Posts tagged ‘Bulgaria’

Oct 9

Europe comes to an end

We’ve now been away a total of 201 days, 177 days have been spent in Europe,

We’ve been from London to Turkey
(not New York to Rio, like Peter Allen ☺).

We’ve covered 14 countries; some we just passed through, others we explored in detail.

England / France / Italy / Serbia / Croatia / Bulgaria / Turkey / Greece / Montenegro / Slovenia / Austria / Switzerland / Germany / Spain

A few of the highights:

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Driven over 20,000km, no parking tickets or speeding fines (we know of). No car accidents – just 1 flat tyre.

Nothing lost, nothing broken and the worst illness was a stomach bug for a few days.

Cheapest accommodation: €15 a night on Leros
Most expensive: €160 a night in Paris

CPI (Coffee Price Index): most expensive €4.50 in Venice, the cheapest €0.50 in Berane, Montenegro

WCP (Wine Consumption Price): most expensive was £9 for a glass of champagne in London, the Cheapest in France (of course), €4 a bottle.

Best meal: Hard to say, we’ve had so many; from eating a home cooked meal with the family in Guzelyurt, to fine dining at Le Gabriel in Bordeaux, enjoying the local Fête’s in France or simply cooking with fresh ingredients from the markets. I don’t think we’ve had a bad meal.

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We’ve met some wonderful people along the way. The added pleasure and delight, has been those friends and family who joined us; whether it be for a dinner, a weekend or a few weeks: Ross and Kate, Katrina, Helen and Rod, Bruce, Penny, Dale, Leeanne, Elisa and Ian, our Niece Claire and my sister Jane.

As well as visiting and enjoying the generous hospitality of the Ryan’s in Switzerland, Andrea and Margit (her Mum) in Austria, and the Brown’s in London.

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So far, the Callander capers have been amazing.

Best of all, we are still talking to each other…..most of the time!!

We still like each other!

Jun 25

Montenegro

After Veliko Tarnovo we decide that there isn’t much more in Bulgaria we want to see and plot our route to Montenegro.

Perhaps we are suffering from sensory overload, because there is a Monastery, Castle, or Fort on almost every corner. After Turkey and Greece we are a bit over them, for as beautiful and historic as they all are (well some of them are a bit lame), they all becoming a blur to us.

However, as we leave Veliko we discover there is a new road side attraction; prostitutes. We pass a number of scantily clad (it is summer), young attractive girls. At first we innocently comment on why they are standing on the side of the road, in what we would describe as the middle of nowhere? After about the 4th or 5th girl, it starts to become a little obvious this is prostitute alley.

It’s a full day of driving and we would like to be in Montenegro for the night. That’s two border crossings; Bulgaria to Serbia and Serbia to Montenegro. We don’t care about the crossings, but we do care about the currency. We’ve used up all our Bulgarian Leva and ideally don’t want to get anymore. We certainly don’t need any Serbian; we don’t even know what they use.

After our little incident crossing into Bulgaria we are relieved to leave the country with no problems. Who knows what black marks sit against you on their system? We are in Serbia for only a few hours and then we cross into into Montenegro. It’s interesting how as soon as you cross into another country you can feel a change; you quickly ascertain some sense of its economic state. Serbia appears more miserable and harder done by than its neighbours; the roads, the housing, the clothing; all are a little more worn and unkept.

We are driving down the eastern boundary of Montenegro, skirting Albania, which is a no go zone for us. Even the GPS has omitted this country from its maps. It’s up, over and through, the mountains. It’s a majestic landscape, though the drive is somewhat treacherous along a narrow road. It’s one we decide to complete in the morning.

We stop in Berane. There does not appear to be much about this town to like; it looks like a working town. It has potential, sitting on the banks of a river, framed by mountains, but it’s the housing-commission looking apartments that dominate the view, which ruins a potential gem.

We pick the best of only three hotels in town and bunker down. We skip the hotel breakfast for fear of suffocating from smoke inhalation and look for a coffee before we hit the road. The one and only decent looking café turns out to be the hidden gem. It’s the only building in the town that has been beautifully resorted. Coffee is €0.50 (new record for the CPI). Breakfast is sumptuous eggs for only €2 more. There is no reason to visit this town again, except for this one café!

Whilst Montenegro is not a member of the Eurozone, or even an EU member, it has unofficially adopted the Euro as its currency, yet it still remains a little behind with prices.

It’s 150km to the coast. We thought it would take a couple of hours at most – It took us three hours to cover a 100km!! The route takes us through more mountains and is spectacular, but we’ve never had so many switchbacks on a road. There are parts where the road has washed away and we cross a bridge that looks like it’s collapsing at any moment (we actually got out and had a look before we drove over). On the positive side, there are few trucks to deal with, either to overtake, or squeeze past as they hurtled down the narrow road coming the other way, at which point you pull over as close as you can, stop and hold your breath.

