Life's a Beach...

Wednesday, 24 August 2005

I promise that I will eventually have work to do, but for the rest of this month my vacation continues. This past weekend I spent with friends in a smaller seaside town called Sozopol. There is a campsite about 3 kilometers outside the town with its own beach and thanks to a friend here in Haskovo we had tents and such in order to stay there.

The weekend actually began on Thursday evening when Ethan came down from Dimitrovgrad and Erin came over from Plovdiv. Carol, her Bulgarian boyfriend Plummen, and Claire (a French volunteer here) came over for a potluck dinner consisting in large part of lasagna made by Barbara. We also had a music exchange before heading out to KDK together for some pool and finally to Exclusive (aka “X” – the best disco in town) for Retro Night.

By the time we got home and packed it was pushing 4 am, and we had to be up at 6 in order to catch our bus at 7. Not surprisingly, if you know us, Erin and I spent the entire 5 hour ride to the beach talking. We always seem to find ourselves on buses together, exhausted beyond belief and talking rather than sleeping. (Pictured from the left - Barbara, Claire, me, Carol, Ethan & Erin).

Once at the campsite, we pitched out tents and immediately hit the beach – a nice one in some respects, but exceedingly littered and dirty. After spending the afternoon there we had dinner at the restaurant/café at the campsite before playing cards. Rummy has become the game of choice, although I think we’re starting to tire of it. We capped off the first night by building a fire on the beach and staring up at the cloudless sky filled with stars and a full moon. The water was perfectly calm and there was little wind. It was the best night there and a memory I’ll hold onto for years to come.

The next day after Claire and Carol joined us (they had to be in Haskovo Friday to work – imagine that!) we spent more time at the beach before heading into Sozopol to see the town and find a bathroom without Turkish toilets (which I contend are a medieval torture device). I took a great shot of the sunset over the harbor towards our campsite.

Unfortunately, I ended up being in a bad mood Saturday evening and due to a good deal of lack of communication the evening ended up being a rather horrible one for me. I did find out a bit about my friends through it, however. So hopefully it wasn’t a complete waste of an evening. I’m still working on repairing one friendship – but hopefully we can sort things out soon.

I had considered leaving Sunday morning, but after an altercation with one friend and receiving advice from another I decided to stick around for another day. I’m glad that I did. The day turned out to be beautiful and we spent time in Sozopol again at a café there on the beach playing cards and generally soaking up life. After returning to the campsite we hit our beach again. The water was rough and tide high which made for a solid hour of body surfing fun for me. I always have been a bit of a water baby, as my parents call it.

The evening was finished by receiving a facial massage from Claire and listening to an American we’d met named Nancy (pictured with Ethan) play Bulgarian folk tunes on her flute. As storm clouds rolled past over the sea we watched the sun set and the stars come out. Oh, and this was all done on the beach whilst listening to the waves crash on the shore. It was, quite simply, the best ending to the weekend I could imagine.

One final note, I seem to meet PCV’s I know everywhere I go – be it in Sophia, Plovdiv, Razgrad, and even in Sozopol. It’s always fun to run into people you know who aren’t in the group with whom you’re traveling. In Sozopol, it was a guy named Gokan who was there with his girlfriend Lany (pictured). As it turns out, he’d been there the same time we had, but stayed in the town instead of camping. It was good to chat with him since he ended up riding the bus back to Haskovo with us.