Sunrise over the Black Sea, the first day

Okay, so the first day at the resort, I woke up at some OBSCENELY early hour of the morning. I threw on some shorts and slippers, got my camera, and started walking. We had walked south on search of dinner the night before, so I headed north. I was enjoying the sound of the ocean, getting a feel for the layout of the resort, looking for shops and restaurants I might want to see during business hours...

But mostly I was just being there.

And the road quit. Big sign with the universal "Do not enter" symbol on it. Barriers. No more pavement. Buildings under construction. But there was a pier out there, and I could see it, and the sun was starting to rise, and I wanted pictures from that pier, so I climbed over.

There were even lights, and as I got closer, I could see a few fishermen going out onto the pier and getting in their boats. It was a real, working, fishing pier! I finally got to the end of the pier. As I walked around the edge of the shack, I realized that I had a friend.

Dog. Big Dog. Dog was restrained by a thatched straw fence. Dog begins eating fence. Caroline turns around and runs. Remember that I was in bedroom slippers and it was a construction zone. I ended up at a little playground with a short pier where tourists could charter small boats. There was an area of beach roped off, with child-sized towers and moats designed to look like master's-level sand castles. It wasn't exactly secured against night visitors, so I made myself at home.

I love the sight of boats--whether sails or just masts--against a dramatic sky. I'm also learning to take pictures of myself, which is trickier than it sounds. The gate with the writing simply says, "Pier 2." The Bulgarian language is older than Russsian, and their writing was designed by a couple of saints (well, NOW they're saints, Cyril and Methodius) who knew Greek. However, some of the letters that look like Greek have different sounds in Cyrillic. Add that to some of the Greek letters that look like Latin, but have different sounds...take H. In the Latin alphabet, it is the first sound in "Heinous." In Greek, it is the second sound. In Cyrillic, it is the third. Anyway, all that aside, once you learn what sounds each symbol makes, it's actually very easy to get by. You'd be amazed how many words are universal. The software store said "software," just in an unfamiliar alphabet. (A word which comes from Alpha and Beta, incidentally.)

Varna, Bulgaria, May, 2004	Balchik, Bulgaria, May, 2004	Italy, May, 2001	France, May, 2001
Golden Sands, Bulgaria, May, 2004	Sophia, Bulgaria, May, 2004	Germany, May 2001	New York, March, 2001
Nessebar, Bulgaria, May. 2004	Prague, Czech Republic, May, 2004	Switzerland, May, 2001	Thumbnails