Airline Wіzz Aіr has announced the four routes to its Gatwick base in London from Burgas, Varna, Venice and Palermo. The carrier will also increase frequencies on its newly announced routes from Gatwick to London, Milan and Vienna, the company reported.

From 27 March, the carrier will operate flights five times a week from London Gatwick to Venice, and from 29 March it will fly twice a week to Palepmo, the capital of the Italian island of Sicily. In addition to the four new routes, the airline is also increasing the frequency of its flights to Larnaca, Milan and Vienna from daily to twice daily on most days.

The news comes after Wіzz Аіr’s successful acquisition of 15 daily slot doubles at London Gatwick Airport and the already announced addition of 14 new routes from spring 2022 onwards. This means that Wіzz Air will operate a total of 25 routes from there for the summer season of 2022

Those car owners who leave their car on a pedestrian crossing, in a park, on a park alley, or in playground, will have to pay between BGN 200 and 800. those parking on a pavement will be fined between BGN 50 and 200. The new fines come into force immediately.

Photo: Varna Utre Archive

So it is that I begin my sojourn in Bulgaria’s “summer capital” with three shows back to back. The most interesting of the trio, by a distance, is the disquieting Medea, My Mother, written by Ivan Dobchev and Stefan Ivanov, and performed by Theatre Laboratory Sfumato from Sofia. Combining a wild, highly literate fantasia with angrily direct social commentary, the piece explodes within the mind of a man close to death in a hospital bed. Numerous human figures – some apparently real, some surreal, others ethereal – surround his bed and (for reasons possibly connected with his childhood) assail him with stories of orphaned children.

Medea, My Mother, by Ivan Dobchev and Stefan Ivanov

Their lives – neglected, abused, trafficked, criminalised, prostituted and raped – are laid out repeatedly in a series of monologues interspersed between more imaginative scenarios in which a bleak, well-read and witty apparition talks to the bedridden protagonist, connecting the modern world to the ancient by reference to Goethe, Shakespeare, the Bible and Euripides, among others. There is a scintillating, wild intelligence to the production, which makes it all the more disappointing that it wears its political heart so polemically on its sleeve. Its two elements never achieve synchronicity: it is as if an episode of Panorama had gatecrashed an epic play co-authored by Sarah Kane and Tony Kushner.

By comparison, Return – a dance-theatre work by acclaimed Spanish choreographer Chevi Muraday – is an altogether gentler experience. Combining poetic texts on the vicissitudes of love – somewhat idealistically, from initial exhilaration to painful conflict to profound resolution – the choreographic metaphors often lack subtlety. By far the most impressive factor in the piece is the performance of renowned Spanish movie actress Marta Etura, who dances, as she speaks, with equally immense skill and sensuality. Even when the meanings of her movements are proclaimed gratuitously, the actress-turned-dancer performs opposite Muraday with an intensity which stretches beyond the limitations of the choreography.

One of the features of Eastern European theatre which is most refreshing for drama lovers from the West is its high regard for puppet theatre. It was disappointing, therefore, to see – in the Sofia Puppet Theatre’s Holy – a 75-minute work which overindulges itself by at least half-an-hour. Dutch-Brazilian director Duda Paiva explores familial and generational tensions at the strange birthday party of an ageing bourgeois woman. Some promising and bleak puppetry (the family is served a meal consisting of miniature versions of themselves) is undone by needlessly prolonged point-making and a heavy-handed, instructional use of music.

Three shows in an evening, bringing varying levels of satisfaction. From Varna to Edinburgh, the festival experience is agonisingly and delightfully similar.

Mark Brown, for Herald Scotland

Are you tired of frying under the sun or of knocking back one beer after another at the nearest beach bar ? Why not tryout a kayak tour in the Varna Bay – relaxing, engaging in sports and taking a view of the city from the sea!?

SeaAdventure (www.seaadventurebg.com) offers a kayak tour in Black Sea, which begins at an authentic fishing village located at the foot of Varna bay. Once you got our equipment prepared and after a short instruction, the group heads off along the beautiful city coastline.

This trip allows us to view the town of Varna from a different angle, providing you with an opportunity to get a feel of the summer rhythm and life of our sea capital.  Once you  reach the entrance of port of Varna, the group will head south, crossing a sailing canal and after paddling for a short while, you’ll find yourselves at almost inaccessible and wild beaches located at the heart of Varna bay.

Here you may either have a picnic or eat at an exotic restaurant with an incredible view of the city and bay area.  After the hour-long break, the group will take off towards cape Galata which is the end point of Varna bay. Paddling further to the south, you will get a chance to enjoy some wild nature and exotic beaches. The tour programme ends at “Fichoza” area, from where we will head back to Varna.

