FROM VARNA TO SOCHI
BULGARIA DAY TWO: We
tendered off Varna (3rd largest city) and drove north to the town of
Balchik. Unfortunately we stopped just
short of the Tracian Cliffs Golf Course which I would have loved to see as Golf
Canada Magazine rated it as one of the 10 best golf courses in the world.
We did a lot of usual tourist stops. One of the more interesting ones was a visit
to Queen Mary of Romania’s summer palace.
The part of Bulgaria around Balchik was ceded to the Romanians after WWI
and the Queen (grand-daughter of Victoria, daughter of Tzar Alexander) spent
most of her time there. After her death
in 1938 her heart was buried at the Palace but when war broke out the
Bulgarians joined the Axis powers allowing them to get their land back from the
Romanians. The heart was returned to
Romania.
After we finished up with the museums and churches 12 of our
travelling companions wimped out and returned to the ship. However, the Hanlon’s and Johnson’s decided
to spend a little time walking around the beach/shopping part of Varna. I should say the Hanlon’s walked around while
the Johnson’s took refuge in a sidewalk café.
We ordered delicious lunches of salads, with sides of prosciutto,
deep-fried mushrooms, tapenade, sardines, etc., as well as ½ bottle of a Malbec
blend. When the wine came the waiter
gestured for Betty to try it. I almost
laughed as I wondered (given we had no Bulgarian currency, no language skills
and had ordered the wine randomly) how bad it would have had to be for Betty to
have sent it back. In fact, the wine was
excellent and I wished we had ordered a full bottle. In any event the total bill which, went on a
credit card, came to the equivalent of $19.
SEA DAY: The sail
from Varna to Sochi takes two nights and one day which gives a break from
touring. The relaxing day included lying
by the pool, a Captain’s Club cocktail party and eventually attempting to
squeeze into my tux for a formal night dinner.
In the morning we attended an interesting lecture by an Anthropologist
(clearly not from StFX) who talked about Russian culture and values. We learned that in Russia if offered a vodka,
or any other alcoholic drink, there are acceptable responses and non-acceptable
responses. The best response is: “thank you very much”. Also acceptable is “no thanks, my liver is failing
and I am waiting for a transplant.” Not
acceptable is a simple “no thanks”. That
response is interpreted as meaning that you are untrustworthy and that there
should be no further social interaction.
SOCHI DAY ONE: Sochi
is the southernmost city in Russia and the most favored resort area because of
the miles of beaches and the warm/hot weather in the summer. Also, of course, there are the nearby ski
mountains for winter vacations. Sochi
was first developed as a resort area by Stalin in the 30’s. The city was also favored by Yeltsin and now
it is where Putin makes his home. In the
summer the normal temperatures are near 40 degrees and in the winter the
temperature still reaches 15 most days.
It was 17 degrees when we disembarked but by the time we got
to the Olympic ski slopes and took the 40 minute cable car ride to the top (and
another 40 minute ride back down) it had dropped to freezing and the snowfall
kept us from enjoying the views.
Sochi is quite a lovely city on the sea, and with the
mountains in the background it reminded me a bit of Vancouver. However, it is cleaner than our west coast
city and the new and architecturally interesting buildings give it a fresher
feeling. Of course, much of the city
(roads, hotels, etc.) was built in the 7 years leading up to the Olympics. In fact, it is staggering to believe that so
much construction could have been completed in such a relatively short
period. The Olympic village is immense
with stadium after stadium.
At lunch we were taken to a 5-star hotel where the food was
very good and interestingly enough the accompanying wine was from Chile.
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