To Bulgaria with Accord

Written: 29 august 2011
Travel time: 25 july — 4 august 2011
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The holiday was a success. We went to Bulgaria for the first time.
Road there. The bus caught, let's say, not quite comfortable. The location of the seats was very close to each other, and they reclined almost on their knees behind those sitting, which caused inconvenience and led to scandals. Everything else is OK. The route was completed exactly on schedule. Customs passed relatively quickly, for 2 hours they passed Ukraine-Romania, and for 3 hours Romania-Bulgaria (5 buses stood in front of us). At 11.00 we landed in Obzor. We were met by car and taken to the hotel. From the hotel to the bus station, walk well, a maximum of 5 minutes.
Hotel. I even liked it very much. Everything corresponds to the declared photo and description. In fact, this is a residential building of (small) apartments for 30. Some of the apartments have probably been bought out, the rest are rented out as a hotel. Quiet and calm, everyone is friendly, in our race there were only Russian speakers, I suspect that there are no foreigners here. The hotel is located in the very center near the square with a fountain, really 100 meters from the sea (very close). Our room was on the 3rd floor, the view, however, was not on the sea, but on Obzor. Room: a fairly large room, two beds, a dining table and 3 chairs, a table under the TV with a mirror, air conditioning, a balcony with 2 chairs, a kitchen unit (stove, oven, extractor hood, dishes, forks, knives, one pan, we asked another frying pan and a day later they found it for us, a drip coffee maker, there was no kettle, a microwave). Toilet and shower, they don't have shower cabins, just a shower is attached to the wall and a drain is made in the floor. Everything is new.

There is an elevator. There is no reception as such, there is an administrator's room near the pool and there is always one of the staff there. There is a guard there at night. Russian is broken, but they speak. There is also a small pool, deep and clean, it is monitored and cleaned all the time. We liked. Normal budget stay.
Nutrition. We had breakfast ourselves in the room. There is one large supermarket, open from 7.00 to 1.00 (night), and a bunch of small shops around the city, next to the supermarket is a bazaar where you can buy vegetables and fruits, the supermarket has good cooking, and there is also a kiosk nearby where they sell freshly fried fish . The choice of products is very good, I would say quite large, everything is cheap and tasty. From the local flavor there are a lot of different varieties of cheese, absolutely indecently cheap and tasty feta, sour milk, ayran, delicious olives.
We spent lunch and dinner in local cafes, of which there are many scattered throughout the town. The cost of a good lunch and dinner for two of us was 20-25 lev, i. e. 10-12 lev per person, and this is with wine. 1 euro - 1.92 leva. Roughly 5 euros per person at a time. Portions are very large, the output of salads and meat dishes is usually 300-400 grams. Salads we usually took 1 for two. There are dishes with an output of 800 grams. We usually ate somewhere on the waterfront. Plus or minus prices are the same everywhere. On the embankment, we went around all the cafes and the difference in prices was insignificant. Delicious ice cream, just delicious.
There is one disco at the entrance to the city, well, it's five minutes from the supermarket, but we never got to it. The disco that was on the beach is closed. Locals go to a disco in Varna.

Overview. The town itself, or rather the village is very small. It can be completely bypassed, if quickly, then it takes about 30 minutes in a circle, if you do not rush and make stops for a photo, then in an hour maximum. A string of new hotels stretches along the beach from Obzor, they can be reached on foot by the beach or along the road, but far away. We took a walk once and decided that we had better. Of course, there is no gloss of a large and expensive resort here, everything is homely and cozy, there is a kind of touch of an old Bulgarian seaside village. During the day, everyone is on the beach, there are practically no people in the town, the crowd gathers only in the evening on the central square and near souvenir shops. We did not find shops with clothes, only souvenir shops and shops with beach accessories. There is no real shopping here. For shopping you need to go to Varna. Varna is an hour away by bus from the bus station.
The beach is huge. Long wide sandy strip along the bay. There are very few people for such a beach, there are absolutely no problems with finding a place to lie down no matter what time you come to the beach. People begin to pull up to the beach hours after 9 am. When we arrived at 8 am on the last day, we were alone on the beach. You can rent sunbeds and umbrellas, but it's expensive - 5-6 lev for a sunbed and the same amount for an umbrella. But you can lie on your rug and under your umbrella, there is enough space for everyone. The beach is cleaned every day, there is no garbage. The only thing is that all the sand is studded with gobies and everyone around smokes, this is a kapets, it bothered me a little. Every 100 meters there is a lifeguard tower, they whistle and wave their hands. Entry into the sea is gentle, but not long. It’s just normal, there is where the children splash and you don’t have to go far to the depth. The sand is coarse and kalamut does not rise, even in a storm the water is relatively clean.
Of the excursions, even before the trip, they immediately ordered a package of Nessebar and Istanbul. Both trips were very enjoyable. Although you can easily go to Nessebar on your own and just walk along it, all the same, I didn’t hear half of what they said, and didn’t try to listen to the second half, because when you get there you want everything at once and absolutely not up to the guide. Directions from Obzor 6 lev one way.
Istanbul. They wrote that it was a very difficult move, but it didn’t seem like that to me at all. We left at 23.30 and at 8.30 were in Istanbul on the embankment near the Galata Bridge. There we transferred to a local bus and went to the Blue Mosque. We visited the Blue Mosque (an indescribable beauty) and the Hippodrome Square (there is nothing to see there at all). Then our tourists returned to the bus and went to the Asian part and to the leather shop, and we stayed here in the center. The meeting of the group was scheduled for 18.45 in the same place where our Bulgarian bus was left (near the Galata bridge). According to the time when we broke away from the group, it was about 11 hours, maybe a little more. We exchanged dollars for lira (we found an exchanger right away), and went to Sofia. The queue was small and after standing for a maximum of 10 minutes we were already in Sofia. Entrance cost 20 lira, audio guide 7 lira. We had our own audio guide and we did not take the audio guide. It's impossible to describe the feeling, you just have to be there. We were in Sofia for about an hour, climbed to the second floor.

