Burgas and the Black Sea

Venue: Burgas, Sozopol, mostly Pomorie

Lens: Nikkor 24-120 mm f/4 VR – mostly using the 24mm end

Music: Stefka Berova and Yordan Marchinkov – 20 km away from Burgas / Стефка Берова и Йордан Марчинков – На 20 км от Бургас (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prZusXxGBmc)

As every single year in my life, I spent some time on the Bulgarian seaside this summer. I usually go to the southern part, around the Gulf of Burgas, and this time was no exception. I took it as a proper vacation going to the beach and having fun with friends, so I only took my camera on several occasions and my photos won’t be really representative of the Black Sea cost or even of my own vacation. I particularly regret not taking my camera on our boat trip from the port of Burgas to the tiny island of St. Anastasia, which has a really cool story during the communist years and has recently been turned into a beautiful place to watch the sunset over the city with the help of some EU grants.

What I will show you instead are a few photos of Burgas and Sozopol, our main spot for the vacation, together with quite some photos with boats and setting sun from Pomorie, thus covering the whole Gulf of Burgas from its northern to southern end.

PSX_20160819_125303 — The central parts of Burgas as seen from one of the landmark buildings – hotel “Bulgaria”, a socialist style hotel in the very centre. You can even see the boat competition that was taking place that afternoon. Just before the sea you can also spot the trees of the “Sea garden” park, which is a very nice place to bike around.

PSX_20160819_125626 — The view from the last floor of our “hotel”, or rather family house, in Sozopol. The old town of Sozopol is on the opposite side of the bay on the picture, and is a good place for a nice dinner and a walk around the freshly (re)built old fortress along the sea.

PSX_20160819_130037 — The opposite side of the roof, with a good example of the “growth mistakes” along the Black Sea when tourism suddenly exploded and lots of buildings were started and never properly finished. Not that the sunset over the sea can ever really be spoilt, fortunately.

PSX_20160819_130303 — A third angle from the top floor, this time showing distantly some buildings (e.g. the one with a non-religiously looking cross on top) which are off-limits as they are part of a still existing military area on one side of Sozopol (even if we don’t really have an army anymore).

PSX_20160819_130716 — The next day’s sunset from the top floor, revealing the actual purpose of the last floor – providing the laundry with a good panoramic view during sunset.

PSX_20160819_131057 — The central beach of Sozopol and another view to the old town in the evening.

PSX_20160819_131256 — On one the beaches near Sozopol, Gradina. This is in the Kite bar – a very popular beach bar with a cool DJ party on some of the afternoons.

PSX_20160819_131443 — Back to Burgas – the famous “bridge” of Burgas, linking the central part of the park with…the sea. In most other parts of Bulgaria people call this construction a pier, but the locals insist very strongly on calling it the Bridge.

PSX_20160819_141401 — In Pomorie, passing by a not very fancy restaurant with a good sunset view.

PSX_20160819_141533 — Time for some more iconic photos – a boat on the sea during sunset with the Bulgarian flag.

PSX_20160819_141720 — Some boats off the port of Pomorie, with the other side of the gulf streching to Sozopol on the background.

PSX_20160819_141946 — A postcard style attempt from me – I really like the little seagull passing by the sun in the moment I took the picture. No Black Sea postcard is complete without an old fisherman on a boat and a seagull, after all.

PSX_20160819_142134 — Here is a closer look of the old fisherman from the previous photo, and very appropriately the name of the boat in Bulgarian means “seagull”.

PSX_20160819_142719 — Time for some boat pictures – all boats in Bulgaria need to be registered in some port, and “Пм”, or “Pm”, clearly stands for Pomorie.

PSX_20160819_143141 — More boats and more sunset.

PSX_20160819_143742 — A particularly nice boat I think, and funnily the boat on the right side has the name that translates as “The White Stripe”. I doubt they actually thought of the famous band with the almost exact same name.

PSX_20160819_144046 — Another postcard style photo with the boat and the seagull and the sunset. In the back you can also see one the huge modern hotels built in the beginning of Pomorie, for the richer Russian tourists.

PSX_20160819_144254 — A street cart selling various fruits and vegetables, in particular peaches from Pomorie as the sign suggests.

PSX_20160819_144617 — The last pink clouds from the sunset over Pomorie and some fancy lamps used by a fish restaurant next to the walking alley. With all its paradoxes and problems, the Bulgarian Black Sea cost is not that bad I’d say, and is never easy to leave for me.

110 thoughts on “Burgas and the Black Sea”

beautiful photos, it looks so lovely and relaxing!

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I love the photos, especially those of the boats and the sea. So beautiful pictures.

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Memories flow, though it’s now 25 years since my last visit to Bulgaria, and then I was staying north of views, close to Nessebar. I found the local architecture quite fascinating. I wonder what happened to my photos. So many moves, so many years . . . I thank you for yours, with their accompanying memories

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110 thoughts on “Burgas and the Black Sea”

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