Sea Adventure’s kayak trip programme is not compulsory and may be changed on the spot at the discretion of the guide, depending on the current weather conditions, physical capabilities and experience of participants, etc.

You may enquire SeaAdventure at contacts@seaadventurebg.com or call Deiana Peykova at +359 878 642273

Party boat in front of International hotel & casino

Panoramic view to the center of the resort

Me waiting for the fish to wake up

Another panorama to Golden Sands and Riviera

Oazis hotel – Riviera resort

Center of the resort and the Ferris wheel;

International

North end of Golden Sands with Berlin beach and Glarus hotels

Hotel Lilia

Berlin hotel on top of Ibersostar Izgrev & Obzor hotels

Old Astoria hotel

Parasailing boat in front of Admiral hotel

Sirena hotel

Admiral hotel & the attraction center

Marina Grand Beach and Astera hotel

Parasailing

Parasailing couple

Imperial hotel – Riviera resort

The pier in Riviera resort

Bulgaria’s Black Sea capital Varna has been ranked 5th among the cities with the most beautiful women in the world by online travel directory and magazine Travelers Digest.

The first place is held by Kiev, the Ukraine, followed by Stockholm, Sweden, New York, US, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

According to Travelers Digets, “Bulgaria isn’t the most well-known country, even Europeans sometimes have trouble finding it on a map, but what it lacks in fame it more than compensates in beautiful women and stunning landscapes. Varna is on the country’s gorgeous Black Sea coast and in the summer the city becomes jam-packed with sunbathing beauties. Similar to their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, girls here are often tall and light-eyed. An up-and-coming tourism destination, travelers from around the world are only now discovering the gem that is Bulgaria.”

As far as men, the ranking lists those in Stockholm first, saying the following:

“Swedish men have long been misunderstood. Case in point: they are often stereotyped as cold, emotionally distant loners and inexplicably mistaken for Swiss guys. On the plus side, they are also generally considered aesthetically pleasing due to their fine-boned Nordic attributes and exceptional height advantage. Although there always seems to be some truth to these types of classifications, in the case of these Scandinavian studs, the deeper reality is quite a pleasant surprise. Your average man in Stockholm is an impeccably-dressed clotheshorse that truly indulges in the enjoyment of the finer things in life: from food to fashion, culture to hearth. But what really makes them unique? Despite the fact that one must practice patience when engaging in the slightly bizarre ritual known as the Swedish courting process, once you have captured the heart and imagination of your elegant gent he will be devoted to you for life. What’s more irresistible than that?”

Following the Swedish guys in the top 5 are those from New York, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Lisbon, Portugal and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Topless bikini beauty at Varna’s beach

We stayed at Saints Constantine and Helena, next to Varna, which is actually Bulgaria’s oldest resort, a collection of holiday houses, private villas and hotels scattered through a mature park of magnificent tall trees – oak, beech, fig, poplar and cypress.

When the hot summer sun beats down, the ten-minute stroll to the beach through the cool, dappled shade of these trees is a pleasure rather than a penance. Saplings, tagged with the donor’s name and planted in the odd bare patch, commemorate the park’s centenary in 2008.

Quite a stretch of the immediate shore has been cordoned off by large hotels with private beaches. Primed by old hands at our more modest hotel, we made for one of the unspoilt rocky coves further along the coast.

In we waded; it was like Cornwall but much warmer – in fact, blissfully warm.

Further along again, people swam sedately in a mineral-water pool. ‘Taking the waters’ is popular in Bulgaria, with many hotels having both mineral and swimming pools.

Later that day – showered, dressed and respectable – we made for the cool, airy bar of the large Grand Varna hotel. We were refused a drink; we had no tag, we were not residents.

Neither could we book a table for dinner. The hotel’s ‘all-inclusive’ deal which bars outsiders must also stop residents trying the small, cheerful owner-run restaurants, coffee shops and bars that, along with a colourful medley of stalls selling fruit, toys, clothes, paintings and postcards, line the glades and leafy lanes that wind through the trees to the sea.

Golden wonder: Varna’s dramatic Assumption Day Cathedral is a sign of the city’s rich past

We chickened out of the six-mile walk along the tree-backed beach to the old port of Varna. Instead, we bought a 24-hour ticket – using half one day, half the next – on the red double-decker Varna City Tour bus, a hop-on hop-off service that conveniently takes you into town from St Constantine.

Passing up the zoo, the aquarium, the dolphinarium and the Oriental market, we made for the city centre. The domes of the Orthodox cathedral gleaming in the sun, the dark red opera house and the sparkling fountain in the main square, the cafes, the book and bric-a-brac stalls under the trees – it made an exotic and appealing picture.