Next was the Basilica Cistern, entrance 10 lire. We spent 30 minutes there. The queue is small, well, we stood for a maximum of 5 minutes.
Then we moved to Topkapi. Entrance is 20 lire, there was a little delay in the queue for 15-20 minutes. The entrance to the treasury is included in the general ticket, the entrance to the Harem is 15 lire. Audio guide 10 lira. Now I regret that I didn’t take an audio guide, because our information was not very much, although the question was whether there was more of it in the local one. They ran around the palace for about three hours, but stuck their nose into all the rooms. Tired specifically, but really liked it.
We left Topkapi at about 15.30. We got to the tram and went to the Galata bridge, crossed the bridge and got out behind the bridge. Then we crawled to the Galata tower. There was a little queue there, but I forgot that there was an elevator and we didn’t go up due to fatigue. Having read at home that there was an elevator, she tore her hair a little, but nothing next time.
Then we went back to the Galata Bridge and walked along it. Here, I confess honestly, hunger took over me and my legs themselves carried me to restaurants on the first floor of the Galata Bridge. After a steady passage through a couple of restaurants on the third, I gave up completely and irrevocably. After haggling with the Janissaries, we ordered two fish and a beer each. These cunning people dragged the beer immediately before ordering the fish, having taken a sip of life-giving moisture, I realized that no one was going anywhere further. Then they tried to swindle us into expensive fish, but we stood on our own or this one for 18 lira or we dumped. Then they still divorced me into the type of free tea as a gift, which later turned out to be on the bill, but to hell with them, I was already full and satisfied. For everything about everything, we paid 60 lira for two (about 30 euros). The fish was delicious, the beer excellent. Then we had an hour left and we went to the Egyptian market (aka the Spice Bazaar). It is small, only two streets. The main belongings are plates, lamps, spices, sweets, teas, all sorts of rubbish. There are no clothes here. We ran it twice in an hour. Surprisingly, there are Turks, but there is no coffee for sale. Good Turks are expensive, they don’t want to bargain at all, or I’m not very good at it. Barely bargained for 4 lira. Turkish delight compared to Bulgaria is incredibly expensive, but very tasty. We skimped on the little things and ran to the bus. Of course, one day in Istanbul is negligible, we managed to see only the main center. We didn’t even have time to ride along the Bosphorus, although this was included in the large-scale plan, not to mention all the other attractions. If you go, it is better of course for two days - this is at least something.

The road from Bulgaria to the Motherland was much more comfortable, because there was another bus. Somehow moving back did not strain at all, which I will not say about the trip there.
We were satisfied and we liked everything.
If you need a quiet budget vacation, then feel free to go to Obzor. There are no crowds of tourists, there are no huge hotels, everything is quiet and calm here. Lots of families with children. Most of the Bulgarians, less Russian-speaking, but also a lot, a little bit of Germans, there are Poles, they saw a family of Italians and a young couple of Englishmen.
By the way, renting a house upon arrival is not at all a problem, there are advertisements for renting a room everywhere, the choice of housing is large for different tastes and budgets.
We went to two 4-star hotels on the first lines, the cost of a double room, all inclusive, plus sun loungers on the beach - 45 euros per day, a child under 12 years old for an extra charge. place for free.
This was our third trip with Accord, which was definitely a success!
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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