Central Bulgaria and Sofia

From Sozopol we drove to Veliko Tarnovo. On the way we stopped in the hills to enjoy a great view while having breakfast/lunch :) The tour took us longer than expected and we stopped at a camping spot in Dragijevo... the best camping place I have ever seen. The owners - two British - are super friendly. We had a huge pool overlooking the surrounding highlands. Food was delicious... overall so amazing setting that we stay for two nights :D
After hanging around the pool and enjoying the sun we made an evening trip to Tyravna and later Veliko Tarnovo. Tyravna was not as expected... overall, there was kinda nothing to see... at least the route offered some good views. In Veliko Tarnovo we walked through the city towards the castle. Bulgaria's cultural capital is indeed a nice place. On a hill between two valleys the city offers great views. The streets have flair and the setting sun made it even better. But staying at the pool during midday's heat also had its downside... the castle was closed already.
The next day we visited the Troyan Monastery on our way towards Sofia. It has lush gardens and the paintings are awesome.
In Sofia we parked our car and went sightseeing through the city before we checked for a hotel. Sofia's cathedral is absolutely amazing! Overall the city appears rather small. Nice to see was an active alternative youth spending their time in the city center (we didn't see such in other eastern capital's centers). Later we checked for a hotel and found a nice 4 star hotel for 100eur... which is not bad for 3 people. However, when we went there the room suddenly was 240eur... hence we booked online for 100 and then came back^^ Internet is just the best :P The hotelier right offered us to book grils for our room - not the last of such offer to come this evening... we said we'd rather have a shower first and will see later :) We then went into the shopping district for some well tasting dinner. Then we got on a taxi towards the party district (with quite a strange taxi driver non-stop talking about how he likes to f*** girls)... the locations and music was nice, but unluckily the semester was pausing and subsequently all the students - most of the party folk - were out of Sofia. After declining another plenty offers we went to sleep and then enjoyed the breakfast buffet before we drove towards Macedonia.

making breakfast/lunch overlooking the hills of central Bulgaria

the best camping place I've ever seen... overlooking the highlands from then pool

castle sitting right above the valley of Veliko Trarnovo

Veliko Tarnovo's cathedral

unluckily the entrance to the castle was closed...

Troyan monastery - a relaxing place

Sofia's stunning cathedral

resting to check the route :)

these ads rock :)

the place to be for Sofia's youth

The Bulgarian coast

Breakfast, short recovery and subsequently we made our way towards Bulgaria. Some shopping on the way before we crossed the border. The day was short and we went to Albena - the golden beach - to sleep there. We had an excellent debut when in one hotel Danny shouted to Ben that he found the toilette and Ben was running for it (all communication with perfectly strong German accent), when we recognized that everyone was staring at us... guess what - mostly Germans :)
We parked our car, enjoyed dinner and set our sleeping place at the seaside of a Kid's jumping castle right at the beach... which provided well cover from the wind. First sleep under the cope of heaven this trip^^ We finished the day with another beer and went to sleep. The next morning a great sunrise and an approximately 60 year old beach boy woke us up. The latter appeared quite angry about us sleeping there :P It kinda looked like he was about to kick our asses, until he found out that we were Germans... all of a sudden he welcomed us as great guests :D However, we went further down the beach, enjoyed breakfast and got back on the road... not too long - right as we left Albena police was waiting for us... luckily just because one of our lights was broken. A short discussion fixed it and we felt lucky not paying a fine :)
We drove to Varna and took a walk through the town... visited Varna's nice cathedral, ate icecream down the shopping street and slandered through the park. The city is nice but not extraordinarily... people seemed to like Germans and mostly preferred to speak German, rather than English :)
After Varna we drove to Nessebar. Probably the most touristic place in Bulgaria with it's ancient ruins. However, the place was filled with tourists, the streets were filled with bars, restaurants, souvenir shops and hostels. The streets are cozy, if not filled with tourists. We were disappointed... our parents obviously experienced a different Nessebar 30 years ago. As we were running a bit short in time we skipped Burgas and went strait to Sozopol. Even tho the city is packed with tourists it retained a comfy flair and the lighted fortified coastline looks amazing at night. After dinner and a few beer we slept at the beach 15min walk outside the city. The next morning we finally had our first swim in the black sea... sadly the water quality is not the best. Lots of algae, but low concentrations of salt. After the swim we left the coast and drove towards central Bulgaria.

border crossing Rumania-Bulgaria

Sunrise at Albena

Varna's cathedral

old fashion ads - I like them :)

The statue of an ancient fisherman - entrance of Nessebar