What to See in Bulgaria, Pt. 5: Southern Black Sea Resorts

Go a bit to the north and you will encounter one of the fines  places (in my opinion) at the Bulgarian sea side. It is named Irakli and it is one of the best places you could go camping. Irakli is or at least was of  of the symbols of the Bulgarian hippie/free spirit. Young people love to camp there because they can go directly on the beach and set their tents two or  three meters away from the sea itself. There is one bar where you can eat some  French fries a drink a beer or amenta. Mentais a typical Bulgarian alcoholic beverage that tastes like mint or like toothpaste. It has dark green color  and it could be very well combined with some milk or soda.Mentais very refreshing in the hot summer days. Irakli itself is a bay, very nice, beautiful beach, and in the last few years it has many visitors. As I said earlier, it is great for free camping; you do not have to pay any fee.  Maybe that is why it has become so popular. People from all over Bulgaria and even the world go there and enjoy the beautiful beach. The problem is that many of these people do not know how to preserve nature and they  leave tons of garbage. If you ever visit Irakli, please do not throw your garbage on the ground or in the sea.

Very near Irakli you could see Emine cape (in Bulgarian it is known asnos Emine). It is interesting to visit because the mountain meets the sea. The longest mountain in Bulgaria, Stara planina, which crosses the entire country, ends at Emine cape. In other words, you can observe the sea from above. First, you have to pass through the nice, small village of Emona. It is so different than the typical sea side resorts. It is quiet and calm. After you pass the village, you reach the cape. An extremely beautiful view opens there. There is a certain part of the cape which tourists cannot enter because it is a military building.

After you have enjoyed the beauty of Irakli you might want to continue north. Not too far from Irakli and Emine, you can reach another desolated and beautiful beach, named Kara dere. It resembles Irakli, since there are no large hotels around it and  free-spirited young people like to camp there. The problem is you will not find any bars or even shops there. You need to be prepared and bring your own food and drinks. The place is very nice and you will totally love it  if you are into wild camping.

A bit more to the north and you will go all the way to one of Bulgaria’s largest cities: Varna. Varna is an old town and it is very beautiful. It has a nice center and many bars and restaurants. Along with Bourgas, Varna is the largest city on the Bulgarian coast line.

Continue north and you will pass through some famous resorts, such as Zlatni piasutsi (Golden Sands is what the name means) and Albena. These resorts are also quite nice, and as far as I know, they are not so crowded and crazy as Sunny Beach, for example.

Kavarna, a city quite to the north, is Bulgaria’s  rock capital. Why rock capital? Well, because its mayor, Tsonko Tsonev, organizes a series of concerts and a large rock festival. He loves this kind of music and manages to attract old rock stars to the city. Artists such as Billy Idol, Ronnie James Duo, and Deep Purple have performed at “Kavarna Rocks” festival.  If you are a rock fan you might like Kavarna. Another interesting fact about the city is that some of its typical old Communist buildings have been decorated with large portraits of some of the musicians who have performed in Kavarna.

If you continue north you will reach the nice little town of Balchik. Balchik is so lovely that the Romanian queen Maria built her summer residence there. This happened somewhere in the twenties or the thirties. At that period, Balchik was a Romanian territory. The queen loved the place and decided to have her palace there. The palace is actually very small and it is open for tourist visitations. What is truly interesting to see is the palace’s garden. It is beautiful and full of peculiar flowers. It is great for a romantic walk, so if you are going with someone you like or you are involved with, you will love it even more. There is a small winery where you can  try and buy great wines and some weird sorts of rakiya. The central part of Balchik is also nice to see.  It is full of small bars and restaurants where you can have a drink or have some Black sea fish meal.

A bit to the north and you are almost in Romania… but before that I would like to tell you a bit about my favorite place in the Bulgarian sea side. It is called Kamen briag and it is very beautiful. It is a small, god forsaken village, basically in the middle of nowhere. It has no beach but believe me, this is not a problem. Kamen briag is situated on rocks just above the sea. You can observe amazing views. You can also go down the rock carefully and bathe in the sea. There are some very small and nice bays. The village itself does not have large fancy hotels, which is part of its charm. You can either camp on theplatotoor the flat surface of the rocks (I mean plateau in English) or rent a room in one of the several guest houses. The guest houses cost about forty leva or twenty Euros per room, so about ten Euros per person if you  are sharing. There are some nice houses, owned by old local people. These people are often very nice and would offer you some fruit or vegetables from their gardens. There is an Englishman who owns a house and rents rooms. The interesting aspect of its house and the way it has been built attracts tourists. The house is all stone and it is nicely cool in the hot summer. The owner is an English teacher who spends the summer in Bulgaria with his family. There are two shops where you can buy some basic stuff, such as bread, alcohol, sun cream, ice cream, water, some fruit, soap, etc.  There are also two or three nice restaurants. The most famous of them isTrite kestena(The Three Chestnuts). It has a garden and a nice menu. The prices are more or less reasonable, when having in mind that we are talking about a sea side resort. After you have had a great dinner with some friends andTrite kestenayou should follow one of the two local traditions and take the party to otherogunchetoor in front of the shop.Ogunchetois an eternal fire. There is natural gas in Kamen briag, so you can enjoy this very nice place with fire which never ends. Besides, it does not produce any smoke. When you go to the fire, you should definitely bring a smile and a drink. You will meet very interesting and sometimes weird people there. Yes, there are  all sorts of people drinking and discussing existential topics around the fire. You might argues with some of them or have a nice conversation. Also, people tend to share the food or drinks they have brought to the fire, so be prepared to share. The fire is very near the edge of the rocks, so you have to be very careful. Bring your own light because there is no light there. Also, do not approach the edge if you have drunk. Many people have died like this through the years. If you do not want to go all the way to the fire, you can drink in front of one of the shops. There are benches and people all day and night long. Again, you might meet peculiar characters and have some interesting discussions.

