To the Black Sea - Varna Page

We were at sea in the morning & our tour left at 13:15.

It was quite cool & I wore a fleece for the trip, which took us out on the motorway towards Sofia for about 50 miles before turning off to a place under a big cliff. This was Madara & we (but not Avis) had to walk up 365 steep steps of rock to look at this horseman carved a very long time ago into the sandstone of the cliff. You cannot get too close, as it is rather fragile. So is the cliff & there is an iron contraption to stop bits falling on visitors. The horseman has a dog & appears to be terminating a lion, This may refer to keeping the arabs out of Bulgaria.

Then, we were driven on to a scruffy village but which had a well restored house where we were greeted with a very soft & somewhat sweet bread & salt with spices in it, the usual Slave greeting. This was by three ladies, two of 71, very fat & looking older & one of 48, who looked normal. They were in fairly elaborate National Dress. We were served a sort of quiche, blackcurrant juice & local yoghurt. The ladies sang & danced. I got us to reciprocate with Ilkley Moor, knowing the Russian guide Galya, would have trouble with the dialect.

We went on to the old capital, Pliska, now completely flattened, although they are restoring the Basilica, built shortly after the Bulgars went christian. We had a walk to the museum, which was worthwhile but it was getting colder & we resolved to wrap up better tomorrow.

Back at the ship at 18:50 (!), we went to the Secret Garden again for dinner. The show was a local Bulgarian outfit, very energetic dancing & a couple of singers, 10 altogether. One was exhausted just watching them.