We spent the day poking about Burgas, the fourth largest city in Bulgaria, and surrounding areas. Our adventures raised the issue of the sea’s name, particularly as it turned from grey to green as the day progressed. The upshot is that we don’t know.
But two interesting things we found out: a) the deeper layers of the sea are anoxic (without oxygen) and therefore shipwrecks are preserved very well; b) the sea rose quite dramatically in about 5,600 BC because of a breach in the Bosphorous Strait, leading to the theory that this could be the event that led to Noah floating his ark.
We spent the morning visiting the wetlands nearby which are the western-most point of the Black Sea. They are on one of Europe’s busiest migratory bird flightpaths – the Via Pontica – and although we didn’t see too much (terns, cormorants, egrets, ducks, herons, kestrels), we were incredibly impressed with the man who ran the little centre, and the work that’s been done to support the birds.
And then to the small, relatively well-preserved and wealthy town of Sozopol which was preparing itself for the tourist season which has yet to begin. The houses were stone on the bottom and wooden on top – we couldn’t quite work out why.
We liked the use of the woodstore as extra insulation for the house below, though I think the person who piled up the wood might be a little compulsive:
A seaside walk convinced us why the season hasn’t yet started: Sue and Nikhil are wearing matching fleeces bought in an emergency trip to Decathlon at the start of our journey:
And of course , in the gorgeous park above the beach, Burgas has its monument to the struggle (or the many struggles, I should say) with these barely symbolic images atop another cement structure:
They do like their cement structures and monuments! Do you think the stone/wood combo was about availability and cost?
Alison, so nice to hear from you! Suspect you may be right about availability and cost – but doing this stuff now looks seriously expensive!
Loving the concrete.
Maybe the wood stacking person was French, they are very, very neat when it comes to a wood pile!
Concrete a very big deal here. The wood stacking was as lovely as dry stone walling – so maybe French/ Wharfdale?
Not many people around. Are you sure the area is populated?
Well, yes up to a point! Feels like a very empty country and M read some bit of its recent history that said that several hundred thousand people left very recently ( ?1981?) for Turkey. It’s amazingly empty – towns quiet morning and night!
I love the concrete sculptures too (soviet realism meets paolozzi?) – and I really love your framing of it in the inside photo, Miriam. The stonework on the houses is pretty decorative – it almost looks like facade strips rather than a solid foundation.
I also love these sculptural pieces! You may be right about the stonework – my masonic Bulgarian definitely not up to the task of finding out…