What can I say about these days…we eat, we sleep, we drink, we swim, we bask in the sun…that is all we do this week. There are 5 pools here and we make sure to visit them all. There are numerous playgrounds which the kids try out. There are 6 restaurants and we try out a few, although our favourite is the one right by our place. The kids swim for hour upon hour and I actually finish a fiction novel.
We venture off the resort just once go into Sozopol which is a magical town built in the Ottoman style which is wood structures instead of the stone we have seen in other old towns. The views of the Black Sea are stunning. We have a gorgeous (and expensive - we paid for the view big time) lunch overlooking the sea and shop. Then we head straight back to the resort for a swim!
It’s a lovely week, and we feel blessed to have this time together in such a nice place.
Friday, 7 August 2015
Day 16 - Sofia to Sozopol
We are up early and packed and we heat out to find the coffee shop “Memento” that was recommended to us. A good coffee is what it takes to set the day off right in my opinion! We meet Wendy, Bruce and Brian there and have a snack and coffee before Dave heads off to pick up our rental car at the Hilton. We wander around a bit and stop at a cool t-shirt store where Brian buys a good shirt and I get a scarf before we say our real goodbyes and head back to the apartment to check out. Dave isn’t back yet which is not a surprise at renting cars over here can sometimes be a painful and slow process.
The girls work hard and bring all the luggage down the stairs from the 5th floor as we had promised the host we would be out by 11am. We meet his girlfriend who is lovely and wait outside for Dave to arrive with the car. It’s hot and we are all a bit sweaty from hauling all that stuff!
Dave appears finally and we get loaded up and head out of the city. We are headed to the Black Sea to a town called Sozopol. We have rented an apartment in a large resort and we are excited for some down time!
The drive in uneventful - its a long straight highway in good condition with a good speed limit. We make one stop off in a town for lunch and end up in a mall where we buy some beach toys for the kids and two new bikinis for me! One thing I’ve learned is that over here, it doesn’t matter how big or small you are, everyone wears a bikini - I intend on doing as the locals do! I feel no shame.
We arrive at the resort and have a bit of a hard time finding it, but we do. The person we were told to meet doesn’t speak any english so that poses us a bit of stress, but we do manage to get the keys only to find out (after parking) that you also need a FOB so we have to go all the way back to reception. Once we get to the apartment, the keys don’t work. I am getting frustrated! It’s hot and we have all this luggage and we just want to get in and its like a comedy of errors. Finally we get in! Argghhh.
We strip down and head to the pool. There is one right by our place and its lovely! We eat at the restaurant beside the pool and are feeling much better about life! The view of the Sea is beautiful and the resort is truly luxurious.
There are a lot of Russians here - apparently 90% of the guests, so nobody that we see is speaking any english and the staff don’t speak much english either. We manage though. We are feeling good about the week ahead.
The girls work hard and bring all the luggage down the stairs from the 5th floor as we had promised the host we would be out by 11am. We meet his girlfriend who is lovely and wait outside for Dave to arrive with the car. It’s hot and we are all a bit sweaty from hauling all that stuff!
Dave appears finally and we get loaded up and head out of the city. We are headed to the Black Sea to a town called Sozopol. We have rented an apartment in a large resort and we are excited for some down time!
The drive in uneventful - its a long straight highway in good condition with a good speed limit. We make one stop off in a town for lunch and end up in a mall where we buy some beach toys for the kids and two new bikinis for me! One thing I’ve learned is that over here, it doesn’t matter how big or small you are, everyone wears a bikini - I intend on doing as the locals do! I feel no shame.
We arrive at the resort and have a bit of a hard time finding it, but we do. The person we were told to meet doesn’t speak any english so that poses us a bit of stress, but we do manage to get the keys only to find out (after parking) that you also need a FOB so we have to go all the way back to reception. Once we get to the apartment, the keys don’t work. I am getting frustrated! It’s hot and we have all this luggage and we just want to get in and its like a comedy of errors. Finally we get in! Argghhh.
We strip down and head to the pool. There is one right by our place and its lovely! We eat at the restaurant beside the pool and are feeling much better about life! The view of the Sea is beautiful and the resort is truly luxurious.
There are a lot of Russians here - apparently 90% of the guests, so nobody that we see is speaking any english and the staff don’t speak much english either. We manage though. We are feeling good about the week ahead.
