//Day 28 /08-04-22 /Varna

Today couldn’t have been much different then yesterday. No cycling, sunny, a pleasant 24 degrees, people in the streets, warm enough for ice cream,…I spend the day visiting some of the highlights of Varna. Most if the time I spend walking in the beautiful Sea Garden.The big public park in Varna that follows the coast line of Varna and said to be the largest landscaped park in the Balkans. The park was originally build in 1862 and in 1881 it was extended to the 26000 square meters of today. The park includes a great variety of plants, trees and flowers besides : a dolfinarium, a planetarium, various play grounds, restaurants, tennis fields, an Alley of the Cosmonauts, an Alpineum, a zoo, a naval museum and most importantly some table tennis tables….

Some (older) men were playing table tennis and waved hello. One of the men asked if I could play, I explained I did, and as result ending up playing some time with the men. They played, if the weather allowed, every day. Some were retired,  some still working, but all with a passion for table tennis. The wind was not helping the game but I had a nice time anyway.

I said the table tennis men goodbye and continued my walk through the park. The park was huge, so when I had walked  to the middle, which had taken more then 1 hour, I decided to return to the city center. 

The next stop was Varna’s Archeological Museum covering the archeological finds in the region from 5000 BC to 1200 AD. I’m not always a big fan of archeological musea as the explanation and presentation are often dull and overly complicated. Today I was lucky the museum, consisting of 2 floors of a big building, was layed out logically ; you followed clockwise the different galleries, the first covering 5000 BC, and ended with the last gallery covering 1200 AD. The explanation was next to Bulgarian in English and interesting enough to keep me 2 hours busy.  Photo taking was unfortunately not allowed and I did not take any chance as I was followed consistently and constantly by the museum-matroesjkas. The only picture I could take was of the stairwell.

When I left the museum I was hungry and thirsty. 14.30 is a reasonable time to get hungry and thirsty…I had a salad and beer and returned to my hotel for some rest. I had walked 12 K and tomorrow is another cycling day of 100 K with around 1200 m of ascents.

I spend sometime resting but also plotting out my route for the next days. The next big city will be Sofia, some 600 K further, which I will reach by cycling though the middle of Bulgaria. The route includes some climbing so the plan is to do no more then 100 K per day. Tomorrow I will cycle to a small coastal village below Burgas, called Nesebar. 99,4 K to cycle of which 20 K on unpaved roads. 

In the evening I had an Adana Kebap in a busy Turkish restaurant with an unfriendly waitress. After I told her she could do with a smile service luckily improved. 

Lessons learned : 

• Varna was great to visit. Make a detour if you are in the neighbourhood.
• Weather can make all the difference. 
• My table tennis skills are not all forgotten. 

Song of the day : Friday I’m in love - Yo La Tengo