Thracian Sanctuary in the Mountains

Next day, Saturday, we drove on from our beach campsite near Primorsko up into the mountains, to the border crossing into Turkey at Malko Tarnovo...stopping en route to see another Thracian sanctuary. The Thracians, don't you know, were close by the Dacians, in Romania, roughly contemporaneous with the Celts in the north and west, all conquered and assimilated by the Romans.


Mountain road target practice, just like

in Montana























The sanctuary is supposed to be a hill-side stone circle,

oriented to the summer solstice sunrise, with cup-marks

and other features; here, a "sacrificial basin"

This mushroom-shaped rock supposedly has cup-marks

and other features

Another basin? It was all heavily grown-over, conglomerate

rock; takes a more practiced interpretive eye than I have

 

So we drove on, bumpy, twisting roads, toward Turkey,

encountering three different Bulgarian road-block check-

points, all amused to see Americanskis

Camping on the Bulgarian Coast Near Burgas

Driving was relatively slow in Bulgaria. South of Burgas we stopped for fuel, then saw a sign for a Thracian sanctuary and thinking a) it might be interesting and b) maybe we could wild-camp there, we headed off in search of it, the road quickly degenerating into single lane, in a coastal forest...

We had already driven a couple of kms; the pavement petered

out about a mile from the site, and, owing to the lateness of the

day, we decided to leave this one for our next visit to Bulgaria

We translated this as "no camping"

But found another suitable, unsigned spot, right on the sea

A violent Black Sea at this particular place

Quite violent, although the wind was light

No swimming (my own translation)

You don't want to swim with these guys anyway

A curious blue-fin land-shark checks us out

Later, I drank a bottle of this, which I think

might have been Bulgarian beer

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