$20 bunjee jumping and a jeep safari

DAY 1

Bulgaria was the perfect mid-voyage break. No one knew what they were expecting really because SAS has never stopped in Bulgaria before. We had to tender the first day, which means that our ship was anchored off shore and we had to take tender boats to the port. We got off the ship at 9:45 am and about 8 of us headed to the bridge for bungee jumping! I was pretty sure that I was going to do it, but not 100% positive. We got to the bridge REALLY early, at about 11, because one of the girls saw on a website that it opened at 11. However, the people that run the whole business, adrenaline extreme sports, didn’t show up until 12:30. (which the interport student told us when he called his boss at the travel agency HOWEVER, some people don’t like to listen) We just sat around at the bridge waiting for these guys to show up. Then when they did, it took them about an hour to get everything set up and then another hour for us to get forms signed and to get ready to jump.

I guess now I can let you all know that I changed my mind about bungee jumping when we got to the bridge. It didn’t look so fantastic and I realized how high it really is. It turns out that it was a really good idea for me not to do it because I wouldn’t have liked it anyway AND everyone now has bruises because of the ankle straps and I would have had huge issues with my ankle. So good choice! They would have been carrying me to the ship!

So everyone except Russell and I did the whole thing and they all loved it! Everyone wanted to go again. Nate had a perfect fall. He did exactly what they told him to do. Rachel was looking at the horizon until she fell off then she just about dove which they tell you NOT to do. It was hilarious. She’s fine.

After that we walked back to the beach. We all picked up water bottles for 90 cents! Not US cents, but leva!!! It works out to about 64 US cents and these bottles were huge. First official cheap water of the trip!

The shopping center area was really nice. It’s a bunch of roads/sidewalks that have been closed off to cars with all sorts of restaurants and bars and casinos everywhere. It was really fun walking through there and window shopping. I do want to head back there and check out what kind of deals I can get on awesome European fashion! I saw an Escada store too and flipped out. Moving on. We stopped to get lunch at this one restaurant that was recommended by the tourist center. It definitely wasn’t that great. I was very disappointed with the food, but it was inexpensive and we were all starving so it didn’t really mater. Afterward we went to the beach by walking through a section of the sea garden.

The sea garden is this whole section between the beach and the city of Varna that is just a giant flower garden/park with all sorts of things throughout it like the aquarium and the planetarium and the dolphinarium! We’re doing a day of –ariums tomorrow. Should be fun! Hopefully I get some shopping in too! The gardens were really nice, well the part that we walked through to the beach.

The beach was beautiful. It stretched pretty far and it was SO sandy!! I didn’t go in the water yesterday since we didn’t get to the beach until around 6 and it was cooling off. It has been pretty hot here, but not humid so that is definitely nice. We decided that instead of going back to the ship, we were just going to get some wine and chill on the beach. We had a bottle of red and a bottle of white and just sat around and talked. It was really nice hanging out with everyone for a while without being shoved into a crowded bar or even an outside bar with loud music. Grace’s dad has been on SAS and said that the friends you make here, you make for life, and I definitely see that happened with everyone, or at least some of us! I definitely want to make it up to Vermont to visit Rachel and Nate and Tim are right in Pittsburgh, so that should be easy!

Alright, can’t wait to see what else Bulgaria brings!!!

DAY 2

Today in Bulgaria we all slept in. Everyone needed some recovery time from this whole trip. It’s crazy. Right away we were thrown into classes for 7 days straight and then we were in a port and right after that it was like BAM port, BAM class, BAM port and you never have any time to just relax! Which is ok because you really want to keep going and see everything in the ports. So it was nice to just relax a little. We went to the beach for a few hours after that. It was so nice. The beach is so close to the ship. Every other port we had to walk a distance to the beach or even in Greece we had to go to an island to get a great beach. But here, we just left the port which took 2 minutes and then walk along the sea wall and then here we are, beautiful golden sand beach! The water wasn’t as clear as the Mediterranean, but it was still really nice. Little bit more seaweed than the Medi too, but it’s OK. I think this might be our last port that has a good beach or well, a beach at all. I’m not sure how Egypt and Morocco will be. I know I really won’t be swimming in the water there anyway. Especially after reading this paper I have to write a summary on for Oceanography. NOT the cleanest water.

