On to Bulgaria

Friday morning we departed Vama Veche at last, rested, better prepared for Turkey, and proceeded down the coast into Bulgaria. Although this is still the EU, it is not a Schengen-agreement country, and so immigration/customs was a bit more than a drive-through. But it was OK. We bought the required vignette for driving on "highways" for 5 euro.

The big problem with Bulgaria is, for us, its Cyrillic alphabet

Ditto; I went provisioning into a supermarket, a Carrefours no

less, in Varnos, looking for, among other things, pork chops; I

am sure my rendition of "oink, oink" will be talked about in the

meat department for months to come



As with Romania, Bulgaria has seen great

development recently, particularly on its

Black Sea coast; not all of it is occupied; not

all of it is finished



Some quite opulent



  

Gothic cathedral condos?



This Thracian tumulus and grave site was finished, even
renovated

Most were just unfinished

Spice Club Inferno

I really intended my last post to be the end of Romania here, but Thursday night we were awakened, at 3:25am, by sirens and fire trucks and a blaze, a few hundred yards away. Most of the "clubs" at Vama Veche have been shut down and boarded up for the season, including the Spice Club and the Expirat, but these two burned to the ground Thursday night. Walking past, Friday morning, I encountered a Romanian/American who filled me in on a bit of the back-story. 

Spice Club and Expirat before

After

After, again

These clubs make tons of money just in June/July/August, when the beach holds 
5,000 people every night, up to 40,000 during concerts; they are wooden/tiki 
affairs, highly susceptible to fire, loose 220v wiring hanging all around, and

thousands of transients... Arson was suspected.

A bit of excitement...and loss of sleep....

Vama Veche Scenes 2

At the north end of the beach is a fishermens' camp, complete with rustic 
restaurant and very fresh seafood

Rustic fishing fleet

Apparently they use stationary nets a few hundred meters off shore

Vama Veche paddle ball: shirts vs. skins?

And, just when you think you've seen everything such  place can offer, there's 
a guy walking his donkey past the beach party

Sadly, as with much of Romania, there are many deteriorating hulks here too, 
this one a few hundred yards further south of us, on the beach road; hopeful 
beginnings, with no ends in sight

And, even amid great beauty, garbage and wild dogs

Vama Veche Scenes 1

Most of Vama Veche, from the highway approaching from the north; it's probably 
known only to Romanians, and largely because of its hippie/backpacker 
notoriety, even during the Caesescu regime; but we will have spent a week here 
soon, mostly resting, gearing up for Turkey, and so we will have some memories

Our campsite; no water, no electricity, no showers nor

toilets; but the price is right; and it's warm and sunny

Looking north along the beach; there's a Netherlands couple in the trailer; 
and many others in tents on the beach

People arrive day-in, day-out, mostly just to stroll on the  
beach or sunbathe a few hours; a few stay a few days 
(some stay much longer!); I found this young Romanian

family from Simisoara admiring Venus, my venus fly-
trap houseplant (which I keep outside in the sun when 
camped), even photographing it; so I gave it to them;

houseplants are not particularly compatible with our 
nomadic life-style; besides, Venus, to the best of my 
knowledge, despite ample opportunity, in three months 
never trapped a fly; I think she was a vegetarian; she has 
a good new home now

Wednesday we drove up the coast a bit, to 2 Mai, Mangela, then Jupiter, Saturn 
and Venus (no relation to fly-traps); Mangela obviously services the shipyard 
there, but Jupiter, Saturn, etc., were communist-era Black Sea resorts; the season 
is over now, and they are largely deserted; many new hotels, restaurants, 
developments, private enterprise and investment; many deteriorating hulks, too

Outside the Romanian Navy Museum; next time, maybe

Fleet's in; Vicki did not want to take this picture for fear we would be caught and 
accused of being spies

Later, a stroll on the beach, northward, under the cliffs, the most mussel shells 
I have ever seen

Looking back to Vama Veche and our campsite

The Sun Rises, Also

In this amazing sequence, the sun actually rises over the Black Sea, as seen from Vama Veche...

