3 day trip to Black Sea coast of Bulgaria

July 29, 2013

3 day trip to Black Sea coast of Bulgaria

We woke up to sunny Alexandroupolis, after our 3 day trip to the Black Sea in Bulgaria, this morning….We had some breakfast, I’ve done a bit of housework and now I’m ready to make lunch to send off with my dad so he can enjoy with his mates on the beach…

As we have an abundance of fresh tomatoes and eggs I think I will make a strapatsada. Basically a scramble egg concoction cooked in a fresh tomato sauce. The beauty of this dish is that it can be eaten at room temperature and mopped up with crusty baked bread. I like to add whatever herbs I have in the garden and feta cheese.

Anyway back to Bulgaria….We, being the Pontian committee in Hili and my family, boarded the bus on Friday morning at 7am and didn’t get to our destination until 3pm….Aaahhh!! We probably would have arrived about 2 hours earlier if the Greek customs guy didn’t take his bloody time with our Australian passports (honestly he kept on looking at the passports, looking at the computer getting up and talking to his colleagues and after about 10 minute handing back our passports) and the Greeks on the bus, including my father who shouldn’t be smoking due to illness, didn’t stop for a smoko literally every 45 minutes!!!!!

First smoko break in Orestiada...I enjoyed a zabanotiropita (cheese ham pie) and patatopita (potato pie)...both delicious!

We stayed at a place called Sunny Beach…Basically Surfers Paradise on “woggy” steroids…The tourists mainly comprised of Russians, some Poms and some from various Scandinavian countries…oh and about 25 loud and funny Greeks!!

First glimpse of the Black Sea

being naughty on the bus and the beach!!!

I skipped the second day on the bus and stayed at the hotel with Evangeline and for a day of frolicking by the pool and stroll down the beach. That night however we went to Mesimbria. (Nesember in Bulgarian) In ancient times this town was colonized by various people…Thracians, Greeks, Romans, Turks and Bulgarians. Today it is the Greek Byzantine churches that attract the tourists by the thousands…It is a little town in complete contrast to Sunny Beach…Much more my kind of place! We were lucky to have a local Greek archeologist who on one of her expeditions discovered an intact temple to Apollo under a Byzantine church. However she was the one who discovered it was from Doric and not Ionian times. (or maybe the other way around). After a bit of a walk around we settled at a Greek tavern for some seafood and tsipouro…

Yesterday on our way back to Greece we stopped at Sozopoli, (ancient name Appolonia Pontiki) a gorgeous fishing village with Byzantine ruins. We had a great lunch by the beach.. The tables were set up with own bbqs…Great concept… I went for the Black Sea mussels, Olga for the sausage and pepper dish, dad for the eggplant dish…The other dishes weren’t worth taking photos of.