Jenni & Joe
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Sozopol, Bulgaria
Monday, August 27
Early morning and we know it's going to be a challenging day! Somehow we have to get from Central Romania to Southern Bulgaria today -- without any information about how to get there! Everywhere else we've traveled, we've been able to make reservations ahead of time, and we tried to here. But each Romanian train clerk we've talked to absolutely insists "it's not possible" to make train reservations into Bulgaria. The best they can do - they say - is get us to the Bulgarian border, so we take our chances.

We eat breakfast at 6:30 AM and then it's an hour's drive from our room in Bran to the train station in Brasov. We have already arranged with the pension owner for a taxi ride (it's her father) since the bus schedule would be too iffy and we have a deadline. Train tickets from Brasov to Bucharest cost about $7, and we get on with no problems. Whew!

In Bucharest, we try once again to find some information regarding travel into Bulgaria, but to no avail. The best the clerk can do is tell us to go just across the border to the Bulgarian town of Ruse. The clerk then guesses what might happen next by referring to a 3-year-old train schedule at the ticket window. The next train to Burgas (near our destination of Sozopol) leaves at 6:00AM the next morning, so that means we need to spend the night in Ruse.

We hop a 2:45 PM train to Ruse where we meet a very nice Japanese traveler named Hiroshi. Hiroshi is a computer programmer so he and Jenni have a lot to talk about. After a 4-hour train ride, we arrive together and, since Hiroshi is also stuck in Ruse for a night and his train also leaves in the early morning, we decide to find a hotel together. The Hotel National is $15 per person, so $30 a night. We check into our rooms, then hang out with Hiroshi the rest of the night. We check our e-mail, walk around the nice (but dark) downtown square, eat Chinese food then walk back to the hotel. Along the way, we talk about what we could do to help Bulgaria and some of these other developing countries better themselves. Hiroshi suggests, first of all, that we could computerize the train system. Amen to that!

At the hotel, Jenni reads while Joe watches TV, the programming of which is mostly in Bulgarian. But there is also a very trashy "Porky's"-type American movie on from the 80's. It's crap, but it's in English so it'll definitely do.

Tuesday, August 28
Another very early morning! After a 4:45 AM wake-up call, the Hotel clerk gives us breakfast of sandwiches of cheese and some kind of undistinguishable meat and sends us on our way. We are at the train station by 5:20 AM to catch the train to Burgas, Bulgaria where we will cross our fingers that we can make a connection somehow to get to our destination of Sozopol. We get on the right section of the train only after the conductor tells us in Bulgarian that only the first 5 cars are going to Burgas…the other cars are headed elsewhere, apparently. Whew! Glad we asked. It's a 7-hour ride to Burgas, and luckily we end up with our own compartment for the entire trip. (We think that's because a friendly conductor-looking person arranged for this, as we heard him more than once shoo people away from our compartment. Not sure why this happened…The conductor was very nice. He spent about 10 minutes trying to explain something to us in Bulgarian. He even sat down with us and tried pantomiming, but we never quite caught on.)

Anyway, we sleep most of the way then arrive in Burgas around 12:45 PM. The bus station is about a block from the train station, and we have to catch a ride to Sozopol, our ultimate destination. We walk up just as the hourly bus to Sozopol pulls away. Taxis are sounding good right now, so we negotiate a decent 18 leva ($9) price for the 20-mile trip and locate the travel agency, Lotos, that reserved a room for us.

The apartment is nice, only 28 leva ($14) a night, and is in a private section of the family that runs the Lotos agency. It has a TV, so Jenni vegetates for a few hours while Joe runs out for a haircut. In the late afternoon, we take a stroll through the Old Town and walk along the pretty beach, then grab a dinner of fruits and nuts at the open-air market, check e-mail, and head home to watch TV, work on the Web site (we're running a bit behind) and sleep yet some more!

Wednesday, August 29
Beach Day! After breakfast in the dining room of the family, we head to the beach! It's about a 5-minute walk, but we take the long way since we're not sure where it is. It's crowded but not too much, hot but with a cool breeze, and we rent some chairs under an umbrella to sit the day away. The water is a warm, and has plenty of bodysurfing waves.

Around 5:00 we head back to the apartment for a shower and dinner. The guidebook's restaurant recommendations are too hard to find, so we go it alone and stumble across a great little open-air place with a very nice waitress, Valya. Valya speaks some English and helps us decide on a great meal: stuffed peppers, whole fish in a tomato sauce, boiled buttery potatoes and feta cheese. (Incidentally, they call feta cheese "white cheese". Joe has a theory that because we are so close to Greece, the surrounding countries don't call things by their Greek names.) We also find a new drink we like: Fanta and vodka. A shot of vodka is about 90 leva, or only $0.45, so we indulge. Dinner was only 18 leva, or $9. It starts to rain heavily as we leave, so we hang around long enough for another drink and then head home.

