Varna, Bulgaria

Being a beach town, Varna is lively in the summer, but somewhat more muted during winter months (kind of like Virginia Beach in the US). As such, I had a to shift around between hostels because the first one where I stayed was scheduled to be deluged by a gang of Hungarian students after my first night. Nonetheless, my night with the staff and travellers at YoHo Hostel was terrific. One of the staff members was celebrating her birthday, so we did was any group of Bulgarians would do: whip up an enormous batch of cold cucumber soup (much like watery tzatziki), drain countless bottles of anise liqueur (much like Sambuca or Ouzo) and listen to French rap music in the park. I left around 2 AM and things were still going strong. Many of the revelers were staggering in when I got up around 8 AM. Nicely done!

My time in Varna was largely spent on the beach, or finishing the English Patient. It was a nice change of pace from the museums, hiking and travel of the previous 7 weeks. From YoHo Hostel, I moved to Gregory’s, which was good, but really out of the way. Getting back and forth between the city and the hostel wasn’t hard – there’s a bus each hour – but there wasn’t much to do at the hostel besides read and sip 75 cent 1/2 litre bottles of Kamenitza beer on the patio (so that’s what I did).

After a couple days of chilling, I was ready to get back on a bus, and headed to Istanbul.