Sun, Sea and Sand with a splash of Nessebar culture!

For the last 9 days we have been lazing around at our apartment in Sunny Beach on the Black Sea with our daughter and her boyfriend who have been holidaying here for 3 weeks.  We haven’t seen them for 8 months, so there has been a lot of catching up to do mostly spent around the pool, on the beach, and eating and drinking!

View from our apartment balcony

Sonny, the motorhome has been parked up at the complex and enjoying a well-earned rest having already done 9,490 miles (15,184 kms) since setting off from England on 27 December 2016.

Sonny, parked up and enjoying his rest !

We were last in Bulgaria 6 years ago and have noticed lots of changes – mostly good. The infrastructure has significantly improved across the parts of Bulgaria that we have travelled already and Sunny Beach is still as ‘cheap as chips’.  Eating and drinking out is such good value for money.  Two people can have a starter, main course, dessert, a litre of wine followed by cocktails and still have change from 40lv (roughly £20)!

Fortunately, Bulgaria coming in to Europe hasn’t meant that the resort is swamped with European shops.  There are a couple of McDonalds, KFC, Costa Coffee and Subway but mostly it’s local shops.  Like most cheap seaside resorts it is full of your tacky souvenir shops and here you can pretty much get every ‘knockoff’ brand in the shape of shoes/trainers, shirts/T-shirts/sweatshirts, sunglasses and handbags.

In April this year, Sunny Beach was ranked as the most affordable resort in a study of 19 European destinations and we’re not surprised.

Although Bulgaria is in Europe, they chose to keep its currency, the Bulgarian Lev and all over the resort you can find exchange booths.  Interestingly the Scottish and Irish pound isn’t valued as high as the GB pound!  When we first came to Bulgaria in 2005 the rate was 3.20lv to £1, now it is only 2.06lv.

The resorts construction began back in the Communist times and although there are hundreds of new hotels and apartments that have been built over the years, some of the communist style hotels remain - the mind boggles as to what the state of the rooms are like!

Old Communist style hotel at Sunny Beach

There used to be a lot of Scandinavians that holidayed here, I guess it was very cheap for them.  However, 6 years on and it is mostly Russians, Ukraine’s and Romanians, as it is easy for them to get to and of course plenty of Brits – who love value for money!

They cater that much for Brits you can get a full English breakfast out here for only 6lv (£3). 

Mel enjoying his 'Full English'

You can also get roast beef dinners if you are missing your Sunday dinners - not sure why anybody would be though with the amount of food choice out here. Lots of Pizzas too, but no idea what a ‘Running Chicken’ pizza consists of!

Running Chicken Pizza - don't fancy that one!  Maybe it has been mixed up in translation!

It’s ‘Happy Hour’ all day long here as well and they don’t use measures!  A typical cocktail would set you back 4lv for 2 doubles and a large beer 1lv!

About 4kms from our apartment is Nessebar.  It is split in two, a new town and an old town that juts out on a rocky peninsula, connected by a narrow strip of land.

Old Nessebar is a UNESCO World Heritage site, over 3,000 years old.  It has pretty narrow cobbled streets, historic buildings/churches, museums, quaint shops and old houses - 18^th century two-storeyed houses with stone-built ground levels and wooden upper floors jutting out above the street.

The local pottery

Church of Christ Pantocrator (13th/14th century) 

St Sophia Church (5^th/6^th century) - unfortunately people choose to ignore the 'do not climb on this building' signs!

Down by the marina, where you can catch a boat across the water to Sunny Beach

Located on the bridge connecting the old and new town, is the ancient wooden windmill – a popular Landmark.

Watching the sun set over old Nessebar from the Sky Bar in the new town.

Enjoying a lovely beach day at Primorsko, with our Bulgarian friends, Rado and Mary who we met in 2005 and have stayed in touch with ever since.

Our daughter and boyfriend flew back to the UK in the early hours of this morning and we will resume our travels on Tuesday.  So, over the next few days we will start planning the next stage of our route.
Wishing you all a 'Happy Bank Holiday' weekend!

Sally x