surrounded by a protective rock wall.
Charlotte started feeding the stray cats of Pomorie. Sometimes 20-30 a day. Cold weather is coming and they can use all the hep they can get. There were no local organizations offering spay and neuter services, so the problem of stray cats is going to continue for a while here.
This is the tower at the monastery in Pomorie. It has an interesting history. A couple centuries ago a rich man with a terminal illness owned all this land. He had a dream that he would find water in his back yard. In the morning he went looking and under a stone relief carving of St. George he found the water. He drank and was cured. The water and the relief carving are in the base of this tower.
The Saint George stone at the healing water.
The healing water. We drank some.
This how I introduced thousands of Bulgarians to Bernie Sanders every morning jogging and walking.
In our last evening in Pomorie the pair of swans came to visit us as sunset.
We traveled across Bulgaria by bus and arrived in the Capitol, Sofia. We spent the night and flew away to Greece the next morning.