And Bulgaria can be exotic. In spite of the reminders of the crushing Soviet rule seen in the few abandoned, brutal buildings interspersed between Varna’s beautiful, often crumbling 19th Century houses, there is the occasional whisper of the unknown East.

You catch it too, in spite of the crowds, in the faded frescoes of the old Byzantine churches in Nesebar, a Unesco World Heritage Site close to Sunny Beach, the biggest resort on the coast.

For centuries conquerors and migrants – Greeks, Persians, Romans and Slavs – swept across Bulgaria, leaving behind churches, monasteries, mosques and well-preserved old villages.

Timeless sparkle: Dymphna found a pair of gold Nike earrings in the Varna Archaeological Museum

Yet this country, rich in history and natural beauty and bordered by Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey, is now best known for its sixth border – the Black Sea – a 235-mile stretch of sandy, safe beaches, coves, cliffs, a dozen or so resorts and Varna, queen of the Black Sea coast.

Although Varna is a thriving commercial and maritime centre, the beach is only a ten-minute walk from the traffic-free and attractive main square, alive with cafes and restaurants, walkers and talkers.

Simply take the wide, pedestrianised Boulevard Knjaz Boris I, past modern shops and tall old houses. Cross Primorski Park where old women, crocheting under shady trees, smile at but do not bother passers-by, and voila! There, stretching to St Constantine, lies the calm blue sea and the golden sand.

We had lunch at a seafacing beach restaurant – a classic Bulgarian salad of locally grown peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and grated cheese with garlic bread and a glass of wine, all for about £6. You’ll struggle to beat the price or the atmosphere in the Med.

One of Bulgaria’s greatest treasures, a superb collection of gold jewellery, much of it over 6,000 years old and discovered in 1972, is in Varna’s Archaeological Museum, an austere 19th Century building that used to be a girls’ school. Don’t miss it.

The Bulgarian Standart daily further informs the couple has invited Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, to become their best man, and he had accepted going as far as saying he might wear his tailcoat in a desire to be stylish and elegant for the event.

Standart reminds the PM had put a tailcoat only once so far – for a ball in Vienna. The Maid of Honor will be the rising opera star, Valentina Korchakova, who is a close friend of the couple.

The event is going to be attended by Ministers, Members of the Parliament, diplomats and other foreign guests.

It was reported meanwhile that nearly the entire cabinet is in Euxinograd this first weekend of August for a casual work session.

The Ministers of Education and Management of EU Funds, Sergey Ignatov and Tomislav Donchev, both born on August 6, but not in the same year, have celebrated their birthdays along with Deputy PM and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, and new Transport Minister, Ivaylo Moskovski, who are born in July, but used the occasion to party with colleagues. The drinks have been provided by Euxinograd’s own winery and distillery, which makes the famous Traminer and Cognac of Euxinograd.

Most of the Ministers are at the residence with their families and the other Deputy PM and Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, had even brought his newborn daughter Sofia.

Borisov, however, stressed the goal of the meeting is a discussion on finding ways for the more effective absorption of EU funds.

Euxinograd

The “Euxinograd” palace is located at the outskirts of  Bulgarian Black Sea capital of Varna.

Since 1891, the palace, named “Euxinograd”, after the Greek name of the Black Sea – Euxenos pontos, and built in the French Louis XIII chateau style, has been the summer residence of the Bulgarian royal family. With the coming of the Communists into power, (1944), the castle was turned into an official State residence of the leaders of the Bulgarian Communist Party and the Communist Cabinet. Today it is still used as official State residence.

The vineyards around “Euxinograd” include 115 dekares of the European Traminer, Chardonnay and German Riesling variety as well as the local Misket of Vratsa and Red Misket.

In 2008, the cellar had made BGN 540,000 in profit from wine sales. The wine cellar dates from the same time as the castle itself. The classical cellar with above ground and underground sections specializes in white wines due to the climate specifics of the Black Sea region.

“Holes, many holes, and Cyrillic. They are the first signs that you have crossed the border into neighboring Bulgaria. The approximately 200 kilometers from Giurgiu to Varna are sprinkled with gray communist buildings, houses without roofs, and a gas station from time to time. This landscape gives the impression that you are rather in a third world country and not in one of the top tourist destinations together with New Zealand, the Peruvian Amazon, Norway or Japan, proclaimed by CNN in September 2011,” states the Romanian newspaper.

The paper points out that in Varna the scenery begins to change: more colorful buildings, shopping malls and four- and five-star hotels; potholes, however, remain a problem.

It says that nearly half a million Romanians visit Varna each year, and about 30 000 Romanians usually spend the Easter holidays there.