We get to the capital city, Podgorica, and decide to take a break. It turns into an overnight break. The weather report is not promising, so why be on the coast? Podgorica appears to be an old town quickly becoming a modern city, showing further evidence that this is a flourishing country. I suspect the unofficial use of the Euro is helping, though I never did well at economics, so am not going to attempt to understand how.

Our decision to stay the night is influenced by the weather and more importantly, we find a cinema playing movies in English. We haven’t bothered with TV anywhere. On the off chance you might find something in English, its usually a well out of date soapy. So, to find a cinema playing the new Tom Cruise movie in 3D is a treat.

Other than the shopping mall with the cinema, there isn’t much else to see. Or I should say, we didn’t see much else. We find the ‘historic old town’, which is a run down part of the city, that we quickly exit.

Our hotel is modern and slick, though oddly located on top of a Honda car dealership. We ask for dinner recommendations and are disappointed, but the movie was great.

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Jun 23

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Veliko Tarnovo

We rely heavily on our GPS to get from A to B, to date it’s been fairly reliable. It has three options when you set a destination. Economic, Short or Fast. In the many hours we’ve spent in the car, we’ve pondered the algorithms which differentiate the three. I know, some of the things we talk about!!

We quickly worked out to avoid Short, this is short by km’s, that does not correlate to time, especially when you find it directing you through narrow village roads, not built for a car, rather than going around. We’ve had to reverse out of a few tight situations. Kay and Dave; it reminds us of a similar instance finding the town of Beaux de Provence in France.

Economic, we assume defaults to highways and main roads, as does Fast. We haven’t noticed a difference between these two, until today when it choose a fairly rugged route. By the time we grew suspicious we didn’t have an option to turn around and just had to keep going.

We have barely begun our days journey when we come across Varna Winery. Being impressed with Bulgarian wines, we have to stop in and check it out. A dozen bottles later (purchased, not drunk), we set off again!

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Our next destination is the coast of Montenegro. We plan to take 2 days to get there. On the way, we thought we should check out a bit more of Bulgaria and are heading for a town called Veliko Tarnovo, rated Bulgaria’s most beautiful town.

From what we passed on the way, I don’t think there is much competition. Previously the capital, the old town is charming. Nestled in the mountains it has an alpine feel, you can imagine it being covered in snow during winter. The well worn cobblestone streets are lined with Ottoman style wooden houses with steep timber roofs and overhanging balconies, that protrude into the streets and window boxes filled with brightly coloured flowers.

It is picturesque and there are a couple of monasteries and a castle, but if this is considered the highlight, I’m not sure how much more of Bulgaria we need to check out.

We stayed: Hotel Gurko

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Jun 23

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Thracian Cliffs

We thought we had indulged ourselves in Varna, but Thracian is another step up! And so it should be, for the price we are paying! The things we do to indulge Don’s passion for golf! We have an apartment with spectacular views, and a bathroom with a bathtub (I don’t remember the last bathtub we had) and most exciting; a washing machine! Who thought I would ever get excited over a washing machine.

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Our tee time is for 8:45am, as we want to play before the heat of the day kicks in. However, when we turn-up to collect our golf clubs and cart, we are told the course is still too wet for carts. You would need to be a mountain goat to play without one; the course is not designed for walking, even though some are braving it, I’m certainly not! Without hesitation, Don rescheduled for 12 noon, when carts should be usable.

We return and are waiting for our cart and clubs. We have read feedback on the resort in regards to poor service. Until now, we had no complaints, but it takes impossibly long for them to organise the cart, which was made ready in the morning, to reappear. Whilst waiting, Don is chatting to a group of English blokes who have been golf holidaying here for the week. In conversation with them, he discovers that only 11 holes are open on the course.

We’ve spoken with the pro-shop twice today and at no time did they mention that the entire course is not playable. They are also still charging full rate, the compensation being you can play twice. Rarely, perhaps not ever, have I seen Don get mad, but he is mad! Though he quickly realises that complaining is futile. Whilst he would like them to understand that communicating the course condition earlier would have been appreciated, the language barrier suddenly widens. Any understanding and conversing in english diminishes to “yes, no, sorry I don’t understand.”

The course is spectacular and challenging. Forget looking for a golf ball if you don’t make a fairway. We came prepared, having bought a box of 24 golf balls in the pro-shop. We both go through a few. A good game is a quick game and a cart makes for speedy golf. Only playing 11 holes, also helps. We make it around in under 2 hours.