The Restless Wave

"Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!"

The Greek registry cargo ship Ian M had been wandering outside the harbor 
entrance north of here for two days at least

I'm not sure there was any peril--it's been breezy, but a calm sea--yesterday 
afternoon, finally, four or five tugs showed up to help her (Ian? him?) in

Enlarge and you can see the line by which the bow tug is actually pulling Ian M

Right outside our window; notice how high she is riding,the bulbous bow clearly 
visible, also the screw aft and rudder; this is a big ship; according to 
vesseltracker.com, she is 292m in length--you can just round that off as

three football fields--couldn't find her displacement

Under way, very slowly; steady as you go...

Finally, safely in the jetty

The Black Sea is such an interesting phenomenon, a huge inland sea--about twice the size of all five of the Great Lakes, but partially saline, with both inflow from and outflow to the Aegean and the Mediterranean, and, ultimately, the Atlantic. It is fed by three of the world's great rivers, the Don, the Dnieper, and the Danube, draining much of Europe and Russia. Near the Crimea, it is more than 7,000 feet deep. And its fishing and maritime commerce go back to the earliest human times. Below a couple hundred meters, it is anoxic, which means that wrecks discovered on its bottom are remarkably well preserved. Seeing this big ship is a reminder that the Black Sea is a major body of water, no mere inland lake. And in our times, of course, it has major environmental problems, not the least caused by bilge dumping by big ships like this.

Important PS: some further research has revealed that Ian M is a brand new ship, manufactured by the Daewoo Works in nearby Mangela, and that he/she is undergoing sea trials.

Big ship-building works a few miles north of Vama Veche

There he/she is
























PPS  In addition to becoming a beach-comber I have also become a ship-spotter. So far there has been only the one ship.

On to Vama Veche and the Black Sea

We drove on, across the expanse of the Wallachian plain--from Pitesti almost all the way to the Black Sea--it is absolutely the flattest piece of real estate I have seen. Except for the very occasional factory or town, it is nothing but agriculture, some of the longest rows, disappearing over the horizon, to hoe, I have ever seen. And not very photogenic.

After crossing the Danube some miles from the coast--it swings north quite a 
ways before emptying into the Black Sea--and then crossing the various 
Danube Canal bridges and locks, you begin seeing some of the heavy industry 
around Constanta

In Constanta, a smokestack that literally disappeared into 
the clouds

At length, we reached our destination, the sea-side village of Vama Veche; after 
the usual reconnaissance, we decided to park right on the beach

We figure we were the only Americanskis having left-over cheese fondue and 
red wine on the Black Sea that evening

Vama Veche is/was sort of the hippie beach in Romania and retains some of the, 
um, old ways; lots of people, mostly young, camped on the beach

We plan to stay here or in the vicinity a few days, enjoying the warmth and sun, and free camping. And old ways. Then on through Bulgaria, staying by the coast, and into Turkey.

More Bucaresti Miscellany

More Bucharest

We've seen this sort of sign before

And this

And this

But the interior was beautiful

Very old

Certainly the most beautiful restaurant in

town

Temporal affairs (on the cell phone) at the monastery

Beautiful facades on so many buildings,

many crumbling

But they're working on it...

And another street concert, this one sort of Latin, so to

speak

These people had their own box in the balcony

More news folk, more news to report

Joe Bob Briggs, where are you now? In the burbs, north,

past the airport, by our campground, the one and only

drive-in theatre we have seen in Europe

Modest proposal for Home Depot: want to increase

customer visits and increase purchases? Then install full

bars in all your stores, like this Brico-something in the

Bucharest burbs

Sunday morning radio-controlled races in the Ikea parking

lot; these little guys really go, and the sound they make is

just like the big boys

Burning rubber on the Mulsanne Straight; spinning out in

the S's