Camping on the beach in Samcheok

Apparently, you can camp almost anywhere in Korea for free (except national parks which may charge a nominal fee). I went camping with some friends in Samcheok (삼척) and had a pretty great vacation. I was a little jealous that a lot of my friends in Korea are either traveling abroad or visiting their homes, but it is always fun (and cheaper) to travel in Korea. Plus, I had a lot of opportunities to work on my Korean.

Setting up the tent

Sunset on the beach

Random Block B Concert

Making sesame leaf and tuna fried rice. 

A view of the beach

We were told that a couple of beaches further south were full of younger people and more of a destination. You also had to pay for camping, though, and no alcohol was permitted on the beach. Who wants that? Samcheok's main beach was pretty relaxing, and relatively clean. I need to camp on the beach more often... 

Созопол

Sozopol! What a charming little town. I had come here before back in 2008 after a language seminar in Veliko Turnovo. This time, however, BH and I were keen to explore the old town, which I had neglected the first time around.

Sozopol is one of the oldest settlements in Bulgaria and was originally inhabited by the ancient Thracians. It has since then been ruled by the Byzantine and Ottoman Empire and was given to the Bulgarians in the 19^th century. After the first Balkan War, almost all of the Greeks were exchanged with Bulgarians that had been living in Eastern Thrace.

After our tour of the old town, we went down to the beach for some sun. I’ve been trying to teach BH how to be a good swimmer, so we practiced treading water and the elementary backstroke. All was great until a huge sand cloud blew from the trees at the edge of the beach; within minutes, all of the people on the beach ran to the safety of their hotels. There wasn’t a huge storm, but the wind was super strong- look what it did to our tent!

For dinner, we bought some canned tuna, bread, and processed cheese. It doesn’t sound the best, but after our hours of traipsing through Sozopol and swimming at our campsite, it was a delicious and filling meal.

Къмпинг Градина

Wednesday morning BH and I headed out to the Black Sea for a weeklong vacation. There are a handful of trains from Sofia to Burgas everyday, so we took the train at 10:30 and got into Burgas around six. The train was supposed to arrive at 4:30, but this is Bulgaria. One of the most important travel words in Bulgarian is закъснение (delay). How can Bulgaria get away with their trains always being late?

We had originally planned to look around Burgas before heading on to a coastal town, but the sun was on its decline. There are tons of buses running from Burgas to Chernomorets/Sozopol; we grabbed one, paid three leva, and got stuck in traffic. For an hour. It was only a twenty-kilometer trip, but it ended up taking an hour and half.

Once we got to Chernomorets we walked some three kilometers downhill to our campsite. This was our first time camping in Bulgaria, but it was pretty ideal. We were just meters from the beach and since we are traveling in June, it was not overcrowded. Our Wal-Mart tent is decent, though a bit small, and will hopefully stay together for the entire summer. 

BH with Бургаско- the Burgas Beer

Camping Gradina is apparently one of the more famous campsites. I found it on this blog-
Balkan Travellers

While settling in to our tent with the sounds of waves breaking on the shore I can see why this campsite is popular. What a great getaway from Sofia!