If you want to see something interesting, you can go to Yailata. It is right next to Kamen briag and it is an archeological site. You can see how people used to live there a few thousand years ago. They lived in small openings in the rocks, which resembled short caves. They even had a place where to produce wine, so I am sure they had a great time.

Another great destination is Bolata. It is a small bay where you can spend a great day. It has been officially recognized as one of the most beautiful bays in the world. It is very nice but in the late afternoon because during the day there are many people there and it becomes quite crowded. The place is surrounded by rocks and is a bit isolated. It is difficult to find, so you might have to ask someone. There is one bar where you can have a beer and some Shopska salad at lunchtime. You can also climb a bit. There is a small path at one end of the bay and it is very easy to climb. If you are not too lazy and go all the way up, you will see a beautiful view towards the whole bay. Two or three kilometers away from Bolata is Kaliakra cape. There is a very peculiar ancient fortress on Kaliakra cape. You should  definitely go and see it. There is a parking place, then some small shops with all sorts of souvenirs and then you enter the fortress itself. It has been built long time ago and it has been changed through the ages. There is a museum which tells the history of the fortress. At the end of the cape you will find a very small church and right next to it there is a place where you can see amazing views towards the sea. It is also quite good for taking pictures. The whole region is a natural park. There is also an interesting legend related to the place. Bulgaria was under Ottoman rule from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Ottomans wanted to convert the local population from Christians to Muslims, which was the official religion in the Ottoman Empire. So, according to the legend, forty young girls tied their hair together and jumped from the steep rocks of the cape into the sea in order to escape from the Ottomans. It is a bit of a scary story. Another story is related to Saint Nicolas, the saint of the fisherman and the seamen. He was running away from the Ottomans, trying to escape. In order to help him, God made the earth under his feet longer and longer and that is how the cape was shaped. It is long (two kilometers into the sea) and very narrow. Cape Kaliakra really has something special and a bit magical.

One of the most important aspects of Kamen briag is July Morning orJulaiya.Julaiyais a celebration of the Bulgarian free spirit and the need for freedom. Bulgaria was under Communism until the year 1989. Before that year, people were restricted. They could not express their opinion freely, they could not listen to Western music freely, nor could they dress or wear their hair the way they wanted. World trends arrived with difficulty and often late. That is why there was no hippie movement in Bulgaria in the sixties, but there was something like that in the eighties (twenty years later!). People started looking for more freedom. It is when July Morning was born. It was inspired by the famous Uriah Heep song with the same name. It is a celebration of life and it consist of waiting all night long for the sunrise on first of July. People like to gather and spend great time with friends, often drinking outside, while waiting for the sun. You could celebrate it anywhere but  it is usually celebrated somewhere in those wild camping areas at the sea cost, such as Irakli, Arapiya, and Kamen briag, of course. Actually, Kamen briag is the symbol of July Morning. Really free spirited people love  to go there and wait for the sun on the beautiful cliffs. It is a celebration that does not exist anywhere else in the world. If you are in Bulgaria at the end of June and at the beginning of July, try it. I think you will not regret it.

Just two or three kilometers away from Kamen briag there is the even smaller village of Tiulenovo. It is famous because for a while, people believed that there was oil in the ground around the village. They soon discovered there was almost nothing and now-a-days it is sort of abandoned. There are people living there, one or two restaurants, but I am not even sure if there are any hotels and guest houses. It is very interesting to see, though. You will see old cisterns, the sea, and lots of sunflowers. It is truly beautiful. Right after Tiulenovo there are some peculiar rocks just above the sea. They are not as high, as the ones in Kamen briag, and climbers, both Bulgarians and foreigners, love to climb there. They would usually do it without any ropes or equipment because if they fall, they fall into the sea. It is an amazing place, but it could also be dangerous. There are underwater currents which could drag you inside the sea. Also, you cannot reach the sea bottom. Despite the fact that it is not the safest place, I would still recommend it.

Another five or six kilometers and you reach the village of Shabla. There you can find a real sand beach. If you are missing the beach in Kamen briag, you can go to Shabla. The beach is totally free; you do not have to pay for an umbrella. It is a nice place. Right next to the beach, you will find a small shop where you can buy a beer and ice-cream, plus a huge restaurant. The restaurant is not bad at all, so if you are hungry, it is a good place to have lunch at. If you need a pharmacy or a bigger shop, go to the center of Shabla. There you will find everything you need. B careful, some shops close at noon and open later in the afternoon.

This would be the end of the Bulgarian part of the Black Sea. There are one or two villages just before the Romanian boarder that you might decide to visit and then you enter Romania. There is a huge difference in the climate and the appearance of the southern and northern part of the Bulgarian sea coast. Some people prefer the south; others say they like the north better. In my opinion, if you are an Erasmus student or a tourist, visiting Bulgaria, you should  do a tour around the place you might like and see for yourself. If you are looking for party, then go to Sunny Beach or some other big resort. If you are more into wild camping  and into hippie experiences, you would like better places like Arapiya, Irakli, Kara dere, and Kamen briag. Enjoy! :):):):)

Photo gallery