The Swedish word mysigt is not among my favourite ones due to its overuse, but I can not find a better adjective to describe these past 10 days which I spent in Bulgaria.
My vacation started with a long trip where I had to change flights in Serbia and take a taxi from Romania to Bulgaria. I flew with Air Serbia and I loved it! The plane from Stockholm to Belgrade was big, very comfortable, with its own entertainment system and we were served a hot meal with a beverage. For the low price that I paid this was way beyond my expectations and I really hope they will keep up the standard! Moreover, the trip was just 2 and a half hours - imagine if they were flights like that to Sofia - I would be able to fly every month!
The photo on the left is from the sunset in Stockholm when we took off. The one on the right is the sunrise in Bulgaria from the bus window on my way to Varna.
Varna is probably already the second largest city in Bulgaria. In the past it was Plovdiv who held that place, but Varna has the clear advantage of being situated on the Black Sea coast, which makes it an attractive place to live. It is only a 2-hour drive from my hometown, and both my sister and my brother live there, as well as my cousin.
For me Varna is the perfect summer destination - I have a place to stay, it has long white beaches and a good night life. It is a normal city and not a popular destination for German, Russian and Scandinavian tourists as the other towns along the coast, and that's why it has remained one of the cheapest places on the Black Sea. One can have a bowl of mussels and some good muscat for just 5€. A dinner for three with trout, shark filé, a steak, two sallads and beers for everyone cost us just under 20€ in total!
I was there at the time of the honey festival - too bad I didn't have much space in my bag to load up with some bio honey jars - one of the best in the world! 😋 👌
Food is actually a good reason to visit Bulgaria if you haven't yet. The blue mussels found in the Black Sea have a star for being the best in Europe. The pink tomatoes are hard to find abroad as they don't hold very long, so they cannot travel but they are the tastiest and juiciest you will ever try! Banichka is a type of pastry filled with feta cheese which we used to have every morning for breakfast in school - still among my favourite foods (make sure to drink some boza with it), and the first thing I bought when I crossed the border. Last but not least, if you want to try something very local, try shkembe chorba (tripe soup - bottom row, left) - a soup made of beef intestines consumed with red hot peppers, black pepper, garlic and vinegar. You will either hate it or love it - it cures hangover and goes well with beer.
In other words, most of my time in Varna was spent eating, hanging with my siblings and cousins, swimming in the 26 degrees warm water, and sipping cocktails on the beach. I repeat, ON THE BEACH - something you cannot do in Stockholm.
After 4 days in Varna I travelled to Ostrovo to visit my grandparents. I was obviously the guest of honor as my grandma kept asking me all the time what I would like her to cook for me, and I was seated first when the whole family sat down for dinner. I even had my cousins come over from afar to see me. 🙆🏼 My whole childhood was spent on the street in front of that house playing until midnight. It was so safe back then that nobody would watch over us as parents do now. The village is predominantly muslim so at around 8 pm the imam would sing his evening prayer and then we knew it was time for dinner. Since we didn't want to interrupt our games, my grandma would usually go out with some sandwiches (mainly with home-made lutenitsa and feta cheese) for the whole group as she was rarely able to get us inside. If it happened to be a stormy night there was often some power outage too, and then we used to light lanterns and stay inside - something that happened even now when I was there - so mysigt! ☺️🕯
There is nothing like drinking coffee with my grandma under the vine of the house I grew up in.
ID control at the Romanian border and then back to Sweden after 10 fantastic days to keep me warm in the autumn! :)