After chilling on the beach we came back, ate dinner and then went out and got some more wine and went to the beach. It was such a great time just sitting on the beach and thinking “Wow, I’m in Bulgaria”.  It’s breezy and cool at night which is definitely a relief after some of the countries and cities such as Rome. But, we’ll soon be heading to MUCH warmer places!

DAY 3

Today we walked around the town and watched some of the volleyball championships. It was really awesome. All week they had these volleyball courts set up. Apparently it’s the first beach volleyball tournament held in Bulgaria that is recognized by the FIBV. So we were sort of a part of history! We watched the end of the Latvia vs. Brazil match and then went out shopping. We all wanted to stop at McDonalds but didn’t because none of us were hungry. Apparently McDonalds is insane here and wealthy people are really the one people that go there and it’s supposed to be really nice inside. This is really weird for us from the US! I didn’t have a chance to see inside though. The corporate headquarters are here in Bulgaria as well. I had no idea until I found out that it was a trip you could take through SAS, but I am planning on going on a jeep safari!!

We watched the finals of the tournament: Germany versus Brazil. Germany won it 2-1. It was pretty awesome. I forgot that one of my friends from Germany plays beach volleyball! I was really hoping he was there, which would have been awesome, BUT he wasn’t. After that we went out to dinner with Nate for his birthday and then we went out to a club down the beach. It was a really cool place.  The atmosphere of the club was really interesting though. It was kind of open air and it was built around trees which was really amazing. Nate celebrated his 21st in style! Called it an early night to get up nice and early!

DAY 4

Today was AWESOME!!! I bought a ticket for this trip from this girl that decided not to go on it. Which was crazy on her part since it was the best trip I’ve been on so far! Well one of them. It was called Jeep Safari and Picnic and it was fantastic. We were picked up in these awesome old open jeeps. Ours sat 6 so we had one up front, 3 in the middle and then me and nate sat in the very back facing each other. We drove out of Varna into the country of Bulgaria. It was so beautiful!

Our jeep was like 60 years old and definitely had some age issues. It wouldn’t start a few times and then it would keep stalling and he had issues with it not wanting to shift or not wanting to stay in gear. Definitely made the trip more interesting! We drove up to this one lookout where we could see all of the Golden Sands resort and took pictures and such. We got back in the jeeps and went up the paved road a little farther until there was a dirt path that cut off. Off road time!!

It was soo much fun! We drove through puddles and through the woods and fields. The drivers were cutting each other off and then racing across the fields and stuff. Our driver was awesome! I don’t remember what his name was but he was really funny. We took a picture with him after our picnic. Anyway, so we were racing through the fields and then driving through the woods and stuff. We stopped to taste some Rakia which is Bulgaria’s national drink. It’s a type of Brandy. I passed on it, but others bought beer and were drinking it in the back of the jeeps. It was hilarious. Then we hopped back in our jeeps, went off roading some more and then stopped at a random farm where honey was made. It was really good! They gave us samples and were of course selling more beer. Our third stop was this other random place where we shot some bb guns and again had some more beer. We went off-roading a little longer until we reached where our picnic lunch was. We had delicious home made bread, then the Bulgarian salad which was made with white cabbage with a side of a whole tomato and a cucumber. We then had chicken skewers with a baked potato and some sort of roasted pepper. It was all really good.

Some of the jeep drivers played instruments and sang, so they gave us a show and we did some dancing and they sang songs for the people from the different countries that were there with us as well. The line dances I did sort of recognize.We then drove back to Varna on the highway, but the Bulgarian countryside is amazing. It was so nice to just drive around in the open jeep with the cool wind! I needed a sweatshirt! I’m really excited for fall at home now!!! BUT I still have 2 VERY hot countries to make it through first!  There is a jeep safari in Egypt, but I signed up for an overnight Cairo trip. I want to try and get some people together that want to just see about booking it separately from SAS. Hopefully that will work! I would love to do something like this again!

I do have other things to write about now, but I can’t think what they are, TOO exhausted! And I kind of have homework to do….

I LOVE Bulgaria! Oh yeah, I was SO close to Romania… dear Romania, I promise I will be back some time and I will spend loads of time with you…