Day 15 - Skopje to Sofia
Our transfer is picking us up at 11am this morning so we have a bit of time to wander around and grab something to eat after we get packed up. We load into the car and I realize that I don’t have Dave’s cel in my hand anymore - I seem to have a knack for losing things! We aren’t leaving without the phone so head back to the apartment and tear open everything. Emi our host is cleaning the apartment and she can’t see it so we are pulling apart the car when I finally remember where I put it! Ha! I had gone to take a quick pee before we left and had placed it on top of the water heater. Jeez - I need a bell or a strap for the phone!
Our driver is nice, and not a crazy driver which is great - so we make our way smoothly towards Sofia. The border crossing goes smoothly and we arrive into Sofia at around 5pm. There was an hour time change that we didn’t realize which meant we were quite a bit later to meet our next Airbnb host - which I felt badly about, but he didn’t seem to mind too much.
Wendy, Bruce and Brian had a place a couple blocks away, and our place was right along a main tram street which had great shops and restaurants. As is often the case, the lobby and stairwell of the apartment were not so lovely - a bit dark and rundown, but the apartment was lovely and very well decorated - very trendy and urban. No AC though which meant for a bit of a hot sleep, but the temperature has cooled down quite a bit since we entered Bulgaria.
We get settled in and then head off to meet for dinner. Our host suggested a restaurant called “The Little Things” and although it was really hard to find as it was tucked into a little courtyard - it was by far the best meal I think I’ve had - ever. I cannot even begin to do justice to the setting by my photos or my descriptions, but I will do my best. It was a little house, or felt like a little house with a series of rooms with tables in them. The whole place was decorated with “little things”…little shells hung on a piece of twine on the wall, little lightbulbs that had been filled with little flowers and hung in a row, little candles and this and that. It was beautifully done and very artistic. The door and window frames were all distressed, and you felt that you might be sitting in someones living room.
We sat upstairs in a room with a large wall of books and the kids enjoyed playing dominoes and looking at the books. I’m trying to think of whether or not there is even something close to this in Vancouver, but am falling short…it kind of had the feel of what Little Nest was like off of commercial drive - but with more attention to the design.
So right away you feel comfortable and warm and like you’re in this neat kind of place where your imagination is really captured…and then comes the food. We ordered a lot of it and it did not disappoint…Brushetta with goats cheese and honey and walnuts, beautiful salads, fresh veggies, enormous burgers and beautiful pastas…we honestly pigged out! Then we had to try dessert of course and that was amazing too. They make dessert for the day, so you pick from the selection. It was petit pots of chocolate mousse with what I think were elderberries and a lovely coffee cheesecake. Yum! Bruce is bent on coming back for dinner or lunch the next day as they have another day in Sofia before they head home - we are headed to Sozopol but have time for another stop here on the way back perhaps. It was a magical evening.
After dinner its time to walk off some of that food. We will not have the opportunity to see too much of Sofia so we wander around the streets, up to the main park in front of the National Theatre and back. These old cities with the beautiful buildings are magnificent to walk at night. They all do such a great job of uplighting that I think the buildings often look nicer in the dark - the architecture is more dramatic somehow.
Its getting late so we head back to our apartment and make plans for coffee in the morning. We say our goodbyes just in case!
Our driver is nice, and not a crazy driver which is great - so we make our way smoothly towards Sofia. The border crossing goes smoothly and we arrive into Sofia at around 5pm. There was an hour time change that we didn’t realize which meant we were quite a bit later to meet our next Airbnb host - which I felt badly about, but he didn’t seem to mind too much.
Wendy, Bruce and Brian had a place a couple blocks away, and our place was right along a main tram street which had great shops and restaurants. As is often the case, the lobby and stairwell of the apartment were not so lovely - a bit dark and rundown, but the apartment was lovely and very well decorated - very trendy and urban. No AC though which meant for a bit of a hot sleep, but the temperature has cooled down quite a bit since we entered Bulgaria.
We get settled in and then head off to meet for dinner. Our host suggested a restaurant called “The Little Things” and although it was really hard to find as it was tucked into a little courtyard - it was by far the best meal I think I’ve had - ever. I cannot even begin to do justice to the setting by my photos or my descriptions, but I will do my best. It was a little house, or felt like a little house with a series of rooms with tables in them. The whole place was decorated with “little things”…little shells hung on a piece of twine on the wall, little lightbulbs that had been filled with little flowers and hung in a row, little candles and this and that. It was beautifully done and very artistic. The door and window frames were all distressed, and you felt that you might be sitting in someones living room.
