This post sees us drive from Varna in Bulgaria (Country 8) to Constanta in Romania (Country 9 and our final Balkan Country !!!) via Balchik, Kavarna, Chirakman Cape, Calithea Lookout, Rusalka Beach (Opposite Sochi Stadium), BORDER (took 25min combined), Mangalia.
Our entry into the city of Constanta in our last Country Romania was bitter-sweet. Bitter because a 22yr old hot-head hit and damaged our rear end – more on this later. Sweet because on the morning of 12 August 2022 I realised a life-long dream of running 10km in my 100th UN Country !!! Romania is my 106th UN Country to visit and officially I have now entered, visited and slept in all 11 Balkan countries on this one trip meaning that “Balkanopoulos” has truly earned its name.
The drive from Varna to Constanta was a great way to farewell Bulgaria and was full of surprises. The first was how flat it was. We were expecting mountains. It turns out that most of Bulgaria against the Black Sea is quite flat and full of agricultural pastures growing mostly sunflowers, wheat and corn. Calithea Lookout was the pinnacle of sites as you will see in the photos, staring down on the town of Kavarna and the majestic Chirakman Cape (looks like a giant lump) all the way down to Varna, some 70km away in a straight line.
Rusalka Beach was a sentimental destination by Leo who can now claim to have visited both sides of the Black Sea since Rusalka is exactly opposite Sochi in Russia where Leo attended the World Cup Soccer in 2018. A total distance of 927km in latitude 43.4011 degrees and a sweep of 11 degrees longitude.
Constanta (Pop 667,860, Elev 25m to Sea Level, Founded 7th Century BC) is the second ugliest city we have visited behind Durres Albania. It is poorly laid out, has terrible traffic, a poor unvisited centre and long huge beaches with endless banana chairs and people… Its saving grace is its history. It has existed for over 2000 years with plenty of ruins strewn through the city but very neglected and unkept. Another bonus is that the Old Town is small and easy to walk in 2-3 hrs. Another surprise was the ability to climb to the top of the Minaret of the Carol I Mosque in the middle of town giving a terrific view of the city. Constanta’s claim to fame is its port – the 4ht largest in Europe !!!
Constanta is now famous for another incident – my first overseas car prang and even though it was not my fault it sits poorly with me given the thousands of kilometres I have driven through all of Europe. It also pains me to see our lovely Peugeot with a big ding in its backside !!! We took a left turn with another car right on our bum (I remember abusing it) and suddenly a parked car pulled out – I veered to avoid it and slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting it and the young 22yr old behind me hit our back end because he was tail-gating us !!! We were 3km from our unit. It was 1515. By the time we exchanged details and visited the police station 7km away to get a report for insurance purposes, it was 1730 when we arrived at our unit. I must say the 22yr old army serving guy was very polite and helped us heaps.
I woke up at 6am the next morning and ran 10km in Constanta Bulgaria clocked up 100 UN run-countries out of 106 visited. Paris, Leo and I celebrated this and Yistsi’s 17th Birthday (my niece) at a terrific grill house that night.
The photos are nowhere near bitter-sweet !!!
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