Varna Beach.
After days wishing all I could do was jump in the water to escape the heat, I finally got my wish in the form of a day off from my farm work and a trip to the beach. Just 15 minutes drive from the farm where I have been WWOOFing is the sea side town of Varna. Set against the black sea, the town is an interesting mixture of development, tourism and poverty. I don’t think I have experienced culture shock at any point of this trip, but there was something so different about this day at the beach that it actually left me with a lot to think and write about!
Cobu.
Arriving at the beach, there is no moment when you see where the water hits the sand, instead you are faced with high concrete walls. The development on Varna’s main beach is so plentiful that you have to walk through a ‘beach bar’ or restaurant to find your patch of sand. I found this really strange. In Australia, we wouldn’t dare touch our beaches and bars, eateries and even our surf clubs would only exist on the grass off the sand. In Varna it is a different story. The beach bar we sat in front of called ‘Cobu’ took up so much space with it’s wicker furniture, large market umbrellas and folding chairs that there was only a couple of metres of bare sand to actually enjoy before the water. The story was the same as you looked along the headland. Bars, umbrellas and masses of people all the way along. Locals and holiday makers from all over Europe come to Varna to lay on the sand and frolic in the turquoise (or close enough) waters of the Black Sea and with them comes the money that Bulgaria so needs. It makes sense that they would use this asset to their advantage. Unfortunately, for me, who loves that natural state of beaches, it felt kitsch and over the top.
The packed beach.
Speaking of those holiday makers, to say the people watching opportunities were endless would be a gross understatement on my part. People of all ages, shapes, sizes and states of undress frequented the area around the little patch of sand where I set up shop for the few hours I can be in the sun without getting burnt. No rash vests, hats and floaties for the little ones, if you were under 10 you were swimming in the nude. Many older men were so tanned and glistening that they looked like they had just been dipped in gravy. All the girls seemed to have the exact same style of bathers: strapless bandeau bikinis. Seriously, the only difference in them was the colour. I felt like quite the prude in my sensible one piece, and I drew more than a couple of odd looks from some women on the beach. Many of whom were wearing exactly the same bathers as their friends. I guess they didn’t realise bathers came in a different style! It reminded me of when I was in Brazil and a perplexed group of locals asked “why is there so much material in your swimsuit?”, I guess it’s the same here. If you’ve got it, flaunt it and even if you don’t, have a crack anyway. Sadly, through a number of factors with self image (though probably no more than most) I really lack this body confidence that seems to come so easily to our European and South American friends. When I think about my female friends, I think many of them feel the same way about themselves. Little niggles, parts of their bodies they hate and just a general feeling of dislike towards your body are commonplace where I am from. The build up to go to the beach and be in bathers in front of actual people is a daunting prospect for many women. But why? Women double my size were getting around in bathers that had about a quarter of the material of mine with limitless confidence. This made me think – what are they teaching these Bulgarian girls about loving themselves that we are not getting over on my side of the world? Why are Europeans so happy to get their gear off to achieve the ‘all over tan’ I saw many people attempting? I don’t think I have the answers to these questions, but it really made me think. Hopefully some of that confidence will rub off on me and I’ll get the opportunity to really embarrass my friends in a string bikini on our next trip down the coast. But probably not, I do love my one piece.
Varna Beach.
Away from the beach Varna is very contrasting. The main street that leads to the beach is a wide pedestrian avenue with stores, eateries and food carts. This is obviously a place for tourists. It didn’t really look like Bulgaria. It was to gentrified and clean. Walk a street over and you’ll find hordes of labourers working feverishly paving the ground to achieve the same look as they have on that pedestrian avenue. Walk over another one and it will begin to look more like Bulgaria again; you’ll find those same potholes, cracked pavement, dilapidated apartment blocks and stray dogs. So, while the beautiful people tan themselves by the Black Sea and while I buy another Snickers ice-cream from the ice-cream cart, just a few streets away is the reality of the town. Walking away from the crowd has become my favourite past time on this trip. Sure, it means I get lost a lot, but I feel like it helps me understand a town or city better.
Downtown Varna.
So far across Bulgaria, I have found the people kind and helpful. Directions, helping me with my bag and even little kids are charming me at the bus stop have been commonplace. I have found the people here to be nothing but lovely. In Varna, however, I came across my first piece of rudeness. 2 people decided we were sitting too close to them on the beach and told us to move away from them. Even though we were sitting under one of the bar’s beach umbrellas to protect the small child we had taken to the beach from the sun while she played in the sand and they were sitting out in the open next to the umbrella. It was very strange. There has been so little in way of jerk-ish behaviour so far on my trip I was quite affronted. Well, I suppose you get them everywhere.
In Varna there is a beautiful old Cathedral, market stalls on the street and some interesting monuments in the parks and gardens. But that is not why the tourists flood the town. This is certainly a beach town, so unless you want to achieve that all over tan there isn’t much to do away from the sand. But believe me, down there it’s very interesting.
Ali's adventure 