Thursday, August 30
Another Beach Day! But first we have to stock up on some supplies: shampoo, conditioner, soap, shaving lotion, sunblock, and lotion. The total bill for everything comes to 20 leva, or $10. After we drop the goodies off at home, we head to the other beach in town, stopping for peaches and cheese along the way. Hawkers walk up and down the beach selling candies apples, ice cream, and some of the best pretzels around, so we buy a pretzel and make lunch on the sand. It's too rough today to take a paddleboat out, so we just play in the water and lie in the sun.

For dinner we pick up more peppers, peaches, cheese, sausage, a pretzel, Fanta and vodka. Joe writes his sections of the Budapest update and Jenni reads magazines and guidebooks.

Friday, September 31
Another Beach Day! We need come individual time alone, so Joe heads off early in the morning and Jenni sleeps in. We each wander the town by ourselves and meet up at the paddleboat rental place at noon. The paddle boat guy is impatient and thinks we are German. He rushes us into the boat and pushes it into the water before we are settled, so everything gets soaked - including the bag with the digital camera in it. Jenni has to change clothes on the boat, and we get into a discussion about how we shouldn't let paddleboat guys intimidate us into hurrying. The boat has a slide on it, so we take turns sliding into the water…then Jenni gets seasick (on a paddle boat!) so we head in 15 minutes before our time is up. We find some chairs under an umbrella to rent and Joe heads off to rustle up lunch.

Hours later we go back to the apartment for a quick shower, check e-mail and wander the Old Town looking for sunglasses for Joe. We're not feeling adventurous for dinner, so we head back to the place we've been before, and Valya remembers us! She greets us with, "Joe and Jenni, from America!" It's nice to welcomed, so we name our new favorite drink (Fanta and vodka) after her. She is pleased. Dinner is a baked casserole of potatoes and meats, a pork medallion, rump roast, and French fries with feta cheese. After dinner we look into the Appolonia Festival schedule, which is all in Bulgarian, so we need some translation help. The lady at the ticket window explains a few things and lets us in for free to the concert that night since it's almost over. It's a salsa group, and we make vows to learn to salsa dance when we get home. Joe has a horrific headache, so we head home after the concert.

Saturday, September 1
Jenni spent all night up with the Sultan's Revenge (Bulgaria was once part of the Sultan's Ottoman Empire) and she can't stray too far from the apartment. Good thing the medicine kit has what she needs! Joe heads out to get some air and buy some new sunglasses, and we meet up at 3:30 at the Internet café to update the Web site. The connection speed is rather slow, so this takes some time. Afterwards, we stop for dinner at a pizza stand for just 3 leva, or $1.50, and watch the sun set over the water.

Jenni is tired, and not feeling well, so we head home. Joe goes out to catch a concert at the Appolonia Arts Festival main stage. It is an excellent ensemble that mixes Bulgarian folk music with jazz. Afterwards, Joe is determined to meet some Russian guys and drink Vodka (he is anxious to toast his former mortal enemy.) Instead, he meets some Polish guys who hate Russians - and Germans for that matter - but love their Vodka. Many vodkas later, Joe comes home late and passes out drunk on the couch.

Sunday, September 2
We spend Sunday on the beach (Joe is recuperating). Just soaking up rays and picnicking. Late Sunday evening, we are walking home when we hear singing. We investigate and find a group of men in a bar harmonizing in barbershop quartet style. We sit down and listen and find out the group is with a choir from Trento, in northern Italy. They are in town to sing for the Arts Festival, but we get a special concert at the bar for a few hours. Joe (of course) sings along while we drink café (Joe) and white-hot chocolate (Jenni).

Monday, September 3
We are supposed to leave today for Istanbul, but Jenni is still struggling with the trots. So we decide to sleep late and stay an extra day in Bulgaria to give Jenni a chance to get better. We have a lunch of pizza and salad at a restaurant by the beach. We take it very easy, nap most of the day away and eat a picnic dinner. Afterwards we call our families and friends to wish them a "Happy Labor Day." Our international phone card won't work, so we end up having to buy a local phone card, which only lasts something like 5 minutes. It's expensive but it's worth it to hear a voice from home. We drink a couple of beers, work on the Web site and pass out early.

Tuesday, September 4
Instead of getting better, Jenni has gotten sicker. She didn't sleep at all overnight because she was constantly running to the bathroom. She's tired, feeling weak and dizzy and can't hold down any food. Our dilemma is this: if we stay here in Bulgaria she could get even sicker and potentially have to be hospitalized. Hospitalized in Bulgaria? Not a good option. But the long trip to Istanbul could make her sicker. The trip we have planned means catching a 10 AM bus to Burgas, then hopping an international bus that would get us to Istanbul at 10 PM. The problem is that Jenni could get sick all along the way and there's no way they would stop the bus each time she has to go to the bathroom. So we have to use our imagination. Our landlord, Yani, says he would drive us to the Bulgarian border in one hour for $45, but doesn't quite know how we would get to Istanbul from there. Are there trains on the other side? We don't know. Buses? Unsure. Still, we think this is a better option than being stuck on a bus, so we go with Yani. We have to stop for Jenni several times along the way, so we are thankful for this option.