We sat upstairs in a room with a large wall of books and the kids enjoyed playing dominoes and looking at the books. I’m trying to think of whether or not there is even something close to this in Vancouver, but am falling short…it kind of had the feel of what Little Nest was like off of commercial drive - but with more attention to the design.
So right away you feel comfortable and warm and like you’re in this neat kind of place where your imagination is really captured…and then comes the food. We ordered a lot of it and it did not disappoint…Brushetta with goats cheese and honey and walnuts, beautiful salads, fresh veggies, enormous burgers and beautiful pastas…we honestly pigged out! Then we had to try dessert of course and that was amazing too. They make dessert for the day, so you pick from the selection. It was petit pots of chocolate mousse with what I think were elderberries and a lovely coffee cheesecake. Yum! Bruce is bent on coming back for dinner or lunch the next day as they have another day in Sofia before they head home - we are headed to Sozopol but have time for another stop here on the way back perhaps. It was a magical evening.
After dinner its time to walk off some of that food. We will not have the opportunity to see too much of Sofia so we wander around the streets, up to the main park in front of the National Theatre and back. These old cities with the beautiful buildings are magnificent to walk at night. They all do such a great job of uplighting that I think the buildings often look nicer in the dark - the architecture is more dramatic somehow.
Its getting late so we head back to our apartment and make plans for coffee in the morning. We say our goodbyes just in case!
Day 14 - Skopje
We’ve been following a pattern of 2 nights in a city followed by a travel day which leaves us with essentially one full day to see a city. This has been working out pretty well. Most big cities you can visit in a day, two if you really want to dive in. Given that it has been so hot, one day has been good enough for us as its really been too hard to do much more than that, our travel days have been nice in order to see the countryside in the comfort of air conditioning.
The one benefit of our city days is that we don’t have to get up early - and so we like to indulge in a bit of a sleep in. Our days tend to start late and end late as its nice to eat dinner later in the evening when its not so hot. unfortunately this means the kids have been going to be at around 11pm every night…sometimes they make it….other times they fall asleep at the table :o). We are going to have to really work hard to get them back on track when we get home!
So…we sleep a little late this morning and then get a text from Bruce and Brian that they are in the main square at a restaurant. We walk over to meet them…its another really hot day. We enjoy a lovely more traditional style breakfast at the London Bistro of omelettes and crepes and coffee and enjoy just spending time talking and eating.
Its then time to brave the heat and try to see some of this city. Immediately behind us while we are eating is a major construction zone. I understand from some other blogs I’ve read that this main part of the town has been undergoing extensive renovation and construction for some time now. The end result is something between spectacular and tacky extravagance. The main square features an enormous fountain…I mean enormous! It has a water sequence with water shooting out of lions and way up on top is Alexander the great riding a huge stallion. As you continue along towards the canal and over the bridge, you come across statue after statue after fountain. While they are truly magnificent and beautifully done - I’m not sure what the locals think of this extravagance. Our Airbnb host didn’t seem to care for it too much - he says the problem is that they have tried to make it look like they are old statues, but of course they haven’t - they look new. As a tourist, we did enjoy looking at them, but I can’t even think how much this project must be costing the city.
We carry on into the area featuring shops and browse around. There are shop after shop of gold and silver jewelry - I can’t imagine how they all stay in business side by side - perhaps they are all owned by the same person! There are lovely dress shops and shoe stores. There are a lot of muslims here and their dress is really beautiful - many women are wearing beautiful long coats and headscarves…hard to believe given the fact that it must be close to 40 degrees, but they look very nice.
We continue on and make our way into the Bazaar - its enormous, apparently second to only Istanbul - we weave through it but quite honestly, the heat is just to much. We’ve made a pretty good tour now and so we loop around and back up to the Fortress and find a place for a drink - a local Brewery. Good beer and food is a great way to beat the heat. While we are there a huge storm comes up and as we are perched up on the hill, we get an incredible view of the storm as it rolls in and the wind gusts start to fly huge pieces of debrie from the construction site - kind of scary! We have to shut the windows in the pub as the wind comes up so strong - unfortunately the rain that we all so desperately want doesn’t grace us.
We split up here and Dave, the kids and I venture back towards our apartment for some rest, we walk over a huge bridge featuring enormous anatomically correct male lions and then down to our little neighbourhood where we stop in a shop and buy the cutest little dresses for the girls.
