Home made Black Sea bliss

My last post didn’t finish with a very healthy message. I advertised being lazy (still sticking to it though!!), but it seems that it caught up with me and that’s what I have been for the last four weeks. There are of course plenty of excuses for the lack of new posts – busy social life before holidays, sick after holidays, out of office in between. On top of it, recently I am in this half-content, half-anticipating state. My mind is either happily empty or too preoccupied and it doesn’t have an opening for an inspiration trigger. That’s why you are bound to read about my summer holidays. I need to put it down while I still have sea water in my brain. You know the thrill when you return to the office after holidays and everyone asks you ‘How was it?’. Sometimes your casual ‘It was great!’ is not enough and people keep staring at you intensively expecting some crazy story about how you met this super hot guy who is Brad Pitt! and then you got into trouble, had to steal some cars, break into some banks, fall madly in love,…and all that while being chased by FBI, Interpol, Secret Services or aliens. Exactly like my summer vacation! Just kidding.

Even without drama, my two weeks on the beach were amazing. I have done the Black Sea summer ritual one too many times and here is my summary of tips and tricks for the perfect vacation experience. I mean MY perfect vacation experience.

Go home

I am lucky. I was born at the seaside. I spent every summer of my unconscious and conscious life on the beach. Therefore, every time I go back there, it takes only a day and it feels like I never left. The moment I put my bare feet on the hot sand, all the fibers of my body start tingling with memories of all the summers past. I get this instant elevated feeling of joy only because of the smell of the water and the sound of the waves. When I was little my mom used to tell me that the sun and the sea could heal everything. That was before the SPF >10 became a MUST. But I kind of still cherish this belief. The sea is healing, every time I go there torn into pieces, it puts me back together again. Just like it just did! Last week.

To the skeptical ones who are probably wondering if you can even call going back home – holidays? I can. When you live so far away, a return to something so deeply familiar is a great disconnect from all the everyday hassle.
I have been up and down the coastline endless times for the last 30 years. Burgas – Pomorie – Nessebar – Sunny Beach – Burgas – Sozopol – Kavatsi – Smokini – Lozenetz – Burgas, and again and again and again. It is both funny and sad that my family’s favorite beach, where we used to go when I was little, is gone now. It was a nice bay between Burgas and Pomorie – quiet, clean and not regulated. Nowadays the sea has taken over the shore and is eating into the land, threatening to reach the road. I somehow thought it would take years and years for something like that to happen. Makes me feel ancient when I try to explain that this is the place I used to play as a kid and go night swimming with my parents but you cannot see it because it is under water now. My underwater love. I should save this story for my grandchildren.

Bring a book

A book for the beach is a must have. Especially when you are on your own. It keeps you company or puts you to sleep if needed. I have devoured all kinds of books on the beach – from big bricks like ‘The name of the Rose’ to easy breezy J.K.Rowling fairy tales. This summer pick is Stephen Fry’s ‘The Fry Chronicles’. Definitely lighter and funnier than last year’s ‘Blue Eyed Boy’. I do enjoy autobiographies, especially written by people who have real stories to tell. The read helped me appreciate how incredibly smart this guy is but at the same time I also couldn’t help but feel jealous at how damn lucky he is. Stephen Fry, you are so damn lucky! You know what you love to do, you can actually do it for a living and people like it. However, with the melted mix of sunscreen, water salt and sweat on my skin, I felt like my life is almost as good as yours.

For those who hate to read, a book can be useful in other ways. You can use it to hold your towel or inflatable pillow from flying off in case of a strong wind. For this purpose you need at least a 200 page book.
It can also help fight off strangers trying to talk to you. If you don’t feel like trying to keep up a conversation with a bay watch Adonis double while trying hard to suck in your belly, the book is the key. A bay watch Adonis double in Bulgaria will never come and talk to you if you have a fat book sitting in your lap, even if the book is actually helping you cover your belly.
If the sun is shining uncomfortably in your eyes and the umbrella is not helping, just lie on your back and open the book, the relief for the eyes is immediate. Some may argue that for this last trick, a newspaper will do as well. True, but remember that a newspaper is not as resistant to water, wind, sand and sunscreen stains as a big thick book. So be wise and read!