The report further discusses the facilities of Mall Varna – one of the largest shopping centers in Bulgaria, and focuses on the Fusion Club Voyage restaurant to be opened shortly before Easter describing it as the “most innovative” restaurant in Bulgaria where each table is equipped with a touch screen allowing its clients to choose both food and entertainment.

Romania Libera says that the concept of the Voyage Fusion Club is based on a famous model established through a network of restaurants in Russia and Indonesia, and that restaurant owners in Bulgaria are proposing that by year’s end they will open such a venue in Bucharest as well.

Back in September, the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan offered locals and expats like me an excuse to go on holiday while our American friends were celebrating the end of summer and Labor Day. With more time to explore than a typical Weekending trip, I checked out Turkey’s most western neighbor, Bulgaria, and fell in love with modern and medieval captials Sofia and Veliko Tarnovo.

The place: Varna, Bulgaria

Varna is known as the summertime capital of Bulgaria, a Black Sea beach town that’s a destination unto itself with several notable museums, an active cultural scene, and the gateway to the coastal resort towns.

Ups

* Unlike many of the purpose-built, touristy resort towns that litter the coast, Varna manages to maintain a nice balance of beach town and actual city. Pedestrian streets Knyaz Boris and Slivnitsa are great for window shopping and people watching day and night, and Varna has a handful of quirky and interesting museums to visit. The Archaeology Museum is one of the country’s best, and my visit to the creepily-cool Medical History museum (with nice Bulgarian lady following me around turning lights on and off as in VT) was one of my favorite travel experiences. Strolling the Sea Garden is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon, though the zoo is maybe the grimmest I’ve seen yet (I could have easily stuck my head into the lion’s cage with no interferrence) but with admission under $1, it’s hard to complain.
* The variety of daytime diversions extends to nightlife too, with everything from sceney beach clubs to seedy casinos to dive bars. Indian Bar has an eclectic decor of Native American art and Italian soccer banners which manages to be more charming that offensive, while Saloon Bar is just the kind of place I’d love in my neighborhood: cheap drinks, good music, and a bartender that remembers you after one drink. Varna is also the birthplace to Happy Bar & Grill, a chain restaurant all over Bulgaria (and now in Spain too) that resembles a love child of Hooters and T.G.I. Friday’s, in the best sense. Happy has a vaguely nostalgic rock-and-roll Americana theme going on, a menu of Bulgarian food and pizza (they also have some sushi restaurants), and waitresses clad in miniskirts and nude pantyhose. There are several location including a tiki beach bar, and any of them are good spots to take advantage of free wi-fi, decent coffee, and as many ’80s music videos as you can handle. Varna is a bit pricier than other towns in Bulgaria but still a steal by Western standards.

Downs

* Lovely as Varna may be, the travel season is really limited to summer. While there is plenty to do in cool weather, there is greatly reduced transportation in and around town, many waterfront cafes will close in winter, and you’ll miss out on experiencing the summer scene. The Black Sea has been the hot weather refuge of many Europeans for decades and Varna retains some old-school (and Communist-era) flavor (see the above photo of the thermal pools frequented by the elder residences) while joining the modern world with boutique hotels and sushi restaurants popping up to serve a growing international clientele. If you visit Bulgaria in cold weather, your time would be better spent exploring the old towns and museums in central and western Bulgaria.

* I’d be remiss in wrapping up a series on Bulgaria without pointing out the obvious obstacle: Cyrillic. Invented in Bulgaria and not Russia, the alphabet is less complicated than you think but takes some adjustment and practice to feel comfortable reading signs and maps. I was fortunate to travel with my Russian-speaking husband who could at least read the alphabet (though Russian and Bulgarian are as dissimilar as English and Spanish) but I got the hang of it quickly enough. Rather than trying to memorize the alphabet in advance, transcribe a few key and familiar words, such as your name, your hotel, and the towns you are visiting so you can begin to recognize the characters. Also, Bulgaria’s quirk is the reverse head nod: they nod horizontally for yes, vertically for no. This feels very foreign the first time you experience it but makes an odd sense after a few days.

Getting there

Most of the international flights to Varna are from Eastern Europe, though the great budget carrier Wizz Air flies from London and Sofia. Bus service is excellent throughout the country (about 7 hours from Sofia) or from Istanbul (10 hours) or Bucharest (7 hours), but train service is slower and less comfortable.

Make it a week

Rent a car or bus hop along the coast if the weather is good, taking note that if a town has a foreign name (like Golden Sands) it’s probably an overbuilt tourist town. You could also combine with other regions of Bulgaria. I fit in Sofia, Veliko Tarnavo, and Varna comfortably in an 8 day Saturday – Sunday trip, traveling between cities by bus and returning to Sofia for my international flight on Wizz Air.