This post sees us drive from Sliven to Burgas on the Black Sea Coast in Bulgaria via Venets (Minkov Brothers Winery), Markeli (Ruins), Aytos, Aquae Calidae Terme (Thermopolis).
The day began with a giant peach !!! Yes, Sliven is famous for its stone fruits, especially its huge fragrant juicy sweet peaches – best I have ever had !!! The BUREKS or cheese pies/pastries here are also very different – very flaky and flexible or big and thick but too doughy – you choose !
The drive across to Burgas was wide, flat and expansive covered in vineyards, wheat, corn, sunflower and of course stone fruit trees.
The Minkov Brothers Winery was like something out of Falcon Crest – big rich, perfect in every way – a world-class rich winery with all the trimmings except it costs 15AUD to taste. Starting bottles of wine are only 10AUD so I bought a Riesling instead since I thought that this was an odd wine to grow in an area such as this. This winery was a stark contrast to the family winery of Maryan – very big, cold and impersonal. Despite this it was good for us to see either end of the Bulgarian Winery spectrum – the varieties here were very broad and included many reserves and award winners.
The Markeli Ruins took us some time to find since they are in the middle of a what field and unattended – amazing if you consider that these ruins date back to 500AD and include the preserved floor plan of a Byzantine Church. This was also the site of two huge battles around 750AD between the Byzantines and Bulgarians.
Aytos (Pop 28,242, Elev 95m, Founded 5th Century BC) is a terrible town. Bad roads, big communist apartment blocks falling apart and a very short and basic pedestrian centre.
Sadly, the thermal baths called “Aquae Calidae Terme” at Thermopolis just outside Burgas were closed because a new bathing building has just been built but opens in a week when we are not here !
Burgas (Pop 202,766, Elev
Sea Level, Founded 17th Century) unlike the rest of Bulgaria has no historical
foundations. It is here because of its location against the enormous Black Sea
and allows travel to Romania, Turkey and Ukraine in straight lines – it is also
rich in oil reserves with LUKOIL being the key upstream and downstream
processor. The city itself is bathed in broken down, deteriorating apartments –
we did not see a single house in our 6hr, 15km walk of the entire city !!! The main pedestrian walk
in town rates behind the cities we have seen to date which is a little
disappointing given the city’s reputation as a seaside city. What is not
disappointing is the seaside walk – it is open wide and nice but still lacks
the basic necessities like showers for bathers, big ugly concrete barriers in
parts. Burgas is the 4th largest city in Bulgaria but if it weren’t
for the Black Sea it would be another industrial leftover from the communist
era. A surprise in Burgas were the fabulous SAND SCULPTURES at the top of the beach strip - this time they were mainly dinosaurs but they change the theme every month. Interesting.
The Black Sea is not Black. It is green with grey to dark grey sand that sticks to everything lining its shores. The beach scene here is a thousand banana chairs and umbrellas lining the shore in multiple rows. The “beach” itself is very calm in the morning with winds creating small waves in the late afternoon. Many areas look like Port Philip Bay in Melbourne. The Black Sea is connected to the Mediterranean Sea via the Istanbul Passage and the Dardanelles of Gallipoli fame and therefore at sea level and salty. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The Black Sea may not be black but it’s big !!! It covers 436,400 km2 or 65.4% of the entire Balkan Countries footprint or 17.5% of the entire real Mediterranean Sea !!! It has a maximum depth of 2,212m.
There are two popular reasons as to why the Black Sea is called “Black”:
1) Metal objects from ships, dead plants, and animal matter that sunk deeper than 150 meters for a long period of time became covered with a black sludge due to the high concentration of hydrogen sulphide in the sea.
2) From the perspective of sailors, the sea was black due to severe storms in the winter, during which the water is so dark it looks black.
Our last day in Burgas involved a sleep in followed by a leisurely day trip to Sozopol via the so-called Pink Lake or Lake Atanasovsko. Sadly Lake Atanasovsko was dry and only turns pink when it rains. There are also supposed to be Pink Flamingos there but as you guessed when there is no pink water there is no pink flamingos so we had to settle for a green lake with Stilt birds further on.
It took us over an hour to reach our first out-of-Burgas Black Sea beach at Rosenets and it was packed out being Sunday and a very humid 33C so we decided to head straight for Sozopol so we could visit the Old Town and then swim at another beach nearby.
Sozopol (Pop 202,766, Elev Sea Level, Founded 17th Century) is an ancient seaside town located 35 km south of Burgas on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Today it is one of the major seaside resorts in the country, known for the Apollonia Art and Film Festival (which takes place in early September) that is named after one of the town's ancient names. The first settlement on the site dates back to the Bronze Age. The town was founded in the 7th century BC by Greek colonists from Miletus as Antheia. The town established itself as a trade and naval centre in the following centuries and became one of the largest and richest Greek colonies in the Black Sea region. There are several ruins in the Old Town that date back to the Greeks spread amongst fancy cafes and restaurants that overlook the Black Sea that surrounds the Old Town – easily the best Old Town we have seen to date.
Marina Beach was the calmest and least crowded beach with easy free parking that we saw coming into Sozopol so we went back there and enjoyed a nice swim in the 24C waters followed by a sleep and sun-bathe on the grey sands of the area. All in all, an enjoyable slow-paced day.
Enjoy the calming grace of the Black Sea coast…
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