Take friends with you

‘Happiness is only real when shared’ – this memorable quote from Into the Wild is so true. During my student years, friends from all over the country used to come and visit every summer and it was always a blast. These days it is not as easy to invite people over just for a weekend. All charter flights connections believe that you should spend at least a week on the beach. I totally agree with them but when your friends are from the office, getting holidays signed off for a week simultaneously could be a huge challenge.
Meet Manu and Jess – the brave troopers who made it all the way down to Lozenets this summer. They got there after a very complicated flights schedules that involved a first time travel with a low cost airline, first time on the Bulgarian national carrier, a stopover in Vienna, lost luggage, endless bus ride, Machete movie and a ride with me in a big yellow rental car. Hats off to them! I guess they really wanted to make it to Lozenets, despite the fact that all people at Sofia airport were trying to persuade them that they belong to Sunny Beach, where all the other tourists are. Are you going to Sunny Beach? No, Lozenets. Are you sure you are not going to Sunny Beach? No, we are going to the small village of Lozenets. WTF? Lozenets turned out to be everything that I expected – nice beach, great chill out bars, loads of cocktails, too many people from Sofia. I could spend more time there next summer. Look at it – doesn’t it look tempting? (picture credit to my friend Mariana who was there a week before we were). Unfortunately I did not allow the girls much time to chill out and relax, we had a really packed program. We managed to see the ancient cities of Sozopol and Nessebar, had a night out in Burgas, visited other beaches, even drove through the notorious Sunny Beach. The last one happened only because we got lost. Yassen got us lost, he was the male balance of our traveling quartet. He was our pick up from the night over in Sofia.
Manu and Jess were a great sport for everything. They brought songs, lyrics, good spirit, tons of laughter and tons of positive attitude. It was such a natural fit. They even tried to read and speak Bulgarian. Manu went out one morning and came back with a water polo ball. Jess managed to take out the big yellow car from tricky parking spots. I was the local and I felt that I couldn’t have managed without them. Thank you girls for coming over and making it so much fun! You are the best! We had these outbursts of laughter where we would just start laughing and never stop. It is quite typical for us. Crazy, I know. But such a great feeling.
Take friends with you is a certificate for fun. Especially when they are the right friends – fun, open to new things and genuine. It is also fun to share the experience with people who see the Black Sea coast for the first time. Makes it special for me as well, I open my eyes for little details that I normally take for granted.

In this section I also want to dedicate a big hug to my special friend back home who has been so close and there for me for years and years. And years. It is always a blessing to see you.

Eat, drink, eat

No diets allowed! There is so much good stuff to eat in Bulgaria. Even if you want to cut down food, it is impossible to cut down alcohol. So what’s the point trying? Just give in and enjoy! Shopska salad, fries and cheese, filled peppers, fried zucchini with yoghurt, banitsa, tarator, sirene po shopski, boiled corn with salt. I know most of these strange sounding names mean nothing to you but if you ever have a chance to try them out – DO! You won’t regret it. It is all yummy, yummy, yummy. So who is counting calories here? You gonna swim it off anyway the next day on the beach. Especially if you are a long distance swimmer like Manu. One of the days she made it so deep into the sea chasing a small white buoy. The buoy was almost at the horizon, perhaps even in Ukrainian territory. But she managed to get to the little white thing and come back. Got us all on our feet staring at the sea. Brave girl!
Drinks just keep flowing wherever you go. Everyone meets up for a drink. Beer and alcohol menta are the summer drinks on duty. You cannot have a beach visit without enjoying any of them or both. The alcohol menta is a GREEN mint liqueur, that goes perfect with either soda or sprite. Add to it a lot of ice and you get amazing color, taste and refreshing experience. Mmmmm, I wish I could have one right now. Preferably in the cheap, slightly trashy, food&drinks places by the shore called Kapani. The common people places.

Go partying

While on holidays you need to let some steam off. There is no better way than to dance it out or sing it out.

Especially when you can go to a club built into the rocks with the dance floor on the sand and tables in the water. Classic. It is not as easy to dance on the sand but it is so liberating to kick your shoes off and just jump around. Especially in the presence of cool friends and SUPER HOT waiters. Yes, one of the half-naked waiters almost caused a heart attack to the girls and BOYS in the group. By simply doing his job: smile, dance like he had no bones and take orders half-naked.

We even left a lasting impression performance in the most popular Karaoke bar in Burgas. We might have sucked but we had the best stage outfits that night!

Reflect

Looking back now I want to give a big hug to my sea. For making me again whole and healed. I had this wonderful plan to use the time alone on the beach and write down all the pain and hurt that I kept dragging inside me for months before. Write it down and send it off into the water.

At the end I didn’t do it. I simply didn’t feel the need to do it. The pain was suddenly gone and the hurt didn’t matter anymore. Realizing this felt even more liberating than sending a letter in a bottle. I even felt grateful for the surprisingly cruel people I had to stumble upon recently. After all, they are all priceless life lessons. Life lessons that make me appreciate my life, myself and people around me much more.

Maybe feeling serene, calm and happy is a post-holiday effect that will wash away pretty soon. I hope not. It feels great!

Thank you my Black Sea! I will be back soon.

Beach number 1 this summer - Kavatsi