Black Sea, Bulgaria

Sun 3rd – Mon 4th Aug

One of my main reasons for going on this trip was because I wanted to see Eastern Europe before there was a Starbucks on every street corner. Man... I would give anything for a Caramel Frappuccino with extra whip cream right now. Actually I take that back. I'd give anything just to use a Starbucks toilet right now.

BEFORE

Bevan after hours of trying to find a camp site along the Black Sea

AFTER

Bevan after a €1 pint of beer at the camp site (and before seeing the toilets)

Yowsers, I've been complaining a bit lately, haven't I? Let me set the record straight. Bulgaria is amazing but camping in Bulgaria, especially during the height of tourist season, is not so great. If I could hit a do-over button, I'd be driving around Eastern Europe in a car with better suspension, responsive power steering, and checking into 4-star hotels every night. Which thanks to how cheap everything is here, it's pretty feasible for anyone planning to visit for a few weeks.

Unfortunately since our money has to last for 6 months, we're saving anywhere we can and living in a very old van. Now back to my bitching.

A few observations about Bulgaria:

Drink...drive...die.
The first time you get caught drinking & driving, they throw you in prison for a few years. The second time you get caught, they shoot you. I'm not kidding! The sentence is death by firing squad.

Don't pet the cuddly animals.
Most of the street dogs appear harmless and just follow you home, but run in terror from any large packs of dogs. A British woman was attacked and killed by a pack of street dogs in Sofia not too long ago.

Land is cheaper than chips.
We saw 3-4 bedroom homes on sale for €4,000 – 6,000 and signs offering land for €3 per square metre. I still can't figure out why we were paying €10 for a camp site when we could have bought a pitch next door for the same price.

Rubbing your tummy and patting your head is easier than conversing with the locals.
Nodding your head means “no” and shaking your head from side to side means “yes”. Sounds simple enough but it is bloody confusing in practice.

It's all Cyrillic to me.
Navigation is definitely getting easier for Western tourists as we saw a lot of road signs near tourist hot spots that had both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabet. But let's face it, when you're lost it's because you're no where near a tourist hot spot and desperately need a sign in English, or a map in Cyrillic.



There really is no camping in Bulgaria.
There are lots of little camping symbols on our map, but either the camp sites were not sign posted on the highway, or they've all been ripped out and replaced with 5-star hotels.

We missed nearly the entire Black Sea coast trying to find a camp site until we finally spotted a camping sign along a deserted stretch of highway. Strangely we had stumbled across a massive hidden camping city – the lone camping survivors in Bulgaria. Buried in the trees along an isolated beach were literally thousands of Bulgarians on holiday, staying in bungalows, cars, tents and wooden shacks. There were entire streets of temporary shops, restaurants and night clubs made out of fairground style trailers that all appeared to be hiding in the trees from fear of being discovered by property developers. It was a great location with everything you could ever want in the world, not to mention huge cans of beer for only €0.60 and amazing food.

My only complaint was the toilets. For some strange reason, throughout Bulgaria the shower hangs over the toilet as if you were on a boat, meaning the water sprays all over the bathroom, including the sink, the dirty floor, the toilet, and the toilet paper! Now imagine over 50 men and women using the same toilet for 24 hours and how dirty and smelly it gets. Now picture trying to shower in that same room that smells so much like piss & poo that you gag even when trying to breathe through your mouth. Now add the fact that the tap water is slightly brown and smells like sulphur. I didn't shower for 3 days because that felt cleaner than bathing in those toilets.