We have a nice rest at the apartment and then everyone comes to our place for a drink on the deck. Its cooled off a bit now and we head down to find a place for dinner and run into our Airbnb hosts - they walk us over to the Bohemian area of town where we have an unbelievable meal in a little terrace. It has the intimacy of being in someone’s backyard and shortly after our arrival a small band arrives to serenade the diners. The food is truly magnificent - I can’t believe how lucky we have been on this trip with the food. It is not at all what I would have expected. Maybe we’ve just been really lucky with our choices, but for we have eaten very well for a very reasonable price.
We organize our transfer for the next day at dinner and then make the walk back to our apartment. Things have really livened up since we walked to the restaurant. Where once the other places had been quiet, now every table is packed. Little bars are playing good music and at another time in my life - this would have been a great area to stop in for a drink and maybe even some dancing…? Alas, Fiona is asleep in my arms as we trudge home and Avery is being carried as well. Funny how your life changes!
The one benefit of our city days is that we don’t have to get up early - and so we like to indulge in a bit of a sleep in. Our days tend to start late and end late as its nice to eat dinner later in the evening when its not so hot. unfortunately this means the kids have been going to be at around 11pm every night…sometimes they make it….other times they fall asleep at the table :o). We are going to have to really work hard to get them back on track when we get home!
So…we sleep a little late this morning and then get a text from Bruce and Brian that they are in the main square at a restaurant. We walk over to meet them…its another really hot day. We enjoy a lovely more traditional style breakfast at the London Bistro of omelettes and crepes and coffee and enjoy just spending time talking and eating.
Its then time to brave the heat and try to see some of this city. Immediately behind us while we are eating is a major construction zone. I understand from some other blogs I’ve read that this main part of the town has been undergoing extensive renovation and construction for some time now. The end result is something between spectacular and tacky extravagance. The main square features an enormous fountain…I mean enormous! It has a water sequence with water shooting out of lions and way up on top is Alexander the great riding a huge stallion. As you continue along towards the canal and over the bridge, you come across statue after statue after fountain. While they are truly magnificent and beautifully done - I’m not sure what the locals think of this extravagance. Our Airbnb host didn’t seem to care for it too much - he says the problem is that they have tried to make it look like they are old statues, but of course they haven’t - they look new. As a tourist, we did enjoy looking at them, but I can’t even think how much this project must be costing the city.
We carry on into the area featuring shops and browse around. There are shop after shop of gold and silver jewelry - I can’t imagine how they all stay in business side by side - perhaps they are all owned by the same person! There are lovely dress shops and shoe stores. There are a lot of muslims here and their dress is really beautiful - many women are wearing beautiful long coats and headscarves…hard to believe given the fact that it must be close to 40 degrees, but they look very nice.
We continue on and make our way into the Bazaar - its enormous, apparently second to only Istanbul - we weave through it but quite honestly, the heat is just to much. We’ve made a pretty good tour now and so we loop around and back up to the Fortress and find a place for a drink - a local Brewery. Good beer and food is a great way to beat the heat. While we are there a huge storm comes up and as we are perched up on the hill, we get an incredible view of the storm as it rolls in and the wind gusts start to fly huge pieces of debrie from the construction site - kind of scary! We have to shut the windows in the pub as the wind comes up so strong - unfortunately the rain that we all so desperately want doesn’t grace us.
We split up here and Dave, the kids and I venture back towards our apartment for some rest, we walk over a huge bridge featuring enormous anatomically correct male lions and then down to our little neighbourhood where we stop in a shop and buy the cutest little dresses for the girls.
We have a nice rest at the apartment and then everyone comes to our place for a drink on the deck. Its cooled off a bit now and we head down to find a place for dinner and run into our Airbnb hosts - they walk us over to the Bohemian area of town where we have an unbelievable meal in a little terrace. It has the intimacy of being in someone’s backyard and shortly after our arrival a small band arrives to serenade the diners. The food is truly magnificent - I can’t believe how lucky we have been on this trip with the food. It is not at all what I would have expected. Maybe we’ve just been really lucky with our choices, but for we have eaten very well for a very reasonable price.
We organize our transfer for the next day at dinner and then make the walk back to our apartment. Things have really livened up since we walked to the restaurant. Where once the other places had been quiet, now every table is packed. Little bars are playing good music and at another time in my life - this would have been a great area to stop in for a drink and maybe even some dancing…? Alas, Fiona is asleep in my arms as we trudge home and Avery is being carried as well. Funny how your life changes!
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