On my last night in Sofia my couch surfer took me to a good resturant where he had been before. The menu was Bulgarian with a little English. He made a mistake and ordered something a bit strange, “what is it” I said… “fried yellow cheese”. It was pretty funny seeing him eat cheese for dinner, so I of course gave him some of my meal which turned out to be some strange combination of meat and salad and french fries. Also the cheese they have in Bulgaria is either Cheese (meaning white cheese) or Yellow Cheese.
Fried Yellow Cheese
Train Station in Sofia
Creepy dimly lit underground area near the train station
After my visit in Sofia I hopped on an evening train to Varna, Bulgaria which is on the Black Sea coast. I slept on the overnight train and wandered around the city trying to follow my couch surfers directions, finally I found a taxi driver who was taking a Bulgarian, a Russian and an American (me) wherever we wanted at a reduced rate, the Russian girl helped figure out where it was that I wanted to go, which was great considering I had no clue as to where it was I needed to go.
Upon getting to wherever it was I needed to go, my couch surfer met me and we immediately went swimming in the Black Sea. It was beautiful, the Sea was very calm and the water was astoundingly clear! It was really nice. I saw a few small jelly fish a few bottom feeders and this strange fish that kept trying to follow me around it was very small and swam on the top of the water. Becasue it took an interest in me I didnt want any of it and kept trying to get away from or spash it away from me.
In the Black Sea
Fish that wouldnt leave me alone
After basking in the sun we headed to find some traditional Bulgarian food. I started off with a “Shopska Salad” not sure how its spelled, and this baked chicken and mushroom dish. It was fantastic. I also found some of the first dark beer I had seen in Europe. As we were talking about couch surfing two Australians called him about his couch which I had intended on sleeping on, up until a few hours earlier when I decided to take the night train out of Varna to Bucarest, Romania.
We met up with the Australians and walked around the city for a few hours and had a nice leasurely time strolling through Varna.
Next to a light house with St. Nick
PS the z and the y on this keyboard are switched making typing verz difficult, please ignore anz and all errors
You are quite the professional with your “self” photos. The sunlight and shadowing in the Black Sea are awesome. Also, the salad sounded SO much better than that hamburger thingy. Be safe.
I’m very curious how you’re taking these pictures of yourself from UNDERNEATH the camera. Self timer? Are your fingers that long that they wrap around the camera? i’m stumped.
So, is your back sore yet from sleeping on all the couches?
There are some historic oil fields in Romania. See if you can find something in Ploesti …
Guess I’m gonna have to start a blog, too, ’splainin’ about all the Steven Schnells I pull (or commit). I’ll make sure to misspell a few words here and there as well. Anyway, I guess we knew that at some point you’d be running into some scary situations like the almost deserted train station. Let’s hope it gets no worse than that. Black Sea swim looked really fun. Betcha not too many people you know can lay claim to having done that.
Stay alive.
Love
Dad
Is that Steven or Chuck Norris? Nice beard!!