We are keen to play again, but would prefer to play as late as possible. Clearly the starter thinks this is unusual. Don points out its still light until after 8pm, so he reluctantly agrees to let us play our second round at 6pm. I think the only reason he is reluctant, is because he wants to go home.

We swap golf gear for bathers and head down to the resort beach to cool off in the black sea. This is turning out to be my ideal game of play golf: 11 holes, couple of hours at the beach, 11 more holes.

The following morning Don got to play all 18 holes whilst I lazed by the pool. For those who want more in-depth details and a hole by hole description, contact Don directly: don@callander.net.au

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Jun 21

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Why are we back in Bulgaria?

Don has probably played over 450 golf courses around the world. A stat he is quite proud of and one he intends to expand on whenever possible.

So far this trip, he has added several South African courses, a couple in Belek, Turkey and now in his sights is Thracian Cliffs, Bulgaria. This course is appealing to Don on a number of levels. It was designed by Gary Player (any golfer will know who he is); it’s in a spectacular setting, hugging the rugged cliffs along the coast of the black sea. It also hosted a European Matchplay in 2013, more importantly; who else does he know will ever be able to say they’ve played Thracian Cliffs?

Now I enjoy my golf, resort golf in particular; the word resort should be the give-away. This generally means on holidays, in some exotic location. I could get used to having a caddy carry my clubs, or use a golf cart to whip around 18.

At home, four hours of chasing a little white ball around the ground is not my preferred way to spend a Saturday. I’m tempted to make some humorous remark about simple minds entertained by simple things, but I have to spend the rest of my life in close proximity with this man!

Thracian Cliffs is about 700km from our drop off point in Turkey. I should say it’s out of our way by a considerable distance, but that is only partly true. Our plan is to head to Montenegro and follow the Adriatic coast up into Croatia, but the car lease does not permit us to drive through Albania or Kosovo which would shorten our trip considerably, but we decide its not worth the risk of voiding our insurance. We have to go through Bulgaria and detouring up to Balchik, where the golf resort is, will only add 4 or 5 hours. In the scheme of things this is nothing; it’s not like we have anywhere we need to be in a hurry!

We’ve booked into the resort for two nights, starting Saturday. Therefore we have two nights to fill in. We decide to cover as many kilometers in day one and see where we land. The trip is pretty uneventful, well, until we get to the Bulgarian border that is.

It’s drizzling with rain and we are on a windy regional road, taking the shorter route through the mountains. We stop to exit Turkey, drive a little further and start the entry into Bulgaria, handing over passports and car documents. We pay €3 for something; road toll, tax, who knows. We drive a little further; you are never sure how many checks you will go through.

Nothing is written in English, Don misinterprets the directions at the next check point and a not so happy Bulgarian border guard has come out of his little booth, into the rain, to wave us back. He is clearly not amused, or charmed, by our claims to be Australian and not understand!

He already thinks we (well at least Don) are idiots. Don adds to this by reversing into a park bench. Not sure why there is a park bench there in the first place, not about to ask.

Holding our breath, our grumpy guard takes several long minutes to consider our passports, enter some details into his computer and then another considerable pause, before gruffly stamping and handing them back. Phew, for a moment we thought he might refuse us entry!

Burgas is the first major town we had considered stopping in, until we view the endless industrial smoke stacks, shipping containers and highrise apartment blocks, built to minimum specifications during communist dominance and now decaying. We decide to push through.

The next town to consider is Varna. At first sight it looks unappealing, rows of decaying apartment blocks, roads in desperate need of repair. It looks only a little less bleak and miserable than Burgas, but we’ve done enough driving. If it’s really bad we can stay one night and move on tomorrow.

Well, we stayed two nights in Varna and the town surprised us. We stumbled upon our accommodation around 8pm. Having driven past a few options Modus looked reasonable, even with sandbags stacked at the doorway, a result of the recent rain. Inside is a slick, modern styled boutique hotel. After 5 weeks of island hopping, with varying degrees of comfort in our accommodation, it was total luxury to us.

The hotel restaurant was also first rate and we discovered that Bulgarians know how to make wine; good wine. The hotel staff were more than happy to share their local knowledge on what reds to drink! I splurged and took myself off for a spa treatment: 90 minutes of pampering bliss for A$50. I would have spent all day there for that price!

We knew there had been a bit of rain around, we had moved our golf booking to avoid the rain. In fact the area had received over a months worth of rain the day before we arrived. This had resulted in flash flooding and 12 people being washed away at a gypsy camp close to Varna. On Saturday, the rain is moving on, but the roads are worse for wear from the flash flooding. At the entry into Thracian Cliffs, the road has collapsed and is just barely passable.