Sunny Beach

Our last full day on the Black Sea was spent on the most popular beach on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Sunny Beach (Слънче бряг) is about a mile north of Nesebar. Even though Nesebar is the UNESCO Site, all of the signs lead you to Sunny Beach.

We are lucky we came here in June. Although the weather wasn’t the best, we were still able to swim and lay out in the sun. The beach wasn’t too crowded, but there were still plenty of people enjoying the sun. 

BH on the beach with an old scary man walking toward him

Afterward, we went to the center and just wandered around. This is the first place I’ve been in Bulgaria that really doesn’t feel anything like Bulgaria. The crowd was very mixed, and there were definitely a lot more foreigners than Bulgarians. Also, there were so many nice looking hotels and they were all new. 

Burger King, Chinese restaurants, o my goodness

 This is where all of Bulgaria’s money is! Sunny Beach also had a lot of international restaurants. Not only did it have the ubiquitous Chinese restaurants found in most Bulgarian cities, it also had Mexican, Italian, Indian, and British restaurants. Crazy! People were inviting us into their stores and restaurants in the same way that they do it in Istanbul. There were also English-speaking foreigners working as club and restaurant promoters.

All of this development also meant more expensive price tags. BH and I didn’t really feel like spending 20 leva on a meal, so we headed back to Aheloy, ate some mackerel, and then went back to our little UFOs on the beach where we met a very interesting guy named Ivan (typical Bulgarian name). He worked as a priest back in Sofia, and was on vacation with his daughter. We chatted away and he invited me to go fishing with him the next day. He was drinking wine, and before I knew it he was really drunk. At about midnight, he wanted to head out to the clubs, but BH and I declined. It was a Monday night! Orthodox priests can have so much fun; they can get married and drink. Hilarious.